University of South Carolina Libraries
I& THE MIX 4 Monday, Oct. 17, 2005 _I I jk -1^ f _l I jL. m />^<r5 Newest version of Apple's popular MP3 player has video-viewing capability Special to \'\\Y. fiAMKfXMlK 9 ast week, Apple unveiled the newest iPod, which “does do video.” Select TV shows and films will be available for download. Jerent Turnage FOR THE GAMECOCK Late last week, Apple confirmed what many believed to be next in the line of iPods: an iPod with video-viewing capabilities. At the 2005 Apple Special Event, Apple CEO and co founder Steve Jobs hopped up on stage and unveiled the newest version of the popular MP3 player. £ “The new white iPod — ^nd yes, it does do video,” said Steve Jobs to a capacity crowd of press and Apple enthusiasts. This new generation of iPod is like the current generation, but with slightly updated features to support video functionality. The new iPod is designed with a 2.5-inch TFT display. The video is displayed at a 320-by-240-pixel resolution while displaying 260,000 colors at 30 frame's per second. “What about file types?” you might wonder. The Video iPod is set to support the video industry standard of H.264 — also the code for QuickTime 7, Apple’s video software. MPEG4 is also supported-for other types of video. Apple plans to ship two types of iPods this week. First: a 30-gigabyte iPod with the ability to store 7,500 songs, 25.000 photos, and 75 hours of video, priced at $299. Second: a 60-gigabyte iPod with enough capacity to store 15.000 songs, 25,000 photos, and up to 150 hours of video, priced at $399. Apple revealed that these new models will come in two color schemes: the standard white and fan-favorite black. The models are also up to 30 percent thinner than their predecessors, making them the smallest standard iPods yet. Also, perhaps one of the iPod’s biggest problems, the battery, has been improved, Apple said. This new iPod also comes with TV-out functionality, whereby users can hook up their iPod directly to a television. Apple is not about to count Hollywood out with the iPod, as it also announced a special deal with Disney and ABC Television to allow downloads of five of their most popular television shows: “Lost,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Night Stalker,” “That’s So Raven,” and “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody.” The shows will be available for download with the new iTunes 6.0 for $1.99 each. The new iTunes 6.0 is • currently available on Apple’s Web site. The previous seasons of the shows will be available immediately, and new episodes will be downloadable the day after their initial television broadcast. It should also be noted that commercials will not be a nuisance anymore, as these shows will be downloadable completely ad-free. New Disney CEO Robert Iger was on hand at the event IPOD • 1 SpaceShipOne Air and Space Museum displays private spacecraft t next to Lindbergh's plane Privately funded manned crafi made three trips into space last year Banks Rlbach KltT CAMPUS WASHINGTON — A new neighbor hangs next to Charles Lindberghs Spirit of St. Louis from the ceiling of the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum. It’s SpaceShipOne, the privately funded manned spacecraft that flew into space three times last year. Burt Rutan, who designed it, could hardly take his eyes off the tiny aircraft — wmtrspan: 27 feet; length: 28 feet — at a welcoming ceremony in the museums central gallery Wednesday. Paul Allen, the Microsoft billionaire who financed the $25 million effort, signed it over to the Smithsonian with a challenge. “What Burt and I were hoping to accomplish with SpaceShipOne — and I think we did — was to show that this kind of experience should be open to the general public,” Allen said. “Burt and I both dream of the day when there will be privately owned space hotels and space stations.” Rutan conceived of SpaceShipOne in 1996 as a lightweight and simple alternative to NASA’s costly hardware. By relying on composite materials and a new hybrid rocket engine that burned rubber and nitrous oxide, he produced an elegantly engineered craft that weighs about 3 tons and travels at three times the speed of sound. The ship, with its strange Swiss cheese windows and a belly festooned with random stars, rocketed more than 62 miles above the Earth’s surface — technically suborbital space — three times last year. The effort won the $10 million Ansari X Prize for completing two of those flights within two weeks. In July, Rutan inked a deal with Sir Richard Branson, chairman ofVirgin Group Ltd., the British media and transportation company. The new company, Virgin Galactic, bought Rutan’s design from Allen and hired Rutan to build SpaceShipTwo and its successors. Virgin Galactic plans to seat up to eight passengers on the new ship at $200,000 per SPACESHIP if liliWWililini'ii "ill in - wr? ^wwr^mwg?**? KRT Campus SpaceShipOne is the first privately funded and piloted spaceship to enter space. It is now on display next to Charles Lindbergh’s plane. Montclair State University gave on-campus freshmen a $250 Motorola cell phone this year at orientation. Students can use the phones to access dining hall menus, a live shuttle map or other university-sponsored information. Students can also send out their own messages. For one university, cell phones not only for communication Students can find range of information through university \channels' Illartha IMay KKTCAMPUS HACKENSACK, N.J. When Travis Misurell arrived for freshman orientation at Montclair State University in August, he received the ultimate welcome gift. School officials handed him a $250 Motorola cell phone — and told him to use it. Not for phone calls, but to tap into a multitude of “channels” packed with news and updates on campus happenings. Misurell and his classmates soon discovered they could use the phone to display everything from daily dining hall menus to a map updated every few seconds showing the exact location of campus shuttle buses. “It’s pretty useful, and it’s going to get better and better,” said Misurell, a 19-year-old from Little Silver, N.J. So far, more than 1,400 of Montclair’s 16,000 students are using the phones, and more are signing up daily. Incoming freshmen living on campus received the phones for free. Other students pay $50. The company behind the venture is Rave Wireless Inc., a New York-based start-up led by Internet veteran Rodger Desai. Desai says he’s got signed agreements with seven other area colleges — including Baruch College of the City University of New York — plus the University of South Florida, with an understanding that the service will be made available to their students after the Montclair State rollout, which was officially announced Sept. 29. Rave Wireless officials believe, based on their research, that this is the first system of its kind on a U.S. college campus. Desai and his team studied how young people use cell phones for tasks other than talking, and decided there was a viable business serving college campuses. His 25 person company is funded in part by Bain Capital Ventures and Sigma Partners. As for the debut deal at Montclair State, the school pays an undisclosed annual licensing fee to Rave that provides all students with free access to the service. School officials said they were looking for a cutting-edge communications system and Rave was looking for a school willing to be its first customer. They began talking last year. Sprint-Nextel agreed to beef up its network around campus so the phones could be used inside buildings and dorms. The wireless company is banking on students like Misurell, who decided to use CCILPH0I1C«6