[8minute]

I don't know about everyone else, but I was hoping for more from the iPod photo. It seems to be an iPod with a colour screen. Not that there is anything wrong with taking an evolutionary approach ... if it ain't broke don't fix it they say.

I was just hoping for more .... esp after I saw the m:robe 500 that Olympus has coming out. 20G mp3 and photo player with 3.7" colour touch screen and built in 1.2MP camera - http://wwwm.olympusamerica.com/cpg_s...p;product=1146

[nagromme]

It's exactly what I hoped for. More would always be cool of course As long as it didn't make the thing even bigger, which it would.

The color screen is a big step forward for the UI--just ask a Mac Plus But that's NOT all that's new:

* Album art for current song (viewable small with song info text, or full-screen)

* Games, calendars, contacts, etc. all more easily viewed with color.

* Browse your entire photo library by album, as thumbnails or full-screen

* Slideshows (from photos, Keynote, PowerPoint or whatever) with optional music and transitions--even output to TV (and the iPod then shows the prev and next photos to you on the small screen)

* Long song titles, playlist names, etc. now scroll--right in the menus

* One more line of text/menus now fits on the display

* New ability to delete songs from ANY playlist right from the iPod (if I understand what I've been told)

* 15 hours battery life--and reviewers have gotten 17+! So much for Apple exaggerating play time.

* Plus the iPod Photo comes with accessories like a carry-case and dock (with line out, composite video, and S-video) that would be extra with other models.

Not bad for $100. And then there's the option of more GB.

A 1.2 MP camera is a bit toy-like. Still fun and better than nothing if you only have one device on you. How big's that Olympus?

[8minute]

These are rough conversions I pulled off the Olympus website. It's bigger than I thought it would be, dunno why I thought that

| m:robe 500 |
Dimensions: Approx. 10.9 × 7.3 × 2.1 cm (4.3 × 2.9 × 0.83 inches)
Weight: Approx. 210 g (7.4 oz.)

| iPod photo |
Dimensions: 10.4 x 6.1 x 1.85 cm (4.1 x 2.4 x 0.75 inches)
Weight: 181g (6.4 oz.)

[macgfx]

I think the 4G iPods use 333mHz Arms Cpu, if the iPod Photo is stronger maybe it could play video. Most likely you'd have to run linux to get it to work, but you can dual boot to the Apple iPod OS. 60Gig of mpeg4 video should hold a few shows.

So, who with an iPod Photo is going to port a teeny Xserver and Xine?

[michaelb]

Originally posted by macgfx:
I think the 4G iPods use 333mHz Arms Cpu, if the iPod Photo is stronger maybe it could play video. Most likely you'd have to run linux to get it to work, but you can dual boot to the Apple iPod OS. 60Gig of mpeg4 video should hold a few shows.

4G and photo iPods use PortalPlayer's PP5020 chip (160 MHz), which already supports video in the form of MJPEG (Motion JPEG).

However, until (if ever) Apple releases a firmware update to enable this video playback, yes, you'll need to install uClinux to it and extend it to support the newer chip. It'd be hard, but the iPod LInux people have made a start for 1-3 G iPods...

http://www.ipodlinux.org/