James Delahunty
8 Oct 2005 11:05
Think Secret is citing information from sources that claim the October 12th announcements from Apple Computers Inc. will not include an iPod with video playback capabilities, but will instead add another addition to the full-sized iPod family with an 80GB capacity. According to the sources, the new iPod will be unveiled along with the new Pro Macs. The 80GB iPod has been described as slightly smaller than current color iPods. It's not known whether Apple will keep the white casing or go with a silver version.
Other improvements to the iPod weren't revealed by the sources but it is likely the software improvements that were seen in the iPod Nano will be included with the new 80GB model. Apparently an iPod with video capabilities is still in development but Apple sees no such reason why it should be launched now or any time soon. Apple hasn't got the agreements with content owners to provide a video download service in iTunes good enough to risk the release of an iPod video.
Also the company believes that the success of an iPod video would rely on customers being able to import video to the device straight from a DVD, like you can import music from a CD. The complications to this process are obvious, copy protection for one (including the laws in most countries that prevent circumvention of copy protection) and you cannot forget the encoding process that would be required; a feature that would make preparing and importing video from a DVD a long process.
Source:
Think Secret