APPLE MUSIC EVENT 2010
Vidit Bhargava
This month Apple, launched their iPod updates. Everything was updated, from iTunes to the Apple TV, price cut and rise was seen in every new release. In the limelight were the new iPod and the other Steve (wozniak), who was seen in the beginning of the event. As I said before, All the iPods were updated. So let's preview all of them.
iPod Nano 6G
Shed the weight, size, price and some really cool features, and add a clip and multi-touch screen instead. That's whats Apple's iDea of redefining 'Nano' music player that has one the hearts of every one ever since its late 2005 release, but lets not start with complaints. lets see what is really packed in first.
Key Improvements: Multi-Touch Screen: A 1.7" (Yeah, you heard it right) Touch Screen that is greater than all the other touch-screens in the mobile device segment for $149 is a big achievement. The touch-screen addition to the new iPod Nano makes it more interactive. You get that 'almost similar to iOS' feel in the device. And you can do loads, with it - Except the 'Snazzy Apps'. That's what in summary is the new iPod Nano 6G, actually. Its actually what you can do with this screen and a device of this size.
UI - At the 1.7" touch-screen you'll get the best UI on the iPod ever. The cover-art takes up the screen completely while playing music, which looks brilliant in the hand. The iOS like UI does give you a feel of using something really precious.
Other things that stay: The ability to create playlists and play-pause in-built radio stay in the iPod Nano 6G. (Of course that's apart from Music playback!)
Feature's You'll miss: What the iPod Nano doesn't have, is a big list and that too of those features that were the certainly enjoyed by the users. Video Playback, CoverFlow, Camera, and the black color (it is a dark shade of grey instead).
It is clear by this upgrade that Apple wants to change the image of iPod Nano from being a cheaper alternative to iPod Classic to a certainly 'nano' device with just about every basic thing you need, and is portable. I've also seen wrist-cases for iPod Nano coming out, these intend to use it as a wrist-watch cum iPod, which ofcourse is any day welcomed. I've not seen a better wrist-watch at 10K.
iPod Touch
You expected Retina Displays here, didn't you? Well, that's exactly what the new iPod Touch 4G is about. What Apple did with the iPhone has been replicated here and its thinner than ever at 7.2mm of thickness. Though, since the price is not, you'll miss a few key things.
First to come is the back camera: You get Half HD (720p) video recording and still photos photos at 960 x 720 px and HDR. You'll see that the iPod Touch lacks an LED Flash and 5MP camera for still images. So, that's not a perfect digital photography experience, but its just about fine.
Here comes FaceTime: Just when you thought, that FaceTime was Apple's new 'video calling' service, you went wrong. Apple has added FaceTime in their new iPod Touch too, and that's for a video conference with other Apple ID users! So you get a front VGA Camera for that.
Retina Display: There is nothing much to tell about here, its the same 326ppi display by Apple here, but without IPS. So the display is not as bright as the iPhone's but you still get a wonderful quality.
GameCenter: That's as we told you earlier, Apple's Gaming Social Network, it is about challenging your friends to play games, over the internet and then maintiaining your profile. This certainly does make the new iPod Touch much more gaming friendly and with over a 1.5 billion games (all big and small) its nice to see the iPod Touch going somewhere atleast. [GameCenter also comes with the iOS 4.1 update for iPod Touch 2G and 3G, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4.]
The Apple A4 chip is packed inside the new iPod Touch. Well, that's pretty much it, the iPOd Touch is certainly a very good, music player and a gaming device and now it does the HD recorder thingy, also. There's not much of disappointment here.
iPod Shuffle
There's not much about the new iPod Shuffle that you'll see. It has retained the old button design but also retained the 'VoiceOVer' feature from the previous iPod Shuffle. They've also added fresh colors (which does not include black!). And you'll see a cut down of prices also.
This month's september update didn't have any thing in store for the GrandPa iPod (iPod Classic). It remains the same as it was last year.
Apart from the iPods there were other two highlights of the event also: iTunes 10: The iTunes 10 is not such a big upgrade to the new iTunes line as is the new iTunes Store service called 'Ping'. Ping is a social networking service where you can find your favorite artists operating socially. The Apple Site describes it better:
Learn even more about your favorite artists and friends starting with their bios. See what they've been up to, listen to 30-second previews of music they like. Find out when and where artists and bands are on tour, and check out photos and videos they've posted. With Ping.
So that's ping, one more to the existing herd of social networks, but just a wee-bit different. However, what Apple thinks is that only the elite 23 countries of the world which have an iTunes Store online, can socialize musically!
Apple TV: At the D8, Steve Jobs said "Apple TV is a hobby, we don't think people like to use those bulky set top boxs". So Apple decided to shed the wait from their TV, and made it look more like a 'hockey puck' with the brilliant black color and HDMI port (No AV ports here), and the same Apple TV OS, with the ability to wirelessly sync the computer content and only 'rent' the TV Shows from iTunes Store. The price has also been reduced from $299 to a whooping $99. But Since, its more of iTUnes Store based there is nothing much in store for Indian Users.