Apple & NBC - Mainstreaming Digital Video
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Written By Kate Zimmermann | September 12, 2006 | Share This
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Today Apple announced an enormous number of updates to iPod and iTunes. A full list of the event is available here, courtesy of Ars Technica.
In Sum:
- The iPods got makeovers and have multiplied. The Nano now comes in colors, is 52% slimmer, and will be offered in three versions rather than two. The Shuffle has shrunk to the size of a matchbox and will be offered with 1G of storage. Finally, regular iPod has a brighter screen, more battery life, and comes in either 30 or 80 GB.
What to Take Away: Your iPod case got outdated – again – but at least you get more music for less money. - Apple is finally making music sharing a teeny tiny bit more flexible. You can now move music between different computers, as long as they’re authorized on the same account. That way, your iPod can act as a transfer device from one PC to the next.
What to Take Away: At long last, you can share your music with…yourself. - Do you spend hours searching for the cover art of albums you bought* outside of iTunes? Well, now iTunes will do it for you. You can also browse albums, movies, TV programs, etc, by the artwork rather than in list form.
What to Take Away: iStore’s new look is for the supremely visual learner.
(*or not) - iTunes has movies! At present, there are 75 available, from Dinsey, Pixar, Touchstone and Miramax –but more to come on a weekly basis. Videos have better resolution (320×240 to 640×480), and can be viewed as they download if you have a broadband connection (not to mention that you can download several at one time). New releases will be available the same day of their release in DVD.
What to Take Away: Put your DVD player on eBay and use the money to buy an external hard drive. - And the grand finale… Apple announced plans to release “iTV” in 2007. This nifty box will allow you to stream video content directly from iTunes to your television. The new system allegedly has DVD picture quality.
What to Take Away: The ‘i’ is slowly taking over consumer electronics.
So, that’s the wrap up. You can see more info (including photos) on the conference at Techcrunch. Personally, I’m most interested in the downloadable movies. If Apple is wise enough to venture beyond major studio productions, independent films will finally have a distribution channel that puts them in contact with an enormous audience. Apple, in turn, benefits from the image credo of supporting independent artists.
The Indie angle could be especially lucrative in light of NBC’s new b2b digital video aggregator, “NBBC” (short for National Broadband Company). Like the business version of YouTube, it’s a place for content licensors, advertisers and website publishers to take advantage of syndicated digital video. Partnered with big names like Newsgator, SNL and Forbes.com, NBBC intends to help content licensors distribute video to the long tail without giving up IP rights.
All in all, as major companies start to catch up to the social media phenomenon, digital video is more and more becoming an industry standard.
Topics: Technology |