Wednesday, October 12, 2005 |
10:51 - Video stuff
http://www.stuffmag.co.uk/hotstuffarticle.asp?de_id=594
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Well, here's the rundown on the Apple announcements today. Apparently the keynote is being held in some sort of Wi-Fi/cellphone-proof bunker so nobody is able to blog it live.
- There are three 'acts' to his speech. The best will no doubt come last. Anyway, Act 1 is the iMac - which sold over 1m in last year. The all-new iMac has three new features: it's thinner, it's got an iSight videocamera built in and new app called Photobooth. Finally, there's a new app called Front Row.
- Act Two:the iPod. Apple has shipped over a million Nanos in less than five weeks. Now, it's the NEW white iPod - and yes it does video! The format is similar to the old pod but with a bigger screen - a 2.5in TFT display with 320x240 pixels with realtime decoding of MPEG 4 and H.264 video. It's only got 260,000 colours but it does have video output to connect to TV.
- The video iPod is available in 30 and 60 GB capacities - and both are thinner than the current 20GB Pod. 30GB will be $299, 60GB will be $399. UK prices will be confirmed later. And did we mention it was available in black? Oh yes, and it comes with a case, so don't worry about scratches!
Also there's iTunes 6. Yes, iTunes 6.
Nothing on apple.com yet, and the /movies URL is still closed; later today we'll see.
UPDATE: Duh.
AND ONE MORE THING... You'll be able to buy TV shows from the iTunes Music Store - Desperate Housewives, Lost and more shows from ABC and Disney. Five shows will be available to watch on iPod or computer: Lost, Desperate Housewives, Nightstalker, The Suite Life and some other Disney thang. $1.99 an episode.
UPDATE: Okay, it's all online now.
New iPod is thinner but bigger—2.5-inch screen, which I guess is a necessity, but makes the whole package bigger. So much the better for product differentiation versus the iPod nano, which by all accounts has been beating the hell out of the full-size iPod in sales. This upgrade should turn the full-size one into something intended to address a very different set of needs. And the price is attractive.
Oh yes, and the new iMac is going to require some fancy punditry. It appears that it's filling the shoes of the "set-top box" that everyone thought the Mac mini would be, with custom software (FrontRow) and a video tuning remote that looks like an iPod (apparently Steve showed it off next to the Windows Media Center remote—6 buttons versus 40-something). Plus it has a built-in iSight, so now all they have to do is make video chat actually work, and it might be useful.
UPDATE: John Gruber runs down the list of observations. I guess the iPod isn't bigger after all—it's just that the screen/scrollwheel size ratio is much higher now.
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