The new iPod 30Gb with video is cool, in theory. It's slim, sleek and plays video at an impressive rate & quality.In practice, it's a bit pudgier . Actually getting videos onto the chicklet is non-trivial (and I's gots me a degree y'alls) and the extent to which iTunes (the music store) sells the videos as product is embarrassing. Would someone really pay $1.99 for Jessica Simpson's "These Boots Are Made for Walking Video"? Really?! I must be getting old, cause last time I checked, there were entire channels dedicated to streaming these (bad) videos for free - well if you consider them being interrupted with shiteloads of advertising, 'free'.
In any case, being the tech-ster that I am, I immediately set out to explore beyond the confines of the iTunes (electric)fence. First, I peer-to-peered for files containing 'ipod.video' in the extension. Gorillaz, Madonna, & Jessica Simpson came up quickly. [ed. note - you read it here first: advertising & 'music' videos as we know them are immediately and forever altered as a result of this new means of transmission. Look out for larger, more prominent product placement in the videos themselves, with the plot of the video including/referring/involving said product perhaps.]
If I were (ahem) to have saved them to disk, I would have had a hell of a time actually getting them to show up on the iPod's library. But I didn't, cause.. that would be um, bad, right? Anyway, thing is, the host application for the iPod (iTunes) is not the most intuitive for a staunch PC user like myself. (I'm going back to the IBM PCjr here, kids.) Yeah, I 'added file to library' and yeah it showed up in the library under 'videos' that little icon
. But one has to change a number of non-obvious options in order to get the Pod to actually update and possess the desired video. I'm still not sure I've got it right. Each attempt seems to be guided more by luck coupled with praying, sweating, promising God, and cursing than it does via a set series of clicks.Long story short, I watched Madonna's 'Hung Up' video on the pod the other night while enjoying some wine. It was a warm evening for January -- even in Los Angeles. The effect was pretty amazing. Holding something so small & light in form factor that's displaying full-frame-rate video -- with no feeling of a hard drive spinning outside under the palm trees.. Well, it was..magical to say the least. Borderline erotic, let me tell you.
I still expected to see her waving a teeny weeny can of Coca Cola around or something, though.
Next chapter in this saga: "iPod Porn". Timely, no?
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