In an event on Wednesday, September 9th 2009, Apple held an event to introduce new iPods, a new version of iTunes, and some new iPhone and iPod Touch software. The following is my wrapup and thoughts on the event.
iPod Nano
The first new iPod is the new iPod Nano. The big news is that this version now includes a camera that shoots video. The iPod Nano now also has a pedometer, microphone, speaker, voice recorder, more colors, and a larger screen at 2.2 inches. The Nano is available in pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, and silver. All of these colors are made out of polished aluminium. It is avaliable now at the price points of $149 for the eight gig model and $179 for the sixteen gig model. One of the only things that I would still like to see added to the Nano would be auto-join of open Wi-Fi to upload your videos directly to your YouTube account. If the Nano had that, it would be THE BEST pocket video camera out there. You can read more about the new iPod Nano here.
iPod Shuffle
The iPod Shuffle didn’t get that much of a product change this time around. All that changed was the addition of new colors. The Shuffle now comes in pink, green, blue, black, and silver. The new Shuffle also comes in two models. A two gig model for $59 and a four gig model for $79. Apple is also releasing a special edition shuffle that will only be available at the Apple Stores and online at Apple.com. The special edition is a polished stainless steel four gig Shuffle that is available for $99. In my opinion, the stainless steel shuffle looks beautiful. If I was in the market for a Shuffle, this is most certainly the one that I would buy. Apple is also starting to work with many third-party headphone makers to get the special Shuffle controls onto more headphones then just the provided Apple headphones. You can read more about the iPod Shuffle here.
iPod Classic
The storage on the iPod Classic got bumped up to one hundred and sixty gigs from the current one hundred and twenty for the same $249 price point.
iPod Touch
Going against all of the rumors that we have been hearing for a long time, the iPod Touch did NOT get a camera in this refresh. Apple did, however, possibly leave a spot for it on the circuits. Read more about that here. The only thing that really happened to the iPod touch at this event was a price reduction and a speed bump. First and foremost, the eight gig iPod Touch was dropped in price from $229 to $199. Next the sixteen gig model was slashed and replaced with a thirty-two gig model. Finally, there was the addition of a sixty-four gig model. The thirty-two gig and the sixty-four gig iPod Touches both run Open GLES 2.0 for better game play. You can read more about the iPod touch here.
iPhone and iPod Touch Firmware 3.1
A firmware update for the iPhone and iPod Touch was also announced at the event. The following are some of the new feature in 3.1:
- Organize Apps Within iTunes
- Genius App Recommendations
- Genius Mixes
- Improved Syncing
- Download Ringtones Wirelessly
This update also includes all of the features from 3.0 if you haven’t updated yet. This update will be free for all iPhone users and $5 for iPod Touch owners who have not yet upgraded to 3.0. I have this update installed on my iPhone and it works great. You can read more about the new features in 3.1 here.
iTunes 9
The next big release of iTunes, iTunes 9, was also released at this event. This version contains many new features such as:
- A Redesigned (slightly) UI (User Interface)
- A Whiter Color
- A Redesigned Store (Finally!)
- Genius Mixes
- Home Sharing
- Manage Apps
- Faster and Better Syncing
- Better Selection On What To Sync
- iTunes LP
I have this version of iTunes installed on my computer and it is FAST! The older versions of iTunes used to be large, bloated, and memory-hogging. I can certainly tell that Apple has taken the time to streamline this program to make it faster and less taxing on your computer. To read more about the new features in iTunes 9, click here.
What are your thoughts on the Apple Event? Did anything shock you? Leave a comment!