RSSApple Refreshes Entire iPod Lineup
By Nate Mook | Published September 12, 2006, 1:24 PM
At a special event in San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Performing Arts, Apple on Tuesday introduced two new iPods, which sport a 60% brighter screen, as well as a refreshed iPod nano and iPod shuffle.
Available in 30GB and 80GB models, the new iPod features increase battery life that ups video playback from 2 hours to 3.5 hours. The 80GB iPod can play video for 6.5 hours, Apple says. Other new features include gapless playback and instant searching by letter.
Apple has additionally added game support to the iPod. Users can purchase games from the iTunes Store for $4.99 USD each, and play them using the device's scroll wheel. The company has partnered with EA and others to make available titles such as Mahjong, Pac Man, Tetris, and Texas Hold 'Em.
New headphones, which Apple has been developing for 18 months, will come standard with the new iPod. The 30GB iPod is priced at $249 USD, with the 80GB version running $349 USD.
The diminutive iPod nano, meanwhile, has received a makeover that includes an aluminum body like the older iPod mini, as well as a range of colors including green, silver, blue, black and pink. Battery life on the nano has been increased to 24 hours, and the device will receive the same new software features as the larger iPod.
The new iPod nano is available now in three models: 2GB silver for $149, 4GB in any color except black for $199, and a 8GB black model for $249 USD.
Apple's screen-less iPod shuffle also was refreshed Tuesday. The second generation version is now the size of the iPod radio remote and includes a full metal body with white click wheel. The player comes with a USB 2.0 dock and features a 12 hour battery life.
The iPod shuffle will be available only in a 1GB model, which Apple says is the world's smallest MP3 player, for $79 USD. It includes headphones and will begin shipping in October.
still NO wifi/bluetooth support!!!!
Score: 0
|Wouldn't adding that totally kill the battery life?
Score: 0
|People want it
and such an option can be turned off/on to save battery life
Score: 0
|Snore...
Score: 0
|The thing you have to love about apple and the ipod is the fact they do a product refresh and upgrades on a regular basis, at least once a year. Which is Unlike some companies just sit on it until either the market dies or they die.
This not only gives people reason to upgrade but it makes the competition have to rethink their own product, its called competition for a reason and there is plent of it in this arena. Apple really is dominating not because its a cool product or everyone else has it, but because it is good and people trust the apple name. This is something that microsoft is not good at but apple is a mastermind at. I would hate to compete with apple, especially in the music player department. many have failed and some companies like creative will be utterly destroyed by it.
Score: 0
|You go APPLE, don't let MS push you around.
Score: 0
|The new iPod video doesn't really look that much different, or have much more features, atleast not enough to upgrade from the previous version. Why can't the user manually change the brightness through the menu? And an 8GB Nano is the same price as a 30GB Video? WTF?!!
Score: 0
|"And an 8GB Nano is the same price as a 30GB Video? WTF?!!"
Flash memory (iPod nano) is more expensive per gigabyte than a hard disk ("regular" iPod), so you're paying for that, plus the convenience of having a physically smaller device.
Score: 0
|Also, flash-based devices are less prone to data loss due to mishandling.
Score: 0
|aye, but thats not what the average user see's. they don't look that deep.
Score: 0
|Well, the first thing I thought was wow, the new design of ipod shuffle is great! On a second thought, the reason I bought ipod shuffle is so that I don't have to carry a usb memory stick around. However, the 24hr battery life of the nano sounds really nice though, especially if you're traveling around the world. 12+hr flights are much nicer if you can listen to music all the time.
Score: 0
|I just purchased the 30GB iPod yesterday. Can someone let me know if I can return it today or at least get the difference refunded now that the price has dropped to $249?
Thanks,
Mdaland@gmail.com
Score: 0
|You're better off contacting the retailer that sold you the player. Also, I hope Gmail has great spam filters because you will soon be getting many.
Score: 0
|:)))
great spam filter, try it yourself
ehn@gmail.com
=D
P.S. what about the internals? is shuffle still the best sounding ipod? are there any audio quality enhancements?
P.P.S. I want to connect ipod to cd-player in my car, but I would like to skip the internal ipod amplifier and use just "line-out"... is there some tips how to do it? (i will put it on my own amplifier)
Score: 0
|I just purchased a 30GB iPod yesterday... What are the chances of me getting my money refunded for the difference now that the price has dropped down to $249? Are these new iPods already in stores? Please let me know what I should do. Thanks, Marie
Score: 0
|iPods are the only Apple products I own - I'm not a part of the Apple cult. Generally iPods are very good. Battery life is never as claimed, however. They keep getting incrementally better and the prices are now slowly dropping.
I think these annoucements are good.
Score: 0
|Gapless playback on the newer iPods is a welcome enhancement; I'm certainly awaiting some reviews to see how well it works.
The album art features added to iTunes 7 is great too. Of course, auto album art download has been in WMP for about five years now, and the album view was inspired by WMP11 no doubt.
Here's how the album view looks:
Cover Browser (Wrong cover downloaded for Illinois)
http://img201.imageshack...mg201/6522/itms7tq9.jpg
Grouped with Artwork
http://img201.imageshack...1/3983/albumviewhi4.jpg
It's too bad the album art downloaded isn't 600x600; it's still pretty good at around 300x300 to 400x400. In WMP, if the wrong album art is downloaded, you can search for the correct album and fix it manually. I cannot find a way to tell what album art iTMS should use without embedding the correct image in the mp3 file itself.
More updates: It's seems like you have to turn on the "Automatically download missing album art" option in order to get the 600x600. I had been selecting the album and updating it manually. iTunes save all of it's downloaded album art in a seperate folder "Album Artwork" in your music library. The files have an ITC extension, and it appears Apple is using a nonstandard format to prevent people from using the album art in other applications.
Even some more updates:
You can edit the ITC files in a hex editor to remove the nonstandard file header. Once you save it, the files are back to regular jpegs again!
Here's a hint:
http://www.obrador.com/e...tialjpeg/headerinfo.htm
Score: 0
|very disappointing announcements. like many things Apple, this event has been overly hyped up for nothing.
Score: 0
|Don't forget the new iMacs with Core 2 Duo that they spoke about a week early, iTunes 7 that now features "Movie Store", and a wireless set-top box for the TV.
The show isn't over yet.
EDIT: Show just ended. Now people can complain. Would have been nice to see Core 2 based Macbook and Macbook Pro's.
Score: 0
|Just what were you expecting that made this a disappointment?
Score: 0
|