Christ... I leave the world of the internet for a few days, and Apple makes some crazy new announcements.
New iMac
I've only had mine since May, and now I want to trade it in for one of the new ones. Thinner is good, but I'd really love to have that built-in video camera. Perfect video phone? *heh* I've really come to love the iMac, and I think this is a great upgrade. Totally out of the blue, though... when Steve said, "We've got a new iMac," I was pretty shocked.
Opinion: Positive
Front Row
Apple's first shot in the Media Center war... and it doesn't make a lot of sense. Steve was talking about how this is meant to watch your stuff on TV, but there are a number of problems with that. First, no really good solution for getting your audio and video feed from the iMac to the TV was presented. I keep expecting to hear him announce a new Airport Express that could wirelessly transmit both video and audio, but no go. Second, the new remote is IR, not Bluetooth. Meaning that you either have to (a) point the remote at the iMac, or (B) point the remote at an IR-compatible iPod dock. Having my iMac sitting next to my TV would be ridiculous, and if it isn't, what am I going to plug the iPod dock in to so that it can send the signals to the machine?
I think the natural evolution of Front Row, and the first point where it will be actually useful, is rather obvious: Mac Mini. Early next year, we get an Intel-powered new Mac Mini with IR support and Front Row coming standard. Toss in a bit better video out support, and bam, you've got Apple's Media Center PC.
Opinion: Positive - Neutral
iTunes 6
Uhm... okay. WTF happened here? It looks absolutely silly to release iTunes 5, and then a month later release iTunes 6. This shouldn't have been called iTunes 6 - no where near enough stuff was changed from iTunes 5.
Videos now have their own section, which is nice, and looks pretty good, but because of that I think movies shouldn't appear in the main library. Yes, I know you have the Search Bar that can be used, but still, though I guess that is a decent enough solution. Video support still feels horribly tacked on and no where near thought out.
* The Videos section gives NO support for the shuffle and repeat functions. Why in the world not?
* There's no elegant way to preview videos if you have them set to play fullscreen by default. Why not have like a little preview information area like in the iTunes Music Store? Sure, you could then just have videos not play in fullscreen by default, and use the fullscreen button to go fullscreen. Why isn't that a great solution? Let's say you want to play those music videos you've purchased, and you want to have them shuffling or repeating (or both) in fullscreen. iTunes won't play video seamlessly in fullscreen from one clip to the next unless they are set to play in fullscreen by default. If you use that "go to fullscreen" button, it should stay in fullscreen mode until you escape out of it. Also, STILL no QuickTime fullscreen controls when playing video fullscreen in iTunes. Pathetic, especially now that Apple is actually selling videos to be played via iTunes.
* Video Kind can only be set to Movie or Music Video. I don't care if I shouldn't have TV Shows other than the ones I've purchased from Apple, I want the option to set video as that.
Opinion: Neutral - Negative
New iPod
Steve Jobs said before that there was no need for a video-playing iPod, because the content wasn't there. Well... to be honest, the content still mostly isn't there. By most of my opinions on this are covered down where I talk about the video content now on the iTMS.
To me, the far more interesting part of the video iPod is the ability to play video out to a TV from it. Want to take a video, movie, TV show, whatever over to a friend's house to watch? Just take your iPod. If the iPod had more processing power to it, IT could be Apple's new Media Center. Purchase video via iTMS, dock iPod into your TV, enjoy.
Unfortunately, I've always said that an official Apple video solution is going to be crippled from the start, because they have less reason to support a wide array of codecs, and that is indeed the case here. iPod support is H.264 and regular MPEG4 only. While I'm a huge H.264 supporter, that does nothing for people like me who have tons of MPEG1, MPEG2, DivX, Xvid, and other random codec content. I don't even think there is support for non-MPEG4 versions of Apple's own QuickTime container, which is sad. Music-wise, the iPod covers most of the music formats that matter, so there isn't an issue there. Video-wise, it is woefully under-powered.
I think, if you look at this as a video player, it is a disappointment. However, if you look at it as a regular iPod, with a slight bump in features, then it is a pretty nice unit. Nice new body, better screen, and longer battery life. Apple is smart in not pushing it as a video iPod, but instead, saying, "Hey, we've got a new iPod, and it also happens to play some videos."
There are two things I consider to be pretty big negatives, however. First, no FireWire support - WTF Apple? I can accept that with the Nano, but not this. Second, no extra headphone port for things like the remote, accessories, and whatnot. Isn't this a step down, not a step up?
Opinion: Neutral
Purchasing Video
There was SO much potential in this, and I was terribly excited by the idea when I heard what Wednesday's announcements had been. And yet, in typicaly Apple fashion, they have something that could be so great, except it is neutered by one or two stupid decisions.
The downfall of their video sales are the result of their most popular product: the iPod. Because of the need to make the videos support the iPod, they have killed a lot of the potential that was there for this service. See, with music, compromises didn't have to be made for the iPod. Sure, we'd all love to see them sell their music at a higher bitrate, but that isn't the iPod's fault, and that doesn't kill a lot of the potential of the music sales.
But 320 x240 video? 320x240 hasn't been an acceptable video resolution in at least two years. My iMac has a 1440 x 900 screen - you want me to play a 320x240 piece of video fullscreen on that? It isn't just about computers, though: this is going to be a big year for people switching over to HDTV. Apple could have started laying the groundwork for being a true video content provider, which could open up a huge new market for them. Instead of going after the computer + HDTV + SDTV + iPod market, they've chosen to simply go after the iPod + SDTV market.
Let me by fair here - they were sort of stuck in what to do. There's no way that the iPod could run HD content at this point. Selling two copies of the same content together could be awkward. Having iTunes convert a higher resolution file down for the iPod would take to much time to make it really convenient.
I think Apple had to make a decision in which directly to go, and I personally think they picked the wrong one. Steve Jobs, again, stood up there and said that it was nearly pointless to watch video on such a small screen, and video isn't like music where you can be doing anything while enjoying it. So why would you then base all of your video sales around that specific area? The iPod isn't totally ready to handle video the way it needs to be handled yet, and I think Apple is jumping the gun.
I also think that they are doing a disservice to TV fans by this movie. With the iTunes Music Store, the music quality isn't what I'd like it to be, but for many, it was good enough that it was a legit answer to music downloads and piracy. This isn't. I can get a 320x240 non-widescreen version of this week's Lost, or, I can do what I'm doing right now, and torrent a 600x330 widescreen HD rip for free. In that case, I'm losing far too much by going the "honest" route. However, now companies are going to see this as yet another method for making money, more TV shows are going to show up on there, and people who torrent copies are going to be cracked down on harder. As well, if selling TV shows over the iTMS takes off, then companies will assume that we're perfectly happy with such low quality versions of the shows, and won't have a compelling reason to offer us better.
There are some bright spots to this, however. We may have the chance to purchase TV shows that would otherwise not be available. People like me with an account on a foreign version of the iTMS can purchase video content from other countries, when and if it becomes available. (However, there is currently NO Japanese music video content on the J-iTMS, and for a country that produces more music videos that the US does, that is beyond pathetic.) It is also possible that, like DVD, the iTMS could be used to help get TV shows out there that wouldn't have a chance otherwise.
Opinion: Negative
WARNING: This post may contain violent and disturbing images.
Sausage-in-Training
Originally Posted by Frogacuda
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