I honestly did not think that Apple was going to announce this today.

Similar to the evolution of the iPod “mini” > nano, iPod now plays video! With the release of iTunes 6.0, you will now be able to search independent videos and view up to 150 hours of them in a sexy portable device along with movie previews, music videos, and more.

I expect that we will see TV news feeds very quickly propogate. I really do hope this opens up the opportunities for independent media makers!

The format of choice is now Quicktime 6 (H.264 video up to 768 kbps, 320 x 240, 30 frames per second).

Currently downloads are free for podcasts on iTunes.

For the videobloggers out there, part of the recent discussion has been around making a living doing this. Apple signs agreements with the “labels”. What can we do as independents to open up this opportunity? It’s kind of silly that we can be an iTunes (iMedia?) affiliate and receive a 5% commission on other works, yet no revenue from our own.

Thoughts? Action items?

Sidenote: I did not think Apple was going to take over my world the way it has this last week. Just two days ago I broke down and bought a new laptop (simple iBook G4) to replace my broken Gateway. The last time I had an Apple was my Mac +. So I guess it’s welcome home!

Tags: ipod, podcast, videoblog, videoipod, ipodvideo, apple