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Journalists Cover Microsoft, Using Macs

It’s not an easy time for Microsoft — with Steve Ballmer having to field questions about being “buffoons” and an “evil empire”  at the shareholder’s meeting (.doc) — so when they get together “the world’s most influential technology pundits and online writers” (nb: we weren’t invited) for Mobius to discuss super-secret mobile tech you’d think [...]

Guide To Black Friday Apple Bargains: Cheap MacBooks, iPods and Accessories Galore

Here’s a guide for finding the best bargains on Apple-related gear during the infamous Black Friday sales on November 27. We’ve compiled a comprehensive list of gear from leaked photos of sales flyers and descriptions of sales.
The bargains include a 2.26 GHz MacBook + $150 gift card at Best Buy for $999.99 ; a 32GB [...]

Review: Voices Is Today’s Best Thing Ever, Grab It Now While It’s Cheap

New on the App Store is Voices from the clever folk at Tap Tap Tap. You can guess what it does.

Open it up, pick a silly voice. Helium is pretty silly. A microphone appears and the app even clears your throat for you (try it, you’ll see what I mean). Now speak your brains, and [...]

Review: Sony Walkman S540 Series Video MP3 Player

Press releases, you will hardly be surprised to hear, are rarely very interesting. But one arrived in my inbox a couple of weeks ago that made me double-take.
“Sony’s S Series Walkman,” it chattered, “is a serious challenger to the iPod Nano.” Gosh, really? Perhaps the Cult had better have a look at one, then, despite [...]

Let’s Rock with Cult of Mac

Via our Twitter stream, we ran ongoing commentary on Apple’s Let’s Rock shenanigans. Below is a (somewhat) edited tweet-style stream-of-consciousness from the event.

iTunes store

  • 8.5m+ songs, 125k+ podcasts, 30k+ TV shows, 3000+ apps
  • New today: HD TV shows, and NBC has returned
  • SD shows: $1.99. HD: $2.99

iTunes 8

  • Grid view, as per the rumors. Can set by artist and scrub across them like a photo album in iPhoto
  • Genius “Automatically makes playlists from songs in your library that go great together—with just one click”.
  • Genius information sent anonymously. Click a button to get a playlist. Restrict by track number.
  • Available today

iPod sales and iPod classic

  • Zzzzingg! Jobs dissed everyone else’s player market share. iPod: 73.4%. Microsoft: 2.6%.
  • iPod Classic: 80 GB upped to 120 GB. 160 GB discontinued.

New iPod nano

  • Form factor as per rumors: skinny, tall, like the gen-2 nano, really thin.
  • Push-hold center button for Genius playlist creation.
  • Voice recording from attached mics.
  • New UI.
  • Photos/vids in landscape mode.
  • Accelerometer. Rotate 90 degrees to get Cover Flow, like with the iPhone.
  • Shake to shuffle.
  • Battery: 24 hours for music and four hours for video.
  • $199 for 16 GB, $149 for 8GB. Bright rainbow colors in addition to aluminium.

Accessories

  • New accessories: headphones and armbands, a mic for voice recording, and in-ear headphones.

iPod touch revamp, iPhone and App Store

  • Thinner, with integrated volume control and speaker.
  • Genius playlist creation.
  • Built-in Nike+iPod – just add a shoe transmitter.
  • App Store: 100 million downloads in 60 days. Available in 62 countries.
  • Spore Origins, Real Soccer 2009 and Need For Speed: Undercover demoed.
  • iPod touch battery life: 36 hours for music, six for video.
  • New prices: 8 GB: $229, 16 GB: $299, 32GB: $399.
  • New firmware, free to 2.0 owners.
  • “Funnest iPod ever” strapline for the new ad.
  • iPhone owners to get 2.1 bug-fix—better battery life, less crashing, fewer gremlins, speedier back-ups. Free on Friday.

About the author

Craig Grannell

Craig Grannell is Cult of Mac's designer and an occasional contributor. He also runs iPhoneTiny.com, a Twitter-driven reviews site for iPhone apps and games. Follow Craig on Twitter @CraigGrannell and visit his website, Snub Communications.

Email the author | Read more posts by Craig Grannell.

2 comments

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    [...] iPod touch segment of Let’s Rock was particularly notable for Apple’s attempts to position the device as a major gaming platform. [...]

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