After the Buzz

Now that we have had some time to check out the new iPods, Play with iTunes 8, and wonder why there was a conference just to show off this, pretty cool, but not so impressive update. Lets review this stuff.

iTunes 8 is very cool! Its like a new program and sorts your music by album cover in the same fashion that iPhoto does. The Genius Sidebar is cool when you want to buy music, but the Genius playlist feature is amazing. Simply choose a song in your music library, click the Genius button and it pics similar songs from within your library and builds a playlist in a second. Whatever your in the mood for from your own music. Sites like Pandora, last.fm and Finetune have been doing this type of playlist generation for a while and its nice to be able to do it to the music you own. Its new visualizer is pretty cool too.

The new iPod Nano is nice and thin and they have added an accelerometer, so when you tilt it to the side you can scan through your album covers with coverflow. Even though they don’t boast about it, the new nano plays video just like the previous nano, but with its new wide screen its better for watching 19:9 (wide) formatted movies. Genius playlists have also been added to the Nano.

The iPod touch received a price drop and some features that move it closer to the iPhone. Its thinner, has a built-in speaker with volume controls, and with the new 2.1 software it has longer battery life, quicker backups, and more stability when running apps.

On Friday (Sep 12) the 2.1 software will be available for the iPhone as well. Like the Touch this will bring longer battery life, quicker backups, and more stability when running apps. It will also include Fewer call drops and no app crashes.

All in all, these are some great updates. I would have liked to hear something about Moble Me, and would have loved anything new in the laptop area. This event didn’t have that big item that would have had everyone talking, but you cant be wowed every day I suppose. We will just have to look forward to the next event.

Sep 9th Apple Event

Steve Jobs has confirmed the September Apple Event. It will take place Tuesday Sep. 9th. The only clue Jobs has given is the Tagline, “Lets Rock”. Hmmm… iPod updates maybe.

Photo above is an Artist Rendering

David Ewalt (editor forbes.com) in an interview had some down to earth predictions for this event. New ipods are a strong possibility and the most likely, is the Nano update. The rumor of a taller thinner Nano (like the old Nano) with a larger rectangular screen perfect for movies seems to be plausible.  A price-cut for touch is likely and even though Ewalt says there is no good hint of a laptop upgrade. Ewalt warns, “you never know what might come out. We could get The Tablet”. Chris Hardwick from Gadget Pron, speculates that, with a 41% increase in Apple laptop sales, we might see some style updates.

David Ewalt also crushed the rumors of Apple offering a subscription model for iTunes. Stating, in order to offer a monthly free for all music fee, Apple would need to make some major deals with its existing music company partners, and that just hasn’t been evident.

As in the past expect that the basic stuff will be available right away, while the really cool announcements will have you waiting a few months for release.

Never the less. HooRay!!! Apple Events are awesome!

A Sep. Apple Event?

Rumors of an apple event next month are fueling speculations of possible product upgrades and announcements. Apple Insider is expecting to see a new iPod Lineup with possible redesigns, more capacity and generally the same price tags, with the exception of the iPod Touch possibly meeting the iPhone at $199. This seems reasonable and fits Apples trends. iPods seem to change with the seasons so to see some new ones would be expected.

The big news comes with the recent rumors of Apple being heavily involved in researching touch technology and holds many patents which include both technology and gestures for touch pads and screens. The new MacBooks are only starting to see this. The MacBook Intel introduced two finger touch for right click and two fingered swipe for scrolling. The latest MackBooks feature the ability to zoom in and out with two fingers as you would on an iPhone. While it’s rumored that Apples next event may reveal some new laptops, I believe its likely to see only mild upgrades to the way we use them. I would hope for some updates in style for the MacBook which has looked the same for the past two years, and the MacBook Pro which has been solid grey for five years. Even though it looks pretty slick in grey. I gota say I would love to see a touch screen MacBook but I just think it’s a little unlikely this soon. I believe apple will continue to explore touch technology and we may see some touch screens within the next two to three years.