Apparently the new Movie Rentals feature is exclusive to newer hardware like the iPod Touch, iPhone, 3G Nano and iPod Classic. Does that mean the 5 and 5.5G iPod videos are out in the cold?

Yep.

I went back and rewatched the keynote and Steve-O did say it was for “current generation iPods”, but just once, and quickly. It’s one of those things that you hear, but is so unbelievable in the back of your mind you go, Nooo, that can’t be true, he must be kidding, so you gloss it over and pretend you didn’t hear it. That must have been Steve’s plan all along.

TUAW speculates that this is being done to prevent easy and casual piracy (as in jack it out via the video cable to a recorder, and boom, there goes the neighborhood), and I see where they’re coming from. But still, man. Millions will be up in arms.

I was about to tell my brother, who’s got a 5G, the good news (though he owns an iPod he’s a die-hard Windows guy and not a rabid Mac fanboy like me - must’ve been adopted - and doesn’t keep up with keynote addresses), but I think I’ll leave off telling him he’s SOL like a lot of other 5/5.5G owners out there. Better he finds out for himself.

iPod with an iPhone error message.

Amazing how Apple can tweak the software so that Linux and other operating systems that don’t natively run iTunes are SOL where the new iPods are concerned, or tweak an app or hardware for the iPod so that it doesn’t compete with an iPhone and artificially and self-servingly segment the market (such as pulling out the ability to enter new events in iCal, or pull the Bluetooth out) — but are so lazy they can’t even seem to clean up the iPhone software code they’re recycling to use in the iPod.

Sheesh.

(That’s my pet name for the ungainly and awkward “iPod Touch”, by the way; some folk call it the iTouch, but I think not. Besides, TouchPod has a nice ring to it, don’t you agree?)

Something called the “negative black effect” (speak about inappropriate names) is appearing in an increasing number of TouchPods.

Reports have surfaced earlier this weekend as the TouchPods began selling at Apple Stores that the new screens seem to be inferior to the iPhone’s, contrary to the Jobster’s (stupid name; but Stevester seems worse) statement that screens are the same. Blacks aren’t as black, and colors seem washed out, as in this side-by-side pic from Gizmodo (iPhone on the bottom):

More units seem to have it worse: some TouchPods’ black portions look like the shimmery, odd blacks you get from film negatives (hence the “negative black effect” name), and they seem to be a spotty and erratic phenomenon. Look at this comparison from Apple-Touch.com (iPhone on top):

Apple seems to be taking in defective units and replacing them without question (which is a tacit admission that a problem exists), but sometimes the replacements themselves have similar problems. No official statement yet.

Caveat emptor. Certainly a strong argument against early adoption, and for waiting for the first revision. Or just waiting for the 16gb, 3G, open-line iPhone that everyone seems to be expecting. Hmm.

Check out a sampling of reports from Apple-Touch, Tech.Blorge, Gizmodo and Engadget.

Reports have come out that Apple has tweaked the new iPods (Classic, Touch, nano) so that iTunes breaks when you use the Linux operating system.

Some folk who like Linux a whole lot (or dislike Apple in general) have repurposed the older iPods to run off Linux instead, but Apple seems to have inserted new code into the iTunes DB file in the player in the hidden i_PodControl/iTunes folder that disables the database and shows exactly zero songs on the player.

Knowing the usual suspects, this qualifies as a minor nuisance. After the iPhone, this should be a piece of cake. But still.

Hackers are at work on it already. Click here for more details on the issue.

(Cross-posted from Mobile Philippines)

Wirelessinfo.com got Apple to admit that there is a glitch in the battery indicator of the iPhone, essentially telling users that the battery isn’t fully charged yet while in fact it’s already topped up.

In their blog survey, at least 60% of the respondents said that their units were kinda wonky in this department, so the folk behind the blog contacted Apple PR about this. According to the site, Apple told them: “Your battery is fully charged, but the UI (User Interface) is just not correctly reflecting this. We expect to fix this in a software update.”

I’ve had laptop batteries from Apple with this problem, despite proper care and conditioning. Ah well.

(BTW, nice battery label, ain’t it?)