Hi all. Apologies for not writing – I have just been crap.
Much stuff has happened but no excuses, I will try to be a bit better at posting in future.
Well as widely predicted, Apple finally released the new iPod. Yes it does video, no you don’t really have a choice. Yes it is a toe dip device.
Theorys abound, but here’s my take: Apple (read “Steve”) were pretty sceptical about mobile video, they (he) have made that clear since the iPod launched, but they had to update the hardware in the iPod anyway to remain up to date. The new hardware was able to do this video as a result of the extra horse power built in and some one suggested there was a potential revenue stream with music videos through iTMS. They tested it internally and it was pretty good. Steve showed it to Disney while negotiating the Pixar contract and down played the movie idea because he still didn’t think it would be adopted and the execs at Disney said hey, what about 30 minute TV episodes – how long would they take to download? – abc were then on board plus all the pixar shorts.
The toe was firmly then, in the H2O. I suspect that other studios will follow sheep like now that the dip has taken off with a million downloads in 20 days (have they already sold that many new iPods?).
The quality of the movie files however makes them of little use on normal TVs or on Mac screen. Too low-res – despite H.264 – for these high resolution ( relatively ) devices. I still think this is a pre cursor to a full on TV/Movie delivery platform based around Broadband, Mac OS X and a set-top box. you only have to look at FrontRow, the media application bundled with the new iMac G5 to see there is work afoot in this are at Apple.

Ian my early adopter friend has this evening gone to the mighty fine Apple internet cafe (more of this later) in London’s Regent Street to purchase his new iPod. Despite my trying to talk him out of it, the techno lust has gripped him. He plans to watch the movie files on his TV and possibly his SD projector. I have tried to lower his expectations accordingly but I hope he won’t be that disappointed.
As an iPod however the thing is seriously sexy – especially in black. Its so thin its almost criminal. Although the mist has not yet gripped me I can see it would easily do so if I let it. I will be strong and stick with my third generation for now because I have other more expensive toys to spend my hard earned on.

WTF is going on at the Regent street store? It’s human nature I guess, but it seems that word has spread that unfettered internet access is available on the Macs at the store. The result of this is that if you want to touch a machine you are interested in actually purchasing, there is always someone on it, checking their e-mail, internet banking or chatting with their family in Africa or Australia.
I am not the only one moaning about this, I have seen other postings on the subject. I had thought about it before, but I was at the store today and had a good look at what people were doing and it confirmed our suspicions.
Apple need to restrict access in some way, resetting the machines connection after 5 minutes or something.
Its great that people go in and use Macs and I am sure that there will be some osmosis sales this way, but it interferes with the stores primary purpose of displaying Apple’s wares to the wider audience.

I finally purchased a plasma and despite best intentions, plumped for the new Pioneer PDP-436XDE which subsequently beat the Panasonic I was going to get, in this months What HiFi awards (Much Happiness). The reason for the change of P’s, Panasonic just couldn’t get inventory – we were repeatedly told they were not in stock and wouldn’t be for the foreceable future. Hey their loss, my gain – the Pioneer is better anyway and I have less cables running up the wall thanks to its external media box. Nice.
I am waiting for my shiny new VSX-AX2AV-S surround sound amp to arrive too, which has more connections on the rear that is good for it.
It is very new and has only just been launched in the UK, it should arrive this week with luck and I can’t wait.
As is the way with these things, my recent purchases have created a kind of upgrade arms race where I have to get better components to equal the nice new stuff. The latest victim are my poor speakers whch currently are a pair of Denon/Missions that came with our old DM3 mini system and a pair of Gale Bipolar backs that were bought for the old TV and are not very well. So I have started the quest to get the best ones that will make wifeys aesthetic taste buds tingle and handle the 170w per each of the amps 7 outputs (the .1 doesn’t count as the woof has its own amp so the output is line level)
I have a bunch of cash coming that will buy a lower spec set of Kef speakers (1005′s) outright but apparently they are not great at music. I would like to get the B&W MT20s but they are another £600 extra (ouch). Some tough decisions to be made there I think – hmm, the DVD player is looking a bit old too, that new Denon looks nice, the 1920 model with HDMI, (looks around room) now what can I sell?!