Scott beat me to buying a movie from the store and posted his first impressions, so I thought I would move on to the new games section (iTS link) of the store. The games work with 5G iPods (of which I am an owner) as well as the newly announced 5.5G iPods. I can't decide whether I'm surprised you can't play the games right inside iTunes, but this post isn't about my indecision, for I dropped some cash and bought my first game: Cubis 2 (iTS link). The way iTunes handles games is interesting, largely in part because you can't really do anything with them in iTunes - you can't even rate them or modify any of their metadata; they're only usable and playable on an iPod.

Read on for all the details!

Now here is one of the more interesting and functional 5G iPod cases I've seen in a while: a clear plastic case with a belt clip that doubles as a kick stand. This iSkin Claro easily shows up my clear agent18 case, but the $39 sticker price is a tad steep. If a plain clear case doesn't get your credit card numbers flowing, iSkin also provides Claro slims, 3-packs of colored skins for $20 USD that can spice up any oh-so-yesterday black or white 5G iPod. Oh, and don't forget to spend an extra $20 to succumb to your accessorizing obsession with iSkin CERULEAN XLR Bass Enhancing Stereo Earphones, with eight color choices to make sure you get as far away from Apple's trademark white as possible.

The iSkin Claro is available at present only for 30 GB 5G iPods and can be had at iSkin's site.

[via Playlist]

Apple has re-released the U2 iPod in the form of a red and black 5G iPod with video. The new U2 iPod features one design element to differentiate it from the normal 5G iPod and the previous U2 iPod: "an all-black stainless steel enclosure" or (as a subtitle underneath a picture of the U2 iPod mentions) a rear featuring "striking black metal." The screenshots of the new U2 iPod on Apple's site don't show the black metal very clearly thanks to the black background, so we'll have to wait for some hands-on pictures for a "yay or nay" design critique. Fingers crossed it doesn't scratch as easily as, well, every other iPod ever made.

Another bonus over the normal iPod is the inclusion of an iTunes coupon that lets U2 iPod owners download an exclusive video featuring music and interviews with the Irish rock band. Pricing is $329 ($30 more than a vanilla iPod) and shipping is currently "within 24 hours."

Update: check out the Quicktime VR movie at the bottom of this page ("take the U2 iPod for a spin") for a better look at the black metal enclosure. Without the U2 signatures and the red scroll wheel (i.e. on a normal, black 5G iPod) it'd look great!

[Thanks, Robert]

iSquint, the fantastic little iPod video converter that we've mentioned before, has been updated to version 1.4.1 with a big new feature: handling QuickTime files that contain MPEG video that most other players/encoders will balk at. Various other code tweaks have brought some big speed improvements and fixes for issues with 10.3.9.

iSquint is surprisingly still donationware and available from iSquint.org.

CNET News has a really interesting perspective piece highlighting the video iPod's potential for being a catalyst for DMCA reform, specifically: the (outlandish) portion that makes it illegal to sell or distribute DVD-ripping software.

The idea behind the article is that, until now, these measures of the DMCA haven't really hit the radar of an audience outside the comparatively small segment of digital-rights advocates. Declan McCullagh, the articles author, believes that the video iPod could finally be the spark large enough to get a much greater portion of consumers interested in (and angry about) the non-DVD-ripping limits on today's software. While McCullagh mentions a few DMCA-reform bills that are already floating around, he's also quick to point out that none of them, at present, have a very bright future.

The video iPod, according to McCullagh's logic, might be able to help all of this. With its wide popularity, he thinks more and more users are going to start questioning why it's so easy for iTunes to rip a CD to their library (and iPod), and yet the software balks at a DVD movie. Yes - before you start firing up the comment form, there are still ways of getting a DVD off a plastic disc and onto your favorite media player, iPod or otherwise. But for the greater community of users out there, DVD ripping is still a thing of mystery and magic.

I recommend you check out the full article as I think it's a really interesting read, but there's one thing I want to add to the discussion; a factor that neither the industry nor these politicians seem to examine: price. I wholeheartedly believe that if these companies cleaned all of their "market research" and "value perception" statistics out of their ears, they would realize that people are stealing content because they know the providers are taking them for a ride - and they won't put up with it anymore. Everyone knows CDs cost pennies on the dollar, and DVDs cost even less than VHS tapes to produce, yet they retail for a far higher price. The rampant (and as-yet unstoppable) success off the iTMS is real world proof that people will pay for the content, maybe even more content, as long as it has a fair price.

But alas, as with all other political affairs, our ability to copy DVDs that we own will only change at the speed of bureaucracy.

Since the 5G iPod landed, an army of scripts and mini-apps have answered the call for a simple, painless way for getting video into iTunes and ready for your favorite little music video player. Since I'm always up for more options, here's an Automator action that accomplishes the same task for Tiger users. You can select a group of files, run the action (it's meant to be installed as a Finder plugin), and it will use QuickTime to export the video and add it right into iTunes for you.

While I haven't tested this out yet, I'm excited about being able to do with with an Automator action as it opens up the possibility of adding more steps to your workflow, such as batch renaming files, or anything else Automator can do. Plus, just like one of the reigning favorites - iSquint - the Export Movies to iTunes action is free.