Apple's new video iPod inherits from its forerunners the same sleek stylized design and feel, and can now act as conduit for other media besudes audio, including still pictures and video - with the same ease of use as previous generations. So why are people dissing it's small screen size?

At just over 2.5" inches across and sporting a 320 x 240 resolution (about the same, rotated 90 degrees, as my 2001-era Sony Clie), the screen itself isn't much to get excited about. In fact, the whole idea of video on an iPod isn't a whole lot to get excited about (I'd wondered why so many people were frothing at the very idea of a rumor possibly maybe being true.) Compared to the PlayStation Portable, it's not very impressive.

Which is completely besides the point, because the screen doesn't matter. It doesn't matter because it's just a UI - it's not the real delivery device for video any more than it is for music. Complaining that the screen is too small to watch movies on it makes about as much sense as complaining that it's too small off of which to read song lyrics. You didn't buy an iPod to read song lyrics, you bought it to plug in headphones to listen to music.

Just like you're going to buy the video-enabled iPod to plug it into your television. Or your iMac. Or your Powerbook. Or someone else's laptop, TV, projector, etc. The new iPod is no longer an MP3-player (if it ever really was.) It's a portable media station, a portable DVR - the "to go" portion of your digital life. iTunes 6 will let you download videos, television shows, movie clips, etc. - and not so you can watch those things on your iPod, but so that you can watch them wherever the hell you want to.