The definite theme for the updates was multimedia.
The first announcements are new iMacs that are thinner, have a built-in iSight, include PhotoBooth software, and have a slight bump in specs. In addition, they are offering FrontRow, which is a remote-control/application that makes it easier to use the iMac as a media center.
The next announcement surrounds the newest iPods. The main focus is still on music, but they will have video playback capabilities as well as some sort of TV-out. Because of the wildly popular black iPod nano, this one will also be available in black.
And, finally, iTunes is updated. New options include tha ability to gift songs to other people and user reviews/comments.
One more thing…
You will have the ability to purchase TV shows for $1.99 an episode. Five shows will be available initially, including Lost and Desperate Housewives.
cute…someone finally clued into selling episode downloads.
but no linky?
sorry, when I posted the Apple site hadnt been updated yet. I will update the post and add links.
Wow. I mean, just wow. Downloading television episodes to watch when I want, where I want — straight from the s-video output on my new video iPod — that is just the best idea ever. And for $2/each! Great Ceaser’s ghost!
This is probably the one thing that could have made me want to buy a video iPod. The idea of watching shows on the QVGA screen is not appealing to me, but the idea of purchasing episodes of good television shows, then bringing them over to Dave’s house… very nice.
Sadly, the announcement isn’t as exciting when you read the details. Even when displaying to tv (which you need the dock for, no outputs on the ipod itself), it’s still only in qvga 320×240 resolution, which is going to look noticably shitty on a regular 640×480 tv. Then there’s the tv downloads, which you can watch onna ipod, on your pc, or via the dock, but can’t burn to dvd.
I think it’s a good step in the right direction, but not what I’d originally hoped on hearing the announcement.
I agree. I think this was mainly about the content/media partnerships and to make sure that they are the first ones out the door.
Its still not a bad deal considering it replaces the 20GB iPod at the same price.
I think more exciting than the iPod announcement was the announcement of the new iTunes options. Gifting should prove to be fun. And, the new iMac is an even greater computer now… and that is saying a whole lot.
Meh, imac. I’d definitely agree that the new storage/size ratio is a big improvement, especially since I’ve got about 20gb of music, leaving no room for anything else on a standard full-sized ipod.
Still, I’m hoping to get some sort of portable media player (not one of the shitty windows pmps) for xmas, and the ipod isn’t going to be an option for me.
I think you can pickup an iRiver 20GB for under $300.
you can pick up an iRiver 20GB for $199, actually.
Is that AR?
Looking for one that’ll play video as well, not just an mp3 player. Only iriver that’ll do video is one of those shitty windows pmps (the one that pr0nstar was advertising).
Still eyeing the archos av420 at this point.
No rebates to send in, and it is the PMP model, but I don’t see why it is shitty, as it plays MP3, JPEG, MPEG-4, WMV, and WMA.
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?prodid=11068695&whse=&topnav=&cat=&s=1
It’s shitty because you have to convert the video to play it on the device (because seriously, how much video do you have that’s actually in wmv or mpeg4 format?) when I just want to watch the divx I’ll be torrenting. It’s shitty because you have to use windows media player to get watchable video on the device (to be fair the ipod is shitty for the same reason). The Archos plays divx, and to get video on it, you just treat it like a removable drive and put video in the video folder, audio in the…you get the idea.
(see this ars review of the archos and the pmc faq from ms)
The iRiver that Carl linked to seems be the older models that is based on LinuxOS and, iirc, plays Divx.
I stand corrected onnat one. Hmm…