[moki]

I'm not so sure that Apple should make a digital camera... there are plenty of good ones out there, the margins are thing, and to competition fierce.

I'd like to see a hardware companion to iPhoto the way that the iPod is a hardware companion to iTunes. People love seeing/sharing photos... I think it would be quite cool if my photo library could exist -- synched of course -- on a small, lightweight viewing device.

Photo albums could be selected the way playlists are, and a jog shuttle would be the perfect interface to flipping through them. Hit the "play" button and you get a nice slide show that you can hand to your friend to check out over lunch.

That alone would be pretty neat, but where I think it would really shine would be if it were bluetooth/rendezvous-enabled. You bring your photos into work on your iPad (for lack of a decent name), and a friend of yours wants the picture you took of them. You hit the button, and zap, it is transfered into their photo library.

Better yet, if your friend has an iPad, you can easily share photos back and forth. Just select Share, then your friend's iPad, and the image gets transferred over.

People love to trade photos -- if it was as easy as click... zap... people would go nuts, similar to the way mp3s were traded, but in this case, the could actually author the stuff they traded.

Of course, it would also have a video out so you could hook it up to your TV (or anyone else's TV for that matter). You could also hook it up to an AV system for a nice slideshow during your presentation.

Given the way I've seen celluar phones take off in Asia that have the ability to share photos (though they lack any real storage capacity), I think it might be quite popular.

What would it take? A nice bright screen that works well under all lighting conditions, plenty of storage space, firewire for connecting/synching with your iPhoto library, an iPod-like battery life/charging mechanism... all seems feasible to me.

[moki]

Actually, that'd be kinda neat... lets say you walked around with "free sharing" turned on -- people could stick whatever photos they wanted on your iPad, and you could check out what you picked up from people at the end of the day

[michaelb]

Originally posted by moki:
people could stick whatever photos they wanted on your iPad, and you could check out what you picked up from people at the end of the day

Now that's just... disgusting.

But excellent concept nonetheless. I would buy one immediately, as I think would any moderately tech-inclined person who's ever handed around holiday/baby/wedding photos.

It would be excellent for Apples "whole widget" software/hardware integration too.

How about "iViewer" as a name?

iTunes -> iPod

iPhoto -> iViewer

[moki]

Originally posted by michaelb:
But excellent concept nonetheless. I would buy one immediately, as I think would any moderately tech-inclined person who's ever handed around holiday/baby/wedding photos.

More than anything, I think it would appeal to people who aren't that technically inclined, too. Right now digital photos are cool, but you have no really good mechanism for sharing/showing them.

You still have to print them out to show/give to people. Sure, you can throw 'em up on a web site, but that requires that your viewer is sitting at a computer somewhere. That doesn't go over very well around the dinner table.

People get together over a cup of coffee or a lunch to share pictures all the time. If you had a good mechanism for doing this with your digital pictures... and even for zapping the ones your friend likes to their "iView"... well, I think you have a fairly mainstream hit.

[MickS]

This is something that some of the PDAs are capable of now.

The hi-res screen on the current Sony CLIEs can be used to view images in the sort of resolution that you are talking about. They have a neat app that gives you a desk clock/calendar with a slide show underneath it.

Rather than a new device I'd rather see this functionality built into the next version of the iPod. Say a nice large colour screen (Sony PEG-NX70 sized say) with a 20GB HDD, firewire, bluetooth, and either touch operated or jog wheel on the side.

[moki]

Originally posted by MickS:
This is something that some of the PDAs are capable of now.

Sure, and there were MP3 players before the iPod came out, too. However, there are no existing PDAs I'm aware of that are specifically designed to function the way people would want to use such a photo showing/sharing device.

[Group51]

Originally posted by moki:


I'd like to see a hardware companion to iPhoto the way that the iPod is a hardware companion to iTunes. People love seeing/sharing photos... I think it would be quite cool if my photo library could exist -- synched of course -- on a small, lightweight viewing device.

Yes, but the device exists already, its called the iPod. It just needs a colour screen and a USB solution.

[moki]

Originally posted by Group51:
Yes, but the device exists already, its called the iPod. It just needs a colour screen and a USB solution.

No, this device does not already exist. It would require radically redesigning the iPod to the point where it would no longer be useful as a portable music player.

You'd need a much larger screen, for one thing, which would negate the ipod's form factor, which is critical for the market it sells to.

The iPod also doesn't do bluetooth wireless, nor is it specifically made to archive/show/share photos. No, I think it should be an entirely different iPod-like device, specifically meant for photos.

When you try to cram too many things into one package, products start to suck.

[michaelb]

Originally posted by MickS:
This is something that some of the PDAs are capable of now.

Capable of, but they don't do it very elegantly.

Moki's idea is for a effortless iPod-like synching operation, except it replaces iTunes and music with iPhoto and images.

When I got my Palm m505 I spent a while playing with getting pictures onto its color screen. It took me ages: installing, setting up, selecting transferring, losing files, relocating them, etc. And I'm a fairly technically inclined person. I'm sure it's no different for Clie / PocketPCs / color cellphones.

Something along the lines of an effortlessly-synching/self-managing "iViewer" would be fantastic.

The only obstacle as I see it is, "Is there a market?"

I'm looked at a bit strangely when I whip my PDA out to show images. Normal (non-geek) people think it's amusing, but I don't know if they'd see themselves doing the electric image thing, whereas in contrast most people instantly recognised the value of a music player, and said about my iPod, "I want one!"

It would be worth Apple's time to do some market research though.

Do you have Steve Jobs' ear, moki?!

[C.J. Moof]

I'm with you on the "is there a market?" question. My personal experience is that a PDA wasn't useful enough for me to carry around, and an overgrown photo album is going to do less. I'm already heading out the door with my cellphone and iPod, because they're both handy and useful. An overgrown picture frame... I can't see that adding value to my life.

Just my take on it.

[moki]

Originally posted by C.J. Moof:
I'm with you on the "is there a market?" question. My personal experience is that a PDA wasn't useful enough for me to carry around, and an overgrown photo album is going to do less. I'm already heading out the door with my cellphone and iPod, because they're both handy and useful. An overgrown picture frame... I can't see that adding value to my life.

Sure, I agree, it wouldn't be something you'd take with you every day, and more than you'd take pictures from your trip with you every day...

[moki]

Looks like Archos is doing something like it -- plays videos too. Neat:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2652079.stm

[MickS]

Originally posted by moki:
Sure, and there were MP3 players before the iPod came out, too. However, there are no existing PDAs I'm aware of that are specifically designed to function the way people would want to use such a photo showing/sharing device.

Selective cropping. I went on to say that rather than create another single function device to do this develop the iPod to include this functionality. Yes it would require a new, larger, colour screen and a different control system. I think that the market for an MP3 player that can also display images and possibly play video clips is larger than the market for an image viewer.

Originally posted by michaelb:
When I got my Palm m505 I spent a while playing with getting pictures onto its color screen. It took me ages: installing, setting up, selecting transferring, losing files, relocating them, etc. And I'm a fairly technically inclined person. I'm sure it's no different for Clie / PocketPCs / color cellphones.

Missing Sync from Markspace, which enhances Sony CLIE compatibility with OS X, includes iTunes and iPhoto plugins. These make this management simple.

[moki]

there is a new yorker article today that proclaims 2003 the year of the video ipod they dont talk about an actual video ipod - just that there are other things like that out now

[moki]

Originally posted by MickS:
Selective cropping. I went on to say that rather than create another single function device to do this develop the iPod to include this functionality. Yes it would require a new, larger, colour screen and a different control system. I think that the market for an MP3 player that can also display images and possibly play video clips is larger than the market for an image viewer.

Maybe, but for me, I would not buy an iPod for music unless it had the small form factor it does -- I go running with it often. If they do something like you suggest, I hope they keep the lower-end mp3-only model, too.

[xtal]

I tend to agree with the assertion that once you start packing 'all-in-one' functionality to devices, they start to lose their appeal.

The fact is, I'm willing to pay for a device that does what I want, and does it well. If I want a stellar digital audio player, I'll go with the iPod. If I want something to store contacts and phone numbers, I'll go with the PDA. Same goes for the cell phone, etc. etc.

I recently played with a friend's Treo, and was dismayed. I would NOT want to carry that thing around with me wherever I went, just because I needed a phone.

But hey, that's me.

Back on topic, the idea of a portable picture viewer sounded really interesting at first, but now that it's sunk in, I'm not so sure it'll fly. Don't get me wrong, I hope Apple DOES make one, because I'd love to play with one, but I don't think that digital cameras have the market penetration at this point to make a digital device like this worthwhile.

Who knows though? I could be wrong...

-Nick