In case you missed all the Apple excitement today or you’re just plain confused about all the new announcements, I figured I’d take a few minutes to fill ya’ll in (show you how much time I had on my hands tonight) on some of the latest buzz.
There weren’t any major changes to the regular iPod but it did get a few enhancements and the prices were lowered by 50 bucks. New features include a 60% brighter display and a 75% longer battery life. They now play really cool games, sport a new search feature, include new headphones and for the first time in digital music player history, they support gapless playback which should resolve that annoying gap of silence between “The Great Gig in the Sky” and “Money” when listening to Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon”. Of course, it still supports video playback and can store and display your entire iPhoto collection (unless you’re a photo freak and have more than 25,000 photos). Prices are $249 (30GB) and $349 (80GB).
The new iPod nano is now made of aluminum and comes in 5 cool colors. Like it’s older brother, it also received more storage, a brighter screen, longer battery life (24 hrs), the search feature, new headphones and gapless playback. Plus, Apple somehow managed to make it even thinner which, if you’re ever seen one in person, you’ll know is quite extraordinary. Still no video playback for the iPod nano (you’d need very little eyes to watch if it did) but it does hold up to 25,000 photos. Prices are $149 (2GB, silver), $199 (4GB, 4 colors) and $249 (8GB, black).
The iPod shuffle got a complete redesign. It’s now less than half the size as before making it the world’s smallest MP3 player. It’s got an aluminum case with a built-in clip making it more durable and wearable than ever along with 1GB of storage, a dock and of course, new headphones. What else? It’s only $79.
For more information or if you happen to be in the mood to drool all over your keyboard, head over to Apple.com and start making your Christmas wish list.
September 13th, 2006 at 11:30 am
I’m thinking that I’ll probably get the 5.5G 80 gig when it becomes available. Mainly for the reason of more space. Mine now is the 4th gen 20 gig and I’ve damn near got the thing full of music. Having video pictures and games will be a very nice plus as well. Anyone played around with iTunes 7 much yet? I’m liking it a lot so far but when I imported a CD, it didn’t provide me with the album art as promised. I was logged in to my iTunes account. I even saw a message that said something like “retrieving album art data”. Has anyone else seen this?
September 13th, 2006 at 12:00 pm
I am having the same album art problem you you, BB. Apparently we’re not the only ones.
September 13th, 2006 at 4:44 pm
I’ve gotten most of my album art but some of what I’m missing is due to the fact that most of my music is from indie bands. And for some reason iTunes has something against Radiohead or vice-versa.
I was planning on getting my wife an iPod for X-mas anyway, now the deal is sweeter with that new pink one. But now I’m thinking the video one might be better.