Rob Pegoraro
Washington Post Personal Technology Columnist
Monday, October 24, 2005
2:00 PM
The Washington Post's Rob Pegoraro was online to answer your personal tech questions and discuss the new iPod and iTunes video downloads.
In his latest review , Rob writes that the latest iPod remains a music-first device. He also shared his thoughts on the device in a video you can watch here .
A transcript follows
Want to know what upcoming topics are being covered? Sign up for the Fast Forward e-letter -- get updated information on personal technology news and product demos. Read past editions of Rob's e-letter online here .
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Rob Pegoraro: Good afternoon! I'm here to chat about Apple's new video downloads on the iTunes store, as well as the "don't call it the video iPod" iPod--along with anything else that you're curious about. Let's get rolling...
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Charlotte, NC: With all the NEW hoopla over the latest iPod's, I'd love to see an updated comparison chart/review of ALL of the current market choices (cross-vendor) of portable digi-audio players. (I think the video market is still to limited and too new.)
washingtonpost.com: Here's a story from late August: How Do You Catch Your Tunes? Aug. 28, 2005
Rob Pegoraro: Actually, I think the exact link is this one: Non-iPods Build in the Extras
The short version of that story, BTW, is, "The other manufacturers, for all their occasional creativity, have yet to integrate all the components of a successful audio-on-the-go experience as thoroughly as Apple has."
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Arlington, Va.: Any recommendations for cases that would allow viewing the video? thanks
Rob Pegoraro: Don't know of any yet, but I am fully confident that your local Apple retailer will soon stock a wide variety of cases that allow you to view the screen while protecting the iPod's case.
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Vienna, VA : I need to save a voice mail from my cell phone (Verizon)to my computer hard drive or disc (Toshiba laptop), but no one at Verizon wireless or at any computer stores I have contacted has been able to tell me how. They act as if I am the first person who ever asked how to do this. Can you help? Thanks.
Rob Pegoraro: The easiest way to do that--well, "easy" is a relative term here. If you could get a patch cable to go from your phone's hands-free jack to the line-in jack on your computer, you could easily record that message using any audio-recording program, such as the free/open-source Audacity. But hands-free jacks are smaller than headphone connectors, so you'd probably need to do some looking around to find this cable.
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Arlington, VA: More an observation -- when I first heard the iPods were doing video it sounded like a nice addition (like photo before it). My 3 yr old iPod is still doing fine, but when it comes time for a new one, it will be nice to have extra features that don't seem to have bumped the price much. So, I don't understand why people are acting like it's such a radical change or a new product; isn't this just standard feature creep?
Rob Pegoraro: On the iPod, yes, adding video support is pretty much as you describe it. But on iTunes, it looks to me like an obvious prelude for much more--first TV shows from other networks (and why not cable-only channels?), then, if Apple can ever convince Hollywood to accept that it's now the 21st century, perhaps full-length movies. Once you have that range of video content for sale, then perhaps we'll see a more explicitly video-oriented iPod.
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Fayetteville, NY: Thank you Rob, I'm new to the ipod scene and want to purchase them as xmas gifts for my 2 children. How limiting is the absence of the remote control jack in terms of accessories that can't be used. The ipods will be used exclusively for music, but I thought it best to purchase the newest model. Thank you. Tony
Rob Pegoraro: The lack of a remote control jack on the new iPod maily means that a lot of the current car adapters (i.e., FM modulators) won't work. But every speaker set that I've seen should work fine; the dock connector at the other end of the iPod, how these things connect to speakers, is the same as before.
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Washington, D.C.: I have a third-generation ipod and am registered in the class action lawsuit on battery life. I've never had much better than 2-3 hours life. The settlement is supposed to run its course tomorrow (final appeal date), but I have not been able to find out what the planned settlement is for my situation.
Do you have any information for me?
Rob Pegoraro: Apple's home page links straight to this site: http://www.appleipodsettlement.com/
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Boston, Mass: Why do you suppose that Apple continues to ignore pretty valid suggestions from its existing user base? Not that video isn't a neat trick, but users have been clamoring for years for gapless playback and better equalizers on the iPod itself. Or maybe they just figure that once they've already got a customer they are unlikely to lose them? I think lots of people upgrade when they perceive a 'killer feature'.
Rob Pegoraro: I wouldn't say that Apple has ignored user suggestions entirely--things like the ability to carry around your contacts file, calendar and text notes were all pioneered by hackers, and Apple then built those features in. That said, I am puzzled with gapless playback (something many users don't care for either way, but a minority feel very strongly about) isn't included as one of the options in the iPod's Settings screen. It should not take any great effort to add that, it wouldn't make the iPod any more complex out of the box, and it would be a cheap way to net some added iPod sales.
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Washington, DC: Reading the column on the difficulty on transferring video to the new iPod, reminded me of another potential tranfer problem - the broadcast flag. As a consumer, I am very concerned that the media industry's lobbying will succeed in Congress resurrecting the broadcast flag requirement. Do you have any recommendations on actions consumers can take (beyond the letter to Congress) or organizations we can support to help ensure we maintain fair use rights in the DTV age?
Rob Pegoraro: Write your Congressman, write your Senator, and repeat. Groups like Public Knowledge and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have also been active in opposing the (IMHO) idiotic broadcast-flag concept.
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Washington, D.C.: Question about switching to Apple from a PC. I currently own a PC, but want to switch to Apple for a lot of reasons (that I won't get into here). Apple is switching to Intel chips sometime in the next year. Should I wait for the switch? I'm not planning on running any Windows-based software on the new Mac, so not sure I care about the possibility of booting up Windows on the Intel-based Macs. But, if the Intel-Macs will be much better, I might be willing to wait. Thanks for taking my question.
Rob Pegoraro: I'm glad you included your thoughts on whether you want to be able to run Windows apps, or Windows itself, on your Mac--sounds like you want to be completely rid of Windows after your switch :)
For you, then, it comes down to considering what sort of things you'll use the computer for. If those uses include extremely processor-intensive tasks such as editing video, you are likely to get more of a performance boost by waiting for an Intel-based Mac; development of new PowerPC chips seems to be grinding to a halt, to judge from the relatively minor speed boosts offered by the last few new Mac desktops and laptops.
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Alexandria, Va.: Two questions really -
My third generation iPod is starting to fail me (sigh...) Of the two new ipods, nano and video, which is the better option beyond price. Also, did I read it correctly that my itrip will not work on the news ones? If so, it may make sense for me to send in for a new battery....The having to purchase new accessories with each manifestation of the iPod is getting annoying really quickly.
Rob Pegoraro: Correct, the old iTrip--an FM transmitter that plugs into the remote-control jack--won't work with either new model. (Unfortunately, this happens a lot. Ask Palm owners who bought things that plugged into the "universal" dock the company introduced a few years back, and which has now been replaced one or two times already.)
Unless you're really excited about either being able to watch video on your iPod or carry around your entire music collection at once, I think the nano makes more sense.
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Reston, Va.: How do you back up your library in iTunes?
Rob Pegoraro: Same as with any old bunch of files: Drag the music folder to whatever form of removable storage will accomodate the whole thing--CD-RW, DVD+/-RW or external hard drive. There is no step 2; unlike Windows Media Audio, you don't need to worry about backing up a separate set of license files for songs bought online.
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Silver Spring, Md.: What are the accessories looking like for the video iPod ? Do they have the FM transmitter ? Also, I hear you can't just put an mpg or avi file into iTunes and have video on your iPod, is that true ?
Rob Pegoraro: At least one company--Griffin, I think--has already shipped an FM transmitter that connects to the dock at the bottom of an iPod.
True, you can't import a plain old video file into iTunes and have it play on an iPod. (iTunes can play many more file formats than the iPod.) Converting a file into an iPod-ready state is a technical and slow process... *very* un-Apple-like.
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Washington, DC: Rob,
The iPod is popular with some deaf and hard of hearing people, who listen to music through the supplied or aftermarket headsets or through "boots" (accessory connections) in their hearing aids. The big question is whether the new video iPod is capable of displaying closed captions. Currently, federal law requires that all television sets with 13-inch or larger screen have a built-in caption decoder chip. Do you know, or can you find out, whether the video iPod will have this capability? Would I be able to see last night's "Desperate Housewives" with captions, just as if I had watched it at home? I imagine the captions will be tiny if they're there at all, but this would definitely influence my buying decision.
Rob Pegoraro: I don't think any of Apple's TV-show downloads come with closed captioning. There also isn't any option to display captions on the iPod itself.
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Alexandria, Va.: Ever since my daughter received an iPod (nano) for her birthday, she's become a frustrated techno-teen. The problem? Skipped songs. Her iPod skips past iTunes downloaded from the Web and instead plays only songs downloaded from her computer's hard drive. Evidently song-skipping is a common complaint. Any input on this or suggestions for solutions?
Rob Pegoraro: The only way I can imagine that happening is if the computer those songs were transferred from isn't authorized to play those iTunes purchases in the first place. Try de-authorizing that computer, then re-authorizing it?
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Kingsport, TN: Whither the 80 GB Ipod?
Rob Pegoraro: I'd have to consult the Magic 8-Ball on my desk for that, and I just can't reach it from my seat...
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Washington, D.C.: I just got one of the new iPods - I'm not one of these early adopter people by any means, but I'd been thinking about getting an iPod and thought this was a good time.
So how -do- you get other video clips into iTunes? I have a PC, so I don't have iMovie or anything. But I'd love to carry around the video of my friend's 2-year-old singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."
Also, one of the reasons I wanted one was I understood it could be used as a voice recorder (with the right accessory), but is that not true with the new version?
Rob Pegoraro: Allegedly, the new iPod does include support for recording audio in full quality, but I don't know of any way to tap that without, say, installing Linux on the iPod. (No, really; people have done just that.)
Getting those video files requires that you run one converter program or another. The most promising one seems to be a freebie called the
.
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Alok, Washington D.C.: What about iPod videos for deaf people or people with disabilies? It would be great if I could buy a iPod, watch videos with captions or see the song lyrics as I try and listen to the music with my cochlear implant. It would create a new market for Apple. Any way to pass on that suggestion?
Rob Pegoraro: http://www.apple.com/feedback/
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Washington D.C.: Can you explain why a hard disk-based iPod would ever skip? I've seen both you and another tech columnist refer to this possibility. If I understand correctly, even though files in an HD iPod are stored on disk, they are actually played from RAM after being loaded in their entirety from the disk. (In fact, the iPod loads several songs into RAM at a time so one can flip a few songs forward without having to access the disk.)
Rob Pegoraro: It's still possible to exhaust that buffer--if you hit the fast-forward button repeatedly, for instance, you'll outrun the buffer and the iPod will have to load a song directly from the hard drive.
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Bowman, Conn.: Can my iPod Photo, I purchased in Aug, 2005, play video or do I need to buy a new iPod to watch video?
Rob Pegoraro: You need a new one to do that.
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Washington, D.C.: I'm on the verge of buying a 60 gig iPod. Do you see any big advantages to buying the new video iPod over an older, and cheaper, 60 gig iPod Photo? I'll be using it almost exclusively for music. Thanks.
Rob Pegoraro: No advantages in that case besides the new iPod being thinner and including a few bonus applications not as-yet available on the older models (the world clock, the stopwatch).
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Rockville, Md.: Rob,
I'm hoping I can explain this well enough for you or someone else to help me.
My daughter was using ITunes to download songs to her Ipod. Then we got a new computer (our hard drive crashed). Now when she downloads songs to our new computer, it says that it will overwrite all the songs to her Ipod if she attempts to transfer the songs downloaded onto the new computer to her Ipod. So, for the last couple of months, she has not been able to update her Ipod, although she has been able to download songs to our new computer's hard drive. There must be a way around this. Can you help me? Thanks!
Rob Pegoraro: Yes, there is. First, if you've got all the songs from the old computer on the new machine, you're not at risk of losing anything--let iTunes do that auto-synchornization thing and overwrite what's already on the iPod.
Second, if you do have some songs stranded on the iPod, you can rescue them with third-party programs. See
my Help File item from last December
for more info.
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Bethesda, Md.: My 3G iPod is starting to look thick and clunky. Help.
Rob Pegoraro: Buy a cool-looking case for it?
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Annandale, Va.: My son recently got an iPod Nano. We have Windows ME on our PC - can he download music with this operating system? Also, we have music on our hard drive saved as MP3 files and as Sony connect files - how can he rip those tunes to his iPod?
Rob Pegoraro: You'll need to use third-party software to load music on your iPod--iTunes for Windows requires Win 2000 or XP. Mediafour's XPlay should do the job (www.mediafour.com).
The Sony Connect songs can only be converted to a non-Sony format by burning them to audio CD, then re-ripping those new CDs to your computer as MP3 files.
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Washington, D.C.: I'm curious about the iPod nanos, but from what I've heard they are very fragile (i.e., the screen breaks easy). Is this true from what you've seen?
Rob Pegoraro: In a word, no. The exception would be a small number of nanos--Apple says "less than a tenth of one percent" that have been shipped with defective screens. In which case, do what you'd do with any other DOA piece of hardware: Take it back to the store and exchange it for a new one.
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Washington, D.C.: So! I see a new video iPod, I think "good idea!" Then I see the new iTunes with $1.99 tv shows, I think "great idea!" Then I read on cnet that "adult" websites are springing up to supply the video iPod with adult content and I think "I better go buy some apple stock!"
Rob Pegoraro: I can't dispute the logic of this at all...
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Bowie, Md.: Can you talk about the high price to replace the battery on an iPod? Doesn't the short battery life bother you at all given how much it cost to buy this device?
Rob Pegoraro: What short battery life? All the evidence I've seen suggests that an iPod battery should be good for three years or more of continuous use. Then you can pay Apple $60, send them your iPod and get back a refurbished unit with a new battery--or you can pay some third-party firm a little less to keep your original iPod. You can argue that the need to pay somebody for the actual process is irksome, but the cost itself is not that much more than what you'd pay for a replacement battery alone for many other players.
And the battery lifespan should be about the same all around; when people have taken apart iPods, they haven't found some weird Apple-only batteries. (A big chunk of the parts inside an iPod don't come from Apple at all.)
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Silver Spring, Md.: When are iPods going to add FM radio? It would add alot. Other devices already have it.
Rob Pegoraro: I'm thinking "never," inasmuch as Apple hasn't done that yet and does not seem to be suffering any penalty in terms of market share or profit for leaving that feature out.
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Gaithersburg, Md.: Rob
Any chance Apple will have an update that will allow video support on the previous iPods?
Rob Pegoraro: None. The "video" iPod includes a new chip that handles both video and audio decoding, which replaces the audio-only processor on older models. (See Ars Technica's "vivisection" of the new model.)
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Falls Church, Va.: Just a rant occassioned by SBC's purchase of AT&T. Good riddance to AT&T. Some may feel some nostalgia for a company that was called the American Telephone and Telegraph, but it did not deserve continued survival. They hated their customers. One example: several years ago, they instituted a minimum charge on their bills, charging $11 to you each month, whether or not $11 worth of long distance calls were made. They felt that they were entitled to that money from their customers. It turned out to actually be cheaper just to shut off long distance and pay the $10 reconnect fee when a long distance call needed to be placed, and I got the satisfaction of contributing to their decline in subscribers. ...And I found I don't need them for long distance anyway, thanks to IM and VoIP (Skype... not AT&T Vontage. AT&T would probably try to pull another minimum charge stunt if that business started to falter.)
Rob Pegoraro: Glad to give your rant a little exposure. It really is amazing how far AT&T sank over the last two decades... the company began with so many advantages and didn't exploit any of them. (In a few years, will we be able to replace "AT&T" with "Sony"?)
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Bethesda, Md.: I have a Rave MP-3 player, which I like, but one thing they don't mention when you buy it is that you can run into some major trouble if you download a corrupted file. Essentially, you have to delete everything you recorded with the corrupted file, reset the device, and re-record. Is this true of other iPod clones?
Rob Pegoraro: Not that I've heard of.
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Tampa, Fla.: I hope I could ask you a non-iPod Mac question about reinstalling OS 10.4.
I have experienced numerous permissions problems with OS 10.3 and 10.4 ever since Apple installed a new hard drive on my TiBook. I used 10.2, but my local Apple Store put 10.3 on the new hard drive (they didn't have a 10.2 install disk available). They ran Disk Utility and a terminal program called Software Bash after permissions problems surfaced. Problems seemed fixed.
I then upgraded to 10.4 and the permissions problems reappeared even worse than before. The Apple Store again ran Disk Utility and software bash, and possibly another utility. This didn't work.
On the advice of Apple Tech Support and the Apple Store, I reinstalled 10.4 using Archive and Install, as opposed to Upgrade. The Apple Store ran a hardware check and found nothing wrong with my TiBook hardware--just bad permissions and corrupt Library folders, which they say they repaired. They also removed the Archive folders created during the Archive and Install procedure to prevent them from messing up my system.
I STILL have permissions problems, plus the entire system runs more slowly than before (many spinning beachballs). Now Apple second-level support tells me to reinstall again, but this time doing a clean install, wiping my hard drive. They also suggest I upgrade Disk Warrior (which I ran before upgrading from 10.3 to 10.4) and run it first to see if it fixes the problems.
I don't want to reinstall the entire OS yet again unless absolutely necessary. Reinstalling Adobe CS is a real pain (I've already done this twice), especially since Adobe seems paranoid and thinks I may have pirated the software (which I did NOT) and refuses to provide any help. I worry that at some point either my Tiger or CS install disks will become corrupt and I'll have to buy new ones.
Any recommendations? Must I buy one of those phonebook-sized Mac tech books (e.g., Tiger Unleashed) and become a Unix geek? I must admit typing line commands brings back bad memories of DOS.
Rob Pegoraro: Apple tech support may be right in this recommendation, but there are things you can try before going to that extreme. First, boot your PowerBook off the 10.3 installer CD and run Disk Utility from there. In my experience, it can find and fix problems that escape its attention when you run the copy installed on the hard drive. Then try fixing permissions again.
It's also possible that your own user account has gotten corrupted--that could explain why things have gone wrong over repeated re-installs. Try creating a new user account and see how things work in that. If that cures the problem, then you'll have to bring over your old data--and at least in 10.3, that, unfortunately, will require going to the command line to transfer permissions on your old files to the new account, using the "chown" command.
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Gallery Place: I can understand not having the small connector port (that allows for such attachments as the iPod remote) or not supporting FireWire on the iPod Nano because of the limited space, but surely there was enough room inside the new iPods for such items. Why would Apple not include the port or FireWire support? Any inclination I had to step up to a 5G has gone by the wayside because now I would have to purchase a new iTrip and buy extra cables to replace my FireWire connections. Thanks!
Rob Pegoraro: My guess would be that adding FireWire would have required an extra chipset and would have added to the cost of the iPod (not that Apple doesn't make a healthy profit on the things, by all accounts). I suppose I can see the space-inside-the-iPod issue, but what I really don't understand then is why the people who design Apple's desktop and laptop computers don't draw the obvious conclusion and start shipping computers that have more than two USB ports available out of the box.
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Answer from Daniel Greenberg: The new iPod joins the likes of Creative's MP3 portables by finally fixing the low-bit rate recording limit on earlier iPods. They added 44.1 KHz (good quality audio).
http://www.apple.com/ipod/specs.html
Voice recording settings:
- Low (22.05 KHz, mono)
- High (44.1 KHz, stereo)
Or just check out engadget:
http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000593063338/
Rob Pegoraro: Thanks! (Daniel's a long-time contributor here; he wrote that iPod-competitors piece I cited earlier.)
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Dallas, Tex.: I'm a late adopter on things such as this, and a tightwad to boot, and haven't gotten one of these yet. (Don't want to spend a couple or 4 hundred bucks on something that I'm not sure I'd use very much). Plus I like listening to the radio and not being locked into one set of tunes. Still, the iPod seems neat, but, if I got one, wouldn't I spend as much or more on content to stock up the dozens of gigabytes of disk space on one of these things as I would on the hardware itself? What do people fill these things up with without going broke?
Rob Pegoraro: By copying from their own CDs, which costs nothing but time. (Well, some also download songs off peer-to-peer networks.)
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Bethesda, Md.: Do you need an iPod to view downloaded TV shows or can I view them on my computer? Thanks.
Rob Pegoraro: Yes, you can play them on your computer in iTunes.
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Cubicle City, Washington, D.C.: I'm currently engaged in a Nano-vs.iPod debate, and the video feature isn't enough to tip the scales to iPod. While my 2,200 songs are too big for the Nano if I want all of them on one device, the easy carrying feature of the Nano (once we all figure out how to avoid it from being scratched) seems to push the decision toward that device. Does that make sense?
Also, a follow-up question: have you heard about a glitch in newest ITunes that is preventing people from importing more than a few seconds of each song on their personal CDs?
Rob Pegoraro: Yes; no.
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NW Washington, D.C.: Does the iPod video have scratch issues as the Nano (Did you use scratch paper when playing with it)?
Rob Pegoraro: The back of the iPod 30 GB already has some faint scratches visible. But that's been my experience with every other iPod. (Apple does include a basic, pleather type of case with the new model in the box.)
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Arlington, VA: Hey Rob, many many thanks for the chat. I have a few iPod-related questions.
1. I've been holding out for an iPod/digital camera combo. Should I bite the bullet and buy an iPod, or will a 5 mega-pixel version come out in the next year or two? Will a phone ever be included?
2. Does the new video iPod support Microsoft Outlook so that I could just tranfer my calendar easily?
3. Does the new video iPod support playlist files? I'm not interested in re-programming every playlist I've ever created for my mp3s.
Rob Pegoraro: 1) I don't think Apple's ever going to ship an iPod/camera combo--nor should it! That combination doesn't make much sense to me. You will probably start to see cameras with storage approaching what you get on an iPod nano, but they'll also probably be lousy MP3 players.
2) Apple's offered support for that since the debut of the iPod nano, but it's extremely cumbersome and glitchy in practice--Outlook itself has to share a lot of the blame for that.
3) You can import a playlist file into iTunes, after which it will be automatically synchronized to an iPod.
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Bladensburg, Md.: Do you know if this new iPod will get football games like after they happen or Sportscenter and shows on Espn since Espn is with Disney and ABC.
Rob Pegoraro: No, I don't know this one.
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Providence, RI: What ramifications will (could) network programming's availability via iTunes on the current tv industry's business model? What actions could the networks take to avoid the music industry's earlier missteps? Should more networks get on board?
Rob Pegoraro: From what I've read, network affiliates aren't thrilled with the prospect of losing some viewers this way. But I don't think they have any choice; they can lose viewers to BitTorrent or other peer-to-peer applications, which won't make any money for anybody in TV, or they can lose viewers to iTunes, where at least the network should be able to recoup a tidy profit.
Overall, the lesson for the movie/TV industry should be blindingly obvious: Make it as easy as possible for the customer to give you their money.
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Washington, D.C.: So did i read this correctly, that Windows ME does NOT work w/the new iPods? and if that is the case,then what works with this program? Thanks!
Rob Pegoraro: A *lot* of software doesn't run in Windows ME anymore. That's a six-year-old operating system.
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Gainesville, Fla.: Rob, if I have TV shows that I've downloaded via BitTorrent that are in the .avi format, what's the best way to easily convert them for the video iPod - buy the $29.99 Quicktime Pro? Since I pay for my cable each month, I don't feel bad for occasionally downloading a show that I might have missed and would love to have access to them on my iPod.
Rob Pegoraro: Buying QT Pro may be the easiest way, but that will also depend on what other applications get cooked up to serve this need (that Videora Converter program, for instance).
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Boston, Mass.: Maybe the users who want a 5th gen and use firewire will have to resort to one of the old 'split cables' as I had to buy with my 3rd gen to both sync, have power, and use the USB that my Windows computer needed. I wonder if anyone has tried one of those.
Rob Pegoraro: Why bother? The iPod will recharge over USB anyway; even if it's a little slower, that doesn't seem to justify paying for an extra cable. The real problem is if you don't have USB 2.0 ports on your computer, and recharging via FireWire doesn't help that at all.
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Washington, D.C.: I know this isn't exactly your area of expertise, but I have a few somewhat old (2-4 years old, but in good condition) systems that I would like to donate. The web hasn't been as helpful as I had hoped, and I was curious if you knew of any programs in the city where you can donate computers to schools, community centers, etc.? Thanks.
Rob Pegoraro: Here's our most recent story on computer donation: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40339-2005Jan1.html
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Silver Spring, Md.: How does apple or anyone else (e.g, RIAA) feel about software like anapod that allows you to take music off the ipod ?
Rob Pegoraro: Apple doesn't support that usage model and seems to have tried to make a little more difficult--the latest iTunes software seems to obscure their file names, although it doesn't do so in a way that a program like Anapod shouldn't be able to overcome. (I.e., the ID tags on your music file remain intact; a file-removal utility should be able to read them and recreate file names automatically.)
That said, I doubt anybody in the business cares that much about this particular activity. There are much bigger fish to fry.
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Washington, D.C.: What sort of process is needed for converting ".avi" or ".mpg" files into a playable format on the new video iPod? Is it possible to put the DVDs I own on the iPod video? I ask because the only great advantage that I see with this iPod video is that I might be able to take movies with me on trips and then watch them on a TV -- without significantly adding to my luggage load. Also, I would just like to thank you for your great work. Your stories are insightful and a pleasure to read.
Rob Pegoraro: You can put those DVDs on, but that can be a real nuisance. I tried one application and couldn't get past step one--it said my laptop was missing some layer of software and couldn't run without it. A second took forever just to rip the first one percent of the DVD. Basically, you need to try a few different programs before you find one that'll run on your computer--and then you'll probably need a second utility to convert the DVD rip to an iPod-friendly format.
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Upstate NY: Uh-oh, looks like the end is near for my indispensable Clie. Something seems to be wrong w/the docking jack/connector thing - syncing doesn't work, and charging doesn't work. Initially, I thought it was the dock that was malfunctioning, but using a charger on the Clie - the Clie's indicator light for charging doesn't come on anymore - I've come to suspect the Clie itself is kaput.
I'm not sure if this is worth saving - i.e. time & money to chase down leads for repair, (already bought a new dock which now I don't believe will solve the problem), or just going ahead w/a replacement.
Which PDA would you recommend for someone who doesn't want phone capability?
Rob Pegoraro: Your timing is great--I'm working on a review of two new Palm handhelds, the TX (latest in the Tungsten line) and Z22 (the new low-end model). I think the TX or the Tungsten E2 would work pretty well for you.
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Rockville, Md.: Hope I'm not too late to jump in... I have an iPod mini... I still like it, but could use a little more room... I don't want or need video and don't really want something as fragile as the nano... Apple's website seems to indicate the mini never existed! Is it move forward or perish with them?
Rob Pegoraro: You could probably find a 6-GB iPod mini at a closeout price with some looking around. Or buy one of the just-discontinued, full-sized iPod models, like the 20 or 30 GB units that the 30GB "video" model replaces.
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Wash, DC: Hello Mr. Pegoraro,
I've started to think about updating our TV (circa 1996). We don't have cable/DirectTV, etc and would like to keep it that way. If we were to get an HD ready TV, would we have to get some type of special antenna? Would we have to upgrade our no-frills, generic DVD player?
Would LCD be better than Plasma? We are looking to keep things under $1500.
Thanks and kind regards!
Rob Pegoraro: You can't--yet--buy a plasma TV for under $1,500, but you should be able to find a 32-inch LCD in that price bracket. Yes, you do want a set with the digital (ATSC) tuner built in. It should not cost much extra, and it might save some considerable inconvenience down the road.
You shouldn't need a special antenna; if you get even mediocre reception of analog TV with your current off-air antenna, you should have very good reception of digital channels with that same antenna.
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from Daniel Greenberg- if you can stand two in one web chat: A friend of mine swears by the product Brasso for taking even fairly deep scratches out of an iPod. I have not tried this trick yet, but I'm going to do the experiment soon and see.
Rob Pegoraro: Good point--I saw a post on somebody's blog extolling the virtues of this cleaner, whatever it is.
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Orlando, Fla.: Yet another response (this time to Tampa's Tiger issues.) I myself had a problem "upgrading" to Tiger. I just backed up everything I wanted to keep to a La Cie Firewire drive and performed the clean install. Then I used disk utility to fix permissions. It worked fine! I was surprised to find that all my files on a second partition on the internal HDD were intact, too!
Rob Pegoraro: Thanks, Orlando!
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Wash. D.C.: I am considering buying a Nano; however, I have a MP3 player that uses a memory card. Don't you think it would be wiser to just download songs from iTunes to PC and then to memory card to play in MP3 player?
Rob Pegoraro: Um, no; that sounds like twice the effort for the same end result (i.e., rocking out to your music on Metro).
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Alexandria, Va.: Approximately how long would it take to download an hour's worth of video on an iPod?
Rob Pegoraro: The Lost episode I bought--both a little over 40 minutes long, thanks to the commercials being left out--took about 25 minutes to download over 1.5 Mbps DSL connection.
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Washington, D.C.: Hi Rob!
Whats your take on i River? It's cheaper than iPod...are they on the same par?
Thanks,
Rob Pegoraro: Not in our experience, at least if you consider ease of use to be an important factor.
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Georgetown: I've got a 3rd generation iPod and am thinking about bumping up to this one (5th gen? 6th?)
Apparently, when I imported all my CD's, the album covers didn't come with them. Is there anyway to get them back without downloading & importing everything again?
Secondly, what is the best software to organize photos for display on the iPods? Does iTunes have a photo database ready to go? I think I read that Photoshop works with it, but how well?
Also: gapless playback, as you mentioned in the review. Whenever I import a classical CD that's broken down within movements, I highlight the subsections and hit "join tracks" in the Advance options -- this eliminates the dumb pauses beautifully. I'd be suprised if it isn't doable on later generations.
Rob Pegoraro: iTunes doesn't fetch cover art for ripped CDs the way Windows Media Player does, although there are programs that partially automate this process for you.
You can use any old program to organize your pictures; just tell iTunes what folders to synchronize. I'm a fan of Google's Picasa myself.
You can definitely join tracks once you've ripped the CD, but you can't do that on the iPod itself--nor can you do this with tracks bought from iTunes.
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Chevy Chase, Md.: How much longer do you think we'll have to wait for an 80 gb model? Do you think there will be any updates before the holidays?
Rob Pegoraro: My guess is that we won't see any new iPods until at least the Macworld Expo trade show in San Francisco--which isn't until the second week of January.
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Orlando, Fla.: To go along with Vienna's question: shouldn't you be able to use a PC's built-in (dialup) modem to get the VM audio onto the HD? Sure, you'd have to have the right recording software, but then youjust tell it to use the modem as the sound device, right? I ask, 'cause I've tried it, but no luck!
Rob Pegoraro: Not so simple--you'd need telephony software to turn the modem into an actual telephone. (Does anybody still make that these days? The fad of using a computer as a landline, analog phone seemed to come and go within a few months in the mid-1990s...)
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Germantown, Md.: Why is the media so enamored with iPod video? If media was to be believed, Steve Jobs was the first person who thought about this idea and Apple is the first company to introduce such a product. But this is not true at all there are several companies in the market selling portable video products. Can you for once forget that it's a haloed 'iPod' and give us an objective technical review of the product?
Rob Pegoraro: I did--just as I did with the Creative Zen Portable Media Center last year . I said that was a lousy music player, and the selection of video available for it was too limited to bother putting up with extra weight/bulk. The selection of video for the iPod isn't much better--but at least it is an excellent music player.
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Arlington, Va.: Hello. I don't currently have a digital music player and don't have plans to get one in the near future. I am currently using Windows Media Player to play my music. But to keep my options open, do you suggest that I store my music as MP3s instead of WMA files?
Rob Pegoraro: Absolutely. If you want to ensure the maximum compatibility for your digital music collection, MP3 is your only real choice. Go with a "variable bit rate" encoding to get the most quality out of those files.
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Somerville, Mass.: You're about to review the TX? That's excellent timing as I have a shopping cart open on my screen with the TX in it. Can you give a quick thumbs up or thumbs down? Please?
Rob Pegoraro: I don't know if I can work under this kind of deadline pressure! :) But, uh... well, the WiFi does work, and the battery life seems to be excellent. It's just too bad that Palm's desktop software is so creakingly obsolescent (especially for the Mac).
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Arlington: Brasso - as any army brat can tell you is that really vile smelling stuff that came in a red, white and blue stripped can that our dad's (sorry ladies in the '50 only dad's were soldiers) used to polish their brass. Don't know if you can still get it in the US - but you can get it in England.
Peggy
Rob Pegoraro: I learn something new every time I do this chat!
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RE: Washington, D.C.: iPod Lawsuit: I was in the same leaky boat until a week ago, when I finally went to the Apple store and explained how I was down to 30 minutes of battery time on my 3rd generation iPod.
They offered to replace the battery for $59.99, but actually just they gave me a brand new version of my 3rd generation iPod.
And my misery is now over. I think that lawsuit is going to go on a lot longer in the appeal stage that its actually worth to wait for.
Rob Pegoraro: Thanks for sharing your experience. Owners of older, battery-challenged iPods, please take note...
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McLean, Va.: You probably won't post this but I think all of the fear over people watching porn on their new video iPod in public is just silly. I mean (and I'll try not to get into any details here) who JUST watches porn? That's dumb. Nobody does that. People generally do something else while watching it and while some might not be embarrassed to simply look at say Playboy in public, they certainly won't do THAT other thing in public.
So I don't see it as ever being a problem.
Rob Pegoraro: I had no idea this was a major concern. I guess I should pay more attention to what's on the screens of everybody else's iPod in the Metro...
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Washington, D.C.: Do you think that the movie industry is currently making the same mistake as the music industry did in the late 90's. Basically, spending most of there time fighting piracy but ignoring the benefits of online movies/music.
Rob Pegoraro: At this point, I think the movie industry is outdoing the music industry in trying to fight the future. If the big record labels had been half as stubborn as the major movie studios, we'd still only have PressPlay and MusicNet as our music-download options.
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San Diego, Ca.: Rob,
I'm curious about the new G5's; is the fact that they just came out any indicator that the Mactel's might be late coming? Or was this planned all along and is just a stopgap for sales while the rest of us wait for the Mactels?
Thanks.
Rob Pegoraro: No, I think the Power Mac and PowerBook lines were just badly overdue for an update. Just looking at how long each line has been around without an update, I'd guess that we'll see one new iBook model before an Intel-powered model hits the stores--which Apple still says will happen by the middle of next year.
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Potomac, Md.: One thing I haven't seen in the numerous ipod 5G reviews is how the sound quality compares to a Nano. What is your take??
Rob Pegoraro: I could not hear any difference in quality between the two. I've read that the shuffle produces really good sound, but that isn't anything I've been able to detect listening over the standard iPod headphones.
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McPherson Square, DC: RE: 80 Gig iPod
My Simpsons edition Magic 8-ball says, "Okeley-Dokeley-Doo!"
Rob Pegoraro: I have to end with this one :) Thanks for all the great questions. I should be back here in a couple of weeks; see y'all then!
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