I just attended Scott Knaster's iPod Parlor Tricks
session at the Mac OS X Dev Con where he was able to obtain an iPod Photo
on loan from Apple just to show. At the end of the session he plugged in the device to the project and stepped through a slideshow of photos with the device. Nice. We knew that though.
Recounting the demo to Derrick Story with Scott, it occurred to me that a photo slideshow is not much different from a presentation. That functionality could be used to make the iPod Photo a (ultra) portable presentation device. No need to lug around a laptop – just plug in your iPod and go. (OK its a bit pricey for that function, but perhaps you can convince your boss to sign that espense form with it.)
Scott pointed out to me that Keynote can export to QuickTime. Gordon Meyer had joined in the conversation and mention QuickTime Pro can break a QuickTime movie into stills. Other ways of creating a presentation deck to be turned into images were discussed. Gordon also pointed out with a naviPod you could probably control it remotely. Sounds really promising. Alas it couldn't be verfied.
Scott was bummed (as were we) that the device turned into a pumpkin at 5PM and had to return before he could play with it some more.
Thoughts?
iPod Photo: talking storyboards
I don't know what to call them, but I wondered about this the other day...
Can I create a playlist where each track is associated with a different album cover? My assumption is "yes."
So, what if I break down one of the Presidential debates into audio tracks and associate each track with an "album cover" of the person who's speaking? I think I would wind up with a talking storyboard, in a sense.
This could be extrapolated out into works of Shakespeare, tv shows, movies and even "original" or "independent" works.
Would Apple be interested in selling this type of entertainment via the Music Store? I assume so, since it would "push" iPod Photo sales.
But, until I can get my hands on one, this is only a theory...
Thoughts?
Cheaper alternative
If the iPod is too much, just use a digital camera with a video out port. Copy the presentation slides to the media card, plug the cable into a camera and TV set, and bang! All the cool for less than half the price.
Ipod photo as storage
Two parts to my question - i want to use an ipod as a travel/backup storage device. Can I a) use it like a hard drive and move files/documents to it from the Mac OSX finder, and b) have independent iPhoto libraries on it like one can on a hard drive, and use the iPhoto Library Manager to select different ones while its connected to the computer (likewise, when using the ipod on its own, can you go through different libraries stored on it. Basically, i don't want the ipod to be automatically synced to my computer, as i want it to hold photos/music that i don't want blocking up my computer hard drive.