It's Showtime

Sep 12, 2006 at 10:10 AM
19 comments

I'm in the front row at Yerba Buena Center to see what spectacle Apple has whipped up. (Sometimes it pays to be late. I arrived five minutes before the start and Apple PR found me a seat up front!) It's a very full house with lots of network cameras crews and the usual giant screen. They're playing the Bob Dylan iTunes ad and here comes Steve, dressed in his usual blue jeans. This time a gray button down shirt has replaced the black turtle neck. He seems his usual relaxed self.

Here are my notes, typed during the presentation.

1. iPod update

70 percent market share, 60 million shipped. Accessories include ipod toilet paper holder. Joke?
70 percent of cars in US offer iPod connectvity.
IPod shoe has sold 450.000 units in 90 days.

2. The iPod enhnacements

Screen 60% brighter
Battery 75% longer: 6.5 hours on the 80GB model
New headphones ... Still ear buds though - we'll see if they sound better
Now gapless song playback available on iPod
Alphabetic searches - that's a nice feature
Games will now be sold for all 5th generation and later iPods, including Bejeweled, Cubis, Mah Jong, Mini Golf, Zuma, Tetris, Pac-Man, and Texas Hold 'em. Support from EA and others. $4.99 each. They look (and sound) pretty good
New lower prices; $249 for the 30GB model, $349 for 80GB
Shipping today

3. Second Generation Nano

Aluminium and thinner - looks like a tiny iPod mini
Colors include blue, pink, green, silver, and black. 24 hour battery life, gapless playback, new headphones
Price/capacity: $149/2GB, $199/4, $249/8GB (8GB in black only)
New smaller charger for all iPods (extra)

4. New Shuffle...

10 million Shuffles sold
2nd generation. It's the picayno! About the size of a quarter. Aluminium. Clip built-in. This IS the SNL skit!
Mini dock with USB 2
1GB world's smallest MP3 player. $79. Ships in October.

5. ITunes 7

88% market share. 1.5 billion songs sold.
#5 music store after Walmart. Best Buy, Target, and Amazon. And on track to pass Amazon early next year.
New views: Standard List, Album, and cover flow. Cover flow is like flipping through CDs, playlists, and videos.
Album cover art for all albums will be available free even if you rip your own as long as you have an iTunes account.
45 million TV shows purchased. 220 shows available from over 40 networks. Adding NFL highlights.
New video resolution 640 x 480 for all videos!
Built-in iPod management including firmware updates and configuration.
IPod will be able to move purchases to other computers authorized to same account.

Demoing cover flow now. Very nice way to see your stuff.

Gapless playback means symphonies, Pink Floyd, etc will all now playback seamlessly. Hallelujah!

OK time for one more thing...

6. Movies

Adding movies to iTune store
Walt Disney, Pixar, Touchstone. Miramax only
75 films at launch
Released same day as DVD release
$12.99 for pre-order and first day sale. $14.99 afterward
$9.99 for catalog films
All video downloads are 640x480. "Near DVD quality" You can start watching as it downloads. Same usage rights as TV. International sales next year.

7. Sneak peak of a product for Q1 2007

iTV Media Center!

Wireless interconnect between computer and TV. Looks like a half height Mac mini. Code name iTV
Built in power supply. WiFi. USB 2. Ethernet. HDMI. Component. Stereo analog and TOS link digital audio
No internal storage. It's essentially a WiFi/network interface to audio and video.
Enhanced Front Row interface to iTunes. Podcast support. MacBreak should look very nice on this. He's showing Rocketboom.
Works with iTunes Macs or PCs. iPhoto on Mac.
$299 Available Q1 2007

"We think it completes the picture."

8. John Legend performs two songs and good night.

19 comments

Tags:

apple ipod news

Comments

[this is good]

Hi Leo, thanks for the quick updates. I was watching here and on engadget. I have to say I am a little dissapointed by the fact that they really didn't change the high-end Ipod. Longer battery life and a brighter screen are much needed advancements, but it won't make me go out and purchase a new one to upgrade.

That being said, the little shuffle is absolutely beautiful form-factor. And I also dig the "retro" (2004 is retro?!?) nano colors.

the itv... did they say whether it is compatible with windows based machines?

[this is good]

I'm extremely interested on how iTV will turn out. Waiting for my 2nd Gen iPod to kick the bucket before I start playing with the pretty video ones.

Not very impressive.
Decent, I guess. I'm glad they went all aluminum for the nanos.

While I wouldn't rush out for any of the stuff shown today, there are more compelling reasons now if you don't already own one. Evolutionary, not revolutionary.

Now the iTV... THAT I want...

[this is good]

I'm getting a serious technology geeky hard on for that apple stuff. Yikes!

[this is good]

The new Nano colors are great. Almost decided to buy one until I saw the new Shuffle. That is awesome! I never put a lot of music on my iPod to warrent me going out and buying the 4gig. I'll be getting that new Shuffle and holding out for a "real" iPod that has a bigger screen to play video on. If that ever comes out.

I'm still trying to get the battery replaced for my 20BG iPod or is it 30GB... see how I've forgotten. Sheesh. Also having to pay $30 for the shipping I should have just gotten a Shuffle and tossed my old but hardly used new ipod on eBay.

[this is good]

Nice summary Leo! Thanks for writting up your notes so quickly. All the new stuff looks nice. I don't think I'll be getting any of it. I have a nano (that I love) and don't see a reason to get another one.

I would second the thoughts about the 'real' ipod getting a bigger screen. No reason to have 80g if you are not using it for video, in which case the current screen is pretty small.

[this is good]

I won't find reason to upgrade my iPod (which is just a black and white 20GB model) until there's some cool wi-fi-goodness going on, personally.

Why did they do that to the nano? It was so nice and pretty before, but now it's all with the retro iPod Mini styling? I guess it's just a matter of personal taste; I've always thought the minis were visually very unappealing.

Hey, Leo, were you blogging this in real time, or did you type up your notes after?

[this is good]

Just to put it out in print, I liked the live coverage via Blackberry. I had forgotten about the Apple announcement today. It must been great to have ringside seats. I will download MacBreak Weekly tonight.

[this is good]

iTunes7 is impressive ... the remastered iPods will be great holiday gifts ... iTV is a huge dangling carrot! Remember several years ago Jobs pushed the "hub" idea - it's all coming together, this grand design.

[this is good]

Last year for Christmas I was trying to decide if i should Buy an IPod w/Video or Compaq V2000z Notebook Computer. Since Apple Once Again did not with G6 Wide Screen version Video Ipod. I am glad I Went ahead with my Purchase of Compaq V2000z Notebook. But not all hope is lost, For the up coming Holiday shopping season I am looking into buying one those sweet 8GB in black only Ipods Nano or 2G Ipod Shuffles. (2gig version Shuffles anyone)
But alas, Until the Mac Expo roll around in January 2007 The G7 Wide Screen version Video Ipod will finally makes its debut during steve's famous "And one more thing..." segment of his keynote .

I assume you were correct when you said that the longer battery life was only relevant to the 80gb model and not the 30gb?

An article on the BBC website seemed to infer it was both models.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5339470.stm

[this is good]

Great summary, thanks Leo. I'd love to watch the speech but Quicktime seems to be battling a bit when I try connect to the stream. Does anyone perhaps know where I can download it. Apple really should make these keynotes available for download as video podcast through iTunes.

Thanks for the info, too bad iTunes 7.0 is a horrible piece of buggy software.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=637696

My biggest complaint, aside from the lack of shiny buttons (I've not come across any of the bugs) is the lack of genre-specific top 100 lists in the podcast directory. What's up with that?

[this is good]

You know what's funny? Nintendo and Apple having press conferences in the same week. DUH DUH DUH!

You know what's also funny? Apple's iPod crushing Microsoft's Zune and Nintendo's Wii crushing Sony's PS3? It's called innovation versus conformity! :-)

I'm a bit disappointed that the screen resolution hasn't increased on the new iPods. Maybe 320x240 is fine, I don't know since I haven't checked one of the first 5G's out.

Widescreen is what I really wanted. Wifi would be handy, but hardly necessary.

It's Showtime

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