Do you remember the first video-enabled iPod? It was an amazing device, but loading a home-made or ripped video required you to follow very specific guidelines: H.264 format, resolution of 320×240 pixels, bitrate up to 768 Kbit/s, refresh rate of 30 fps…

I’m talking about three years ago only. And I clearly remember that I picked out ImTOO Mpeg Encoder as my preferred software for clips conversion. Yes, I know: it’s unacceptable for an average user to deal with this kind of geek stuff. And it wasn’t so convenient for me either.

Of course most of today’s devices, including mobile phones, are far more flexible in playing various formats and resolutions. But you’re still required to make at least some syncing. Meanwhile, a few on-line services promise to do even better: your favourite videos are brought into a cloud, ready to be delivered onto your devices in the most suitable format.

Reeplay.it belongs to the latter category. Just select a video from the Internet (through a bookmarklet or a small application) and you’ll be able to download or view it with many different devices: mobile phone, iPod, Wii, PlayStation… and of course personal computer, as a common podcast.

A social aspect couldn’t be missing. So you’re allowed to create and share playlists and single videos with your friends.

The service works pretty well with most of the on-line video portals, including YouTube and the aggregator Blinkx. Check it out!

Cinema: what a big passion!

Once stricly linked to the physical theatre, today movies are distributed through dozens of media and devices, allowing many different use cases. Everything started in the 80s with a successful company named Blockbuster: couch, pop-corns and VHS cassettes have been the ingredients of a great concept.

Then DVDs, promptly decrypted by the norvegian student Jon Johansen, have represented the first sparkle of a massive revolution: digital support, unlimited copies with no quality loss…

Today broadcasters and ISPs deliver digital content onto our televisions in real time, new formats like mpeg4 and DivX have disclosed commercial opportunities and also set up a fertile ground for piracy, video content can be easily watched through the Internet Protocol with many different devices… while high definition and home-theatre systems turn our living rooms into an amazing environment.

At least the Hollywood Studios, perhaps adviced by the discographic disastrous experience, have exploited rather than fought this revolution. So Steve Jobs’ latest announcement is what we’ve been waiting for: besides songs, iTunes is going to sell thousands of movies. What’s next?