Jobs has made fun of the Portable Media Center, a handheld device made by Creative Technology and other companies that runs on Microsoft software, arguing that it is cumbersome and short on content. He drew laughs in October when he projected a picture of a PMC on a San Jose movie theater screen and then superimposed a photo of the far-smaller iPod. But bulkiness was the same complaint he had with music players in the pre-iPod era. Sony`s new PlayStation Portable is sleek and beautifully handles video, not to mention songs, and Apple insiders say Jobs is closely watching how that device fares. ``Eventually,`` longtime Apple analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group predicts, ``Apple will add video, even TiVo-like capability, to the iPod.`` Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, who remains a Jobs confidant and sounding board, believes that the only reason Apple hasn`t done video is ``they haven`t found the right product yet -- and Jobs isn`t willing to make a mediocre product.``

Eventually, though, such a device could lead to a natural marriage with Hollywood, which is desperately trying to figure out how to cope with Internet piracy. One top movie studio executive sees Jobs`s public dismissal of portable video devices as a ``disinformation campaign`` to buy time until Apple has a product Jobs loves. That could be years away. Still, Apple`s QuickTime website is already Hollywood`s favorite for putting trailers online. Movie executives also have urged Jobs to come up with encryption software for video. Most telling, the studio exec says, is that Apple headhunters have been trying to raid his employees for Apple`s nascent digital-video team. And let`s not forget that while Jobs had few contacts with top music execs when he started putting together the iTunes store, his other day job is as CEO of Pixar. Doc