Apple, as part of its whole "Apple Music agreement? What Apple Music agreement" campaign, has announced and released new 10, 15, and 30G iPods. (Presumably Randall just bought a 20G version) And, like the rest of the world, I'm drooling over them.
The 30G, particularly, is catching my eye. Not only would it mean I could get music in the car (the one big deficiency of the iBook is its forcing sleep with the lid closed, making it unsuitable as a mobile jukebox) and have a handy backup gadget around, but I could finally watch movies on the plane. This iBook is nice, and with the two batteries I can generally work on a full cross-country flight (though I think one of my batteries is getting creaky and I may have to add a third to be sure) since they're good for between two and three hours each under my normal workload.
What this thing can't do, though, is show a full movie on one battery charge. Or at least one modern movie, as I can usually get a 70-75 minute one on it, which is enough for most of the really bad black and white 50's B-grade atomic monster movies I like. But for something newer, like Pleasantville or Spirited Away? No joy. The DVD drive just sucks down too much power for that to work. No complaints, mind--being able to watch anything on the plane's good, I just stock up on episodic stuff. (Though there are issues there, since a lot of the episodic stuff I have is anime, and the social norms are different. While I don't have a problem with, or even care about, casual nudity and such where it's appropriate, or fan service where it's not too bad, I'm a bit uncomfortable displaying it in public. Well, except for Fake, because it's sometimes fun and/or necessary to make people squirm a bit)
Anyway, what does all that have to do with this? Well.... a 30G iPod is really a fancy 30G hard drive. That's space for at least two, if not five or six, movies, in full quality. The iPod can run for quite a few hours feeding data, and the firewire ports take up a lot less power to drive than the DVD drive (no surprise, as there aren't any moving parts), so I ought to be able to take a few movies with me to watch on the plane. Cool!
The only problem is the price, since at $998 (what, you think my wife'd let me get just one? :) it's definitely past the impulse purchase stage.
Ah, well, I can dream, I suppose.
Posted by Dan at May 2, 2003 05:19 PM | TrackBack (0)If you're looking for some real good battery life, check out the Electrovaya (http://www.electrovaya.com/) battery. My version has 16 hours battery life, which means a cross-atlantic flight is nothing (I watched 2 full dvd's, and wasn't even at half battery last flight.)
Posted by: Sterling Hughes at May 2, 2003 08:29 PM$998? Do you need two?
Posted by: Ask Bjoern Hansen at May 3, 2003 06:25 AMYes, two are necessary. If I get just one, that means ten minutes later my wife takes it and I am, once again, sans iPod. :)
Posted by: Dan at May 3, 2003 09:29 AMYow, nice batteries, Sterling! The original battery for this iBook is starting to degrade and I've been working up to getting another. The 8 hour version's not that much more expensive than another built-in battery. And the 16 amp-hour version looks really sweet. (Though I don't want to think about how long it must take to recharge... :)
Posted by: Dan at May 3, 2003 10:13 AM