Day for Night Magazine

Pod People

BY SHEILA BURT

About two years ago, the iPod invaded the Northwestern campus. When I was a sophomore, I rarely spotted someone without an iPod as I walked to class. Before those sleek white earplugs became ubiquitous around campus though, I purchased an iPod the winter of my freshman year with some Christmas and birthday money (after the iPod phenomenon hit, one friend jokingly quipped that I was “ahead of my time.”). Although I now prefer my thicker black headphones to Apple’s white earplugs, I still use my iPod almost daily during walks from my apartment to campus and back. Despite looking heavy and outdated (it’s been called “the brick” by some Apple employees), my iPod still serves its musical purpose. I love pairing Fiona Apple’s broken heart next to Mick Jagger’s highly sexualized growl on my own playlist. But technology knows no boundaries. As Apple kept on releasing thinner and cheaper versions of the revolutionary digital music machine, and more people kept on buying, everyone (myself included) seemed to become too obsessed with their iPod. As the pace of music downloading technology continually accelerated, people could only wait and wonder what Apple would do next.

I always associated my iPod with the ultimate musical freedom – being able to travel with something that could fit in my pocket and store thousands of songs. But looking around campus, I now associate the iPod with our generation’s need for constant distraction. In order to continually attract new customers with added gizmos and gadgets, Apple has continued to add new features to the iPod, including a digital photo feature, all the while making its design smaller and smaller.

Only recently, however, has the iPod plunged into the world of movies and television. In October Apple unveiled the video iPod, the latest iPod update that not only stores music and photos but also holds up to 150 hours of video. Along with the video iPod, Apple announced that its online iTunes store would sell a limited number of TV shows for $1.99 each. At first, you could only download a few ABC hits such as “Lost,” and “Desperate Housewives,” along with an even wider selection of music videos and short Pixar films (Apple’s relationship to Pixar helped spark this deal). Although skeptics questioned how many more networks would follow, it wasn’t long before a wide variety of shows became available for download. In early December, Apple unveiled a swarm of new shows, past and present, available for download, including “The Office,” “Law and Order,” and “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” as well as old-time classics such as “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.” Apple’s vision is for you to store these files to your video iPod and watch them as many times as you want on a 2.5 inch color screen. So if you’re on the El and the sketchy guy next to you keeps on talking about his shoes, you can just whip out your video iPod, pray you don’t get mugged, and watch Bono sing his Irish heart out. When you get tired of this, you can switch to a clip of actress Eva Longoria getting more action than all of your college hook-ups combined on “Desperate
Housewives.”

All of this seems ideal for people who want an on-the-go medium that, five years ago, you could only enjoy from the comfort of your home. Without question, the video iPod opens new possibilities for the television and film industry, both nationally and globally. But nearly six months after its release, it still isn’t clear how much of an impact the video iPod will make, and if this version will spawn a new breed of “pod people” who, instead of being perpetually connected to their headphones, will also be glued to their personal digital theater. Preliminary reports indicate that the video iPod is a success. Without revealing specific numbers, Apple reported that more than one million people downloaded the ABC shows, the most popular being the critically-acclaimed thriller “Lost.” The boom in television shows available for download also seems to indicate its success. All of this suggests that Apple could potentially dig into the television market in the same way they dominated the music downloading industry. But it’s still unclear if the movie industry will be as receptive. In a year, could the person next to you on the train be watching the latest Harry Potter flick rather than “Desperate Housewives”? Movie industry executives may be slow to warm-up to the idea, but it’s not too far-fetched to think so. Yet the video iPod’s impact may be limited by two looming factors: pirating issues that make Hollywood gurus hesitant to release films through the iTunes store, and a small screen that may make watching feature length films a recipe for headaches.

Scott Curtis, a Northwestern Radio/Television/Film professor who teaches film history, questioned how many people would watch feature-length movies, especially those with grand vistas and spectacular special effects, on such a small screen. “I can’t imagine people would want to watch Lord of the Rings on a video iPod unless they’ve seen it 20 times and then it’s just the pleasurable repeatability factor,” he said. “Songs have a repeatability factor. You can listen to songs over and over again and you don’t get bored with them. But that’s not always the case with the visual image so that might be a hindrance to full acceptance to the video iPod across the board in every kind of medium.” He added that downloading clips from movies may be a more viable option for the video iPod because people can watch their favorite clips over and over, without looking at the entire movie. “I see (the movie industry) doing parts of movies with relish but I think they’d get a little nervous with whole movies unless the quality is geared toward the video iPod and couldn’t be used in any other way,” Curtis said. Although Curtis said the digital revolution has opened several doors for independent filmmaking, he also noted that the video iPod may not impact the more widespread release of foreign films. “We don’t have a fluid global economy when it comes to film,” he said. “It trickles. You can see a Bollywood film here and there and you can see a Japanese film here or there. But the total output of all the countries is not equally distributed. So the same thing is going to be the case with the video iPod because who’s going to control that distribution?”

But even with all of these deterring factors, the video iPod topped holiday gift lists, opening up the possibility that pretty soon we’ll be seeing more people with their heads down, watching a music video or a TV show. While it’s hard to imagine people walking and watching a video at the same time, it’s easy to imagine someone waiting at an airport and watching an episode of “Lost” – even if the screen is small. This seems like a great way to waste time before a flight. But the more features that are added to portable technology like iPods and cell phones, the more detached we seem to get. I’ve fallen into this trap way too many times, and while this isn’t always a bad thing (sometimes, you need cathartic distractions), when it impairs our ability to communicate, we may become pod people of the worst kind. Since I don’t own a video iPod, I stopped by the Apple Store on Michigan Avenue to see how it looks. As I casually strolled in the door on a warm November afternoon, I noticed a small black iPod connected to a computer amid the crowd of shoppers. I picked it up, expecting to see a normal iPod, and instead saw Bono singing “Original of the Species.” While the screen was tiny (about the size of the palm of my hand), I could easily imagine why some people
would find this device attractive. It allows them to tune out distractions with visuals, not just music. Almost all of your senses are in motion. As I left the Apple store that day to head south on Michigan Avenue, I decided not to plug in my music-only iPod. On that particular afternoon, the sounds and visuals of the bustling city seemed like enough to keep me entertained.