iBox

gigapet

gigapet

Registered
In all seriousness how likely do we think it is that there really will be such a device as the oft-romoured iBox? All the rumour and speculation would lead us to believe that it's gonna be a corker but will it ever actually materialise.
 
It would certainly make a nice companion-piece if they *did* start selling video-on-demand through iTMS, eh?
 
I think a 'home' based iBox (i.e. also a video-recording thing that sits below your TV) would rather flop. Make it portable enough, and it'd be a hit. "Your digital life in your shirt pocket." Home-on-iPod, video-recording, downloadable videos (later down the line), MPEG-4/AAC playback and encoding... I sure would sell my iPod for such an upgraded iPod. Whether it'd have a colour screen for mobile video playback or only a video-out for hooking it up to your home video entertainment system (what a name if it's nothing without the iPod, eh?) - I wouldn't care much...
 
You know Fryke, I agree with you. What would be exceptionally cool is that if you could go to Blockbuster Video with your iPod, "rent" a video by downloading it on your iPod, and then plug it into a docking station linked to your stereo and TV. You would get to watch a movie x amount of times before it expires. No late fees. No returns. High quality.
 
Hell, don't even go to BlockBuster -- they've got DVD rental machines in all the grocery stores down here in Texas now. Insert money/credit card, choose movie, DVD pops out of the chute. Quite convenient. Now, just slap a firewire port on there, connect the video device (iPod, iBox, whatever...) and wait three to five minutes for the video to download. Video could self-destruct after a predetermined amount of time (2 days, etc.) so you don't even need to go back to the machine to return the video.

Yes?
 
Sounds cool! But then I'd be kicking myself because a) I already have an iPod, and b) I wouldn't be allowed to watch movies even if I could get them :(
 
And, of course, all of this cool stuff would work in Europe five years after the introduction of iTMS Europe (2004? 2005? 2006?) ;-)

However: I don't want to rent videos. I want to buy them. Music videos, movies (640*xxx is enough, MPEG-4/AAC files at ca. 1 GB are good enough). They should, of course, be cheaper than DVDs, since you a) don't get a nice box and b) get lower quality.
 
No.

Well, alright, maybe. But web download would surely be the way? Why would a software vending machine be immune to all the vending machine problems. Bubblegum in the firewire port? I've heard speculation of the same for broadband download - watch your movie and then it corrupts after a few days or whatever - you never even leave the house. Sorry, its just I like your idea of not having to go back to return the disc - but why go to pick it up?
'But not everyone has broadband' you say - but this is only a matter of time, surely, as increased DSL (or the next technology) speeds become cheaper and more widely served. The kind of people who have an iPod (or your alleged iBox) probably have broadband - I don't see them producing a line of vending machines just to cater to that section of the market that have an iBox (or nearest comptetitor Sony Videoman, or Hitachi Portable Media HD or similar that will come out) but don't have broadband.
Surely they'll do away with stores altogether eventually, and the vending machines will just be for Cletus to take the disc to play on his WWF-branded all-in-one Sanyo Media Center back at the trailer park because he's on the wrong side of the digital dee-vide....

In the future, we'll be fibre-optic'ed up the ying-yang and things like mobile phones and flatscreens will be disposable....

Anyway, its all speculation, as I'll believe this iBox when I see it....
 
Randman said:
Won't be called iBox (if it would even be announced), not with M$'s XBox.
Click to expand...

well clearly MS uses a capital 'X', whereas Apple would use the lowercase, 'i'. totally different - like comparing Apples to, oranges, or, er well microsoft...

;) kidding of course.
 
dlloyd said:
Sounds cool! But then I'd be kicking myself because a) I already have an iPod, and b) I wouldn't be allowed to watch movies even if I could get them :(
Click to expand...


dlloyd -
what do you mean you couldn't "wach the movies even ig I could get them"?
just confused is all.
 
My parents don't let me watch movies. We only get to see them once a week, and then, only about a half of one.
 
dlloyd said:
My parents don't let me watch movies. We only get to see them once a week, and then, only about a half of one.
Click to expand...

well, I'm off topic at this point, but that's a drag! i'll watch a movie in your honor this week, dlloyd! :)
 
I'm seriously off-topic, but it's just a rumoured object. Not something that's been officially announced. So my hopes for this are non-existant. If it comes, I'll be surprised.
 
heres an idea! why not be able to download online AND at your local movie rental-place?! the more places the marier.


but the big issue with downloading movies is that it takes FOREVER even if you have broadband. that online movie download place (can't remember the name... movielink?) it took like 2 1/2 hours to download over DSL and the quality wasn't even that great. (not to mention it used windows media viewer which has the worlds worst codec ><. but i digress )

i like the idea of a FW docking station somewhere in town
 
I doubt it would ever happen, but it would be pretty cool. Actually, my favourite daydream along these lines is if Apple and Nintendo decided to collaborate on an IBM-PowerPC (G5) based console. Nintendo could get back into the forefront with a new games console with a 64-bit processor that trounces anything MS could dream of doing, while the desktop would ship with adapted versions of iTunes/Music Store, iPhoto, etc ... one can dream, eh?
 
I would read IIX as being the same as VIII, it's standard Roman-numeral notation for "two less-than ten" which is the same as your "three more than five". If you don't allow this, then nine would be VIIII instead of IX. Both are technically correct, but IX would be the one more likely to be used.
 
symphonix - all rumours point to the X-Box 2 being 64-bit. Some go so far as to guess that they're going to be dual-processor.

Many of these rumours were fanned by that MS employee who was fired taking photos of a large shipment of Powermac G5s coming into Redmond...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top