iPod, you ought to be in pictures!

When you think iPod you think music, right? Well now you can start thinking 'pretty face' and 'how I spent my vacation' as well. Apple literally "rocked the world" at a recent U2 rock concert, staged solely for journalists, where they announced the new iPod Photo. At first glance this newest creation looks just like any other iPod until you click it on and its 2-inch screen lights up in 116,000 pixel 65K color!

Along with the new screen comes 60 gigs of storage and the ability to store and display as many as 25,000 of your digital photos which you can download from your PC or Mac using the new Version 4.7 of iTunes jukebox software. Mac users can use the new software to auto-sync their photo library, and Windows fans can auto-sync their photo collection in Adobe Photoshop Elements, Photoshop Album or the My Pictures folder. While this process is rather speedy for Mac users, the Windows crowd may want to go walk the dog while they are waiting.

In order to use iPod Photo, your Mac will require a FireWire or USB 2.0 port and at least Mac OS® X version 10.2.8 or later (v10.3.4 or later required for USB 2.0). WIndows users need a PC with a FireWire or USB 2.0 port or FireWire or USB 2.0 card and at least Windows 2000 Service Pack 4, or XP.

Of course, the 2" screen isn't going to display your images any better than the little display screen on the back of your digital camera does, but it's going to wow your friends when they watch your slide show. Take it to the next level by connecting your iPod to your TV set and you've opened up a whole world of display and recording options. Use the iPods' s-video option and you can even set your slideshow to music if you choose to.

Some people are never happy, and iPod critics are already blasting Apple because you can't download photos directly from your digital camera and you can't use the iPod to play video. If you're thinking about using the Belkin iPod Media Reader to move the images from your camera to your iPod for viewing, forget it. Although that works fine if you want to use your iPod as a temporary storage device, you can't display them because the images must be specially compressed and processed by the iTunes software. Now, as far as video, can that ability be far off? I doubt it.