Three Problems with the IPod

Before you rush down to the comment section, I know, I know; the iPod's the number one digital audio player in the world and will likely stay that way for a very long time. Yes, Steve Jobs is a genius; no, I don't think that the Zune is going to beat the iPod.

In fact, I'm an iPod owner myself, and in a big way. I've had three of the things. They keep getting better with every new iPod released (which is usually immediately after I bought the earlier model).

Still, there's always room for improvement, and believe it or not, there's a lot of really simple things that Apple could do to improve the ubiquitous iPod. Here are a few suggestions; Mr. Jobs, if you're reading this, I'd like to add that I'm not above taking a large amount of money to pull this article.

1. The iPod's Video - First of all, kudos to Apple for introducing video to their iPod about a year ago. It's really fantastic. I watch a lot of movies during large road trips on the little bugger, and I have very few complaints. Those few are big 'uns, though. The restrictive amount of formats that the iPod will play is ridiculous. Throw us a bone here-at least give us a free converter that works on any movie we download. Of course, there's a lot of pressure from the TV and movie companies to try to curb pirating, but hey, I've got a lot of Divx files that were legitimately made, and if I want to watch them on my iPod, Apple should offer an easy way to do that. Secondly, could I get a break on the full movie pricing? I know, they're full length movies, but I'm watching them on a friggin' iPod. You can output to TV, but it's not DVD quality by any means, so it'd be nice if I wasn't paying a DVD price.