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News - 09/12/2006
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Apple announces new iPods, new iTunes, new contents and much more!
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 Yesterday Apple announced at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco quite a lot of new products: new iPod nano, new big-brother iPod video, new iPod shuffle, new iTunes 7, movies available on ITMS and some quirks on upcoming iTv device.
"It's showtime" Apple said, and it was - really!
All said, Apple turned upside down almost anything about iPod in a single day: new model lineup, new services, new contents!
Let's try to analyze in short each of these news from Steve.
[BTW: you should watch Steve's keynote video]
 The new iPod nano
Forget just black & white nanos: it's time for color! Taking back time to (just) last year, the good ol' iPod Mini was available in four colors and I still see a lot of pink Minis around.
iPod nano now comes in 5 colors and the same case as the previous model.
The new iPod nano features an improved display (Apple says it's 40% brighter), up to 24 hours of battery life, 2- 4- or 8 GB (up to 2.000 songs) capacity.
Combining the stylish colors and perfect timing, this nano will eventually become a best-seller, expanding even more the nano universe.
Same accessories of the previous nano along with some new ones.
Price starting from US$ 149 for the 2 GB model, US$ 199 for the mainstream 4 GB and US$ 249 for 8 GB.
 The new iPod 5G
The big brother of the iPod family gets some new interesting features.
First of all a price reduction... and then a high-end 80 GB model.
Again, a brighter display for both models, a longer battery life (up to 20 hours) and support for new contents from iTunes Music Store such as movies and games!
Users will be able to play games on the devices, including "Bejeweled," "Tetris," "Texas Hold 'em," "Zuma," "Pac-Man" and "Cubis."
If you don't know what we're talking about check the online versions of these games online, especially PopCap Games's Bejeweled and Zuma on Yahoo!
The 30 Gig retails for US$ 249 (same price as the 8 GB nano!) and the new 80 GB is priced US$ 349.
 The new iPod shuffle
Not bigger than a matchbox: so long to the 'stick' design of the previous shuffle.
It's now a 1.62 x 1.07 x 0.41 inches small box with a clip, features the same click-wheel as the previous (and no display) and two switches (On/Off and Shuffle/Play Order).
Only Heaven knows which kind of accessories will come out for this tiny iPod.
The new iPod shuffle retails for US$ 79.
 iTunes 7
Complete support for new media and contents (more on this later), some interface redesigns along with a new, blueish icon, and a brand new way of browsing through your albums.
We often hear complaints from people missing their album collection and the pleasure of browsing through CD covers: no longer should they complain about it!
iTunes 7 allows Mac and PC users to visually browse like nothing else through their albums with stunning graphics.
This FrontRow-style interface comes from a previous iTunes 6 plug-in from the guys at Steelskies: CoverFlow, the name of this plug-in has been incorporated into iTunes 7; check SteelSkies for more details on CoverFlow.
New contents on iTMS: movies & games.
Movies from four studios owned by The Walt Disney Company will be available on iTunes 7, the new version of the download software, the same day they are released to DVD, Jobs said.
Preorders and movies purchased in the first week will cost $12.99; the price then bumps up to $14.99 for new releases.
Again, games for iPod 5G will be another war front since most other portable platform, such as PSP for example, already attempt at delivering movies and music.
Our guess is that a new interesting market will surge for iPod-based games and porting best-selling titles from other portable consoles.
What about iTV?
Apple also plans to introduce a product in the first quarter of 2007 that lets consumers stream their movies or music to televisions, Jobs said.
The new device, code-named iTV, has 802.11 wireless built in. It will sell for $299 and works with PCs and Macs.
"We think it completes the picture here," Jobs said.
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