| Home > Technology > Now that the video-on-an-iPod barrier has been breached, is it time to add a camera too? |
| Now that the video-on-an-iPod barrier has been breached, is it time to add a camera too? | | Date Created: 16 Nov, 2005, 02:18 PM |
 I passed one of those birthday milestones that end in a zero yesterday, the 15th.
Lucky me got a 60GB iPod as a pressie from his beloved who had ordered one the day of the Stevenote announcing their existence. I learnt from her after opening the package that it had been sitting in her home for a few weeks now waiting for the proper time to present it in the hope that it would be the first time I would get my mitts on one.
She was a little crestfallen in secret when she learnt I had obtained one of the first to arrive in the country for a demo at an iMUG meeting, which I have blogged elsewhere.
And that for a week I had a loan of one from iMug's Vice President to play with and provide him with some non-DRM materials, like podcasts.
In fact, when I showed it to her, I joked that I had bought it for myself, and her momentary glazed look told me what she had in store. Not to be cruel, I immediately let her know I was joking and it was just a loaner. Phew!
Anyhow, now that I have it, it's replaced my 10GB 2G iPod purchase in December 2002 for the princely sum of over AUD700 inclusive of a $100 discount from Apple for rejoining dotMac.
So I have been a Podperson longer than most, starting at a time when people didn't "get it" and before podcasting as a term had been coined. However, there was still plenty of non-music mp3 material about, so that summer (remember, December is summer here in Australia) I loaded up the iPod with Doug Kaye's IT Conversations and learnt about Dave Winer's Bloggercon unconvention, and the names of the A-list bloggers whom Chris Lydon had interviewed.
It was a marvellous entré to what would become the world of podcasting. While most people were awed by the concept of taking your whole music collection with you ("1000 sings in your pocket"), they didn't get why you would listen to mp3 files of interviews when you could just listen to the radio.
I did "get it", having had my own commercial radio show on psychology for a few years, and having been "talent" as an interviewee many times. So when Adam Curry came along with his unradio podcasts, I saw the future very quickly.
Others in iMUG weren't so sure, but now that we are one of the first to both podcast and vodcast our meetings, the committee (of which I am a member) are behind these efforts 100%.
Having a new iPod of my own means purchasing a new range of accessories for using it in the car, and connecting it to the TV. But it did get me thinking of how else to use it.
This morning, walking Shrek and listening to some podcasts, Shrek delighted me in running through the high powered sprinklers in the local park, much to the amusement of the ground staff.
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 Back home, on the porch was a parcel containing a gift of doggie treats from VIP foods in Queensland whose kind customer relations person, Elaine Kelly had responded to my lamenting about the almost triple increase of another treat product whose initial promotional costing had terminated. Nice way to build a brand, since I had mentioned the effectiveness of the treats in training Shrek to obey the drop command to others at the Malvern German Shepherd club. |
Shrek smelt the parcel's contents from metres away, and grabbed it before I could look to see what it was. Once I saw the Sender's details, I whipped out the cellphone and grabbed some quicks snaps. Low res. (see top left), but in the circumstances it was all I had - my other cameras were inside.
Higher res. pictures are now standard on new phones, like the Motorola RAZR series with its very thin profile. So thin in fact, that now that the new iMacs have an iSight built in, why not extend the iMac-iPod parallel to include a camera in the back of the iPod, such that its screen acts as your monitor. |
 Can this be so hard to achieve, even in the thinner profile of the 5G iPod?
Surely, if anyone can do the engineering and keep adding value to the mp3 player, it's Apple. It's not as if Apple still needs to keep its focus on the music, given the it has helped create content for a video-enabled iPod - that barrier has now been broken.
There ought to be no difficulty getting the photos off the iPod into iTunes/iPhoto, and using the model of Photobooth, you could personalise your iPod so that your picture displays to quell any issues of ownership. That picture could be "locked" using the security code that also protects the contacts/diary component as well as file storage.
Given the multiple abilities of the scrollwheel system, it could be used to adjust for brightness and contrast, zoom and special effects, and who knows what else.
Who wants to lay a bet that before my next birthday Apple achieves this or better still, something that leaps far ahead of these ideas? |
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