Today, 9/9/09, Apple held an event to release new iPods, as they do every year. This year there were some crazy rumors, some came true, others didn't. Though most of them did. And before I go any further, NO, NO APPLE TABLET!!!
To start off, if you're an Apple enthusiast, you would know Steve Jobs has been very sick. Well today, we were lucky to see him as the presenter of today's event. The audience even gave him a standing ovation. He deserves it, I'm glad to see him back. Anyways, the first announcement: iTunes 9.
iTunes 9 is the next version of iTunes, obviously, available right now. It gives us a slight interface change, things are a bit more shiny, I love it. One of the biggest rumors with iTunes 9 was that it was going to have Twitter and Facebook integration. That came true, now in the iTunes store we can tweet out or update our status with the iTunes links to anything in the store.
With the new interface, comes a redesigned iTunes store, a lot cleaner and easier to use. Its much quicker to get to certain parts of the store. The nav-bar has been redesigned to have links to each part of the store in it. Apple has also announce a new way they will sell albums. It's called iTunes LP. Basically, the albums sold as iTunes LPs will have extra content, like bonus tracks, lyrics, band photos, etc. You also can now organize your iPhone and iPod touch apps right within iTunes, no longer need to scroll page by page to arrange icons.
After iTunes, the next version of the iPhone OS was released, 3.1. It's also downloadable right now. Free for iPhone users. iPod touch users running 3.0 also get it for free, but anything lower than that must pay $4.95. New features include voice over support through bluetooth headsets, option to "save as new clip" when trimming videos on an iPhone, improved copy and paste, and more.
Now the iPod touches, huge price drop. 8GB for $199, 32GB for $299, and 64GB for $399. There is no more 16GB version. One HUGE rumor for the iPod touch was the inclusion of a camera. That didn't happen. That was actually the one thing most people thought would happen for sure. Though there were last minute rumors of problems with the cams, causing them to be postponed. The 32 and 64 gig versions also got a spec bump, up to 50% faster they say. Guess I'm back to being jealous of the iPods for having faster processors.....
Now the iPod classic. Most people thought it was going to be killed off today. Not the case, it just got a storage capacity increase, thats it. No camera, no price drop. It's at $249 for 160GB. And iPod shuffles next. After the new redesign, people weren't happy with only two colours and the fact that they must use Apple's headphones with it. This changed today, now the iPod shuffle has 5 colours, black, aluminium, pink, blue, and green. Also has 3rd party headphone support. Prices start at $59 and $79.
Well that's it...oh wait, there is one more thing....the iPod nanos. They got something I didn't think was going to happen, but a lot of people did, Cameras. The new design, which is the same as last years except its a bit more glossy, now has a video camera. So far, no news if it takes still images. It comes in the same colours but now has a 2.2 inch screen. It also has an FM radio tuner, a speaker, and Nike+iPod support. All the iPods are available starting TODAY!
And that is what happened today at the Apple event. Thanks for reading guys, but now I have to go download the updates and edit my Apple event video for YouTube. Thanks for reading, see you all later.
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