ATO announces HD iSee video sleeve for iPod

While the original iSee 360i video sleeve was meant to appeal mainly to non-5G iPod owners -- as you'll recall, it lets the 4G-, nano- and mini-flavored 'Pods act as mass storage devices for feeding video to its 3.6-inch LCD -- a new version is looking to bring even the latest iPod into the fold by offering playback of high definition content. Like its predecessor (pictured), ATO's iSee HD (our name, not theirs) partitions your 'Pod's hard drive into two sections: one dedicated to DRM'ed material you downloaded from iTunes, and another for unencrypted MPEG-4, DivX, and HD.264 files that you want to watch on its screen. According to company CEO John Scott, the new iSee will hit stores in about five months, which should be plenty of time for you to save up the $200 to $250 that it's expected to set you back.

[randomperson21 @ Jul 27th 2006 7:56PM]

waga first post!

looks pretty cool. if i had an ipod

[Billy Kincaid @ Jul 27th 2006 8:10PM]

The iLuv i1055 has a bigger widescreen, recharges the battery AND plays DVDs as well, for the same price:

http://www.i-luv.com/iLuv/product_info.php?cPath=72&products_id=286&iLuvid=90d8bbdd3aae444c9b62afe5bedd9df5

Oh well, at least this one you can still put your iPod in your pocket.

[Chris @ Jul 27th 2006 8:25PM]

i'd rather spend the same amount of money and get a psp
does alot more but doesn't have a HD

[Jim @ Jul 27th 2006 8:26PM]

5 Months!! Won't we be seeing widescreen ipods by then?

[Jon Himself @ Jul 27th 2006 8:46PM]

I hope we'll be seeing an upgraded iPod video by that point.. I hope. On another note, can I make a motion to ban or at least prevent an e-mail address from posting if the words "First post" or any semblance to those words are mentioned in a post?

[Matt @ Jul 27th 2006 9:06PM]

Lots of 'first post' garbage is making its way back to Engadget. I hope I'm not the only one reporting these posts.

[tito @ Jul 27th 2006 9:26PM]

@ Jon Himself and Matt
you know that there is a little "!" that you can press to have it sent to the engadget to be reviewed and possibly taken off?..just to let ya know :-D

besides..that...i think its a good product..but i agree with Jon that i hope they have a new ipod design by then.

[yong @ Jul 27th 2006 9:29PM]

$200 seems a bit pricey for this. I would rather spend that money on a portable dvd player or Sony PSP. It's a nice idea, but I don't know if I'm willing to drop $200 for it.

[icruise @ Jul 27th 2006 9:59PM]

Why would it need to partition the iPod's hard drive? The iPod is already divided into a section for music and video and a section for data that you can access like a hard disk. Can't it just use the existing "hard disk" portion? Or did someone misunderstand something?

[LongshotX @ Jul 27th 2006 10:23PM]

Whats the point of this? You can get a dedicated PMP for much cheaper. Anybody willing to pay well over $500 to see some video on a small screen is dumb as hell.

[Mobile Reviewer @ Jul 27th 2006 10:36PM]

what to say, its overpriced. I agreed with tito that $200 seems a bit pricey.

[Jon Himself @ Jul 27th 2006 11:28PM]

Hey Tito, I didn't know that the ! was to report it, I never really even thought about reporting the posts at all (even if I knew what the ! was for) Thanks for the info thhough

[Rudy @ Jul 28th 2006 3:55AM]

Thanks for the link Billy. The iLuv i1055 has some major advantages- including availablity. The bigger screen, recharger, and DVD player make this a winner.

[matt @ Jul 28th 2006 6:48AM]

how much sense does HD content make on a 3 inch screen? call me a cynic...

[Eric @ Jul 28th 2006 12:27PM]

"Why would it need to partition the iPod's hard drive? The iPod is already divided into a section for music and video and a section for data that you can access like a hard disk. Can't it just use the existing "hard disk" portion? Or did someone misunderstand something?"

because you wont need to convert the divx and hd format to ipod format