As no-one at Engadget has the new iPod they couldn’t really take photos. But a kind reader, Garret M, has taken photos of his iPod that arrived this morning. More photos below.
The Box Open
The iPod in all its glory
5G vs 3G iPod, 5G clearly wins.
Archive for the 'Podcasting' Category
Page 2 of 3
The Box Open
Steve Jobs showed off their latest iPod ‘silhouette’ advert at the ‘Special Event’ in San Jose. I say ‘silhouette’ because it is multi coloured and Eminem has shades so you can make out who he, otherwise you would think that the person is your average John Doe. Although I don’t like Eminem or his music I like the ad. Apple have gone to a length to make this ad considering how earlier last year Eminem sued Apple for using his music in an Ad without asking him. There have been reports from sites including The Unofficial Apple Weblog that Apple have taken the Ad from their website and it won’t be airing on the TV but I found it on Apple’s website and have download it. Just in case it disappears I have a link below to a smaller version.
iPod Ad [H.264 - 320 x 240 - 1.6MB] This requires Quicktime 7
One of my favourite podcasts, The MacCast, was mentioned on The Gadget Show on Channel 5 here in the UK. They said that it was a very good podcast and they highly reccomend it to anyone. The MacCast is a podcast about Apple and anything Mac related including news and listener questions and answers. You can download The Gadget Show clip below and the full section of podcasting in The Gadget Show.
MacCast Clip [H.264 - 1024 x 576 - 4.4MB]
Full Section [H.264 - 640 x 480 - 87MB]
Both of these videos require QuickTime 7 or later to view. Command-Click (Right-Click) and Save Target As to download the files.
I was really hyped up about iTunes 6 and I really couldn’t wait any longer. So I headed to the US site and download iTunes 6 for Mac. After downloading 80MB(!!) I installed it and off I went. You can see the screenshot above. I had already told iTunes where my music was being kept (in the network drive called MUSIC) and it found some videos that my dad had downloaded once. Pretty cool, and it was all done automatically. The iTunes Music Store hompage is the same as always but with a few adverts labelled: “U2 Exclusive Video”, “Pixar Movie Shorts” and a bunch of others. I really haven’t seen anything about the TV shows, but I quickly changed my Music Store location to USA and what did it show? Adverts for ‘Lost’ and ‘Desperate Housewives’. Please do something in the UK Apple and make it be soon. I clicked on the link for ‘Lost’ and I was taken to the Lost’s page. A screenshot can be seen below.
Apple Website (US – iTunes)
UPDATE: You can now download iTunes 6 through the UK site. [link]
Interestingly, although iTunes 6 was announced and you can see the ads places on Apple’s page above, if you click the link for iTunes it just shows the page for iTunes 5. This only seems to be happening for the UK site, which was updated later when iTunes 5 was released.
What do they cost? $1.99 [£1.89] each. But we didn’t stop there; we’re adding some other videos you can buy. Pixar is putting up six of their award-winning short videos. $1.99 each. We are downloading videos 320 x 240, which is the native resolution of the iPod. They’re about the size of six songs. All songs are governed by FairPlay. You can play them on up to five computers. They’re not rentals. You own them — they never time out. We have one more thing today, a pretty big thing. We’re announcing one more thing that you can buy off the iTunes store today, and that is TV shows. What’s the number one show on TV? What’s the second? Lost. And who has these shows? ABC. And who owns ABC? [Disney logo on screen.] I know those guys! Lost, Desperate Housewives, Night Stalker, That’s So Raven, The Suite Life. Yes, you can buy current episodes, and you can buy them the day after they are broadcast. They’re ad free so you don’t need to fast forward through the commercials, 320 x 240 again. An hour show is about the size of five albums. Depending on your speed it’s about 10-20 minute to download an episode. What are they going to cost? $1.99 an episode for current season and past seasons. We have free previews on every episode.
This seems really cool, as most of these shows air in the UK as well and are broadcast by a variety of channels, such as Channel 4 for ‘Lost’, The Disney Channel for ‘That’s So Raven’ and ‘The Suite Life’. I am going to be interested to see how Apple work it out in the UK, or at least I hope they do something because it would be a really big blow if it was only for the US. We just have to sit and wait, again.
Apple Website (US – iTunes 6)
Podcasts, Photos, Music and now videos. Home videos and TV shows. It has a 320 x 240 pixel 2.5-inch display with 260,000 colours, 20 hours of battery life, and supports playback of H.264 and MPEG4 at 30 fps. Has TV out and will come in both 30GB and 60GB versions, with the 30GB version being 31% thinner than the current 20GB iPod and the 60GB version being 12% thinner than the current 20GB iPod. The 30GB will hold up to 75 hours of video and retail for £219. The 60GB version will hold 150 hours of video and sell for £299. Both will ship in one week and will come in black or white (see below for picture). It no longer ships with an AC Adapter but does ship with a case (thank god).
Apple’s Website (UK)
The news, in order of announcing:
- New flatter iMac with built-in iSight. The new prices are as follows: $1299 US for the 1.5GHZ 17-inch model and $1799 US for the 2.1GHz 20 inch model. No word yet on the UK price, it will probably be on Apple’s website when the event it over.
- There is a replacement for Sailling Clicker, which offer many applications to control your mac, via phone or PDA. This is apparently in the form of a remote sort of thing. It is called FrontRow. It uses bluetooth and apparently looks like an iPod shuffle.
- New iPod! The new iPod, as rumored, features video capabilities and the wider display, but it’s still a music-first device. This probably means that the photo below is real. It has a 2.5-inch display, QVGA resolution (320 x 240), and will support MPEG-4 h.264 and probably Quicktime.
- The new iPod will be 30% thinner (making it 0.44-inches!!) than the current 20GB iPod, and will feature a 60GB version, both in black colours and white. The 20GB should go for $299, and the 60GB for $399. They’ll be shipping next week. The iPod is just being called the “iPod” which I think means that the current iPods will be discontinued. Again I was right, the current iPod is being replaced. Same width and height as current model, but thinner. QVGA (324 x 240) pixel 260,000 color 2.5-inch display. h.264 and MPEG-4 at 30 fps. TV out.
- iTunes 6 – Only a month after the release of iTunes 5, version 6 is out. I think that was pointless! It is not available yet on Software update. iTunes 6 will feature video downloads at launch, over 2000 music videos will be made available at a cost of $1.99 per video. The iTunes Music store will have airplay DRM’ed video downloads. It will probably work like the purchased music. You can only watch it on 5 computers and your iPod. Kinda sucks. I was right. You also can’t burn to DVD or CD. You can ‘gift’ videos.
- As well as music videos to buy, you can also buy TV shows for $1.99 per episode. Get Desperate Housewives or four other ABC shows premiering on iTunes. Videos are native QVGA resolution so it will be best to watch them on the iPod and not the computer. Not sure how it will work in the UK as we have different shows, but hopefully they will give us some good ones. Apple could have been talking to the BBC because of that, and that is why someone on the BBC accidentally let it slip that there will be a video iPod.
That is all there is. I have a post coming with pictures!
Ok guys, the event has started, but because Apple conviniently chose an area where there is no mobile coverage there will be no live updates, but the news will be brought to you as quick as possible. The image above is apparently of the new iPod that will be announced. It looks like it would fit in with the posters and has a pretty large screen. It looks like a pre-production model which is for testing purposes only. I think it doesn’t look that good. It has made the iPod wider and the click wheel looks small with the space next to it. I hope they don’t release it. It kind of appears like a nano, but stretched out. I still don’t know about playing video on that, if it will? Anyway we will find out soon.
UPDATE: This is real.
Could this be the new iPod that Apple will announce? Apparently the photo was taken at the Apple Event, after people had a chance to sign in. The event is going to start in less than 20 minutes so I will keep everyone updated through my site. This image is a zoom-in of the poster that is apparently at the event. iLounge claims that the poster shows a new device with a 2.5 to 2.6-inch diagonal display (compared to the 2 inch that the normal iPods are) and a headphone jack that’s obviously been moved from the centre. We will find out soon if it is true. Another picture below.
read more (iLounge Live Event Page)
As a part of my subscription with Apple, they send me weekly newsletters and the above screenshot shows the latest one for October 7. It reads “Find it. Hear it. Buy it. Mix it. Watch it. Right from your desktop with iTunes.” By watch it, it could mean that there will be something interesting to watch, like movies, apart from music videos and vidcasts, although it probably means the latter ones. I think that although a video iPod probably won’t be announced, the iTunes Video Store could well be. But I have to question what DRM they will use? It better not be some crappy one which needs proprietary software and/or hardware. You never know…