RSSSteve Jobs returns to the stage with an overhauled iPod Nano
By Tim Conneally | Published September 9, 2009, 2:13 PM
Steve Jobs triumphantly returned to the spotlight to present this year's lineup of new iPods, iPhone OS 3.1, iTunes 9, and improvements to the iTunes store. In iPhone OS 3.1, a free incremental download that goes live today, the App Store has Genius recommendations, and a ringtone store with over 30,000 ringtones from all of the "big four" major labels priced at $1.29 each.
iTunes 9 also goes live today, receiving improved Genius functionality as well. Here, it applies to "Genius Mixes," a Pandora-esque playlist feature where songs of a similar nature are played sequentially. The database for Genius Mixes currently contains over 54 billion songs. iTunes syncing has also been improved, rather than only being able to sync content by playlist, all of the content going to your iPhone or iPod (apps, music, events, photos, etc.) can be arranged.
The iTunes store flow has been redesigned with quick-view popups of albums and dropdown menu navigation that changes the store's previous "back, forward, home" browsing experience. iTunes store is also now integrated with Facebook, and albums that users are interested can be shared as newsfeed items on the popular social networking site.
As rumored, the iTunes LP debuted today. This new album format was previously known as "Cocktail", and packages an iTunes music album with production and liner notes, video, photos, and lyrics.
What came as a surprise with the iTunes LP announcement today was that the same idea was applied to movies downloaded through iTunes. Called "iTunes Extras," movies purchased on iTunes have their own bonus features like a DVD or Blu-ray disc would have, except they're packed into iTunes.
Even further defying today's "It's only Rock and Roll..." theme, a considerable amount of time was spent discussing the iPod Touch/iPhone as a game system. Because the iPod Touch and iPhone have proven to be such successful gaming machines (Phil Schiller said the platform has 21,178 games versus the 607 on Sony PSP and 3,680 on Nintendo DS), it is just as much a game platform as anything else.
Of no surprise to anyone today were the price drops across the iPod line, which a number of sites predicted earlier this morning. In the iPod touch line, the 8 GB model dropped from $229 to $199, the 32 GB from $399 to $299, and now a 64 GB model for $399. The 120 GB iPod classic which was $249 is only sort of retired, as some had expected. What really happened was that the price point stayed the same, but the Classic has been bumped up to 160 GB of storage. The 4 GB iPod Shuffle hasn't changed its $79 price and the 2 GB costs $59, but a stainless steel $99 special edition was debuted and new color schemes.
The iPod nano was the golden child of the day though, earning Jobs' coveted "one more thing" status because it is "the most popular music player in the world," with sales of over 100 million units. As such, the latest version has been overhauled with a larger 2.2" screen, an onboard camera, microphone and speaker, pedometer, FM radio, voice recorder, voice navigation like the Shuffle, and the previously mentioned Genius Mix.
The 8 GB Nano will cost $149, and the 16GB model will cost $179 with a number of color options.
That's messed up, how much more or less do you need to take pics?
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|So, the Nano can record video but not take pictures?
whaa....
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|*** WARNING **** some commentors on this site are paid by Microsoft to reject posts that are Apple positive.
This is confirmed by the number of rejections this post will have along with any posts that paint Apple in a positive light. Also evidenced by the extremely low quality of the anti-apple\pro-microsoft comments.
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|"This is confirmed by the number of rejections this post will have "
You are such an idiot. Like there could be *no* other reason for modding your baseless, totally wild-eyed accusations down.
Here's a couple:
You have provided nothing of use to this topic. You make accusations you can't possibly hope to prove against anonymous "conspirators".
..and I suppose the biggest reason? You're an imbecile. Go troll slashdot.
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|We should just ignore these guys and not even respond to their posts. They get off when someone responds to their pathetic posts.
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|Meh...playing with them is fun. Everyone gets a good laugh at them. Lightens the day. :)
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|The ring tones cost more than buying the entire song. WTF! Why not let people choose a song from their music collection and a point in the song to start playing it when their phone rings?
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|I'm sure they will sell plenty of these because they provide people what they need and secondly this is all they know about. That is a failure of companies like Creative, Sony, etc. and of tech websites like CNET and Betanews.
Creative doesn't advertise their MP3 players like Apple does. The only ads you see are for Apple (saw 4 last night in an hour on the same channel) with an occasioanl Zune ad. Your tech websites fail us because they spend 99% of their time discussing the iPOD and Zune and you will occasionally here about someone else.
How is not newsworthy to talk about a new touchscreen MP3 player from Creative that supports FLAC, MP3, Windows Media formats, and Apple media formats. I can't think of another media player that has this wide range of support. Plus it has its own radio and a 3" screen.
How is a Nano better than a touch Creative Zen. Will we see anything from Betanews about the new Creative Zen Xi-Fi2. Haven't mention a Creative Zen since July of 2008 on here. Pricing: $130 (8 GB), $180 (16 GB), $230 (32 GB)
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|You're aware that all music on iTunes is now DRM-free, correct? (There are mo m4p's anymore.)
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|When you start buying Amazon .mp3s which are not DRM protected.
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|Do you know what, now that there's an iPod with FM radio, I can truly see me doing away with my iPhone when the contract's up in March. I dearly wanted a radio for the iPhone because I want to be able to listen to BBC Radio 4 - but I can't because it doesn't have one. The only reason I got an iPhone in the first place was because (i) I wanted a phone that could access the internet well with a good browser, so I could read the BBC News website while I was on the train, and (ii) I wanted to stop carrying a phone AND an iPod. The iPhone suited all my needs but I was dismayed that just as the iPods had no radio, neither did the iPhone. However..... Now I can have a teeny weeny iPod Nano and just a different phone with an equally good browser and everyone's a winner. You see for some old foggies, we do still listen to the radio and I'll just get a nano and a different phone. Simples.
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|*** WARNING **** some commentors on this site are paid by Microsoft to reject posts that are Apple positive.
This is confirmed by the number of rejections this post will have along with any posts that paint Apple in a positive light. Also evidenced by the extremely low quality of the anti-apple\pro-microsoft comments.
Score: -17
|No. This comment / post is rejected / downgraded due to: 1.) Having no bearing on the article above it. 2.) Showing no originality in regards to keeping things civil. 3.) Being bitter.
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|"*** WARNING **** some commentors on this site are paid by Microsoft to reject posts that are Apple positive.
This is confirmed by the number of rejections this post will have along with any posts that paint Apple in a positive light. Also evidenced by the extremely low quality of the anti-apple\pro-microsoft comments."
*laughing*
No, your post will be modded down because there is no reality to back it up and you're a complete moron. Shocking, isn't it?
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|Steve Jobs underscored the value of organ donors in his speech today.
But I find it a bit ironic...
He is all for "upgradeable parts" when is benefits him personally, but just try to upgrade the CPU in your MAC... :p
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|depends on the Mac... clearly the Mac Pro (you know... the one in the tower, as opposed to laptops or odd form factors) can be upgraded as easily as any PC.
Odd form factor/laptop PCs are just as hard to upgrade - just FYI.
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|There isn't a CPU in your Media Access Control. ;)
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|Well...You can pay .30 a song to have it moved to a higher bitrate and drm removed
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|I like iTunes 9. Especially the Home Sharing feature. I would like to try out the LP stuff, but they don't have any that I like. I also like the videos that explain some of iTunes features.
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|Yeah, I am digging iTunes 9, but then again i appreciate the great design and attention to detail Apple puts into its software and hardware which clearly puts it above all the imitators.
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|So iPods are anything but a music player....pedometer ? seriously Jobs should just take a walk...yeah with the pedometer....
And finally FM Radio....when people are moving away from FM Radio to HD Radio...Jobs woke up...
and no mention about iPods blowing up or catching fire...I bet they will in color of the iPOD...
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|And they've had a radio attachment for the iPods for YEARS. I've got one around here somewhere....
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|What baffles me is that they didn't add the Genius, voice UI, and recorder to the Classic. Guess I'll just sit back with my five-year-old player that has all of these plus the ability to record from the FM radio (if I ever want to). Too bad, too. I would have gotten the Classic if Apple had done more than dump a bigger HD into the thing.
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|Awesome updates, although i am baffled by the lack of camera in the touch. Oh well, i have an iPhone 3GS so no need for that anyhow. I will definitely be buying eight new Nanos for stocking stuffers this St Nicks Day.
75,000 apps for the iPhone. WOW.
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|And how many of those apps go pretty much unused within a day or two of being downloaded... The number of apps is a useless stat if most of them turn out to be junk...
There are a few goods apps in there, but as usage stats have shown, they are worthless.
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|75,000 apps is better than zero apps
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|"Zero apps"
I absolutely love how you have to ignore reality to make any point whatsoever. It's so amusing...
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|"Stupid is as stupid does"... lol... fatty seriously lives in (his/her/it)'s own reality...
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|Yes, I think a lot of people just downloaded as many apps as possible, free or otherwise when the app store opened. I've been cautious and only removed a few, e.g. Yahoo! Connect, which was surpassed by Yahoo! Messenger and Yahoo!, for whatever reason.
Unfortunately, like with Windows, there is a lot of junk out there, so you have to be picky. I bought a Japanese dictionary application to replace a $250 device and the software was only $21.99 and includes an English to Japanese dictionary as well.
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|I doubt that the Genius database has 54 Billion songs in it.
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|I can believe it. 53 billion of the songs are duplicates. :P
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|The screen is a nice change, as is the addition of a voice recorder. The rest of the new features make me wonder WTH?
The camera? Tim, any idea on it's specs?
Pedometer? *laughing* Yeah...ok....
FM radio?? Really? When even MSFT is going HD radio? Really? Apple is supposed to be *ahead* of the curve, not behind it....
Looks to me like they're stretching too far with too many devices and are losing focus. Stick with the Shuffle, Touch and the iPhone. Drop the rest.
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|Losing focus?...nah just milking the cow ;)
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|Lots of people use there iPod's when working out. I know my mom would like a Pedometer in her iPod.
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|"I know my mom would like a Pedometer in her iPod."
Your mom needs to be arrested.
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|The camera is supposedly the same 3.2 MP camera in the iPhone. It's not great or horrible, but it's an improvement over the older camera module.
I thought that they'd put the camera in the iPod touch also, but they're really trying to make some extra profit after upgrading the processor and graphics hardware to match the iPhone. I saw a thread somewhere early today and people were so angry "well, I'm not gonna upgrade to the new iPod touch" and I was thinking "why would you anyway?" Fanatics and their rituals drive me up the wall.
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|i have ipod classic thick 30gig from dec 2006...I used it once! I have an iphone 3g 8gig.. all I do is play with jailbroken apps, Just bought a macmini for my 42inch plamsa...I used it once to update to snowleopard...
I love apple products yes, but I still end up using my ps3 for everything! I havent turned on my vista box I built few years back in months... again, ps3 does it all.
Today I was hoping to at least hear a camera for the touch....nada! waiste of time, 3.1 for the iphone just means I have to wait for dev team to crack it!! :)
boring...zzzzz
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|ipod Nano, junk, so says every person thats owned one, turned into lemons, ie) not a Nano, but i've seen this problem 7 times in person with recent Nanos ;P http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKaqWf9pZFE
ringtones at 1.29 each? thats a big FAIL, why not 20 cents? or 15
Touch minus Camera, FAIL but Apple would rather you buy a Phone and some contract, no real surprise there
iTunes 9 with twice the bloat, FAIL, next security update? 100+mb?
lol
and i heard 'Apple reinvents the 12" vinyl' yeah, only minus the vinyl part and the collectors value...
today must of been a joke
this was just to funny to read about...
that said, i wish the ZuneHD had a Camera but i'll take quality hardware over iPod hardware, if last gen Zunes serve as an example, the next gen will be nice ;)
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|sure it will be reliable just the the Microsoft XBox 360....54+% failure rate. The first gen XBox burned down houses. Zune = crap
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|You can get updates in (mb) millibits?
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|The 54% is from a magazine poll and in most reports the failure rate is 25% which still is not great but 54% is exaggerating.
Really? How about those Ipods that caught on fire? Macbooks and exploding batteries?
Zune has better sound quality then then the Ipod in numerous tests - the GUI is better on the Zune as well but that's subjective.
This apple event was very disappointing, I really expected more...
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|The ipod has regularly beat all other mp3 players in sound quality tests. And, yes, the GUI on the iPod is the best out there. Zune....rofl.
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|And yet again fatty fails to provide ANY sources for his rants... So, I would love to see any source you can provide fatty... really? anything... a simple link to ANYTHING that can even support 10% of your post.
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|I still have no interest in iPods. I am interested in the Zune HD because of the HD Radio.
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|I'm looking forward to trying out the Creative Zen X-Fi 2, their version of a touchscreen MP3 player. I would consider getting the Zune if you don't have to use their software like you do with iTunes (unless this has all changed). I ilike how with the Creative Zen's you can choose to use their software, WMP, or just drag and drop your songs onto the player along with whatever other file you want to so that it is like having a portable hard drive!
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|I wondering about the software myself. I use Rhapsody for my mp3 player and cell phone but don't think it will work with the Zune. I may have to stick with my Rhapsody mp3 player for a while longer.
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|No camera in the iPod Touch though, I notice.
What a pointless 'event'.
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