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Video shows upcoming iPod Firmware Update to feature Cover Flow?
Monday, February 26, 2007 - 05:05 PM EST

According to a video posted by gizmodo on YouTube, Apple's iPod "will have its firmware updated soon, now featuring the Cover Flow view seen on iTunes."



Direct link to YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFwEcmn26zI

[Attribution: Gizmodo.]

MacDailyNews Take: Real or fake?

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Feb 26, 07 - 05:08 pm Comment from: Jerry

Coool!
Will that work on my shuffle?

Feb 26, 07 - 05:11 pm Comment from: DasGeek

Looks very real.

Feb 26, 07 - 05:14 pm Comment from: jago

I don't see why it wouldn't be possible.

MDN Magic Word: "Hit," as in, this will be a hit with iPod users if true!

Feb 26, 07 - 05:20 pm Comment from: face

I don't know. the itunes album scrolling slows my macbook down plenty, and it isn't always smooth... Could an iPod really handle it? I hope so. its a cool video

Feb 26, 07 - 05:20 pm Comment from: hairbo

Coverflow is one of those neat ideas in theory that is just so annoying in practice. It's so much faster and accurate to scroll over a list of names rather than fly past images. Sexy? Yes.
Useful? No.

Feb 26, 07 - 05:20 pm Comment from: AshNazg

Friggin radddddd! This alone makes me want to replace my 4G iPod. I love cover flow. smile

Feb 26, 07 - 05:22 pm Comment from: bob

That would be nice, except it would be nicer if it had the reverse view too (like on iPhone). I vote the video to be fake, but would like to be proven wrong. It would be kinda strange to just put coverflow in there without changing the rest of the gui. I would love to see apple release a new gui (iPhone style) for leopard that extends across to the iPod too, that would be so soo nice.

Hmm....Why are these videos always blurry?

Feb 26, 07 - 05:23 pm Comment from: r_y_a_n

Fake

May look cool, but not real useful.

Feb 26, 07 - 05:26 pm Comment from: forty3crackers

Fake... Ever walk into an Apple Store. They all have those movies playing and this guys (I think) is doing just that. Playing a movie he created. My Macbook also slows down during fast cover flow

Feb 26, 07 - 05:31 pm Comment from: R2

Cleverboy in the Gizmodo comments section:

LOL. Guys... this is the same iPod video nonesense people have been jerking folks around with for a while. There will BE NO COVERFLOW on the current generation iPod. NONE. The iPhone runs MacOS X and uses Core Animation, therefore, COVERFLOW. The existing iPod DO NOT run MacOS X. It is an easier, and more sensible expense for Apple to develop a method to run current generation GAMES on the iPhone, than to mystically make Coverflow backwards compatible with the 5 and 5.5 generation iPod.

If you love these tricks, you're going to LOVE the tricks people will be playing when the iPhone is released. Hey, look at me, I'm running Vista on my iPhone!!! Now I'm playing Halo using Touchscreen! I am l33t!

I'm going to compile a list of iPod video pranks for people at some point. It's really funny what people will believe.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/portable-media/exclusive-video-leaked-ipod-firmware-coming-enables-cover-flow-239726.php#c1021726

Feb 26, 07 - 05:32 pm Comment from: AshNazg

On second watch... it does rather look like the touch wheel doesn't match up with his finger that well, especially at the end when he goes to select a song to play. He scrolls down on the click wheel but it stays on the first song.

Bummer... wink Have to wait for the 6G

Feb 26, 07 - 05:35 pm Comment from: Martin

i doubt the old iPods can handle that.

it' very easy to fake, just load a movie showing coverflow on your iPod.

Feb 26, 07 - 05:49 pm Comment from: Chris

I Want That on my 2nd 4GB Gen Silver Nano

Feb 26, 07 - 05:52 pm Comment from: MikeR

I think it's easier to search by artist than album. Coverflow is cool, but not so useful.

Feb 26, 07 - 06:02 pm Comment from: Brad

Even my iMac slows down using CoverFlow. Of course, I have the cover images set to be about 800 pixels tall.

On my old laptop with a P3 and integrated graphics card, when the artwork is the size of a shuffle it doesn't really lag. It can barely handle iPod videos (640x480, 1500 mbps H.264) but can do coverflow with small album art just fine, so I don't think it would be that hard for the iPod, which does iPod-size video no problem, to do coverflow with no problem. Besides, the artwork is gonna be optimized for the iPod, which would make it about 200 pixels tall, so there's probably little chance it would lag.

Feb 26, 07 - 06:07 pm Comment from: ken1w

I think it's fake. At the very beginning, the thumb starts scrolling before the album art starts moving. Looks like the demonstrator did not time it right with the video he is playing on the iPod.

Feb 26, 07 - 06:07 pm Comment from: iScott

I vote FAKE!!

and agree that it's more useless then it is neat looking

Feb 26, 07 - 06:24 pm Comment from: Jon1

Real -
Whether it is useful or not - vid is real.

I like coverflow - Yes, it is easier to search other ways. Coverflow is not for searching, it is for Browsing. Looking for something that will catch your fancy at the moment, just like thumbing through LPs
(Note: LPs are music discs made from vinyl. They came in various sizes, the most popular was the album that spun at 33 and 1/3 rpm and typically held about a CD's worth of music. A needle rode in grooves pressed into the vinyl that caused a vibration that was amplified to create the recorded sound.)

Feb 26, 07 - 06:26 pm Comment from: Shogun

Ooh, bad fake... Especially at the very start and the very end.

I agree that Coverflow is annoying in practice. It's like widgets. Never use'em.

Feb 26, 07 - 06:28 pm Comment from: Matthew Rudowski

*clutches iPod* "It's a FAAAAAAAKE!"

Star Trek DS9 fans will get the joke, lol.

Feb 26, 07 - 06:56 pm Comment from: RC

Fake. Next...

Feb 26, 07 - 06:58 pm Comment from: Bob

Cover Flow is about as useful as Windows Flip 3D Navigation. Yawn. I really wish they would waste their time on more useful things.

Feb 26, 07 - 07:02 pm Comment from: TO Shogun

I use multiple widgets every single day. Love 'em.

MW: method - "Your method of operation may not be everyone else's method of operation."

Feb 26, 07 - 07:05 pm Comment from: alex

totally FAKE. it's just a video playing on the ipod. why do people waste the time...

Feb 26, 07 - 07:06 pm Comment from: Eddie

So this isn't for the new upcoming iPods (the ones without that anoying phone bit). This looks like it may work on the standard 80gig model sweet. Small but sweet.

Feb 26, 07 - 07:13 pm Comment from: Chris

Looks cool! I can't wait to get Coverflow on my Shuffle!

Feb 26, 07 - 07:13 pm Comment from: United States of Generica

@R2

Core Animation isn't on Windows, but CoverFlow is. OSX and Core Animation is not a requirement for CoverFlow.

However, I think it's a fake video too.

I would like to see CoverFlow in FrontRow though and on Apple TV.

Feb 26, 07 - 07:31 pm Comment from: Tom Strong

These things are ALWAYS faked. When have these secret videos ever been authentic?

Feb 26, 07 - 08:03 pm Comment from: Christian ( The Real Chris )

Even though it's not that useful and that this most likely is a fake, it will give a different feel to the iPod, it's a cool look.

I'll mess with it if I had that on my Nano.

In response to the last Chris who posted about wanting Coverflow on an iPod Shuffle. Are you missing something about Apple's and iPods?

Feb 26, 07 - 08:11 pm Comment from: M@c

Dude...I just downloaded Camino 1.1 beta to try out and this thing flies.

Seriously.

Feb 26, 07 - 08:38 pm Comment from: Stab the Man (the surreal one)

M@c, like, cool. But who gives a flying frag at a rolling donut?

Feb 26, 07 - 08:42 pm Comment from: zunetang

Coverflow slows my Mac Color Classic down to a crawl. I'm not for it. I prefer lists.

Feb 26, 07 - 10:27 pm Comment from: Walter Chillum

iTunes 7x trashed my ipod 3rd gen. model. And according to my favourite reseller I'm not alone. It wasn't a total disaster as I'd just bought a 60 gig refurbished ipod photo. I just wish Apple would come clean over the problem with this model ipod. And it still hurts a bit because I now have an expensive paper weight.

Feb 26, 07 - 11:07 pm Comment from: Ron R

Walter C: I use the latest iTunes w/ the 3rd gen iPods and have no problems. Would be interested in knowing how it could possibly damage it...

Ron

Feb 26, 07 - 11:08 pm Comment from: matt

re: zunetang

damn! i was just gonna install itunes 7 on my newly acquired mac iici! i have a 68040 accelerator though, maybe that will help!

mw: systems. we should be able to have cover flow on our 18 year old systems! wink

Feb 26, 07 - 11:48 pm Comment from: Rory

So fake. Cover Flow is pretty much useless anyway, at least for me.

Feb 27, 07 - 12:26 am Comment from: Walter Chillum

Ron:

Apparently it's the gapless playback that causes the problem. After I set gapless playback (which is only for ipod videos, which I didn't know at the time) all hell broke loose. The ipod froze. I then got a message that there was a software problem and iTunes asked to do a restore. I then clicked OK and then I got a mesage that it was unable to restore the ipod.

After I disconnected the ipod I had the dreaded folder with an exclamation mark. I tried to do a reset but it wouldn't work. It doesn't happen to all 3rd gen. ipods but I guess I got the raw prawn. My reseller had some reports about the problem but Apple is real quiet about the matter.

What is especially sad about the whole affair is that it was my first ipod and a birthday present from my wife and I guess I'm a little sentimental about it. Likewise it's just not worth getting it fixed AND I'd have to go back to iTunes 6x.

P.S. I may have got the reset and restore terms mixed up but you get the gist of the problem.

P.P.S. I'm using a G5 iMac 1.8gz running 10.3.9 and I'll be going over to an Intel iMac when Leopard comes out. Maybe then I'll see about getting it fixed.

Feb 27, 07 - 01:12 am Comment from: montex

FAKE!

It looks to me like a bit of choreographed finger dancing over an iPod video. The two big giveaways that's it's a fake are the lack of sound and the BLURRED VIDEO!

It's a neat idea, but why do hoaxers always shoot blurry video? Don't most video cameras have auto-focus? You have to work really hard to force the camera NOT to be in focus. Of course, if you're trying to hide the flaws in your fake iPod video you blur it.

One more thing: did you guys notice the lack of lag time between cover flow and the standard iPod screens? My dual 1GHz G4 PowerMac can't flip into cover flow that easily and we're supposed to believe a tiny, little iPod processor and just pop in and out of Cover Flow that fast? Puh-leese!

I could have done a better job than this without trying very hard.

Feb 27, 07 - 04:06 am Comment from: fiero

if it looks like crap, its fake

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