LAS VEGAS -- You could trick out an old-school, plain-vanilla, music-only iPod within an inch of its life--so what about the video version? The new iPod's video screen cries out for tools and accessories to make more of its display capabilities. Here at CES this week, vendors showed wares to gussy up your iPod video--and just maybe get more use out of it.
Big Screen, Little Device
The newest iPod's 320-by-240 resolution screen measures just 2.5 inches. As nice as it is to have even that much, that screen size might limit you to shows with lots of close-ups. Emagin, maker of goggles for gamers, sets its sights (and maybe yours) on the iPod with the Eyebud 800 personal display system. The headset provides one display, which you adjust to sit in front of your dominant eye. Emagin states that this gives a 40-degree field of view, which the company likens to watching a 105-inch display from a distance of 12 feet.
Emagin chose to make the Eyebud a one-eyed wonder in order to allow casual viewers to glance away from the screen. Plus--as if iPods weren't dashing enough--Emagin will provide a piratical patch you can wear over your other eye if you want to keep your off-eye shut. The prototype shown at CES was an extraterrestrial-looking lime-green; Emagin may offer that color, among others, but the only color that's certain is white.
The Eyebud 800 is scheduled to go on sale in the summer at an estimated street price of $599.
Record TV for the iPod
The smattering of shorts and TV shows available for the iPod won't please everyone--so why not record your own favorites to watch on it? The $149 Neuros MPEG4 Recorder 2 can record television programming directly from your TV and save it in the iPod's 320-by-240 pixel format. The MPEG4 Recorder 2 can record video at larger resolutions as well, and at a bit rate of up to 2MB--but if you record at that quality, make sure you're either catching a short segment or saving it to a high-capacity SD card.
The MPEG4 Recorder 2 was "originally meant to be a VCR for the Playstation Portable" when released in November 2005, says Neuros Audio CEO Joe Born, but its compatibility with the video iPod was a welcome surprise. "We got lucky. It just works. We didn't have to re-engineer anything," he adds.
An iPod VCR?
Perhaps you're thrilled with the iPod video download offerings. If watching Knight Rider reruns on the iPod makes you long to see KITT the talking car look bigger than a scarab beetle, you may want that same content on your TV. Australian company Xitel introduced the HiFi-Link for iPod to serve this need without sacrificing audio quality. This docking station recharges the iPod while displaying its content on a connected TV.
Other companies may offer products with similar functions, but Xitel holds that its background in sound sets their product apart. "We believe that our product is the only one that will please an audiophile," says Ben Davis, Xitel's vice president of product development. Only an audiophile could verify that statement, but features like SRS TruBass technology and gold RCA outputs certainly sound impressive.
Dabble in Waterproofing
What do you get when two surfers and a diver meet in business school? Waterproof cases for iPods. The folks at H20 Audio announced a line of iPod cases you can take into the water. The H20 Audio for iPod Video, which includes a sport armband, will hit the beach in March at a price of $90. Waterproof headphones will cost $40. Just remember: Watching a video underwater may be cool, but if you're actually on a surfboard, you're better off watching where you're going.
For more CES coverage, head to PC World's CES Info Center.
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