Apple Announces A Bunch of Media Stuff
Tuesday September 12, 2006 at 2:08 pm | Filed under Mac
Apple had a press conference today to announce the refreshed line of iPods. New colors for Nanos, larger capacities for both Nanos and the Video line, plus the Video iPod gets a brighter, higher resolution screen. New software across the iPod family was introduced too, AND a whole new iPod Shuffle that is about as big as a quarter. Whew!
They also unveiled iTunes 7, which has a “music store” in it that has now seriously outgrown music. It now has full length movies as a greater resoluton (640×480) using the H.426 codec (amazing if you haven’t witnessed it) available for purchase.
Near the end of the presentation, Steve introduced a consumer electronics device that’s “coming soon” (Q1 2007) that will cost $299. It’s a “set-top box” that goes in your livingroom and can wirelessly receive and display videos, photos, and music that are located on your computer. Not much is known about this thing yet, but at that price point, it doesn’t appear to be a DVR at all. Just a way to view the stuff on your network, and perhaps purchase new stuff through the iTunes Music Store. So essentially, this is Apple keeping up with Microsoft’s Media Edition biz, but doing it with a stand-alone device that lives in your livingroom. The iTV (as it’s tentatively named) will have HDMI out and wireless component out. That part makes me drool a little bit.
One Response to “Apple Announces A Bunch of Media Stuff”
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Danny Says:
September 15th, 2006 at 12:49 amiTunes 7 is sweet. The new layout/organization changes make finding things so easy - music, podcasts, tv, movies - they all have their own place. And the iPod sync is too slick. 7 is the biggest improvment I’ve seen in iTunes yet (I started using it near the release of version 5). The movie purchase has to grow on me a bit though. Maybe once iTV arrives and I can easily play the content on my family room TV I’ll change my mind, but I’ve got to admit…I’m a sucker for extras!