“Portable media is about to go to the next level, with Amazon.com today announcing that it’s taking pre-orders for Microsoft’s Portable Media Centers. These gadgets, which will begin to be available as soon as August, allow users to have music, movies, digital photos, and more rendered portable and on the move,” Alyce Lomax writes for The Motley Fool. “Did Apple miss a key opportunity by limiting its iPod to tunes?”
“Steve Jobs has been quoted as nixing the idea, theorizing that people don’t want to watch movies
someone kidded about watching this PMD or whatever during lunch..
Uhh.. this thing is annoying in so many ways.. you actualy have to hold the unit while you watch?! Woof!! You’re gonna hold a gamegear sized player for 2.5 hours while you get engrossed in a movie that is.. taking up about 10% of your viewing range (your eyesight, as opposed to in a movie theatre or in a dark living room, where it’s closer to 90%, and you get engrossed)
This thing sure won’t beat the iPod at music.. the video compromise ensures that.. but will portable video/tv catch on..? Pffft. TV is a sit-down activity… you’ll be scratching your head wondering why you have to settle for a 4″ screen..
Wait a minute.. you can watch these things on plane rides.. and on the bus.. and in a car (you’re in the backseat)
SO when you’re sitting, stuck somewhere, and you wanna watch a video, you can use this thing.. and when you get up.. you put this mother in your pocket..
?
I think not..
Put it this way.. no one’s gonna be mugging people with signature charcoal headphones to get these damn things
by the way.. i think the colour screen on the ipod.. shooting up the cost and adding little benefit (album art?! please.. you turn on the ipod playlist and put it in your pocket!!)
MICROSOFT will have a better chance if they just concentrate on the XBox and turn that into some sort of Digital Hub….
Hope they just don’t stick in Windows….
Actually it isn’t a M$ device. It’s just their software in the thing. Others are/will be making players…. maybe.
this is going to be funny! they are probably goign to lose $100 every time they sell a unit anyway, like they did for the Xbox, so it’s probably better for them not to sell that many….they’re geniuses!!!!
pkradd – Samsung and Creative are the two of the current makers of these clunkers (and I DO mean clunkers)… at least they’ve put pictures up on Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000294HDU/102-5469200-6647336?v=glance&s=electronics&n=172630
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0002J6GLG/ref=e_de_a_smp/102-5469200-6647336?v=glance&s=electronics&n=172630&vi=pictures&img=14#more-pictures
(with apologies if the links don’t work…)
What amazes me is that they expect to sell these with mere 20 Gb hard drives at $500 a pop. Wonder if they’ll tout “pre-order” numbers at some point… or if they’ll be too embarrassed to mention it…
If Buried Ceasar’s links are any indication, all there is to watch on the Portable Media Centers is the menu screen. Perhaps the navigation controls are so un-intuitive that the models in the pictures were unable to get past the menu screen. Remind me again, why would anyone want to buy these?
what exactly is the difference between this and one of the PocketPC devices already on the market. Seems to me those devices have been available for years and really haven’t made a dent in the consumer market.
solar flare is right. Most of us can’t watch and walk/cycle/etc at the same time. The places to watch are in cars, planes, and trains. So Apple should, in the long run, position the iPod to work with those vehicles’ display systems. Once Apple integrates the iPod with car audio systems, then its only another step to get it to work with the minivan display.
But what is the future of iPod-like devices beyond music? Apple is clearly the best music player; no one will beat them directly. But someone could come up with an additional function (alongside music) that people want and outflank the iPod. The portable media center folks are betting on video, I disagree, but what might it be? Standing still is certain death in the technology and consumer electronics industries. Of course, Apple has not been standing still – have any other MP3 players started to integrate into cars? Nope. So it’s a given that Apple should keep improving the music listening iPod experience (increase battery life, offer 160kbps AAC iTMS songs, etc.)
But what about the millions of people who don’t focus on music? Can Apple sell them an iPod-like device? First, what else do people carry around? Cell phones, digital cameras, and PDAs. I believe Apple should not add those functions into the iPod but have a future iPod-like device be the mobile digital hub for them.
– Add bluetooth so it can sync address books, download ringtones, upload cell phone pictures and video, etc.
– Make the USB port automatically download photos from cameras, display and file them into albums.
– Make it autosync (upload/download) with iPhoto on the Mac and PC (make iPhoto for the PC, and add Keynote to iLife).
– Add a video-out port to show photo albums, slide shows, and presentations on a TV or projector.
– Improve the calendar, address book, to-do lists (basic but not enhanced PDA functions).
– Enable reading email (downloaded via firewire or bluetooth)
– Add a sharp 3″ color screen for these functions (as long as can still increase to 10 hours battery life.)
The goal should be that people will carry a cell phone, iPod, and digital camera (when high quality photos desired).
I’m interested in what y’all think Apple should do for future iPod-like devices.
I trust Apple is still on the right path. The technology that’s rumored to be coming back to iPod is a home folder sync, which would keep your entire home folder backed up and synced to your iPod. That opens up a world of possibilities, taking the contents of your computer with you everywhere you go. Then it’s just about display technologies via Bluetooth — you can sync to your home computer, display pictures and stream movies and music to any wifi-ready TVs or LCD frames hanging around your house, and even plug into computer or communication kiosks at Airports, Starbucks, etc. to work on your home files. My phone/PDA (Treo 600) is fantastic, but I’ve never been happy with devices that do a mediocre job of doing 10 different things. I want simple, functional, elegant, and COOL technology, and I think Apple does this better than anyone. So keep the faith — this is the year when Bluetooth catches up, and we now have the best LCD screens around.
Ary, you are off the chain. That post was funny as heck. But your point is dead on.
the bottom line is, i live in london, i conceal my ipod for fear of getting mugged. i use sony earpieces to avoid attracting attention. so, am i really going to sit on a train at 10 in the evening, watching a movie on a �500 allinonedigitalmediadevice which i am holding up in front of my face? er, probably not…
dustybin,
okay, maybe there is a bit of a silver lining here – if you DID have one of those while on the train, you might have the car all to yourself, having scared everyone else off.
One word – pathetic.
Bill Gates is a tool.
g: “who would want to watch DVD’s/recorded shows, etc. on this tiny screen?”
I don’t think a 7″ screen is a tiny screen. Again, think of a screen the size of a paperback. I agree–the 4″ screen is a waste of time. Even on an airplane, I’d rather watch the inflight movie than my own on a 4″ screen.
mike: “You’re gonna hold a gamegear sized player for 2.5 hours while you get engrossed in a movie”
Sure! But, then, I have big manly arms. :^) :^)
Again, think 7″ screen. I can read a paperback sitting on the table in front of me, so I don’t think watching video on a 7″ screen would be bad.
By the way, why do you equate video with movie? How about a sitcom that I missed last night? Or an hour documentary? Or a news program? Or the first part of a movie (I’ll watch the rest later on the train ride home)?
“when you’re sitting, stuck somewhere, and you wanna watch a video, you can use this thing.. and when you get up.. you put this mother in your pocket..?”
I can fit a paperback in my back pocket. Of course, when I go home from work, I’d put it in my knapsack.
Or, dare I say it, I’d just hold onto it. Last time I had jury duty, I brought a book and carried with it me. If they can get my magical device down to under a pound, I could carry it around all day. The iBook 12″ is five pounds and I see people carrying them around.
g: “‘I was thinking of sitting in my room watching Star-Trek on my tiny screen for the 8th time this month.'”
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Less is More “Your brain could atrophy?
I knew I shouldn’t have mentioned Star Trek… :^)
How about replacing Star Trek with watching “intelligent discussions of the issues, like those seen on Fox News”? There, that’ll set ’em off… :^)
I don’t like any of the devices I’ve seen. They’re trying to be “portable entertainment centers”, playing both music and video. They’re too big for music and too small for video, so no one will buy them for either. That said, the concept of syncing a small video device with my TiVO in order to watch shows that I missed isn’t a bad idea. The key will be the device that I use to watch video. So far, no one’s come up with the magic size/weight/capacity/battery-life/price that would make me buy one. Someday, Apple will…
Hell, maybe then I’d finally be able to get through all of “24”…
So Peter, you basically want one of the slicker (thin) mobile DVD players with a 7″ screen, but squeeze in (or replace the DVD player with) one of those leaked Toshiba 60GB 1.8″ hard drives, and improve the battery to at least 4 hours. It might be about 60% the size of an iBook. Given the $169 cost for the mobile DVD player, and add $499 for the hard drive – it could probably sell for $650.
At that price, would you buy it or just get the most recently discontinued 12″ iBook for $800?
” Given the $169 cost for the mobile DVD player, and add $499 for the hard drive – it could probably sell for $650. At that price, would you buy it or just get the most recently discontinued 12″ iBook for $800?”
The iBook. No question.
Bag the DVD player–I already have video coming into my house. Hell, I’ll rip a DVD if I need to. Also, as I said above, I’d want at least five hours (which is just about a flight from LA to NY). And none of those crap “external battery packs” which is what many of those thin devices use (“Look how small and light it is!” Of course, to make it do anything, you have to drag along this 3 pound brick). And $650 is a bit much–think $300-$400. Otherwise, as I said above, it falls into the “Why don’t I just get a laptop?” category.
By the way, the DVD players I saw were in the range of $700-$800. Way too expensive.
The technology for what I want isn’t there yet. But it will be, eventually.
>did Apple blow it by limiting iPod to music?
PMC is just typical M$ bloatware that shows they have no understanding of the market. It’s about trying to trump Apple; to go further; to go as far as they can — a strategy that is incredibly na�ve — simplistic, unsophisticated, artless — totally clueless.
The money is in freeing the billions of music tracks stored on computer HD’s, not images or the million or so videos kept on the same (unless you’re a porn collector). It’s about a perverse reinterpretation of the 1984 advertisement: the hammer shatters your computer screen and frees you to listen to music wherever you are and however you want it. People built up huge collections because in the back of their mind they knew that someday they would be able to control and play it anywhere. Apple delivered a real market solution; Microsoft delivered a solution to a fantasy — their own.
Size matters; the success of the iPod Mini is ample proof. Teenagers are happy to carry a limited number of their favorite tracks on the Mini. You can do that on the PMC behemoth too, but you’ll look like a total dork.
M$ tried to pollute it with a proprietary format, the sole purpose of which is nefarious. Consumers aren’t fooled — .wma’s haven’t caught on in the p2p world. Steve Jobs is totally right — it’s The M usic, Stupid [ iTMS ]. Come July 24 or whenever Hitachi can deliver enough drives [and Apple’s more robustly designed case is available in numbers] Mini sales will skyrocket. Sony and Dull’s desperate tactics show that they know the game is up.
As I said a number of times:
Abandon all hope ye who thinketh to beat iTMS lest thy fukceth thy future.
There is only ONE WAY. The Carly Fiorina way.
Any other way is a pursuit of fools’ gold — sink only money you are prepared to lose; preferably that of other fools.
Time for an iPod 1984 style commercial for the Christmas season with atrac3 and wma on the big screen.
I’m one of those nuts who watches a favorite movie over and over. Most people don’t. A library of music has more potential repeat play-ability than video. Music stays fresh with repeat plays, video/movies etc. much less so.
Music “compresses” down and “scales up” easy. You can hold weeks worth of music in an iPod, and high end earbuds give you a decent music experience. How so with video? A tiny screen? Or those ‘eye-phones’ you see around that will make it look as if you are communicating with the Mother Ship?
I see laptops around everywhere, how often do you see people watching movies on them? Are the airports filled with people watching movies? If not, why aren’t they when they have the hardware to watch it with them.
I think that the companies that are rushing into the ‘VideoPod’ thing, are run by people who DON’T need to listen to music HOURS a day. They don’t understand it. But they figure “The kids listen to MUSIC, they’ll LOVE video!!”. They’re going to get it wrong (in my opinion) because they don’t understand the music thing, so they can’t look at the video thing with the proper perspective. They so badly want to leapfrog the iPod that they are landing in a briarpatch.
The combination of the fewer realistic opportunities to watch video, combined with the fatigue factor of reduced interest in watching THE MATRIX hundreds of times, like you would a music CD, will doom this product. Music is effectively enjoyed foreground or background. You can put music on while you’re talking in the car, but not a video.
And how much do those iPhones thingies cost? I went to a website where the price was $270. Starting to spend a bit of money here aren’t we? So are we going to toss out $600 to start and maybe more for fancy viewing devices?
$250 for a ‘mini’ is a birthday gift, $600+ is way past an impulse buy, or an amount saved up by a teen.
I don’t doubt that this product will be launched with great fanfare, but will it sell in the millions?
Nah. Too many hurdles, not enough time to enjoy the product, too pricey. Music is wonderfully portable because every technical aspect has been invented, perfected, made cheap, and the near equivalent of a decent home system in something the size of a pack of Winstons. Portable video has a LOT of technical problems to be solved before it can have the same visual impact of even a 19 inch TV with a VCR.
Like Jeff Goldblum said in Jurassic Park:
“They’re too intereted in whether or not they could, they didn’t stop and think whether they should.”
You can but ash trays on motorcycles, but they won’t work. You can but coffee machines in cars, but they’ll scald people. You can put movies on a rip off iPod, but no one will watch them.
What would be cool is…
A device that takes a firewire feed from a pod a plays a quicktime file from the pod and converts to a standard Tv signal.
Plug the pod into any Tv NTSC or PAL via the little device and see pictures and short movies (key word short movies) all with out a computer (other then the little device)
�
Less Is More: A few months ago, some reporter wrote about the difference between Apple and MS, after visiting Microsoft, the MS MacBusiness Unit, and Apple. The reporter noted that MS tries to implement the latest technology as quickly as they can (and often taking three tries to get it close-to-right), whereas Apple tries to implement for the best user experience.
So both the Media Center PC, and the Portable Media Center try to do video without thinking about the user experience. MS puts noisy, crashable PCs in the living room; and 3.5″ screens for watching video. Lousy junk!
Whereas Apple (SJ) asks first: when and how do we listen, when and how do we watch. So Apple gives us the iPod with 128kbps AAC (because sound quality on the move is not that important ergo MP3!), and (Airport Express (lossless compression – sound quality more important at home), car Kits, and a remote control (real soon now!).
For video, notebooks for on-the-road viewing for now, but we watch at home on 30″ TVs. But we care about video quality (we went from VHS to DVD) and we don’t want our PC in the living room. WiFi not reliable enough for DVD-quality and everybody has a DVD player now anyway so don’t need to connect Macs to TV yet. And current MPEG-4 codecs barely match DVD quality, so Apple waits for H.264. WiFi not good for H.264, so wait for maybe UWB. On the TV front, TiVo is pretty good but not many people clamoring for something better or more connected yet. So Apple waits for the leap to HDTV and H.264 (in Tiger). (Note switch to DVI output so as to work with HDTVs!) Next year!
The sad thing is that MS poisons the minds of early adopters with their (and their hardware mates) junk. But that does give Apple a way in!
p.356: I hope what you ask for will be built into the next iPod itself! Would be very useful not only for visiting friends but for presentations at work! (Need that remote control though!)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000096PYG/qid=1089665831/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-3555875-4379130?v=glance&s=toys
Up-Chuck