Update Apple iPod And adds social networking

Apple’s September 1 event saw the announcement of updates to the entire iPod line with the sole exception of the iPod Classic. The iPod touch gains the same high resolution Retina display and A4 chip found on the iPhone 4, along with FaceTime video calling, HD video recording, 3-axis gyro and iOS 4.1, all packed into a new slimmer, lighter form factor. There’s also a completely redesigned square-shaped iPod nano with a multi-touch interface and a redesigned iPod shuffle that sees the reintroduction of clickable “ring” buttons.

 iPod touch

Apple’s iPhone without the phone includes most of the features introduced on the iPhone 4, including Apple’s A4 chip, 960 x 640 pixel Retina display, front-facing camera and mic for making FaceTime calls over Wi-Fi to fellow iPod touch or iPhone 4 users, HD video recording, 3-axis gyro and iOS 4.1. The only major difference hardware-wise – aside from the phone functionality – is a lower resolution still camera – 960 x 720 pixels to the iPhone 4’s 5-megapixels.

 Recognizing the touch’s popularity as a games console Apple has introduced Game Center, which lets users challenge and play friends or be matched automatically with new opponents. Gamers can also showcase their scores and achievements and check out which games their friends are playing.

The new touch is smaller and lighter than previous models and the iPhone 4, measuring 4.4 x 2.4 x 0.28 inches (111 x 58.9 x 7.2mm) H x W x D, and weighing 3.56 ounces (101g). A single charge will provide up to 40 hours of music playback or seven hours of video playback. It will be available from next week in 8, 16 and 32GB capacities priced at US$229, $299 and $399, respectively.

 

iPod nano

The new iPod nano sees a new square design that is nearly half the size and weight of the previous generation. Featuring a polished aluminum and glass enclosure with built-in clip the nano is now only slightly larger than the iPod shuffle with the front surface dominated by a new multi-touch display replacing the previous models’ click wheel.

Users can access their songs, artists, albums and playlists with a tap or swipe of their finger on the display, while holding down a finger returns the user to the Home screen. If the nano is clipped onto clothing upside down users can use two fingers to rotate the screen and set it right again. The Home screen can also be customized by dragging icons from other screens onto it.

In addition to Genius mixes there’s also a built-in FM radio with live pause and a built-in pedometer that supports Nike + iPod for tracking runs and workouts.

The iPod nano comes in 8 and 16GB capacities available .Apple iPod nano 16 GB Black (5th Generation) NEWEST MODEL &159.99 And Apple iPod nano 8 GB Black (5th Generation) NEWEST MODEL $129.54

iPod shuffle

The third iPod model to get a makeover is the shuffle, which sees the reintroduction of clickable “ring” buttons complementing Apple’s VoiceOver technology for navigating music and playlists without looking at the device. The new VoiceOver button on top of iPod shuffle allows users to hear the name of the currently playing song and to switch between songs, playlists or Genius Mixes, which the shuffle now supports. It speaks over 25 languages and also alerts users when the battery needs charging.

The shuffle’s all-aluminum enclosure with built-in clip comes in silver, blue, green, orange and pink and the device boasts nearly 50 percent more battery life than its predecessor, providing over 15 hours of music playback on a single charge. It measures 1.14 x 1.24 x 0.34 inches (29 x 31.6 x 8.7) H x W x D and weighs 0.44 ounces (12.5g).

The Apple iPod shuffle 2 GB Pink (3rd Generation) NEWEST MODEL

iTunes 10 with Ping

In addition to the hardware updates, Apple also introduced iTunes 10 with Ping, a new music-oriented social network feature that lets users create a profile to post their opinions, favorite albums and songs and music they’ve download. It also lets fans follow their favorite artists, checking out photos and videos they’ve posted, their tour dates and read comments about other artists and albums they’re listening to.

“iTunes is the number one music community in the world, with over 160 million iTunes users in 23 countries, and now we’re adding social networking with Ping,” said Steve Jobs. “With Ping you can follow your favorite artists and friends and join a worldwide conversation with music’s most passionate fans.”

A Recent Activity feed shows posts from friends what they’re listening to and concerts they’ve attended, while a consolidated Top 10 displays a list of the songs and albums your friends and the artists you follow are downloading from iTunes. In addition to using Ping on a computer, it can also be accessed on an iPhone or iPod touch.

Apple’s Airplay wireless music playback feature that lets users listen to music on remote speakers now works with Apple Airport Express.

iTunes 10 is available now as a free download from Apple.

Apple's shrunk down Apple TV

The “one more thing” at Apple’s September 1 event was an updated Apple TV. Apple has certainly cranked up the ol’ shrink ray for a form factor that is 80 percent smaller than the previous generation. The rumored addition of apps didn’t eventuate nor did the rebranding to “iTV” but, as predicted, the update sees the device sporting an A4 chip and it will only be able to handle a maximum resolution of 720p. Because the new Apple TV does away with local storage altogether in favor of cloud-based storage and streaming of content, Apple says the choice of 720p was more a balance between quality and bandwidth than any rumored difficulties the A4 chip may have with Full HD content.

 The device also gets a paint job and now comes in black. It has built-in HDMI, Wi-Fi, Ethernet and optical audio out and, while a lot of devices slim down thanks to an external power supply, the new Apple TV achieves its size reduction with its power supply crammed inside its miniaturized frame. Apple says it’s also extremely energy efficient and doesn’t require a fan to keep cool so is never noisy.

 There’s also a Micro-USB port on the back, but don’t go thinking you’ll be able to plug in an external HDD to access content because it’s apparently only for service and support. In short, if you want to watch anything using the device you’ll need to stream it – be it TV shows and movies from the iTunes Store, content from Netflix, YouTube, Flickr and MobileMe, or media stored on your Mac or PC. In bad news for existing Apple TV owners, their devices won’t be getting an upgrade to the new cloud-based software.

The move away from local storage shouldn’t be a huge surprise. Apple has been pushing the cloud for some years now with its MobileMe service and a media streamer fits in nicely with that philosophy. Unfortunately for Apple, it isn’t the only company that sees media streamers as the future of home entertainment. Aside from facing stiff competition from dedicated streamers with more impressive specs, like the Roku XR and Pop Box, nowadays streaming capability is included in everything from gaming consoles to Blu-Ray players.
But Apple’s strength has always been the ease of use of its products and their integration with iTunes so maybe this latest update will be enough to attract consumers to a device that hasn’t been able to scale the heights of Apple’s other device in recent times. We’ll see.

Apple TV comes with the aluminum Apple Remote but can also be controlled with an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch using the free Remote app.

The device measures 0.9 x 3.9 x 3.9 inches –H x W x D – (23 x 98 x 98mm) and weighs 0.6 lbs (272g). Apple TV’s dimensions aren’t the only thing to be hit by the shrink ray. The device is now priced at a much more reasonable US$99. It will ship in four weeks.

Apple OS 4.1 introducesi 3G performance

On stage at the Apple event, Steve Jobs has just announced iOS 4.1 that will fix some nagging issues for iOS device owners on its release next week:

• Bluetooth
• 3G performance
• Proximity sensor

 Beyond the fixes, however, there are some great new features including TV show rentals, the Game Center and HDR photos.

HDR Photos: 3 photos in 1 for better clarity and results.

Game Center: App on phone, plus matching capability. A new game, from Epic, will be coming later in the year. It is presently named Project Sword and features amazing 3D graphics, as well as full integration of the Game Center. The game, overall, should appeal to both casual and hardcore gamers.

While 4.1 is specific to iPhone and iPod touch devices, see our roundup of iOS 4.2 for the iPad.

Apple’s live streaming Windows and Linux users

So it’s been a while since Apple did the whole live streaming thing, I for one have missed it. Some  folk think blogs like ours are devastated by the news that Apple will be keeping page views for themselves, but in all honestly, we’re not ones to live blog anyway. We’ll bring the major announcements, our take on things and a round up at the end – our usual course of action.

That said, we do welcome Windows and Linux users to keep track of our  twitter account where we’ll be sending out regular updates throughout the event. See, according to Apple you need to be on “either a Mac running Safari on Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard, an iPhone or iPod touch running iOS 3.0 or higher, or an iPad.” No mention of any Windows or Linux run device whatsoever. Surely Apple hasn’t stooped this low…

Don’t just take our word for it, see for yourself. Genuine mistake or Apple blatantly looking to exclude anyone that can’t afford a mac?

Update:

We’ve been reliably informed that Apple will be using their own streaming protocol which isn’t supported by any other OS. It’s never Apple’s fault is it.

Apple Store Now Features 260,000

If figures collated by 148Apps.biz are to be believed, Apple’s App Store passed 260,000 apps on Friday, acheiving the milestone in just two years and 49 days since the marketplace was introduced. 

At the time of writing, the App Store stands at 252,227 applications published by a total of 50,545 publishers, if inactive or deleted apps were to be counted, the App Store would be just over 360,000 apps strong.

 The App Store has continued to thrive as the iPhone 4, iPad and iPod continue to sell in their millions, adding over 50,000 apps in three months when it took just over two years to reach the 200,000 mark.

It is estimated that the total value of all apps on the store would cost over $670,000, with the average price now $2.67.

It seems there is just no stopping Apple and these statistics will do nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of developers who want to develop the next Angry Birds, how long will it be until we see the App Store passing 300,000 apps?