Microsoft, Apple and Video, Video Video

Microsoft + Apple

It's good time to be alive. The lines between the past biggest enemies are being blurred. No, I don't mean America and Russia. I mean Microsoft and Apple. I never thought I'd see the day, Apple would make a software for PC users. iTunes to be specific. Or the inside of an Apple computer have a PC processor, an Intel chip.

Well, here's another one. Did you know you can connect your iPod to an Xbox 360? You can play music from your playlists, navigating them from the controllers and tv screen.

Video
The video, however, won't play into the 360 from the iPod Video. That's because of proprietary software each company uses. Microsoft has Windows Media and Apple has Quicktime. Plus, Microsoft wants the Zune to have this capability.

Anyway, you can connect the iPod directly to your television's composite jacks. If you have a current digital video camcorder, it comes with a mini-jack that splits into three RCA jack wires. Just remember... the red wire is for video, not the yellow, in this case. So put the yellow and white wires into the audio ports. Apple was trying to be tricky, to sell their own brand. As much as I am a fan, I never said Apple was a saint.

Come next year, the landscape of your entertainment center will be changing. The Xbox 360 already has the power to download movies via Xbox Live and hard drive for storage. And for several months now, Apple has "near DVD quality video" available on iTunes. In January, the Apple iTV will be unveiled, giving people the power to watch video content straight from their Macs. But don't forget Tivo with its Series 3 Hi Def and Digital Video Recording.

Among the three set-ups, Apple has an advantage because family members of all ages can have a Mac. Plus, larger screen version of the ever-popular iPod is in the horizon. Portability is what people want. The Xbox 360 mainly appeals to the teenage demographic. And Tivo requires a monthly subscription on top of its $800 hardware cost.