Ondrej Holzman On September 1, Apple transformed itself into a smaller Christmas and lavished gifts. Steve Jobs gradually introduced the new iOS, a completely revamped range of iPods, the new iTunes 10, the social service Ping and finally the brand new Apple TV! Let's take a closer look at these products.
Audiences at the YBCA Theater in San Francisco were greeted by a giant guitar that was projected onto a screen with the Apple logo at its center. Just before seven o'clock, most of the curious were settled in their seats, and only a few of them did not have a MacBook on their feet or an iPhone or iPad in their hand.
At exactly 19:00 our time (10:00 there), the lights went out in the hall and none other than Steve Jobs appeared on stage. The head of Apple was the first to introduce his old friend Steve Wozniak, who was also present.
iOS4.1 and a small sample from iOS 4.2
After the introduction of the new Apple Stores, we got to the first big topic – iOS. After a short usual summary of how many devices iOS supports and how many applications there are for it, Jobs introduced iOS 4.1! Are you wondering what awaits us in the new firmware? The update will certainly please iPhone 3G users the most, because iOS 4.1 brings performance optimization, so the older model of the apple phone will not be cut so much and will finally be fully usable again.
Another new function of the new iOS is the so-called HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos. If you have this function on, the iPhone will take 3 photos (classic, overexposed and underexposed) in a short sequence, combine them and extract the "ideal" photo from it. In iOS 4.1, GameCenter, which we have already informed you about, will finally be launched.
Most importantly, iOS 4.1 will be available for iPhone and iPod Touch next week!
Steve Jobs also prepared a smaller sneak peek of the next iOS that Apple will present in November. This is iOS 4.2 and mainly applies to the iPad. It will finally get all the functions it lacks compared to the iPhone.
A completely revamped iPod line
We come to the main topic of the evening. Let's skip over Jobs' favorite balance sheets and statistics, which were amazing as always, and go straight to the new iPods, which have seen the biggest change since their inception!
iPod Shuffle
First came the smallest, the iPod Shuffle. The new generation is more similar to the second and has practically all the features of the third model. You can play songs for 15 hours at a time and it will be sold in America for $49 (2GB).
iPod Nano
However, the biggest renovation was undoubtedly the iPod Nano. Steve Jobs said that he and his colleagues tried to make the Nano smaller, so they had no choice but to remove the classic wheel. As a result, the new Nano had to get multitouch, which will support a display measuring roughly 2,5 x 2,5 cm. And when it shrunk like that, it could fit a clip like my iPod Shuffle. So if you want to use the Nano for running, for example, you don't need any other gadgets to attach.
The new iPod Nano is also half the size and half the weight. It can play music even longer than its smaller friend, 24 hours straight. What's the catch, you ask? Yes, there is one, the iPod Nano has lost its camera due to the radical downsizing, which I think many users will regret.
In the following demo, Steve Jobs clearly showed us how such a small display is controlled. The control was anything but intuitive, which one might not even say on such a small display. The function of rotating the display was again nice for effect.
And the prices? In America, the new iPod Nano will be available for $149 (8GB) or $179 (16GB).
iPod Touch
The highest model of iPods, the Touch, also underwent a significant change. We're the first to learn that the so-called "trimmed-down iPhone" has become the most popular iPod, leapfrogging the Nano, while also becoming the world's best-selling game console. In such a way that it has more market share than Nintendo and Sony combined!
The new iPod Touch is even a bit thinner than its predecessor, otherwise the design has remained the same. Still, it's admirable, because if you've seen the previous generation Touch, you have to agree that it was already incredibly thin. As expected, the new iPod Touch also has a Retina display like the iPhone 4. It also has an A4 chip, a gyroscope and two cameras – the front for Facetime and the back for HD video recording.
It can play music for up to 40 hours, and again we will mention the US prices. $229 for the eight gig version, $399 for double the capacity.
In conclusion, I would like to add to the iPods that all three novelties are available today! And by the way, did Apple forget something? Somehow the iPod Classic was left out, which was not even mentioned at the keynote...
iTunes 10
After the introduction of brand new ads, we moved on to the software, namely the new iTunes 10. They will be able to boast a new icon, which has received an update after many years (but I say for myself that it did not go very well). Steve Jobs was the first to introduce the changed UI. However, the main novelty is the Ping social network, which will be a mix of Facebook and Twitter and will be integrated directly into the new iTunes.
The entire network will be connected to the iTunes Store, and we could clearly see from the demo that the entire interface is very similar to Facebook. Ping, however, will only concern music, i.e. songs, concerts and other events and activities that have something to do with music.
Ping will also be available on iPhone and iPod Touch directly in the iTunes Store. And I would say that Last.fm is getting a huge competitor! You certainly know what you are talking about. But Ping is practically unusable in our region, because we are waiting in vain for iTunes Store support. Although Steve Jobs revealed that the Internet store with music and movies will gradually expand to other countries, but is it even possible that we will be among the chosen ones?
One more thing (hobby) - Apple TV
As an additional favorite thing, Steve Jobs kept an Apple TV. First, he admitted that the Apple TV launched four years ago never became a hit, but it still found its users. That's why Apple decided to find out what people expect from a similar product. Among other things, they like current movies, HD, lower prices, and they also don't want to worry about storage capacity, just like they don't want to have a computer connected to the TV. And they don't even want to sync with the computer.
So what did Apple do with its television? He significantly reduced the second generation, to one quarter of the previous version. The new Apple TV will therefore easily fit in your hand and will not interfere with the television in any way. It also got a new color – black. It offers WiFi, HDMI and an Ethernet port. A classic Apple Remote will be included for control.
And how will this little thing work? Nothing will be downloaded, nothing will be synchronized, everything will be streamed from the Internet, in other words borrowed. A big attraction is also the prices, which will be very low. And it will not only have to be streamed from the Internet, but it will be possible to upload photos or video from a computer to the Apple TV. There is also support for services such as Netflix, YouTube, Flickr or MobileMe.
This is all nice and I would like to pay 25 kroner (99 cents) for the series, but as I already mentioned, due to the unsupported iTunes Store in our country, we will not be able to use these services for the time being. Even more interesting for us is the possibility of streaming from other Apple devices – iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. In this way, we will be able to turn the Apple TV into an external wireless display, on which we can project the photos we have just taken from the iPhone or the video we are watching on the iPad.
We will wait one month for the new TV, and we will be rewarded with a great price, which is set at 99 dollars.
Apple loves music
We're heading to the finish line! Steve Jobs then got to a simple summary of the entire conference, so let's summarize what we got. It was the new iOS 4.1, the new iPods, iTunes 10 with the social network Ping, and the new Apple TV. As the icing on the cake, Steve Jobs prepared a mini-concert by his favorite band Coldplay for the audience. Christ Martin, the frontman and pianist of Coldplay, appeared on the stage and played several hits and ended the keynote in style.
Quite nice, I'm very interested in Apple TV and I'm curious if streaming will be limited to Apple products only or if it will be possible to use NAS from Synology etc... that would be the real deal. But where I see a problem is the support for subtitles, where I have serious concerns that the Apple TV will not support them and at that point it gets a very strong beauty flaw. Well, let's be surprised.
I am 99% convinced that streaming will only come from iTunes. Unfortunately. :(
After all, they showed Youtube, Netflix, Flickr...
It will not be usable without internet.
About the subtitles... transcode movies to m4v with subtitles inserted directly into the movie... via AirVideo it will take you a minimum of time...
Well, I'm afraid that it will only be streamed from the net. So probably no synology, etc. And even if there is, MKV won't be able to do it anyway ;-) Not to mention any subtitles?
However, someone will actually hack it and it will be ;-) for 100 USD it will be a nice player...
I like Apple TV, but the fact that it can only do 720p is pretty bad :(
For a few weeks now, I've been thinking about writing an email to Steve Jobs about why music and movies are on the appstore, so I'd like to ask you if you know what his email address is?
And any good mkv to m4v converter?
AirVideo is the simplest and fastest mkv converter.
Don't you know if the HDR (High Dynamic Range) function will only be for iphone 4 or also for 3gs?
this should be a software issue, so I'm guessing that the 3GS will be able to do it too, but we'll see for ourselves next week...
Oh yeah, that really doesn't fit into this discussion and maybe you should get checked out. Only a fool can pay such shit.
Does anyone know when iTunes X will be available for download?
I'm disappointed. I wanted to buy a new iPod touch, but without the camera from the iPhone, it makes no sense to me. I would have survived a faulty GPS, but not putting the best photo ever taken on a mobile phone is a mistake.
Dyt has a camera so what don't you think...?
The camera is a useful thing, especially in conjunction with FaceTime, but the camera seems to me to be a much more useful thing.
I assume that if he has a camera, he will take pictures...right?
For example, the iPod Nano 5th has a camera, but no camera. But now I'm looking at apple.com and the new Touch is written in the specifications: Photos and Video, so it will also be able to take photos.
It has a camera, but only in low resolution. The iPhone has a 5-megapixel camera. That camera has one megapixel.
How did you come up with that? 9ž0x120 is one megapixel?
I'm sick of it. Every year a new one comes out and I like the touch every time. Or better said, I'm out of it. So I can start saving again :(
So I just installed iOS4.1GM on 3G... HDR is not there of course. The change in speed is positive, it's a usable phone again, I'd say it's even faster than the previous Troika version. Safari has also experienced some changes, it doesn't crash anymore, it's significantly faster, it shows more things for an HTTPS website with an invalid certificate - not only whether to accept the certificate or not... then I didn't notice any other news (for 3G)
I also downloaded iOS3GM today on a 4.1GS and there is no High Density Range here either. In the link I put a screenshot of the functional Ping service, which I have active:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7755459/ping.jpg
Of course, it requires a US account. You can see what I bought for music, how I rated (music, video and applications) etc.
So the new Ping service in iTunes 10 doesn't work here... so nothing... again
Interesting launch, especially iPod nano with touchscreen LCD. I also did a small launch at home http://bit.ly/cjtCWs :D I'm waiting for my idea with the "iBook" to be translated into reality and Apple will start making school supplies as well.
@wilima good idea, you should write to Apple, maybe they will take the idea. :)
Hey, does anyone know when iOS 4.1 will be released on the iPhone? I need to know, at least approximately.
Thank you very much, you are great. I will write about something and you will immediately write an article. You are the most Czech website about Apple.
just an addendum: the singer of Coldplay is called Chris Martin, not Christ! :D :D