Warming to a video iPod?

During an interview with ABC News, published online yesterday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs was asked the recurring question about whether the company would ever offer a video iPod. Here's what he said:

Well, you know us. We never talk about future products. There used to be a saying at Apple: Isn't it funny? A ship that leaks from the top. So --I don't wanna perpetuate that. So I really can't say.

His comment, or lack thereof, might not seem notable at first. But consider what he didn't say. By comparison, when Jobs was asked the same question in April 2004, he went out of his way to ridicule the notion of video on the iPod -- suggesting that Apple would just as soon turn the music player into a toaster as add video.

Music is a wonderful thing because A, it's music, and B, because it can be listened to as a background activity. And a lot of these other things that people are talking about building in, such as video and things like that, are foreground activities. You can't drive a car when you're watching a movie. You know? It's really hard. So we really are very focused on music because that's what we think the revolution is here.

The strategy put Apple at philosophical odds with Microsoft and its Portable Media Center audio/video devices. But the April 2004 comments came before the unveiling of the iPod Photo and the expected unveiling of a Motorola/Apple iTunes phone. Add it all up and suddenly the notion of a video iPod doesn't seem so much like toast.