Wednesday - tech/news

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New apple Products
Ok, Last week Apple introduced some updates, and some new products. Which were pretty cool.

First off we have the New ipod shuffle... It is tiny! Starting out at 1gb, and having an average battery life of 24 hours it is a major upgrade to the shuffle line. The matchbook size player has a clip on back which means that you can simply clip it on your sleeve, or your collar and go.
Apple's new iPod shuffle, even smaller with built-in clip. Just $79. Pre-order yours now.

Next we have the new Ipod Nanos.

The player itself has gone through the same fairly heavy upgrades as the shuffle. The battery life has been extended, and the drives capacity is much higher. The thing that has really changed however, is the colour scheme. The Ipod minis came in a variety of colours, and thankfully, that feature has been returned with the nanos. They have this nice little blue one that I want... lol

"A thinner design. Five stylish colors. A brighter display. Up to 24 hours of battery life. Just about the only thing that hasn?t changed is the name. In 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB models starting at $149, iPod nano puts up to 2,000 songs in your pocket."
Apple's New iPod nano redesigned in 5 brilliant colors. 2 2GB, 4GB, 8GB models from $149.

iTunes 7 was also released.

It includes a number of enhancements, including support for iTunes Music Store account holders to automatically add album artwork to any MP3s that are missing it. Along with that, new views allow you to browse your music collection by artwork, as if flipping through a physical CD collection. That functionality is provided courtesy of CoverFlow, a third-party application Apple recently acquired the rights to. A neat feature that allows you to "flip" through the cover art, somewhat like flipping through a pile of LP's like grandma used to have. It's a neat feature, and makes browsing through a large collection quite more fun.

The regular Ipod line has also been enhanced.

The player itself now goes up to 80gb! Which is pretty coo... So of course they had to give us something to fill our new capacity up with. MOVIES!

The Itunes story now sells movies... You can, a the present time, get any movies that Dysney sells, or Lionsgate. Which is pretty cool. We can watch Capt Jack dance across our ipod screen.

Apple is offering movie sales at a resolution of 640x480, encoded with the H.264 video codec, and is increasing television shows to the same resolution, a four-fold increase from the previous 320x240 size. It's unknown at present what bitrate the movies will be encoded at, but Apple says a 5Mbps Internet connection will be able to download a movie in about 30 minutes and that the quality is on par with DVD.

"Now that you can buy movies from the iTunes Store and sync them to your iPod, the whole world is your theater. With a 30GB or 80GB iPod in hand, those movies fit comfortably next to TV shows, new iPod games, podcasts, audiobooks, photo albums, and, of course, an entire library of music ? up to 20,000 songs, in fact. Now starting at $249, iPod is a pocket-size prodigy."

New iPod from Apple: now movies, games, and music. From $249 with free shipping.

In a unique sneak preview, Apple demonstrated its forthcoming set-top device, currently dubbed iTV. The device is about half the size of a Mac mini and features USB, ethernet, 802.11 wireless, HDMI, optical audio, and RCA connectors.

The iTV will connect to a television and allow content to be delivered through a Front Row-like interface. Content will presumably be streamed from other computers on the network storing it.

iTV will cost $299 when it goes on sale in the first quarter of 2007.

Of interest, the reference to "802.11 wireless networking" would seem to imply 802.11n, the as-of-yet unfinished next-generation wireless standard that will support transfer speeds about ten times faster than 802.11g, delivering the bandwidth needed for smooth video streaming.

Final spec 802.11n devices are not expected until mid-2007, although Apple has previously pioneered the deployment of other 802.11 standards, suggesting the company may deliver 802.11n networking to Macs early next year, as well.


Thanks Think Secret!