The OS X iPods

Daring Fireball (48,800 bloglines subscribers*!) tells us Jobs confirmed that Apple is working on OS X based iPods. So the next generation of iPods ought to be feature competitive with the iPhone's music capabilities. That's great, but he asks the next, much more interesting, question:

Daring Fireball: Regarding OS X-Based iPods

...The biggest question, as I see it, is whether Apple plans to introduce iPods that are more or less just the iPod app from the iPhone (i.e. just music and video players), or iPods that are everything but phones, with Wi-Fi networking for email, web, and more...

By "more" I assume he means the thought that none dare speak - VOIP.

On the one hand, one might imagine that the AT&T contract forbids a "VOiPod". On the other hand, that is a delicious thought. OS X on the iPhone occupies 680MB and requires a serious CPU and battery, so it's hard to imaging putting it on an iPod just to plays music and movies ...

Of course there's more than one way to play video. Cringely thinks Apple will bundle a hardware H.264 decompressor chip into the next iPod. Jobs is on record as saying the current "Apple TV" is a "hobby".

Hmm.

H.264 HD decompressor chip. VOIP. Apple TV. Rumors that Apple has again bought up all Flash supplies over the next few months...

* That's just Bloglines. He probably has 2-3 times as many regular readers. That's a big enough lever to move even Apple ...