iPod nano 8GB to have video capability? AppleInsider reports that AmTech thinks Apple will not only double the 2 and 4 GB nano's NAND memory capacity - which is a clear next step in the evolution of the nano -, but also add some "basic video capability" to the players. I'm sure the folks who said the 5G iPod's screen is too small for enjoying video won't think the nano's is big enough, but even if you want to look at a stamp-sized video, the screen's resolution would mean that existing videos for the iPod would have to be downsized by the player - unless you (or iTunes) do (does) it.
The other option, of course, is that the nano would get a better screen, capable of showing the same resolution as the 5G iPod's, but I'm not sure whether that's really necessary. If the player can scale the video on-the-go without losing too much battery life while at it, I'd say that's the way to go. It's good enough for the occasional podcast, and I'm pretty sure that while some people will watch feature-length films on the nano, most of the iPod nano buyers will simply take the video-capability as a "nice-to-have" add-on. The real interest in video-to-go lies with the 5G and 6G "big" iPods instead. AI reports that Apple is working on better battery life both in software improvements and in using additional NAND memory, so that the iPod can keep larger portions of a movie-file in memory instead of constantly reading it from the harddrive. Still: If the 6G iPod has the expected 640 pixel screen width, then video files simply do take up space and at some point, these hundreds of MB have to be read from disk... NAND memory is still too expensive to make a 64 GB NAND iPod, although I'm looking forward to those. ;) - posted by Patrick Armbruster @ 17:57 [article link]