Digital Journal — Apple’s blockbuster event today revealed all the goodies coming to a tech store near you: the new iPod touch, the updated iPod Nano, the intuitive iTunes Wi-Fi Store and steep iPhone price cuts.
It was the Apple announcement the entire world anticipated. Today, Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage at the Moscone Center in San Francisco to launch several products and partnerships that will undoubtedly have the blogosphere buzzing for weeks.
First, the big news is the iPod touch, an 8GB and 16GB iPod featuring the touchscreen found on the relatively new iPhone. This latest iPod will include Apple’s browser Safari, a YouTube application, and the new iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store (more on that later).
Jobs said about the iPod touch in a press release:The iPod touch is a landmark iPod, ushering in a whole new generation of features based on its revolutionary multi-touch interface and built-in Wi-Fi wireless networking.
This powerful product is 8mm thin, sporting a 3.5-inch screen similar to the one found on the iPhone. It uses 802.11b/g wireless connectivity, slower than Wi-Fi found on most notebook PCs. But it’s the touchscreen that will excited most Apple nerds — when selecting music, you can browse albums by flicking a finger over the screen to find the right album cover. You find use your finger as a mouse when browsing websites on Safari. Also, when it comes to battery life, the iPod touch features up to 22 hours of audio playback and up to five hours of video playback.
The 8GB model is priced at $300 (all prices US) and the 16GB will cost $400. iPod touch is expected to hit store shelves in the U.S. later this month, but no word yet about availability in other countries.
The second iPod-related announcement focuses on updating the nano models. The new nanos now feature a two-inch video display using the same resolution as the larger iPod video. This nano model is shorter in size than the previous model, and keeps the familiar click wheel (sorry, no touchscreen here, for good reason).
Gaming fans will be somewhat satisfied with the new iPod nano offerings: trivia game iQuiz, brick-bashing game Vortex, solitaire, and Sudoku and Tetris available from iTunes later this month.
The 4GB iPod nano is now priced at $150 and the 8GB model is priced at $200. Jobs said about the new nano models in another press release:
The iPod nano just keeps getting better and better with each new generation.
Also, Jobs added another iPod to the lineup: called iPod classic, this normal-looking music player arrives with 80GB and 160GB storage, priced at $250 and $350 respectively. As Jobs said today, that means you can store up to 40,000 songs, the highest capacity for an iPod yet. Available this weekend, this iPod also has better battery life than its predecessor (at 40 hours of audio) and looks to be thinner than the fifth-generation iPod.
If that weren’t enough, Apple did a nice makeover of its iTunes Store, releasing a new version using Wi-Fi. Available later this month, the new Store will let users purchase songs for their iPod touch or iPhone without a PC. Additionally, the press release outlines other benefits:
The iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store will also allow users to create custom ringtones using the vast iTunes library. It will cost 99 cents to make a 30-second cut of a track to sync to an iPhone (alas, no other phones can use this service). Users can even customize fade-in and fade-out points, and can assign individual ringtones to select callers in their address book.
Once [users] connect their iPod touch or iPhone back to their PC or Mac, downloaded music will automatically sync back into their iTunes library. If users have only partially downloaded a song or album onto their iPod touch or iPhone, their computer will complete the download automatically.
Apple has always been a fan of retail partnerships, and now it’s officially on board with Starbucks. Customers in select Starbucks outlets can access the aforementioned iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store instantly using the iPod touch, iPhone or any Mac running iTunes. Starbucks’ wireless network will allow this Net access completely free, no hotspot required. An interesting feature is the ability to preview millions of iTunes songs at the outlet, including the track being piped from the Starbucks speakers at that very second. As Jobs said:
Imagine walking into a participating Starbucks, hearing a great song, and being able to instantly download it onto your iPod or iPhone. We think this is very cool.
This service begins in Seattle and New York on Oct. 2, with other U.S. cities expected to join the partnership in 2008. No Canadian cities were mentioned at press time.
Finally, it must be Christmas early for iPhone fans who have yet to purchase the gadget because Jobs also announced a steep price cut for the futuristic phone. The 8GB iPhone is now priced at $399, down from $599. That means the iPhone only costs $100 more than iPod touch equivalent. No word yet on what will happen to the 4GB model.
Jobs is getting all Santa Claus in time for the busy buying season in December. He said in a statement:
We’ve clearly got a breakthrough product and we want to make it affordable for even more customers as we enter this holiday season.
If there were any tech news that will thunder across the press and blog world, it’s today’s massive Apple announcement. New iPods, updated iTunes, iPhone price cuts…What more could Appleheads ask for? This is good news for Apple, showing how they can mature the iPod brand by ushering in features customers crave. For instance, a touchscreen is a wonderful addition to a gadget already sought after by music fans worldwide.
As much as Apple’s new lineup is being touted as good news, some questions still remain: When will other cities receive the new iPods and Starbucks Wi-Fi service? When will iPods come bundled with Mac OS X, like the iPhone? What’s happening to the 4GB iPhone (it seems Apple wants to phase it out)?
No matter the questions still left unanswered, gadget junkies still have lots to celebrate. Apple has done it again and stirred our excitement about the world’s most popular music player.
