Apple's 'Let's Rock' event roundup
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted September 9th 2008 11:00PM
posted September 9th 2008 11:00PM
The liveblog:
Live from Apple's 'Let's Rock' event in San Francisco
Hands-on coverage:
iPod nano 4G hands-on
iPod touch 2G - first hands-on
Product announcements:
iPod classic refreshed, only comes in 120GB flavor now
Official: iPod nano reaches 4G, looks tall for its age
iPod touch updated -- same screen, new case, Nike+ integration
Apple introduces $79 in-ear headphones
One more thing: New iPod shuffle colors
iTunes / iPhone / touch updates:
Apple launches iTunes 8, NBC comes back, TV shows at $1.99, Genius in the house
iPhone 2.1 software update announced (update: $10 for some iPod touch owners)
iPod touch 2.1 firmware update now available
WHEN WILL WE SEE NEW MACBOOKS????
once we see new Minis
muuuhahahaaaaaa!
oh wait...
I have it in good authority that the MS Zune event on Sept 16 have been sold out. There are no more room for seating at the event.
BestBuy is preparing for the mad rush of Zune buyers for all their stores. Security will be tight as they expect thousand to line up days before the product goes on sale.
Although users have downloaded more than 100 million applications within 60 days, 3,000 applications. Over 65 million users, #1 over Walmart, 8.5 million songs, 125K podcast, 30K TV episodes and 2,600 movies so far. The Zune Marketplace seems to be the more compelling site since its such a "snappy" services. It's great to have a service with barely any content, it makes for speedy access, since there is nothing much to slow it down.
It can hold one BILLION songs, that's billion. With a "B".
It has iGenie, you rub it and it grants you 3 iWishes.
On/Off button. It has a clock.
You can use it to watch the latest episode of The Office.
You can make a movie while watching a movie while on an iConference call while watching The Office.
It is worth noting that there was absolutely no mention of Genius feature for either the refreshed Classic, or its 80/160GB predecessors.
A quick check of the nano site has Apple touting the feature present IN the device:
"Great looks.
And brains, too.
The new Genius feature turns iPod nano into your own highly intelligent, personal DJ. It creates playlists by finding songs in your library that go great together."
Whereas with the classic, the company line is:
"DJ You.
Everything you buy on the iTunes Store — and any music from CDs you import to iTunes — appears in your library on the iTunes jukebox. You can organize your content, put it into playlists, create new Genius Playlists, rate it, flip through your album art with Cover Flow, and download it all to your iPod. It’s the best way to manage all your digital media. And you can download iTunes for free."
When syncing my 160GB classic, it became clear that no update was available. What gives? It's not as though an update couldn't provide similar functionality (sans accelerometer, of course). Very, very frustrating--even from the perspective of releasing a refreshed classic without similar functionality.
First the lack of Nike+ in the still showroom new iPhone 3G, now this? Are they trying to inject greater variety between the product lines?
No Copy/Paste in 2.1 Software Update ?
Not as far as I can tell. I think most will just be happy that we *finally* have 2.x firmware for real. That and that backing up during sync is now massively faster (and syncing is thus no longer an agonizing experience) and installing apps via the AppStore application is now quite quick. Those were the key things to improve: stability and backup and app installation performance. I can vouch for the backup and installation performance, but it's too early to tell with regard to stability. So far so good, though. I'm glad they released it yesterday....
Who would have thought that Microsoft releasing a few new mice would trump Apple's big day? I wasted 10 minutes reading what could have been succinctly captured as:
Genius feature - something you won't be able to live without as we tell you what music you should like
Nike+ - only for new devices
Nano - redesign (again ...) - it's curvy now instead of fat
Touch - price drop, slight redesign
Colors - more colors for your iPods
Headphones - designed exclusively for iSheep - way overpriced but they are all white which is super cool
I hardly think new mice trumped new iPods but I'm not exactly jumping for joy over here. Apple really likes to hype but this is one of the times they just didn't deliver. I like the looks of the new nano and I think the new capacity is good. But the call the classic new by eliminating capacity? WTF?! And the new touch features, while nice are hardly worth writing home. New iTunes? Dunno. I'll have to wait until I have time to play with it a while. Not thrilled here. Not offended but not thrilled.
Actually, $80 for a good pair of in-ear-canal headphones is quite inexpensive. Of course, we don't know if they are good yet. If they are only on par with, say, Sony's quite lousy ones, then, yeah, that would be too much money.
My point is that this meeting was a whole lot of nothing. What upgrades are there for iPods? The Genius feature. That's it. Everything else is a redesign.
Compare that to the Zune. The hardware specs did change some (bump in storage) but look at what the software upgrade will bring:
-- Channels and Personal Picks is comparable to the Genius feature
-- Buy from FM - allows users to tag songs on the FM player for purchase later at home or over Wifi
-- Buy content OTA through Wifi
-- Support for audio books
-- Two new free games
-- Changes to the Zune software on the client machine
Whether you like the Zune or not, these enhancements are much more significant than anything Apple just announced. And Engadget certainly didn't write up 20 different articles going over these features in detail.
So... Macbook Pro update? soon? Mac Pro update? soon?
PLEASE just post a rumor or something, im about to purchase something new for school and i dont want to get caught in the pack up of an update.
I was very underwhelmed by everything at this event except the Genius list:
http://www.learnucd.com/kevlar/im-a-genius
I'm still running an ibook G4. I thought it was lame that none of the recent ipods will run on anything less than OSX10.4.9, but now for some reason Apple has decided that neither will itunes 8. A PC with XP from the same era will run it fine...
I have to agree with you. Apple has some 'splainin to do, Lucy. Since I have Leopard on my Mac already it isn't an issue for me but if it was an issue I would just reformat to PC and use my iTunes on my Windows machine. But not everyone has that luxury. Unless Apple has a damn good explanation for this I call bullshit. The kind of bullshit that forces people to upgrade so Apple can bolster their bottom line when their customers are already happy with what they have. If that is the case, shame on you Apple.
I don't get it. The requirements for iTunes 8 on the Mac are: "Mac computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5, G4, or G3 processor". That would even cover the clamshell iBook G3, let alone your iBook G4. If you want to play videos purchased on the iTunes store you have to have a 1 GHz or faster G4 or a G5 or Intel processor, but otherwise the app works. I'm running it on my 1 GHz iMac G4 and it works great. I'm not terribly enamored with the new view
Ahh.. never mind - you are complaining about the 10.4 requirement and must have 10.3 on your iBook. At what point do you allow Apple to stop supporting previous versions of the OS? Supporting a particular iteration of the OS implies a bevy of testing, possibly code specific to that version of the OS, etc, all things that make software take longer to produce and cost more? Not to mention that if you say it supports a version of an OS, then you need to provide support for people running the software on that version of the OS. Should iTunes 8.0 be fully tested and operational on 10.2? 10.1? 10.0? 9.x? At some point you're going to have to bite the bullet and at least upgrade to 10.4. You should be able to find a copy for cheap now.
That would cover iTunes but he is talking about new iPods. This isn't the first time I've heard that you have to have at least 10.4.9 OSX to use newer iPods.
OK, but he said a "PC with XP". XP is one generation behind, just like 10.4. 10.3 is two generations behind, like Windows 2000. A PC and Mac from that era and before can run iTunes, you just need 10.4 or later or XP or later. It's exactly the same. I've fun 10.4 on a clamshell iBook G3 (don't have it any more). There is not technical limitation to running 10.4 on an iBook G4. It will work fine. Indeed, well.
The difference is more about time to me. You can use an eight year old Windows OS or you're almost forced into the latest Mac OS. It says 10.4.9 is required. That is the last update for Tiger which is only a few years old. It just seems too soon to be forcing that.
Does anyone except Engadget actually care? Anyone that loves music would not be using an iPod anyway, as the sound quality is among the worst on the market (onpar of the cheap Chinese market players in most listening tests).
The Sonys and the iRivers are where the real music fans go.
And by "sound quality", what exactly do you mean? "Bass boost"?
@SteveJ
Typical ipod owner reply, I suspect you have listened to how good a good MP3 player sounds. I am not talking about Bass Boost, that's a gimmick (somthing iPod owners should be very used to). I am talking SnR ratios, I am talking the quality of DtoA components. all the Sony's I have listened to sound fantastic, so do the iRivers (and some of the creatives). All the iPlods sound muddy and hissy.
>It's all a lot to take in
Really, it isn't a lot to take in at all. You guys managed to absurdly build it into a lot. More power to the way they play the game but Apple is seriously the only company in the world that could get this much coverage with so little to cover.
Look! It's an iPod zune!......I mean nano....
could it be any more obvious that the Classic is the red-headed stepchild of the product line?
What a shame, formerly the premiere product, now relegated to an afterthought.
AGAIN, eff a bunch of no hard drive having iTouch.
I came here to get all excited about buying a touch and u guys are bummin me out.
This event was awsome, i can't decide to either get the new touch or the nano 4g!!!
There is a lol version about the Secret of the new iPod Nano.
Check this out:
http://9gag.com/entry/986/
well i dont own any apple products but this new nano looks kind of alright and i might just get one.
I wonder how much profit they make off each one sold, i bet it costs them just over 30£ to make.
I do love my iPod touch and my old iPod video but I do think the old design of click-wheel and screen needs a bit of a change. Had a good look at the iPod Nano in store today and was to say the least underwhelmed. Don’t get me wrong I’m not sure what they need to do really but the whole thing needs a whole new lease of life equal to the 1st gen Nano. And the Classic really needs some work, now that model feels and looks worse than my 2005 video iPod. Each to their own I guess but need a bit more innovation other than software with these things. I'd love to see a tiny little full touch Nano, about the same size as the new nano, but just a touch screen, shack to go home.