Incarnation of Nerds’ Dreams

I think it’s a pretty safe assumption on my part that all of you who are reading this,know me pretty well and understand that I have a fairly strong passion for technology. Much of this passion gets spent on Apple. Well, as I’m sure each and every one of you is already aware Apple released a new version of their iPod yesterday.

This is the most significant revamping of the iPod since its original conception. A quick run-down of the changes. First of all, as with each and every iPod update, there is expanded storage capacity: 30GB and 60GB. Second of all, again as usual, they’re smaller. And thirdly they now support video.

Video has always been the future of the iPod. Since they were first introduced as an incredibly small brick three years ago… remember those? Looked like this:

…even since then people have been wondering when the iPod would support video.

Before I continue on that topic and establish how I believe Apple recognized iPod’s potential for convergence from the very beginning, I have to take a second here and extend a huge amount of appreciation for my father’s recognition of the iPod back then. When I got my first generation iPod as a gift I was only vaguely aware of their existence, but it was perfect. That 5GB brick was nothing less than an oracle. People thought I was weird for walking around in between classes with white ear bud headphones in… after all, who in the world has white ear buds? Plus, back then the iPods were either dedicated Mac or dedicated PC, and my parents got me a Mac version. While I could have switched to a PC one, I think already possessing a piece of Apple actually helped me decide to get an apple laptop rather than a PC, which helped me make the decision to go Telecom over business or some other major. So, with that said, if I become a successful Hollywood producer some day the gift of that original iPod helped me along that path. (How’s that for a slippery slope fallacy?) Anyway, Dad… Great Gift… thanks again. But I digress…

Like I said before, there have been calls for an iPod video since the original iPod. I think Apple recognized that this would come, and that the iPod would be revolutionary and change in unexpected ways along with the expected ones. That’s why they called it the iPod, not the iMusic Player, or something else. iPod can go anywhere. The only reason, I believe, that the iPod didn’t go video last year when the iPod photos were introduced had much more to do with licensing agreements with the Record Labels than with technology. Right now, you can buy music, music videos, Pixar (owned by apple) Animated Short Films, and some TV shows in the iTunes Music Store. While each of these categories only has a few offerings as of now, it’s only a matter of time till they explode. Now we sit back and wait for Apple to make the required agreements with film distributers.

One of the other potentials that the new technology supports is Video Podcasting. Many of you know that you can subscribe to Podcasts in iTunes. This makes me very happy cause it allows me to keep up with KTCK in Dallas by downloading the Ticket Top Ten each morning after it airs. Now the hope is that people will start making Video Podcasts for people to submit to. Depending on the cost of bandwidth and such limiting factors, I am exploring the possibility of doing something like that to share my video projects here at Pepperdine. More specifically, Scott and I would like to be able to Video Podcast our episodes of DRIVEN once we get them completed next semester.
For now, I'll repost the link to the video I have posted on last time in case ya'll haven't seen it yet.

Sooner than any video podcasts though, you will be able to hear the broadcasts that John Deniston, Brandon Milan, and myself send out every week over the airwaves of 101.5 KWVS LP, Malibu. John’s nearing completion on the reemergence of CultureShockFM.com. I’ll be sure to let you know when that happens!

I have more I would like to say about the issues of convergence, the past, the present, and, most importantly, the future. But I’ll save that for a later post since this one is way too long already and I need to go to class. Take care ya’ll.