Apple iTV, Improved Video iPod, iPod nano, Shuffle, and iTunes 7 with Movies Announced
Steve Jobs was the man at today's "It's Showtime!" Apple event from San Francisco, announcing a new enhanced video iPod with 60 percent brighter screen and 3.5 hours battery life, and newly designed white earphones. A new 80GB model iPod video ($349) which holds up to 20,000 songs or 100 hours of video was announced as well. There's a new "gapless playback" option that will play back your music non-stop, and now you can also buy games (Bejeweled, Mahjong, mini-golf, Pac-Man, Tetris, Cubis, Texas Hold ‘Em) for your new iPod for $4.99 each.
Also announced: A new design for the second generation iPod nano made of aluminum (scratch proof?) that will be available in a variety of colors - like the old iPod mini players - and up to 8GB capacity and 24 hour battery life. The new 2GB iPod nano model in silver is available for $149 (US), the new 4GB models in silver, pink, green and blue are available for $199 (US), and the new 8GB model in black is available for $249 (US).
There's also a new tiny second generation iPod Shuffle that is said to be the smallest mp3 player in the world at just half a cubic inch. The new iPod Shuffle contains one gigabyte of flash memory which holds up to 240 songs, and will cost $79. The new
itunes 7 features new album and Cover Flow views of music, TV shows and movies, enabling you to quickly find titles in your library. iTunes 7 has better media organization with separate libraries for music, podcasts, TV shows etc.
Let's not forget the big news...Movies, at near DVD image quality with Dolby surround audio that will be available the same day as the DVD release. Staring today, 75 films will be available online from Walt Disney's catalog, including Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and Cars. New releases cost $12.99 for pre-orders and during their first week of release, but after the price gets bumped up to $14.99. Older “library titles” will be priced at $9.99. Movie downloads are now shown at a new improved 640 x 480 resolution.
Steve Jobs also gave a sneak-peek at a new device called iTV that allows you to control your multi-media (Movies, TV Shows, Music, Podcasts, Photos) and stream your digital videos and movies to a big screen HDTV. The iTV device features integrated wireless networking, a power plug, USB 2.0, Ethernet, High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) plug, component video, analog audio and optical audio interfaces. Apple iTV works with PCs or Macs and will be available in Q1 2007 for $299.
Read the Live coverage notes from today's Apple Showtime! event.
