Here’s iTunes 10, and the first thing you’ll notice is a sleeker, cleaner look. There are fewer lines, there’s a little more space. The application is still bloated with far too much stuff, but at least it looks a little less crowded now.
As revealed yesterday, The latest version of Apple’s iTunes media-managing software, iTunes 10, is now available to download through Software Update or via direct download here.
iTunes 10 has long been rumored to be the first version of iTunes that capitalized upon Apple’s acquisition of Lala and brought cloud-streaming to the masses, but Steve Jobs belied that expectation yesterday by saying that Apple remains “skeptical” of the cloud for the time being.
Instead, the major new feature in iTunes 10 is Ping, a baked-in social network based around music discovery. You can follow friends and artists like on Twitter and be alerted to new music that they rate and review, while also giving the heads up to friends about hot new tracks you might enjoy.
The findings of a recent survey by Coupons.com has all the trappings of some sort of offensive, stereotypical joke… but without the punchline.
Analyzing the findings of how both users on both the Android and iOS operating systems use their website, Coupons.com came to some interesting findings as to what separates the two.
iPhone users? According to Coupons.com, they can best be described as “feminine-smelling, chicken-eating, entertainment-reading fish owners.”
Android users, though, are “manly-scented, pork-eating, news-reading bird lovers.”
These results certainly don’t seem to apply to me. On one hand, I fall into the Android category as far as my pheremonal stink and budgerigar ownership are concerned, but I certainly prefer chicken to pork, and I use iOS exclusively… which according to Coupons’ research, makes me some sort of weird, fish-stroking girl. And what about pork-abstaining Android users, Hassidic and halal alike? There is more research to be done here methinks, Coupons.com.
[via Gizmodo]
The FCC has just beaten our the guys over at iFixit to the device vivisecting punch by tearing down and publicly airing the guts of Apple’s brand new iPod Touch… and it looks nearly as gorgeous on the inside.
While managing to slim down the iPod Touch’s already thin form factor, Apple managed to cram an A4 CPU, a Retina Display and even two cameras into the already svelte chassis. Okay, granted, one of those cameras is a ridiculously paltry affair capable of capturing still shots of less than 1MP… but it’s better than nothing, especially given that getting two cameras into the iPod Touch is pretty much an engineering miracle to begin with.
To check out more shots, head on over to the FCC site and marvel, yet again, at how Apple’s fantastic design starts from the inside-out, and not vice versa.
httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqYi_WRq6M4
Ever since Epic Games first demonstrated the Unreal Engine 3 running on the iPhone 3Gs last year, we’ve been wondering just what the creators of Gears of War and the Unreal Tournament series had in store for us when they finally turned their attentions to the App Store.
Yesterday, at Apple’s annual September iPod Event, Epic gave us our first taste of what’s to come: Epic Citadel, a free and utterly gorgeous next-gen app that works as an interactive technology demo of Unreal Engine 3 running on iOS.
The 82.2MB tech demo doesn’t include any real gameplay, per se, but as a demonstration of what iOS is capable of — particularly on the A4 CPU — it utterly breathtaking, offering a fully-realized medieval town to explore. I imagine Epic won’t be able to crank so much detail out of their engine once the bullets and bodies start flying — and they will — but even so, this is astonishing. We are looking at Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 caliber graphics here… on a device that fits in the pocket.
We didn’t think anything could look better than id software’s recent demo of the Rage engine running on the iPhone 4, but Epic’s one-upped Carmack.
Today’s Apple music event met with a decidedly chilly reception. The new iPod shuffle was an acknowledgment that its previous generation was a flop. The new AppleTV doesn’t support app development and has few advantages beyond a Roku box. New iOS updates are coming slower than anyone would hope.
And all of that discontent isn’t even factoring in that Apple has removed video from the iPod nano line.
What’s that? You didn’t notice? Join the club. Steve went out of his way to extoll the great features of the new nano (like a screen you can’t see when it’s clipped to your body) while carefully avoiding any discussion of the fact that its screen is too small to play video on.
But it’s true. Like the original iPod nano, the new model is for photos and music only. Check out the tech specs page. Lots of discussion of audio playback. No mention whatsoever of video. I hope I’m wrong. But I’m pretty sure I’m not.
Still — looks great as a wristwatch, yeah?
Apple has released the Gold Master version of iOS 4.1 to developers barely more than four weeks after the release of iOS 4.1 Beta 3. There have been a plethora of problems reported with iOS 4.0 and its incremental updates, but according to Steve Jobs today the following issues will be addressed in this new iOS release:
There is no word on whether or not the update addresses the complaints about yellow tinged photos when using the rear camera on the iPhone 4.
Registered iOS developers can grab a copy of the new beta at developer.apple.com/iphone. The rest of you will have to wait until next week.
Ok, maybe the little black box won’t arrive in every single home, but unlike the 1st-gen AppleTV, the 2nd-gen announced today is going to sell like buttery hotcakes slathered in maple syrup.
Steve Jobs launched an insta-meme today by suggesting in his keynote that Apple’s new multi-touch iPod nano could be worn as a wristwatch.
The meme becomes a fad next week when the nano arrives in stores and people start actually wearing them on wrists. It’s going to happen, especially when third-party companies begin offering special-purpose wristwatch straps for it. I know it’s going to happen because I’m going to do it.
Talk is cheap, but a Huffington Post poll at post time was running over 67% in favor of wearing the iPod nano as a wristwatch.
But serving as Apple’s first-ever foray into the wristwatch racket isn’t what’s ground-breaking about the device.
Wow — that was quite a show from Steve Jobs. A brand new line up of iPods (except the Classic); a hot new AppleTV that costs just $99; and a potential Myspace killer in Ping, iTune’s social network for music.
But which announcement was the big one long term?
Will a FaceTime-enabled iPod allow Apple to route around AT&T and other wireless carriers? Or will the new, inexpensive AppleTV be the product that finally takes settop boxes mainstream, and Apple’s next big hit? Or is the new multitouch nano a glimpse at the future of multitouch personal electronics (think nifty iWatches)?
[polldaddy poll=3704292]
Too busy to read our liveblog coverage of Apple’s September iPod Event? Everything you need to know about Apple’s new products is below the fold, including details about the new iPod Shuffle, Nano, iPod Touch, AppleTV, iTunes and iOS update.
Steve Jobs confirmed in his press conference today that iOS 4.1 contains several bug fixes, including a fix addressing the poor performance of iOS4 on the iPhone 3G. Alas we have to wait another week for the update to be released. It will be hitting my iPhone as soon as iTunes says it is available.
I think it was notable that Jobs addressed this point very early in his presentation; the bugs mentioned are all major issues and need to be resolved. The new Gaming Center and real-time graphics rendering of the A4 chip are impressive, but we 3G laggards are just looking to be able to send email and make calls again!
No comments about whether iOS 4.2 will support the 3G and older iPod touch models, the presentation merely included an asterisk that noted *not all models. I think a cutoff at iOS 4.1 is appropriate for these devices if the performance problems are finally fixed.
Apple’s sexily diminutive new iPod Nano, replete with 1.13-inch touchscreen, certainly looks like iOS. It might even — held close enough to the nostrils — smell like iOS. But it’s nothing of the sort.
Backstage at today’s iPod Event, an Apple spokesman confirmed that the new iPod Nano is not running iOS.
That makes sense, given Jobs’ own failure to identify the Nano as a new iOS-driven device, or his failure to brag about a wide range of apps to run on the device. It also makes sense from the engineering perspective of trying to shove a chip powerful enough to run a current version of iOS into a Shuffle-sized footprint.
Rather, what we see in the new Nano is a skin layered most probably over the traditional iPod Nano operating system, with some of iOS multitouch software scraped out and grafted onto it.
The move makes sense for Apple. The new Nano is too small to really avail itself of multitouch, but iOS is Apple’s sexiest operating system, as well as one synonymous with touch. Apple couldn’t well make a touchscreen iPod at this point without making it at least look like iOS.
We wonder, though, if confusion will ultimately set in. If it looks like iOS, but doesn’t run apps, isn’t that going to confuse customers? We imagine that in the brainpan of one Apple Store Genius is throbbing with premonitory headache right now.
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It’s smaller, cheaper and packed with HD offerings — let us know in the comments whether you’re ready to spend $99 for the new AppleTV.
In what has proven a remarkably succinct presentation, Steve Jobs has just unveiled his “one more thing…” and it’s the new AppleTV. Except, as Jobs quips, it’s “one more hobby.”
Also surprising: despite rumors, it’s still not called the iTV, and doesn’t run iOS. It’s still just the AppleTV, except now it’s black. The only rumors that were true? It runs Netflix and it costs only $99.
“We introduced Apple TV four years ago. We’ve sold a lot of them, but it’s never been a huge hit. Nor has any competitive product,” says Jobs. “
We’ve talked to people who have Apple TVs, and they love them, a lot! What have we learned? The number one, two, and three things they want: Hollywood movies and TV shows whenever they want them. They don’t want amateur hour, they want professional content. And they want HD.”
“The HD revolution is over, HD won. They want lower prices for content. They don’t want a computer. This is hard for people in the computer industry to understand, but it’s very easy for consumers to understand. They don’t want to manage storage.”
The new AppleTV is a fourth of the size of the last AppleTV, and you can hold it in the palm of your hand. The back contaiTins the usual slots, including power, HDMi and Ethernet, with an Optical Audio port to boot.
As Jobs hinted, there are no purchases (except if you do it through iTunes), and no storage management. The new AppleTV is streaming only, and you can either stream them directly from Apple or from your computer.
HDTV shows will cost only $0.99 from ABC and Fox. As for movies, expect them to cost $4.99 to rent… which is certainly not competitive with the rest of the market, although it’s worth noting these are first-run films.
Wondering if a film is worth your time? Movies will now be accompanied by the RottenTomatoes rating.
The new Apple TV will also include the usual gaggle of internet providers, including the rumored Netflix, the ubiquitous YouTube, Flickr, MobileMe and Internet Radio.
You will be able to use AirPlay to stream content from an iOS device to the AppleTV.
“You’re going to be able to watching a movie, walk into your living room, and push a button and watch the rest of it on your Apple TV,” explains Jobs. “Walk into your home with photos on your iPhone, push a button and share a slideshow on your TV. It’s going to be pretty cool.”
The AppleTV will be available in four weeks, with pre-order opening today. It’ll cost just $99.
If you thought Apple was bound to announce iTunes in the cloud today, think again: Steve Jobs himself just said Apple is very wary of going streaming only right now.
“We are very skeptical of anything cloud- or streaming- related at the moment,” said Jobs in his introduction to iTunes 10.
It’s obviously not from want of trying… Apple’s been scrambling with its new data center to make just that happen. Apple is cynical because of the likes of the RIAA and MPAA gumming up the works with pointless legal wrangling.
iTunes 10 might not be in the cloud. But if Apple has its druthers, iTunes 11 certainly won’t be.
We’d previously heard reports that the next version of iTunes might eschew streaming media for social networking. Those rumors were right. Meet Ping. It’s like iTunes and Twitter and Last.FM collided together.
“One of the biggest things we focused on with iTunes is discovery. With over 12m songs, how do you find out about new stuff? People are always asking what are my friends listening to, what are my favorite artists up to? There’s not a great way to do that, there must be a better way,” says Jobs.
That’s what Ping is for. It’s a social network based around music: the convergence of the philosophies behind Twitter and Face with iTunes.
Once you click on Ping, you see the recent activity of the friends and artists you are following, which shows you the music they are listening to and endorsing. You can even be alerted to concerts.
Apple acknowledged privacy concerns about Ping, noting that you can selectively allow people to follow you, and even set yourself to be invisible. Given my embarrassing library of Brittany Spears tracks, thats a relief.
Ping will be available to up to 160 million iTunes users in over 23 countries, starting today. Anyone else think that’s a fantastic name?
[Image via GDGT]
With the new iPod hardware out of the way, Apple turns to iTunes, and after a brief bit about the statistics we already know are impressive… Apple unveils iTunes 10, complete with a new and simplified logo.
First the stats. “People have downloaded over 11.7 billion songs from iTunes, and we’re just about to cross 12b. Over 450 million TV episodes, 100 million movies, 35 million books, and over 160 million accounts with credit cards and 1-click shopping in 23 countries,” says Jobs.
Those stats are relevant to the logo change. “Since iTunes is about to bypass CDs in sales, we thought it was appropriate to ditch the CD,” quips Jobs.
[Image via GDGT]
And here’s what many of us have been waiting for: Apple officially unveils the new iPod Touch. And as suspect, it takes more than a bit of a queue from the iPhone 4, with dual cameras, an A4 CPU and a Retina Display. But orget about 3G. It is a smidge thinner, though, if that’s a comfort.
“The iPod touch has been a remarkable product for us,” says Jobs. ” It has become the most popular product for us — it used to be the nano. A lot of people call it the iPhone without a phone. But it’s also an iPhone without the contract!”
So what’s new?
• A beautiful new Retina Display.
• Apple’s 1GHZ A4 CPU
• A 3-Axis Gyroscope
• iOS 4.1 With Game Center
• FaceTime with both front and back camera. Unlike the iPhone 4, there’s no flash.
• HD video recording capabilities.
And what about the price? $229 buys you 8GB, $299 buys you 32GB and $399 buys you 64GB.
[Image via GDGT]
Wondering what that little 1.13 touchscreen Apple commissioned was for? Wonder no longer: it’s going into the Nano… and it seems to be losing movie capabilities and camera, in exchange for very limited iOS.
“The first iPod nano was a stunner when it first came out. Then we took it to extruded aluminum… we gave it a taller screen, and an even taller screen. So how can we make this better? We want to make it smaller,” Jobs explained.
“The only way to make it smaller, and that’s to eliminate the click wheel, and the only way to do that is to add multi-touch. And that’s what we’ve done: the new iPod nano has multi-touch. It’s very tiny. It’s amazing and super easy to use.”
So what are we looking at for the new Nano?
• A multitouch interface.
• 46% smaller footprint
• A clip, which means no more armbands for users
• Volume buttons and VoiceOver
• An FM Radio, Nike+ Pedometer
• Playlist navigation similar to an iPhone or iPod Touch.
• Screen orientation through a built-in accelerometer.
Don’t expect apps besides what are baked in though. It doesn’t appear the new Nano uses it.
The new Nano will be out today in the same colors as the new Shuffle, and will sell for $149 for an 8GB model, $179 for the 16GB.
Here comes the iPod Touch.
[Image via Gizmodo]
Steve Jobs just preceded his announcement of a new Shuffle by acknowledging Apple’s failures with the last model. It is not a touchscreen. It’s a return to the previous generation, but even cheaper!
“Let’s start off with the shuffle… it was based on the idea that shuffling was a really good way to listen to music,” said Jobs. (No, it isn’t.)
He continued: “We removed the buttons and added VoiceOver and Playlists. People clearly miss the buttons.” (Well, yeah, because now they are part of the easily broken earbuds.
“So what are we going to do? The new iPod shuffle. It’s got buttons and VoiceOver and playlists. Of course it’s got the clip, and it’s got some great features. It’s small and wearable, it’s got those easy to use buttons, it’s got playlists, we’re adding Genius mixes, and, of course, VoiceOver.”
$49 for 2GB in four colors. Looks like the touchscreen is destined for the Nano!
[Image via GDGT]
The iPhone’s strong nod to photography just got more emphatic with the introduction of HDR in today’s iOS 4.1 update.
HDR, or High Dynamic Range, combines the best parts of an underexposed image with the best parts of an overexposed image — so it’s really three images in one.
The results can be stunning, and up till now the effect was only available on the iPhone through third-party apps. It’s another sign that the iPhone is more than just a photographic toy, and it’s a big deal that Apple saw fit to include it in iOS 4.1.
Another new feature coming to the iPad with iOS 4.2 is AirPlay. But what is it? It’s an update to Airtunes that supports more than just music. It does all your media
“Now, what is AirPlay? You know what AirTunes is… listen to music from all over your house from your mobile device,” said Jobs. We’re changing the name of AirTunes to AirPlay, and it’s not just music anymore. You can stream all kinds of media anywhere in your house.”
It’ll come to the iPad and hopefully other iOS devices in November.
[Image via GDGT]
If you noticed anything about 4.1, it’s that the iPad wasn’t supported.
Well, don’t fret. Steve Jobs just assured us that the iPad’s getting an iOS 4 update… but it’s coming with 4.2.
“It’s bringing everything to iPad. Multitasking, Game Center, HDR photos, everything you saw is coming to iPad. We’re adding wireless printing…” says Jobs. “It also adds a little thing called AirPlay which we’ll talk about in a sec.”
Is this the future of iOS releases? One staggered to the iPhone and iPod Touch, the next for iPad?
[Image via GDGT]
As we’ve long suspected from the beta iOS SDKs, Apple has just announced that they will be releasing iOS 4.1 today.
What’s new? The proximity sensors have been fixed, against earlier reports. Bluetooth is fixed, as well as the iPhone 3G slowness issues.
There’s also now baked-in support for HDR photos.
“Let’s start off with HDR photos, what are they? A lot of times when you take a photo, it’s blown out with bright light. Now, when you turn on HDR, it takes 3 photos in rapid succession: one normal, one under exposed, and one under exposed. It combines the three with some pretty sophisticated algorithms…” says Jobs.
Even better, you now get HD video upload over WiFi, obviating recent apps that got around the iOS’ compression issues.
Game Center is also finally coming to iOS, after being teased since the iPhone 4’s debut. Your iPhone just got its Xbox Live.
[Image via GDGT]