Okay, so it's been well over a year since Apple wowed us all with the third-generation iPod, and we don't mind telling you that we're starting to get a little impatient over here. Sure, Apple's in no rush, since the current iPods are reportedly still selling like six kinds of crazy, but we always begin getting a little antsy when an Apple hardware product goes over twelve months without a major overhaul. Bigger disks and software tweaks don't count; we're talking about change worthy of the label "fourth-generation." (On a related note, why, yes, we are harboring a little angst related to the iMac; however did you guess?)

There's been a fair amount of speculation on the 4G iPod so far, most of which has made at least a passing reference to alleged video capabilities that have been grafted on. That prediction would seem to run counter to Steve Jobs's repeated insistence that portable video just isn't a reasonable application, because while you can listen to music while doing all sorts of other tasks, such as operating a motor vehicle or torturing your enemies with various pointy implements, watching a movie requires your full attention-- plus, nobody wants to watch video on a 2-inch screen anyway. But at some point we seem to recall that Jobs had addressed the possibility of connecting future 'Pods to TV sets, and he didn't exactly scoff and then insult everyone in the room.

Well, AppleInsider has a little clarification on the 4G iPod's supposed video features. A source who claims to have used a 4G prototype confirms rumors that the new model will indeed sport a color screen, but will not support playing video on it. Instead, owners will reportedly be able to connect one end of a special video cable to the iPod's dock connector and the other end to a TV, at which point the iPod will automatically switch into "video mode" and provide a list of playable video files stored on the iPod's hard disk. Selecting any such file would then play it right on the TV, which ought to be far more satisfying than trying to get twelve relatives to huddle around your iPod to squint at your vacation footage at 160x160 resolution.

Incidentally, the manner in which those videos find their way onto the iPod is worth a mention; remember that "Home on iPod" feature that mysteriously vanished from Panther's published marketing materials? This was the thing whereby you could sync a copy of your entire home directory to your iPod, which you could then attach to any Panther-running Mac via FireWire and then log in just like you were back at your own Mac. Well, reportedly it'll be making a triumphant return, if not in the "hefty update" of Mac OS X 10.3.5, then in Tiger. We suppose we'll know more when WWDC finally rolls around. The relevance from a videoPod point of view is that anything copied from your Movies folder ought to show up as a TV-playable video file when the 4G iPod is running in video mode.

Sounds good to us, although we're actually a little disappointed that videos can't be played on the iPod's little color screen; sure, you wouldn't want to watch the sweeping vistas of the letterboxed Lawrence of Arabia that way (indeed, we have a feeling that even trying is illegal), but for those of us with rugrats running around, it'd be a nice bonus to be able to inflict low-res video clips of our iMovied offspring on unsuspecting passers-by; sort of the 21st-century version of the age-old "here, look at the six thousand photos in my wallet" move. Still, it's not a deal-breaker or anything, and since the 4G iPod reportedly will allow the display of photos on its color screen, well, it's still a step up for obnoxious geek parents everywhere.