There has been an almost non stop series of rumors about a possible upcoming "Video iPod" device. A few people at work have asked me what I think, so I thought I'd share.

My expectations are:

• The device will be little larger than the current iPod
• The front of it will be almost all screen, with no buttons on the front of it. Very clean, very elegant.
• To control it you will touch the screen. Single tap the middle of the screen to Play/Pause. Tap the left side of the screen to go back (i.e. the previous chapter of a movie), right side of the screen to go to the next chapter.
• The screen will let you scan (like fast-forward while the movie is playing) by dragging on the screen, much like you can pan using two fingers on the trackpads of the newer PowerBooks.
• My mate Rich suggested: they might also just display a partially transparent scroll wheel (kind of like you get in MacOS X when you use the volume controls or make a slideshow from a bunch of photos), and have that be touch sensitive so the device functions just like a regular iPod. The wheel would appear when you touch the screen and disappear after a short interval. That would be pretty elegant but the software to make that work is more complex that what I'm envisioning (thinking specifically about the handling when you are moving your fingers in a circular motion on the screen to change volume as you do on the iPod scroll wheel).
• The device will go beyond just movies. If you are a movie studio, you realize that people buy DVDs for more than just the movie – they want the extras: The "Making of..." documentary, the storyboards, alternate endings etc. What better way to win over the studios (and customers) than to give them something they can't get from a ripped of MPEG downloaded over BitTorrent – give them the whole "movie experience"

I found an image that came close on iPod Lounge and Photoshopped it about a bit to show the scroll wheel overlay and a DVD-style menu:


I could be wrong, but this is how I'd say Apple can make something that is the "obvious solution" to the end user. They didn't make the first MP3 player but they made it obvious. Prepare to be amazed.

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2 Comments:

I like the idea... though i don't know if it will go that way. if apple do release an ipod like that i will deffinately buy it.
	By Alex, at 8/08/2005 6:26 PM
I was sitting on the bus thinking about this the other day-- my design was fairly similar, save for a few things. -The device would have an orientation sensor. Turn the device vertical (portrait mode) and the media shrinks to display at the top of the screen, in a space about the same size as the current iPod display. A virtual scroll wheel would appear on the lower half of the screen (mimicking a regular iPod) -Double tapping the screen displays the controls. The controls will appear on the side where the device was tapped, to best accomodate the user's preferred hand
	By Kendall Sutton, at 10/05/2005 8:29 PM

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