<p>Wouldn?t it be nice if they made a portable device that could store and play, say, every episode of the TV show ?Lost?? <br/>Technically, they have. And millions of Americans can already watch ?Lost,? ?Top Chef,? ?Grey?s Anatomy? and even selected full-length feature films, on what Amazon.com calls the best-selling electronic device currently on the market: the video iPod. <br/>While other portable music and video players exist, including the new Microsoft Zune, it?s Apple?s which has become ubiquitous. <br/>Now over a year since the video iPod?s release, one would expect to see the mysteries of a lost island, crazy culinary concoctions and love affairs between Meredith and Mc-Someone popping up on video iPod screens all over campus. <br/>?I pretty much only use (my video iPod) for music,? said Chris Wang, third-year economics student. ?Using it with video makes the battery die really quickly, so it?s kind of stupid to have all these videos on it.? <br/>Apple boasts battery lifetimes of up to 4 hours and 6.5 hours for the 30 and 80 GB versions, though many users are skeptical of these claims. Users have also mentioned the difficulty of playing video content not purchased through the Apple media platform iTunes. <br/>?You have to convert video files into some special format and it takes a long time. It?s a hassle,? Wang said. <br/>According to a study recently published by Nielsen Media Research, monitoring 400 U.S. iPod users during the month of October, only 2.2 percent of content played by video iPod users, either on iTunes or on the device itself, was video. The number drops to 1 percent among all iPod users. <br/>Even the duration of video consumption by video iPod users accounts for only 11 percent of the total time spent using either iTunes or the video iPod itself, equivalent to listening to over 100 three-minute songs for every 40-minute television show episode. <br/>Despite the numbers, some students find creative ways to benefit from video iPod capabilities. <br/>?You could probably unload a whole DVD collection onto the video iPod and get rid of the DVDs, which is pretty much what I did,? said third-year economics student Will Hadikusumo. <br/>Video iPods offer 30 and 80 gigabytes of storage space, equivalent to about 40 or 100 hours of video respectively, acting like an extremely portable hard drive. <br/>?You definitely can?t bring a laptop with you everywhere you go. But this thing I?m sure you can bring everywhere,? Hadikusumo said. ?When I need a break from studying or when I?m on campus between classes, I can catch a show.? <br/>The selection of television programs and films offered through iTunes grows daily. At $1.99 per TV show and about $9.99 per movie, Apple claims to have sold about 45 million videos to date. <br/>?I started buying the season passes of TV shows. I have every episode of ?The Office,? all of ?Scrubs? and surprisingly enough, ?Desperate Housewives,?? said Bita Katherine Djaghouri, a fourth-year American literature and culture student. ?I usually don?t watch TV, so I?ll just watch something on the bus or right when I?m about to go to sleep.? <br/>The video iPod may be one of the best-selling electronic products in stores today, yet users are still mostly avoiding the product?s video capabilities. Apple?s concepts, sleek design and impressive marketing have generated enough hype to attract the revenue. Yet the idea of technology appears to be more appealing than the technology itself. <br/>?I have a first-generation iPod, and I have absolutely no reason to buy a video iPod,? said Nick Siemson, a fourth-year economics student. ?I won?t watch (videos) between classes. If I ever wanted to watch a TV series, I would just download it on iTunes and watch it on my computer. And that?s fine with me.? <br/>As the growing size of television and computer screens counteracts the increasing mobility of cell phoneand video iPod viewing screans, the concept of watching media on the move may still be one that students are getting used to. <br/>?I don?t know that (the video iPod) has had a significant impact yet,? said Jonathan Kuntz, a UCLA film professor. ?But I think that it?s still very early in the game.?</p><br><br><a href='; target='_blank'>;