Why not widescreen?


Abstract:
Nitpicking.

Body:
I'm not sure what everyone else thinks, but I think Apple should have gone widescreen for the iPod display and for the iTunes video downloads. Even though they're not selling feature-length movies (yet), most music videos are widescreen, and hit network TV shows, which are broadcast in HD, are widescreen as well.

The iMac has a widescreen display, so if Apple wants to encourage use of Front Row, they should sell widescreen versions of the videos, even though the low resolution downloads probably don't look great when viewed at full screen anyway.

I'm betting that Apple didn't go widescreen on the iPods because they wanted to keep the vertically oriented form factor of the iPod. Like cell phones, the iPod's vertical orientation provides the major advantage of one-handed thumb-driven operation. Try turning your iPod sideways. You can probably still use it with one hand, but it's certainly not as easy. Stuff like this keeps Jonathan Ive up at night.

Apple, I hope you can figure this one out by the time you start selling movies online. Overall, today's news is a great start, and obviously only the beginning of a new way to experience electronic media.

Posted: Wednesday - October 12, 2005 at 04:48 PM          

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