Apple iPod/iTunes/iOS press event
As usual we’re not at the Apple press event but since Apple is live streaming the event, we’re able to provide some live blogging on all the announcements! Here goes!
10:01: Steve Jobs comes out on stage and introduces Woz (is he trying to make amends??
- Steve is going over the retail stores – showing off the new Paris store (Hey – visit Paris and visit the Apple store right? Why not?)
- Now talking about the recent opening of the 2nd store in China over in Shanghai. 40 foot high glass cylinder.
- Third big store which opened recently was in London (2nd large store in London). Right in the heart of Covent Garden. This was Apple’s 300th store. Apple is now in 10 countries and will soon open up in Spain which would make it the 11th country.
- 1 million visitors some days to Apple stores. 50 percent of visitors are buying their first Mac
10:05: Steve shifts to iOS:
- 120 million iOS devices shipped in total
- Activating 230K iOS devices per day. (These are new activations – NOT upgrades)
- 6.5 billion downloads from the App store so far. 200 apps every second.
- 250,000 apps now in the App store. 25K of the 250K apps are now iPad apps
10:08: Apple introducing iOS 4.1
- Lots of bugs being fixed.
- High Dynamic Range (HDR) photos comes to iOS 4.1
- HD video upload over Wi-Fi
- TV show rentals
- Game Center debuting to end-users
Jobs now goes over some of the new features:
High Dynamic Range (HD) photos:
- Take a picture and the OS will take three pictures – one normal exposure, one under-exposed and one over-exposed. Taken together, the OS will enhance the shot taken to extract details and colors you wouldn’t otherwise see. You’ll see the normal photo and the HDR enhanced photo.
Game Center:
- It’s an API and an App
- It’s all about multiplayer games. Allows you to challenge your friends in games. Should you not have any friends, it will match you with others online.
- Comes with achievements and leaderboards
- Steve introduces Epic’s upcoming new game, code-named project “sword” – a role playing adventure. (This looks like one sweet game folks – wish I had a snapshot to show you). Game Center provides all the social interaction allowing game developers to focus on gaming and content. (oh this game is powered by Unreal tech). Will be available on iPod touch, iPhone and iPad this holiday season.
iOS 4.1 coming out next week – will be a free download via iTunes.
10:16 am: Steve now talking about iOS 4.2 coming out later on. This releasei s all about the iPad
- All the things you’ve come to expect in iOS 4 will be coming to the iPad
- Adding wireless printing (YAY!)
- Stream audio, video, and photos over Wi-Fi
Steve is now demoing iOS 4.2. Shows off multitasking (Pandora in the background and checking email at the same time – oh and then browsing the web); Shows off folders support (same drag and drop feature for apps into folders);
iOS 4.2 is coming out in November – free update for all iOS devices.
10:20am: Steve moves to the entree today – all about iPods.
- 275 million iPods have been sold so far
ALL NEW IPODS for every single model of iPod being announced today.
iPod Shuffle:
- Smaller than 2nd generation and comes with buttons and playlist support
- Comes with clip making it instantly wearable
- Genius mixes support coming to shuffle
- VoiceOver support
- 15 hours of music
- 5 colors
- Sells for $49 dollars
iPod nano:
- Smaller than ever (it’s practically square folks)
- No more click-wheel
- Adding multi-touch display to iPod nano
- Comes with clip
- 46 percent smaller and 42 percent lighter
- Volume buttons
- VoiceOver
- FM radio
- Nike+ support (nice!)
- 29 languages
- 24 hour battery life
- Genius support
- You can move icons around just like you would on the iPod touch/iPhone
- Rotate the screen using your fingers (guess there’s no accelerometer)
- (Whoops. Steve called the nano the iPod touch)
- Comes in 6 colors total (4 + two new colors)
- Sells for $149 dollars for 8GB; $179 for 16GB
iPod touch:
- This is now the most popular iPod
- Steve claims the iPod touch is now the #1 portable game player in the world. iPod touch outsells Nintendo and Sony portable game players combined. Has 50+ percent of the market share
- 1.5 billion game and entertainment downloads just to iPod touch alone
- New iPod touch introduced. Thinner than ever. Basically the same look as the iPod touch (though slightly slanted at the edges)
- Comes with retina display – same as the one on the iPhone
- A4 chip
- 3 axis gyro
- iOS 4.1 + Game Center
- Front Facing Camera
- Rear Camera with HD recording
- 40 hours of music playback
- FaceTime support
- 8GB for $229
- 32GB for $299
- 64GB for $399
All new iPods available starting next week with preorders available now.
10:36am: Steve now showing off some new ads.
Wait.. was that a Beatles picture I see?
10:38am: Steve moving onto iTunes..
- 11.7 billion songs downloaded from iTunes
- 450 million TV episodes have been downloaded
- 100 million movies downloaded
- 35 million books downloaded
- 160 million accounts with credit cards and one-click shopping in 23 countries
Steve announces iTunes 10.
- New logo for iTunes 10 – they’re ditching the CD
- New hybrid view showing off album art if you have more than 5 songs for an album
Announces “Ping” in iTunes 10. It’s a social network for music. Facebook and Twitter meets iTunes.
- Follow your favorite artists and friends
- Discover the music they’re talking about and downloading
- Follow your friends and artists posts, photos, comments; see charts of music that your friends are downloading.
- See your favorite artists posts, music, and upcoming concerts
- Social music discovery
- Follow and be followed
- You can allow anyone to follow you OR you can control who can follow you (basically an approval mechanism). Be as public or private as you want.
- Over 17,000 concert listings
- 160 million iTunes users in 23 countries
Ping is also available on the iPhone and iPod touch. Ping will be in the iTunes App Store.
iTunes 10 is available today
But wait..
one more thing.
“One more hobby” to announce.. (of course it’s about Apple TV)
Steve acknowledges Apple TV has never been a huge hit.
People want:
- Hollywood movies and TV shows whenever they want them. They don’t want “amateur hour”
- everything in HD. HD won.
- Lower prices for content
- Don’t want a computer on their TV.
- Don’t want to manage storage
- Don’t want to sync to a computer (AMEN to that!)
- Want hardware to be silent, cool and small
10:53am: Steve introduces the new 2nd generation Apple tV – one quarter the size folks!
- Matte black color
- HDMI, USB, optical audio, Ethernet ports
- 802.11n Wi-Fi
- All new rental model. You rent everything. There’s nothing to store on the Apple TV
- Stream content from your computer if you want to – no syncing required.
- Movies, TV shows and music
- All HD when available
- No storage management
- Stunning photo slideshows
- Silent, cool and tiny
- $4.99 first run HD movies to rent
- 0.99 cent HD TV shows to rent
- Streaming Netflix support
- Rotten tomatoes ratings now in the UI
Time for a demo. Steve is renting Iron Man 2 (which isn’t coming out till the end of the month)
Some details on renting – you have 30 days to watch it and once you’ve started watching the show, you have 48 hours to finish it.
Showing off Netflix now. This is one beautiful user interface – arguably one of the best (if not the best) UI for Netflix yet.
Now talking about AirPlay. You can stream content from an Apple device to another Apple device – such as iPad to Apple TV. Watch a movie on your iPad then push it to your TV to finish it up.
Apple TV price lowered to $99 dollars.
Available in 4 weeks – pre-order today.
New iPods, new Apple TV, new iTunes, new iOS…
Chris Martin from Coldplay is now performing. Nice.
