Steve Jobs received a standing ovation at the beginning of today’s “Rock&Roll” special event. Watch the video after the jump and hear him thank the donor whose liver saved his life. It’s humble and touching.
The OS 3.1.1 update for iPhone and iPod touch is available now from Apple’s servers. Plug in your device, go to iTunes and hit “Update.”
Details after the jump.
So, what’s new in the iPod Nano? Here’s a quick look at some of the most interesting new features…
The rumor mill about an expected video camera announcement at today’s Apple event was half correct: the video upgrade will be part of the iPod nano, not the touch, CEO Steve Jobs told a San Francisco audience Wednesday.
The camera was part of a makeover for the nano, which also gains a bigger 2.2-inch display, new colors and new pricing. The nano comes in nine colors; and costs $149 for the 8GB model, and $179 for the 16GB.
“We’ve seen video explode over the last few years, nowhere more than on YouTube. And where are these streams coming from? People like us,” Jobs told the audience.
Video is recorded in VGA quality (640 x 480) in H.264 format at up to 30fps and AAC audio. It features 15 realtime special effects like black&white and x-ray.
The nano also gets a built-in FM tuner with Live Pause, and a pedometer, which integrates with the Nike+ transmitter.
[Via Gizmodo]
Wow. Big surprise. The iPod Touch isn’t getting a video camera, as was widely rumored. Only the iPod nano got a camera. Bummer.
The iPod touch does have a lower price point though: $199 for an 8GB model.
“The iPod mini used to sell for $250, and when we brought it down to $199, sales doubled,” said Phil Schiller. “We learned something: $199 is the magic price point in the iPod world. We’re bringing it down today to $199 for an 8GB iPod touch.”
Plus, the middle- and higher-end models get faster processors and double the storage capacity: 32 and 64GB.
Here’s the new price points and capacities:
8GB at $199
32GB at $299
64GB at $399
The 32GB and 64GB iPod Touch will be 50% faster, Schiller said, and run OpenGL ES 2.0, the same graphics engine used in the iPhone 3GS. Schiller showed the new iPods running several games at the event, which make use of the OpenGL ES 2.0 technology. The entry-level 8GB iPod touch is still running the older processor.
Update: The new iPod’s are available for order from Apple’s website:
Nano
iPod nano with video camera, 8GB for $149, 16GB for $179
Touch
iPod touch 8GB for $199
iPod touch 32GB for $299
iPod touch 64GB for $399
Shuffle
iPod shuffle 2GB MP3 Player for $59
iPod shuffle 4GB for $79
iPod shuffle 4GB Special Edition in Stainless Steel for $99
Phil Schiller just announced a new iPod Classic, which was widely rumored to be on its deathbed. Many expected the Classic — the last iPod to be based on a spinning hard drive — to be discontinued (not us here at CoM though), as Apple promoted the iPod Touch instead. Looks like that was premature.
The iPod Classic has been bumped up to 160GB $249, the same price as the previous 120 GB model. Available today, Apple says.
Steve just introduced iTunes 9. Available today as a free download, the new version adds:
* iTunes LP — includes videos, lyrics, liner notes, credits, chronologies and other digital content. Tries to recreate the LPs of Steve’s youth. The images are big and colorful, and its interactive. “The photos are amazing.” Thsi doesn;t sound like the rumored “Cocktail” project, which has been tied to the tablet, and is therefore probably a multitouch app. But perhaps iTunes LP is a precursor.
* Home sharing — iTunes lets you copy songs, movies and TV shows among the five authorized computers in your house. Automatically transfers new purchases between computers. This is a nice change. Media management between computers at home is a huge pain, and one of the reasons consumers download pirate content, because there are no DRM headaches. This should make sharing a lot easier.
* Better Syncing — Set up and manage your iPhone/touch Home Screen within iTunes. You manage what Apps go where via drag and drop. Another welcome change. Should make App management a lot easier.
* Redesigned Store — “Cleaner,” says Steve. Bigger images, lots more song previews. You no longer have to drill down to hear a song preview. Store can go full screen, dispensing with the sidebar. “Looking good,” says Gdgt.
* Genius mixes — auto DJ that mixes songs from your iTunes library that it thinks will go well together. iTunes will make 12 by default. Click one, and it’ll play indefinitely.
* Social software — publish items in iTunes to Facebook and Twitter, or send them as gifts.
Steve Jobs has just taken the stage and is getting a long standing ovation. “I’m vertical, back at Apple, loving every day of it,” he said.
“I’m very happy to be here with you all. As some of you might know, I had a liver transplant,” he told reporters and Apple staffers gather at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
His voice is very soft.
He said he now has the liver of a 20 year old who died in a car crash, and he thanks him for his generosity, says Gizmodo.
“I’d like to thank everyone in the Apple community for the heartfelt support — it meant a lot. I’d also like to thank Tim Cook and the rest of the Apple team, they really rose to the occasion.”
When it comes to mobile banking, iPhone users are way ahead of the curve.
While half of iPhone users already check in with their bank from their smart phone, it’ll take another five years until other kinds of cell phone owners do the same, a study said.
The 2009 Mobile-Banking and Smartphone Forecast by San Francisco-based Javelin Strategy & Research found that although half of all current cell phone owners have access to some form of mobile banking, it’s only caught on with iPhone owners. (No doubt the app plays a big part in the revolution — one US bank recently developed one to allow customers to photograph their checks and deposit them via iPhone.)
The firm expects it’ll take until 2014 for 45% of non-iPhone owners to connect with the bank via phone.
iPhones gave AT&T the highest number of mobile bankers, while Verizon Wireless has the lowest penetration for banking on-the-go among major U.S. carriers.
“Just as the iPod changed the music industry and their business models, our data shows that iPhone users are changing the banking industry by leading the way in monitoring and managing finances through mobile devices,” said Mark Schwanhausser, a Javelin analyst.
There’s a silver Aston Martin Vantage parked around the corner from Apple’s “It’s only rock and roll, but we like it” event, which is about to kick off.
It’s in a spot where Steve Jobs has parked his Mercedes in the past, just to the side of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. There are several spots cordoned off with traffic cones, watched over by a guard with an Apple-logo shirt. I asked if it belonged to Jonatahn Ive, Apple’s head designer. He said, “Who?”
The Aston Martin is a Vantage and has a “V 007” license plate. Jonny Ive is known to drive a DB9, a $250,000 supercar imported from his homeland, Britain.
More pictures after the jump.
It’s as if a virtual curtain came down before today’s “It’s Only Rock n’ Roll” event, about which there has been much speculation about what to expect…
For those of us who aren’t in San Francisco, or maybe weren’t VIP enough to be invited, it’ll be interesting to see what appears on the Apple store after the presser…
New leaked photos of iPod cases hint Apple may reveal a new feature: cameras. That appears to be the suggestion from supposed first pictures of iPods Cupertino is expected to announced later today.
The photos from Asian iPod accessories maker Cygnette show an iPod touch case with a lens on the reverse and what Gadget Lab surmises as a “dedicated shutter release” button. The iPod nano images show a taller device.
The veracity of the images are in question with some reports cautioning the pictures could have been Photoshopped combinations of previous iPhone and iPod cases. However, we include the photos and a link to Cygnette for you to decide.
[Via Gadget Lab and Cygnette]
As Mac fans await word from San Francisco today, Apple unveiled across-the-board price cuts on its line of iPod MP3 players. Today’s deals concentrate on the iPod, including an iPod docking cradle, Sony’s wireless S-AIRPLAY dock and other price cuts on iPod gear.
Details on these and other bargains can be found at CoM’s Daily Deals page.
Are you tired of all the sticky notes on your computer? Why not write your grocery list where you’ll find it: on your mousepad? That’s the concept behind Quirky’s Scratch-N-Roll product. Rather than a colorful image on a pad, the company turns all that wasted mousing space into a horizontal noteboard.
The mousepad lets you doodle with a stylus (it’s attached.) Your notes and drawings are erased by raising a cover sheet. “It’s a wonderfully simple, and actually pretty useful idea,” notes Gadget Lab. All of that space once occupied by a Disney character or design can now hold quick schematics to your improved iTunes.
There may be one snag, though – something which might put Scratch-N-Roll a bit behind the curve: hardly anyone uses a mousepad. The advent of optical mice essentially sounded the death knell for micepads. Indeed, Logitech recently unveiled a mouse that does windows, gliding effortlessly on glass.
[Via Gadget Lab and Quirky.com]
Can’t decide whether you want your iPhone in your car, on your hip or patiently charging until your next foray? Such indecision could be the target market for USBfever’s 3-in-1 in-car/on-belt plus charger device.
The $40 gadget includes a goose-neck holder for car trips and a detachable case that also serves as a belt-clip. Finally, the unit includes a charger, complete with LED indicator and a bit of circuitry to prevent an overload.
iPhone users could potentially benefit from any one of these features if they were single-use. For instance, we’ve talked about iPhone holsters, in-dash devices and external battery packs.
[Via iClarified,Macnn and USBfever]
Apple has introduced a new system for controlling the way files are opened in Snow Leopard, and some users are very upset about it.
“Apple has made a huge, dumb mistake,” says Ross Carter, a developer whose application, Pagehand, is affected by the change.
Basically: new iPods and iTunes, no Beatles and no tablet.
In declining order of likelihood, here’s what Apple will show off tomorrow:
On Monday, reader Abram Siegel’s iDisk showed 2TB of available storage. Yeah, that’s right — terabytes. The default iDisk storage is 20 gigabytes.
Siegel’s iDisk said 2TB when logged on this morning and is still saying 2TB this evening. “Still showing,” he says. “Very strange.”
Even stranger, a few other people on MacRumors forums have also experienced the mystery 2TB upgrade.
Is it a common glitch, or is Apple upgrading accounts? Anyone else’s iDisk showing 2TB?
The future of digital government rests in building a model much like Apple’s, Tim O’Reilly told BBC News. That means creating “killer apps” and making them accessible, he added.
“The iPhone comes out and Apple turns it into a platform and two years later there is something like 70,000 applications and 3,000 written every week. They have created a framework and infrastructure and that is the right way we should be thinking about government,” said O’Reilly.
A working example of the strategy?
Apps for Democracy, a data hub site for government apps that also sponsored a contest that resulted in 47 web, iPhone and Facebook apps in just a month.
A $10,000 prize was awarded to Victor Shilo for an iPhone and Facebook app combination called 311 that allows users to send complaints and requests — abandoned cars, info on trash pickups, graffiti — to District of Columbia officials.
O’Reilly warned that “going back to politics as usual” was not an option.
“In terms of unlocking information, it’s not a question of fast enough, it’s a matter of strategically enough. The government is so large and there is so much data there that the real question is how much of it is really useful. This is why it is important for the government to think strategically.”
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sait24emvUw
Milan’s first Apple retailer is not in the heart of the fashionable city, as we noted last week, but that didn’t stop people from turning out in groovy headgear and giving stadium cheers for the first to walk out with the signature inauguration tee after camping out overnight.
Giving a touch of style to the event, web designer Marco Tognoli came adorned in Apple logos from old iMac G3s, topped by this fanciful conical hat with a real apple on top:
Proving Apple fans will live up to Milan’s reputation for daring fashion to open Apple’s second Italy store. (Hit the jump for more pics).
Spotify’s iPhone app has just gone live on the iTunes app store. But us poor Yankees are SOL. It’s available in Europe only — for now anyway.
The app is available here for free from Apple’s App Store, but requires a premium Spotify account to work at a cost of about £9.99 (about about $16) a month.
Neither the app nor Spotify is available in the U.S., but plans are afoot to bring the highly-rated service across the pond. It is set to come to the U.S. sometime later this year, or maybe next, pending licensing agreements with the record labels, and advertising deals that support the free service.
Because Spotify’s streaming music service is such a threat to iTunes, it was possible that Apple might somehow disable the iPhone app. Apple has disapproved of apps that replicate core iPhone functions, like Google Voice. While there is no indication yet that Apple cripples threatening apps, it doesn’t approve them. Apple perhaps doesn’t see the Spotify iPhone app as a threat while it is restricted to premium customers.
But Spotify’s app doesn’t seem to have any restrictions, except one imposed on all third-party apps — it can’t run in the background.
Spotify’s streaming music service has taken the world by storm with a music library that rivals iTunes — about 6 million tracks — and an interface to match. It’s dead easy to search, build playlists, and find new artists. It’s basically iTunes in the cloud — but free (with the occasional ad).
Spotify’s iPhone app adds a very important feature: it can cache full playlists to be played offline. You can store up to 3,333 songs — that’s 10 days constant listening — and they will play when the network goes dark. The offline caching service allows tracks to be played anywhere offline: on airplanes, in subways or even when traveling overseas to avoid roaming charges.
Official screenshots of the app and a video of it in action after the jump.
Apple is already setting up shop for Wednesday’s “It’s only rock & roll” press event that will likely see new iPods with cameras and the return of Steve Jobs to the public eye.
Apple has already hung a big banner on the front of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco — the venue of a press event next Wednesday at 10AM. The company last week sent invites to reporters with the line: “It’s only rock and roll, but we like it.”
The banner out front shows a rockin’ iPod chick kicking her feet in the air as she freaks out. The company has also hung a big banner inside the front door with a white Apple logo on a silver background.
There are no other posters visible inside the venue. The center is crawling with security guards. There are half-a-dozen security guards with Apple-logo shirts at the front, back and sides. Apple will likely have a 24-hour security detail until the event starts on Wednesday.
There’s a TV van already parked to the side on Third Street. The van is likely there to transcode video from the event for distribution via iTunes and Apple’s website, which the company typically does just after the event ends.
The event will likely see the introduction of new versions of the iPod touch and iPod nano with built-in cameras, which has all but been confirmed by dozens of cases for the new devices. There will also likely be a new version of iTunes with built-in hooks to social software like Facebook.
The event will also probably mark the return of Steve Jobs to the public stage. It’s hard to imagine he’d let the event happen without him, even if it’s just a few words at the start. But let’s hope he’s well enough to MC the whole show. He’s been missed in the last year. No one does an Apple event like Jobs.
More pictures after the jump.
All the icons for folders and apps in Snow Leopard are now drawn in glorious 512 x 512 pixels. It’s a step toward making the operating system resolution independent, and perhaps also to make Snow Leopard a touchscreen friendly OS.
But it’s also obviously done just for the art of it. These icons are real beauties. They are full of great details and little surprises. One icon contains the words to a song, visible only if you blow it up to its full size.
Hit the jump for a gallery of hardcore icon porn.
Twitter user livelovelight just posted this picture of Steve Jobs’ car in a handicapped spot at Apple’s campus. The snap was posted at 2.43 PST — about half an hour ago. Steve’s car is probably still there.
Forty minutes earlier, livelovelight tweated that he’d just missed Jobs: “At apple headquarters. Just missed steve jobs by 2 minutes,” he said.
Jobs is famous for parking in the handicapped spots (check out this hilarious gallery), but perhaps now he’s recovering from a liver transplant he has a genuine handicapped permit. I don’t see it hanging off the mirror though. He must have taken it with him.
And here he is talking to Jonny Ive. This picture was uploaded to Skitch about 33 minutes ago.
We’ve read of all sorts of ingenious ways to power our favorite electronics, including solar and our own body’s heat or movement. But in one of the more practical examples, a New York company harnesses the power of your bicycle to keep your iPod or iPhone charged.
The BioLogic FreeCharge, unveiled at the Eurobike show in Germany, can fully charge your iPod or iPhone in 3 hours. Although its unlikely most of us go on three-hour bike rides, the $100 gadget will keep your iPod from going flat when you’re nowhere near an electrical outlet.
The BioLogic FreeCharge works by taking the power from your bike’s generator hub, filtering the juice through some circuitry that prevents spikes, and sending the electricity off to you iPod, iPhone or any gizmo with a USB port.
The BioLogic FreeCharge will be available March 2010.
[Via Gadget Lab and Bike Hugger]
