I can’t believe I missed this…
Thanks to Kris for reminding me to catch the liveblogs of Apple’s “Beat Goes On” event today. Some pretty impressive offerings, and some amazing results. I’ll trust TUAW’s summary for just the facts:
- iTunes update tonight with ringtones: an extra 99c after you buy the song, bells on applicable songs in iTunes, any 30 seconds of a song
- Shuffle is getting a (PRODUCT) Red, more colors, 1gb at $79 shipping today
- new iPod Nano is real– features wider design and bigger screen, 204 ppi, has video, CoverFlow, ships with 3 games, black, silver, red, blue, and green. 4gb silver only $149, 8gb all colors $199, ships later this week.
- iPod Classic, thinner Video iPod with Nano’s interface, 80gb $249 and 160gb $349
- iPod touch, basically an iPhone without the phone, features WiFi, Google and Yahoo, Safari, CoverFlow, YouTube. Available later this month, 8gb and 16gb, $299 and $399.
- iTunes WiFi Music Store, available on iPod touch and eventually iPhone, buy any iTunes songs at same pricing and selection, download them over WiFi and resync them back to iTunes on your Mac.
- Apple teaming up with Starbucks to profide WiFi for music store while instore, and one-click purchasing of overhead music
- And perhaps today’s biggest surprise: iPhone price drop. 8gb for $399, effective immediately.
I have to admit, I’m a little torn between the new iPod touch, or the 8gb iPhone. I have no love for AT&T, then again I don’t have much love for Verizon Wireless either. Having a phone-less-iPhone is what I’ve wanted for a while now, but I have to really think about how many places won’t have the precious wi-fi I need to access the features I’d like. Ah well, this just throws an interesting wrench into the works of what to buy myself for my birthday this year.
In an interesting contrast to last year when the office was pretty much huddled around a computer checking out the liveblog of the keynote, this year I had people coming to me ahead of time detracting the new potential offerings of Apple. I hadn’t even said anything about them yet, but I suspect it was a case of “protest too much”.
How much are they paying you, Brian? 😛
I couldn’t resist, especially after Chris posted a response to my back to school post on Apple.
Ooooh shindo, if they were paying me, I’d happily shill. I put this entry up to refer to when others ask me about Apple’s new offerings. If anything I guess I’m shilling for TUAW today. :nerd:
I was all moist and tingly when viewing the bit about the iPod Touch…until I noticed the biggest one only had 16gb of storage. Apple needs to understand that I want a fancy schmancy iPod that is just an mp3 player and doesn’t surf the web or check my email or calculate the square root of pi to the 9th power cubed. Give me an iPod Touch with 60gb and I’ll be a happy man. The sooner Apple learns to consult me before releasing a product the happier we all shall be.
Given that my 40gb gen 3 iPod simply will not die I am in no big hurry to upgrade. Maybe by the time I am the iPod of my dreams will be a reality.
Hm Neal, you may be onto something there. Perhaps I could start a service…
You call a number, and give a time and address, nothing more. At that designated time and place someone will just happen by and trip, jostle, stumble, swipe, etc. your iPod rendering it completely broken. Perfect for the gadgetlusting consumer that always has to justify his/her new purchase to the s.o. 🙂
Neal, I never thought of iPod lust that way, but it makes sense. I remember reading on Fredo’s blog about the iGasm, the toy that vibrates to your tunes (just hook up to your iPod and the extension into the appropriate cavity). The fun would then be creating the playlist you get off to.
Getting back to the new line: Unfortunately for me, I still have my 80 GB video model from last year and it’s perfectly good. Not to mention, I haven’t even loaded it up. Now there’s a 160 GB model (which I could use as a small scale back-up drive). Arg!
When the hard drive capacity of the Touch catches up with the Classic, it will be sublime!
In the meantime, I’ll need one of those dental tools to suck up all the drool.