iPod Classic comes to iPod Video. Ok, but why?

In the past 24 hours or so, there’s been an insane amount of coverage about the firmware hack that was developed to essentially give the iPod Video the same UI features as the [new] iPod Classic (if you have been slightly confused about which iPod is which, this list from Apple will help you figure it out — maybe).

If you want to install it, you can download the files from Driven Design.

The only thing is…why would you want to? The UI for the new iPod Classic is fugly. Having the album art show up on half the screen while the other half shows the menu is just not cool. Plus, what if you don’t have all the album art? And the fact that when you aren’t playing a song, the album covers show up in a random slideshow is just terrible. Just absolutely ugly and terrible. Oh yeah, and album art greatly reduces your iPod speed, so that sucks.

The only useful thing I see with the new UI is the search feature. But if you already have the iPod Video, you’re probably going to find the same song just as quickly with the alphabet letter-jumping feature (you have to scroll fast).

iPod Classic UI demo

So yeah, you could upgrade your firmware to something unofficial and unsupported by Apple. Or you could just be glad you don’t own an iPod Classic.