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Apple News Roundup
Wednesday, 2010 September 1 - 4:03 pm
From today's event (streamed live on apple.com; the streaming held up pretty well, with only a few blackouts):
  • New iOS versions announced (4.1 now, 4.2 in November)
  • All-new iPod lineup (except the Classic)
  • iTunes 10 with “Ping” (social networking for music)
  • New $99 streaming-only, rentals-only AppleTV with cheaper TV content
Full details after the jump.

Apple Store Update
  • There are now 300 Apple Stores in 10 countries
  • On some days, Apple Stores get more than 1 million visitors
  • 80,000 One to One classes per week
  • 50% Mac purchasers are first-time Mac buyers
iOS Updates
  • News:
    • There have been 120 million iOS devices sold
    • There are 230,000 new iOS activations per day. (Hey Android: this does not include upgrades, mmkay?)
    • There have been 6.5 billion apps downloaded from the app store. 200 apps are being downloaded per second.
  • iOS 4.1
    • Bugs fixed: proximity sensor, bluetooth, iPhone 3G performance
    • HDR photography (very cool!)
    • Ability to upload HD video over wifi
    • TV Show Rentals
    • Game Center: play games with friends online. Steve: “If you don't have any friends, it will auto-match you.” New game from Epic Games, “Project Sword”, uses the Unreal engine; looks pretty stunning.
  • iOS 4.2
    • For iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch (finally updates iPad to iOS 4)
    • Wireless printing
    • AirPlay: stream audio, video, photos over WiFi (... to new AppleTV, below)
    • Coming in November
iPod
  • There have been 275 million iPods sold
  • All new iPods across the board - all available next week
  • Shuffle
    • New model brings back the buttons; keeps voiceover and playlists
    • It's very tiny, not much bigger than a quarter
    • 15 hour battery; 5 colors; $49 for 2GB.
  • Nano
    • New multi-touch interface; no more click wheel.
    • Use two-finger gesture to rotate the screen (no orientation sensor)
    • Made to look like it runs iOS (but does it?)
    • Half the size of the previous generation nano; includes a clip attachment (“no more armbands&rdquo); still has a dock interface, though.
    • VoiceOver, FM radio, Nike+
    • Shows photos (but no longer has a camera, so it no longer takes pictures or records video)
    • 24 hour battery; 6 colors; $149 for 8GB, $179 for 16GB.
  • Touch
    • The iPod Touch has become the most popular iPod (no surprise there)
    • It's also the number 1 portable game player in the world, outselling Nintendo and Sony combined (now that is surprising)
    • New model is thinner; has the iPhone 4 Retina Display; uses the Apple A4 Chip; includes a gyroscope; has a front-facing camera and FaceTime video conferencing; also has rear camera with HD video recording. (Interesting thought about FaceTime: you can make video calls to iPod Touch and iPhone 4 users without any wireless carriers; all you need is a WiFi connection. Is this a potential attack on wireless carriers?)
    • 40 hour battery (if listening to music); 8GB for $229, 32GB for $299, 64GB for $399.
  • The iPod Classic was not mentioned. It's still available at the Apple Store... for now.
iTunes
  • 11.7 billion songs downloaded, 450 million TV episodes, 100 million movies, 35 million books
  • There are 160 million iTunes accounts... with credit card numbers attached to them
  • iTunes 10
    • New application icon… no more CD. (Different than the existing iTunes icon on the iPhone too.)
    • New social networking for iTunes: “Ping&rdquo.
      • (Looks like a direct assault on MySpace, not Facebook... this is crying out for a Facebook integration app, thogh.)
      • Can generate custom Top 10 lists from people you follow.
      • “Privacy is super simple to set up” (o hai Facebook)
      • Works on iTunes 10, and also on iPhone, and iPod Touch. (Presumably on the iPad with iOS 4.2.)
    • Available today
One More Thing Hobby: AppleTV
  • What do people want?
    • Want Hollywood movies and TV shows, not “amateur hour” (ahem YouTube)
    • Want HD
    • Want lower prices
    • Don't want a computer on their TV
    • Don't want to manage storage
    • Don't want to sync to a computer
    • Want a device that's silent, cool, and small
  • New AppleTV box is one quarter the size of the previous model! And, it's black.
  • No external power supply. Ports: AC power, HDMI, optical audio, USB (debug only?), ethernet. Also has WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n.
  • Same Apple remote as before.
  • All HD (720p, according to specs), all rentals; no storage or syncing (all streaming). (You can still buy movies on your computer, but you stream them from there to the AppleTV.)
  • $4.99 first run HD movies
  • $0.99 HD TV show rentals (commercial free); ABC and Fox so far
  • Netflix streaming (“by far the best implementation of NetFlix&rdquo); YouTube; flickr; MobileMe; streaming from computer. (No Hulu or Boxee.)
  • RottenTomatoes reviews built in to movie descriptions
  • Stream from iPad or other iOS device to AppleTV, wirelessly, via AirTunes. Easy zero-configuration setup.
  • Apple A4 processor. (Probably running iOS, but no ability to run apps yet.)
  • $99. Available in 4 weeks.

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Posted by Ken in: techwatch

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