Yup. Apple Showtime was in San Francisco yesterday. I could've went...I live only 40 minutes away.
Damn school...
The 5.5G iPod has some new features. 60% brighter screen and battery time has been increased to 14 hours of music and 4.5 hours of videos. Other than that, the specs are the same. However, now Apple has price cuts on them, so the 30GB is $249 and the new 80GB is $349, respectively.
The 2G iPod Nano now come in five colors and three sizes. The 2GB is $149 and is only available in Silver. The 4GB is $199 and is available in all colors except Black. The 8GB is $249 and is available in all colors. Now it's completely encased in brushed aluminum and the sides are similar like the iPod Mini.
The iPod Shuffle is only available in 2GB and costs $79.
As of now, both the 5.5G iPod and 2G iPod Nano are in stores and the 2G iPod Shuffle is scheduled for a October release.
Also, iTunes 7 has been released along with some very interesting features. iPod Management is very nicely designed and the iTunes Library is larger than ever. New firmware for the 5G and 5.5G iPods have been released as well. Gapless playback (meaning no more one or two second gaps between songs) is now available, screen brightness is adjustable, searching is also available. There are also games available for the iPod Video, such as Tetris, Bejewled, Texas Hold 'Em and Mahjong, Pac-Man and many others.
Perhaps my favorite of the whole show was Apple's unveiling of their iTV media set-top box. It's about the same size as the Mac Mini, but cut in half. Wireless is the main idea here, but a single ethernet port is provided. Other ports are the for the power (no power brick needed), HD Composite, Audio, Optical Audio, and best of all: HDMI.
At a relatively low price of $299, it's already dubbed as a poor-man's set-top box compared to other similar products like Sony's Location Free products which cost signifigantly smaller.
Of course, my favorite thing. The day after everyone was awed by Apple's revamped Shuffle, iRiver has officially crashed the party. Introducing the iRiver S10. It's about the same size as the Shuffle but note the screen. Playing time is rumored at 8 hours, which isn't bad considering the screen. No price or release date has been announced.
http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/13/the-curtain-is-lifted-on-the-iriver-s10/
My opinion of the past two days? Props to iRiver for crashing the party! The S10 is not only sexy, but it delivers what most people have been expecting to see out of the iPod Shuffle. Well done, iRiver!
On the other hand, Apple has definately made themselves more competitive. Improving issues that most people noticed (like the batteries) and cutting the price may be a very smart move by Apple. 30GB at $249? 80GB at $349?! Those are very attractive prices indeed. Also, I applaud Apple's move into the living room with the iTV. It's nice, small, has loads of outputs for the HD Era and it's cheap (Sony's Location-Free costs almost $1,000 or more). Very good show Apple, very good show indeed.
