Apple released all of their new stuff today, and it was mostly what we predicted a few days ago. People are feeling a bit let down, but I think that’s largely because most of the presentation had already leaked.
The only decent surprise was “genius”, which runs in iTunes and on your iPod/iPhone. This is the main new feature of iTunes 8, which was just released. Based on what you’re listening to, it will suggest other songs to play. This information will up loaded each week to Apply (opt-in, anonymized) to help improve the algorithm. I’m skeptical of how well it will work, but you never know.
Next was the revamped line of iPods, featuring the new iPod Nano. The main thing with it is that is looks like a second gen (tall and skinny) but plays video like the third gen. The leaked photo we showed you back in August proved to be the real thing.
It now comes with an accelerometer, to help it know when you’ve rotated the screen and so you can shake it to shuffle your playlist. $149 for the 8GB (available now), and $199 for the 16GB (available in the next few days).
They showed off some new app games for the iPhone and Touch, but nothing real exciting.
The iPhone and iPod Touch got the version 2.1 firmware, as expected. You can get it on Friday. According to Jobs, you’ll have “Fewer dropped calls, big battery life improvements. No crashes with Apps, backing up is faster.” No mention of Background Push Notification, so I guess they’re still have problems with that.
That’s really about it. I really thought we’d see some kind of Macbook refresh, but it didn’t materialize. I’m anxious to get home and try out iTunes 8. I’ll report back later with my thoughts on those.
admin Apple, Hardware, Software 2.1, Apple, iphone, ipod, itunes 8, shuffle, touch
