BusinessWeek’s Stephen Baker thought he’d buy a nice little Apple iPod nano and load its flash memory with four gigs of his favorite songs. As it happened, the nanos were out of stock. So Baker ended up buying a 30GB black video-capable iPod.
“Seeing is believing. It’s beautiful, less than a half-inch thin and elegant. The sound quality is terrific, but that came as no surprise. Except for the thinness, I would have said much the same about my future hockey puck a year ago. It wasn’t until I hitched the new iPod to the computer and began touring the iTunes site that I began to give fervent thanks that the nanos had been out of stock,” Baker writes. “The difference is video: crystal-clear images on a bright color screen. Though I had barely considered video when buying the iPod, I quickly turned on the iTunes site to video podcasts… I felt like I had the future of video in my hands — or at least one important outlet for it — and all I wanted was more.”
“The fragility of the iPod remains my biggest concern (Baker sat on his last iPod)… Since the new iPod is thinner and a tad wider — to allow for the bigger screen — it looks a bit like an elegant deer wrapped in a moose’s hide… my advice is to get one of these devices — and hold onto it tightly while catching the coming mobile video boom from a front-row seat,” Baker writes.
Full article here.
The Apple iPod is no wider than the previous generation; it’s 2.4-inches wide, the same as before. The screen is wider, not the unit’s width. See, we know the width of every iPod model that Apple’s ever sold; just another reason why we’re such a surefire hit at parties.
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Related articles:
Video-capable iPod screen is bright, clear, crisp; content makes difference in viewing experience – December 22, 2005
Apple’s new video-capable iPod’s resplendent screen bright, sharp, and colors really pop – December 05, 2005
TV Critic: Apple iPod video strikingly bright, crisp, very fluid; TV will have to reorient itself – October 27, 2005
Thurrott: Apple iPod ‘the new standard by which all are measured – highly recommended’ – October 26, 2005
Chicago Tribune: Apple’s new iPod is a showstopper – October 26, 2005
PC Magazine review gives Apple’s new video-capable iPod 5 out of 5 stars – October 21, 2005
CBS News: New iPod shows ‘Apple will continue to dominate portable digital media player market’ – October 21, 2005
USA Today: Apple’s new iPod + video: world’s foremost portable music players have gotten only better – October 20, 2005
Comprehensive review of Apple’s iPod 5G with Video – October 20, 2005
Ars Technica reviews Apple’s new video-capable iPod – October 20, 2005
NY Times Pogue: ‘watching video on new iPod’s 2.5-inch screen is completely immersive’ – October 19, 2005
Watching episode of ABC’s ‘Lost’ on 2.5-inch iPod screen surprisingly compelling – October 13, 2005
Apple’s new iMac G5, iTunes 6, iPod video designed to bait Hollywood – October 13, 2005
Apple unveils new 5th generation iPod, now plays music, photos, and video – October 12, 2005
Yet he gives it 3 of 5 stars?
Points off for potential fat-ass breakage problems?? If had an iPod, it would be nowhere near my own fat ass, or pants pockets of any kind!
I’m giving it 1 out of 5 stars because I could choke to death while im trying to scratch the back of my throat with it.
Another reason the iPod with video looks wider is the new clickwheel is slighly smaller. It’s also not quite as precise as the 4th gen click wheel, and is flush rather than slightly bulging. Anyone owning a 5G iPod should get the $19 AV cable. The video quality as seen on your television will be at least as good if not better than anything you’ve seen from broadcast TV (excluding HDTV).
Multiple points off for writing an entire article about the iPod — and then not using one of your underpaid fact-checker college flunkies to check something as basic as the iPod’s width.
On the 1-10 Richter Scale of Analyst Ratings, Baker rates about a 5.8.
“an elegant deer wrapped in a moose’s hide”
Please explain. Thank you.
My girlfriends butt is wider and she walks bowlegged now, think I was a little to hard on the beaver last night?
-Ward Cleaver
“an elegant deer wrapped in a moose’s hide”
What the heck is that supposed to mean?
Dear MDN,
I strongly resent the use of the word “fat ass” as represented here on the MDN site. Kindly note the correct PC term for this condition which happens to afflict nearly 200 million Americans.
A “fat ass” person as well as the President of,
Association for people with horizontally challenged behinds
STOP IT ALREADY!
Since when have Apple users become such jerks…the community that I loved and is one of the best part of being a Mac user is slowly disappearing.
Deer in moose hide? I know deer skin makes nice leather, and moosehide is also nice but more durable. Is he talking about getting a cover?
By saying ‘like an elegant deer wrapped in a moose’s hide’ he obviously means it’s like a delicious cupcake in the shadow of a frozen herring. In other words, it’s like a slice of fresh kumquat balanced on an alka-seltzer. Which means it’s like a….oh I give up.
Gazzah: thanks for your wit.
Really enjoyed the “slice of fresh kumquat balanced on an alka-seltzer”.
Gorgeous technical writing.
Four out of five stars (one star off for sitting on it and the scratchies).