So, I haven’t posted in a while. True. Been very busy with life. Between work and school and Joy and Facebook it’s been tough getting in some blog-time. But here we are… question is, are there any of YOU left. Yes Cam, I see you. You and your RSS-reader. Ha… anyone else reading this by an RSS reader? How many of you are seeing this because you saw I added a new note on Facebook?
Anyway. The next bit is about Apple and their announcements today, so if that doesn’t interest you, too bad! Haha.
So yeah, today Apple held a special event in which they announced new iPods and a new major point version of iTunes, 8.0. I followed along on the Engadget liveblogger feed. What I find interesting is how much, this time around, the rumormill got right. In particular Kevin Rose pretty much nailed it. I’m curious what’s going to happen there. His reports have been more and more accurate lately. Will he be sued for his sources like ThinkSecret was, then settle out-of-court with Apple, like ThinkSecret did?
What was announced, specifically (the following list copy-pasted from MacRumors’ summary entry for the event):
- Jobs takes stage. “reports of my death are greatly exaggerated”. New for iTunes: HD TV shows. $1.99 for SD. $2.99 for HD.
- NBC returns to iTunes: Office, Monk, Heroes etc… both HD and SD. iTunes 8 today: HD TV shows, accessibility, genius playlist, grid view.
- Genius: create playlists from songs in your library that go great together. Also personal recs from iTunes Store. Optional and private.
- iTunes 8 avail today. Free download. Moving on to iPod. 120GB Classic to replace 80GB and 160GB. New Nano. Similar to leaked images.
- Nano: thinnest ipod ever. enhanced interface. accelerometer. genius playlist within nano. aluminum w/ curved glass. shake ipod to shuffle.
- battery: 24hr music, 4hr video. environmentally safer. 8 colors. $149/8GB. $199/16GB. new $29 headphones w/ volume, next button, microphone.
- iPodTouch: Thinner, Stainless steel, Volume controls + speaker. genius playlist. Nike+iPod receiver built in. Demoing app store again. Including Spore Origins, Real Soccer 2009, and Need for Speed. (Gameplay video of Real Soccer 2009 available on TouchArcade)
- iPodTouch: battery 36hrs/music, 6hrs/video. 8GB/$229. 16GB/$299. 32GB/$399. 2.1 upgrade. free to iPodtouch 2.0 owners. “funnest iPod ever”
- iPhone 2.1 Upgrade: This friday. significantly better battery, fewer call drops, bug fixes, faster backups to itunes, no app crashes. Free.
It’s a pretty short list, really. My reactions:
(1) Woohoo, they got NBC back. Time to go find 30 Rock and that those Joss Whedon-directed episodes of The Office.
(2) Genius sounds neat. Curious what it’s going to do with all the techno in my library. How cool would be if it could sort something out with that!
(3) They’re discontinuing the 160GB iPod. Jobs called it the “thick one” in his presentation; that’s a lot of spin. I’d call it the “most songs for the dollar” one.
(4) The new nano has a curved display surface. Really curious how they’re going to prevent glare issues.
(5) New in-ear headphones with mic. I *was* excited about this until I read the fine print on Apple’s website for it that says the mic will only work with the second-generation iPod touch, but not the original. I was hoping that it would enable me to use apps like Shazam, which provide music identification services on the iPhone (unavailable to me, largely, I’m thinking, because there’s no sound input on an iPod touch).
(6) New games for iPhone/iPod touch. That’s me! They looked like fun. Might have to try one out. Engadget noted during their coverage today that they thought Apple was putting hand-held gaming companies, i.e. Nintendo, on notice. We’ll see. I’m not convinced just yet.
(7) “funnest iPod ever” – something about the word “funnest” just sounds awkward.
(8) “no app crashes”. Ah ha ha ha ha. Ouch. I guarantee there will be crashes still. I don’t care how good their iPhone/iPod touch OS team is, they can’t stop a badly written app from going down.
(9) And last point about the new Touch — built in speakers is a big plus. I almost never take my headphones with my Touch. It’s such a versatile device I almost never use it to listen to music. Podcasts, yes, but in that case, the touch is either plugged into my dock, or my car’s FM transmitter. Built-in speakers makes it possible for your friends to hear that YouTube video you just remembered.
So yeah. Now all I need is a new computer, an iPhone 3G and a new camera. Oh yeah, and hm, maybe a budget 🙂
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