A new iPod that can download videos?

John Shinal, Technology Editor for CBS MarketWatch, wrote in the company's Internet Daily newsletter that "Apple has again upped the ante with a new iPod that can download videos as well as music." When I e-mailed him to ask about this unknown-to-me product, he replied, saying "Apple unveiled it at the CES show in Vegas."

I noted to him that seemed a little strange, since, by all other accounts, Apple did not attend CES. He replied again, writing "Sorry, I misspoke. I was editing stories from both trade shows this week, as we ran an advance on MacWorld on Monday and TiVo news today from CES. My Apple reporter tells me that Apple will soon unveil - at MacWorld, not CES -- a flash iPod capable of downloading videos."

Although a flash memory-based iPod is widely rumored to be unveiled at next Tuesday's keynote, that's the first I've heard that video capability would also be involved. It also seems completely ridiculous to me for two reasons:

1. A flash iPod would undoubtedly have smaller storage space than a regular iPod or even the iPod mini. I would guess maybe 2GB at the most. Yet videos take up much more space than music, for obvious reasons.
   
2. The other benefit of making a flash iPod would be to make it smaller. Why would anyone want to watch video on a screen that is smaller than a regular iPod's and likely even smaller than the iPod mini's?

Of course, there are also all the other reasons that Steve Jobs cited for not making a video iPod (no content, etc.) but he's certainly capable of changing his mind (January 2002: "The CRT is dead") so I don't consider his previous statements to be proof there will never be a video-capable iPod.