iPod Photo, an opportunity missed

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Phil Askey from Digital Photography Review writes about the iPod Photo:

Last week Apple announced the much anticipated iPod Photo. This unit is identical in size to the current fourth generation iPod but instead of the monochrome screen it gets a color 2.0" 116,000 pixel LCD. The iPod Photo is capable of displaying photos synced onto
its hard disk using iTunes, it can do so on the built-in screen and also a TV via supplied cables or the dock. So far so good, we have an ultra-compact photo display unit.

However that's pretty much where it ends, and to me at least rules out the iPod Photo as that killer app 'bridge' product digital photographers have been waiting for. What it really should have had: (1) Either the ability to act as a USB/PTP host (so that images could be transferred in the field directly to it) and/or a Compact Flash slot (yes, this may have made the device slightly larger but that would have been a happy compromise), (2) The ability to handle full resolution images straight from the camera (apparently iTunes creates downsized copies of your photos before sending them to the iPod Photo so that it can handle them), (3) A remote control for the iPod Photo Dock so that when it's connected to your TV you can browse from the comfort of your armchair.

This then would have been the killer app for both music and photo, display, downloading, browsing and in-the-field storage (yes others already do this, but none with the design panache, quality build or marketing capability of Apple). Maybe the next generation iPod Photo will be more feature rich.

After what I wrote about the Belkin Digital Camera Link, I completely agree with him. The iPod Photo will remain uninteresting for me until I can connect it directly with my camera.