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A roundup of today's Apple news

Steve Sande
Features Editor
Updated ·3 min read

In case you're just getting off of work, just waking up, or your plane just landed after a 15-hour flight, here's all of today's Apple news condensed into one quick post:

  • Steve Jobs looked good at today's event, which was attended by Steve Wozniak. Steve J. did a nice shout-out to his "partner in crime" at the beginning of the presentation.

  • Jobs announced that there are now 300 Apple Retail Stores in 10 countries, with new stores opening in Spain soon. The Apple Stores get more than 1 million visitors combined on some days -- the primary reason why the company dropped their presence at Macworld Expo.

  • Other stats -- 120,000,000 iOS devices, 230,000 new iOS activations per day (not including updates), 6.5 billion downloads from the App Store, 250,000 apps on the App Store.

  • iOS 4.1 will be out next week, featuring fixes for the proximity sensor, Bluetooth, and iPhone 3G issues. There will also be support for HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos, the ability to upload HD video to other devices (Apple TV) over WiFi (this is known as AirPlay), 99¢ TV show rentals, and GameCenter. The latter will bring a new level of interactive gaming to the platform.

  • In November, we'll see iOS 4.2 for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. This adds printing support, AirPlay, multi-tasking, and folders (among other features) to the iPad.


  • 275 million iPods have sold to date. There's a new iPod shuffle, which brings back the buttons that were missing on the 3rd generation model. The new model gets 15 hours of battery life per charge, and still provides VoiceOver support. It will come in five juicy colors -- pink, silver, blue, green, and gold. 2 GB = $49.

  • The iPod nano is now coming out in a new version -- it gets rid of the video playback and capture in the 4th generation model, but adds a touch screen and... iOS. Like the shuffle, it has a built-in clip, so you no longer need a special case for running or time at the gym. The new nano gets 24 hours of music playback time per charge, has a built-in FM tuner, and also includes a special clock function. The nano will come in an even larger variety of colors than the shuffle, adding black and red to the spectrum. Pricing starts at $149 for the 8GB model, going to $179 for 16GB.

  • The most popular iPod is the iPod touch, which is now even more slim, has a Retina Display, an A4 chip, the 3-axis gyro found in the iPhone 4, and front and back facing cameras. FaceTime is now possible with the iPod touch. The device gets a whopping 40 hours of battery life. There's an 8GB model for $229, 32GB for $299, and 64GB for $399.

  • iTunes 10 should be out in the next few hours. It sports a new logo and a new social networking feature called Ping. Ping provides social music discovery, allowing you to learn what your friends are listening to and vice versa. Ping will also be available on iOS devices.

  • The Apple TV finally got an update. The new version is tiny, about a quarter of the dimensions of the old box. It runs on an A4 chip, has HDMI out, micro-USB, Digiial Audio, and Ethernet ports, and will sell for $99. It has little or no storage; all content will be streamed to the device from your computer, iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. First run HD movies will rent for $4.99, TV shows will be available for 99¢. ABC and Fox have signed up to provide content, and Netflix is on the device as well. If you like Rotten Tomatoes as a source of movie reviews, they'll be available on Apple TV. The device will be available in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, and Australia in September.

Be sure to read our other coverage, follow this morning's liveblog, or watch the recorded TUAW TV Live from this afternoon for more opinion and insight into the new product line.