Apple just released iTunes 10.1.2 into the world. Nothing major, just your usual provides a number of important stability and performance improvements update – one of which is to enable syncing with the soon-to-be-available CDMA iPhone 4 for Verizon. For the rest of us, just take it as a bug fix…
Go do your Software Update now!
iTunes is 10. Yesterday, 9 Jan to be exact.
How things have changed. Seems only yesterday we were just playing MP3s of the iTunes app. Now it has become one of the most used app on the Mac. Be it for music, videos, podcast, photos, books and lots more.
This is how iTunes looked back in January 2001. You’ve all grown up now…
(image from GUI Guidebook)
Firstly, we’d like to thank all of you who stayed up with us last night. For those who missed the keynote, here’s a quick roundup of all the new products announced by Apple.
iOS 4.1 will be released next week and available as a free update via iTunes. Some of the fixes include issues with the proximity sensor, better Bluetooth support and issues for iPhone 3G users. Some of the new features include support for HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos, ability to upload HD videos over WiFi and GameCenter. This is Apple’s solution to unify the gaming networks such as OpenFeint and Crystal. Also, GameCenter manages game invites between your friends and global leaderboards, similar to Xbox LIVE.
We think this is a great feature but will need to see the final implementation and how many games that will be linked with GameCenter before we decide its usefulness.
iOS 4.2 will be released in November, primarily to update the iPad to be in line with the rest of the iOS devices. Currently, still on iOS3.x, iPad will gain multi-tasking and support for folders, which iOS users have gotten used to. In addition to that, this update adds printing support via Print Center so if you have a wireless printer at home, you’re can print your documents directly from your iPad. This feature is definitely a useful addition to the iPad. We think this is the beginning of more iPad-specific features to come, to differentiate with what iPhone and iPod touch can do.
The buttons are back, after being removed from the previous generation. This new shuffle now gets 15 hours of battery life per charge and is available in 5 colors – pink, silver, blue, green and gold. They retail for S$78.00, and is available in 5 to 7 business days from the Apple Store.
The nano is now smaller and they removed the built-in camera in the previous generation but added a multi-touch screen. It’s now about 1.48 inches tall and 1.61 inches wide. The new nano gets 24 hours of playback time per charge and has a built-in FM tuner. It’s available in 7 colors – pink, silver, blue, green, gold, black and red. They retail at $228 for the 8GB version and $278 for the 16GB, and is available in 7 to 10 business days from the Apple Store.
For the fashion conscious, the new iPod nano will become a hit as we are sure 3rd party vendors will come out with wrist straps, belt holders for you to slide/snap the iPod nano and you can wear it like a fashion accessory, while still listening to your music. With Nike+ support, we think this is also the perfect companion for users who wants to go jogging and not have to strap their iPhones to their biceps.
As the rumor mills had predicted, the iPod touch also received updates. The new iPod touch will gain the Retina Display similar to the iPhone 4 with 960×640 resolution at 326 pixels per inch. It will be powered by the A4 chip, has the 3-axis gyro and, no surprise – front and back facing cameras for FaceTime. Yes, you can now use the iPod touch to FaceTime with your friends who have the iPhone 4. However, the back camera doesn’t have the same resolution as the iPhone, though it can take HD videos but only 960 × 720 photos.
The iPod touch now boasts a battery life of 40 hours and it will be available in three storage sizes – $328 for 8GB, $428 for 32GB and $588 for 64GB. All three will ship within 5 to 7 business days from the Apple Store.
According to Apple, the iPod touch has became the #1 portable game player, outselling Sony and Nintendo. With the upgrade to the A4 processor and Retina Display, the new iPod touch will really appeal to game developers to develop more graphics intensive games. For example, check out this demo by Epic Games Inc – Epic Citadel that shows you the environment created powered by the Unreal Engine 3. This will become a yet-to-be-released game coming out soon. Together with GameCenter, the iPod touch and iPhone 4 might be gamers’ favorite mobile device in the near future.
This new version of iTunes will sport a new logo and a new social networking system called Ping. Ping provides social music discovery where you and your friends can share what you’re listening to. You can also follow artists and look at their photos, comments and tour dates. We will test this new version when we install it but from what it reads on paper, it certainly makes a lot of sense to provide support a social media dimension to iTunes.
However, as Ping works together with the iTunes Music store, which is not available in Singapore, users with the Singapore iTunes account will not be able to use Ping.
The new iTunes will also sport subtle changes to the user interface. Apple has also extended the previously named AirTunes, to become AirPlay. Besides the name change, AirPlay allows you to stream music, videos from your iTunes 10 to any AirPlay-supported devices which will be available soon.
This new version saw a major overhaul. It’s now smaller (about 1/4 the size of the previous generation) and powered by the A4 chip with HDMI output, micro-USB, digital audio and ethernet port. It will no longer have an internal hard disk, which means it has moved away from being a storage device to a streaming device. If you live in the US or have a US iTunes Store account, you can access First Run HD movies at US$4.99 or TV series at US$0.99 per episode.
This new Apple TV is not listed in the Singapore Apple Store since none of the contents are available for us here, except Podcasts and iTunes U, not things you’d want to spend money buying the Apple TV for.
Given that they’ve sold 275 million iPods to date, we think this line of new iPods will continue to drive Apple’s year-end sales. If you’re looking to upgrade your old iPod, this is probably a good time to. The iOS updates are pretty solid, I especially liked how the roadmap for iOS converges in November when iPad gets 4.2. Traditionally, Apple doesn’t roll out a massively long list of new features with every update but the few changes are almost always meaningful, namely GameCenter and wireless printing for the iPad.
Apple TV is our biggest gripe about last night’s announcement. The price point and form factor is attractive, but without an iTunes Store that serves video content, you’re essentially buying an overpriced paperweight. Without an internal hard disk, we’re not sure it’s possible to install 3rd party software. So, as Apple claims this is a hobby product for them, we’ll keep an eye out for but won’t take it too seriously until we have access to the content.
What are your thoughts about last night’s announcements? If you want to watch the whole keynote address, start iTunes and download the video Will you be buying new iPods? If so, which one?
In the mean time, here’s the latest iPod touch ad from Apple.
Here’s a quick tip on how you can save space on your iPhone with iTunes version 9.1 or later.
When you perform a sync of your iPhone to your Mac or PC, look at the first tab of iTunes and you should see this on the lower half of the screen.
Select the 3rd checkbox that says “Convert higher bit rate songs to 128 kbps AAC“. When you next hit sync, iTunes will convert songs of a higher bit rate to 128 kbps AAC format on-the fly and dumps it into your iPhone. Your mileage may vary depending on how many higher bit rate songs you have in your iPhone. It worked very well for me, giving me back about 7.58 GB worth of space for more songs.
Caveat Emptor:
Update: For those whom like me had updated iTunes to 9.1.1 once it was released, and had tried this setting, you might find that your iPhone constantly re-save some songs during sync, lengthening your sync time. It is possibly due to a bug in an earlier release. To fix it, just go to Apple’s iTune page to download manually and install over the existing iTunes – it should be fixed.
2010 could be a very exciting year for Apple. Towards the end of last year, Jimmy and I were discussing what would be the top 10 things we’d like to see from Apple this year and here it is. Some of these we know will happen, some others will be like praying for rain in the middle of the desert. Who knows, miracles might happen right? Read more →
Well to most, the event at the Yerba Buena Center (see it here on iTunes) was more Roll than Rocking but there were still plenty to be excited about. Top on the list is probably seeing Steve Jobs back on the stage where he belongs, slightly more gaunt looking than before, less energetic sounding, but still sounding sane and pretty much enthusiastic about what the people in Apple are producing. The standing ovation he got from the predominantly media-centric audience, shows though they were the ones out for blood whenever Apple weren’t forthcoming, they were still glad to see Jobs back at the forefront of Apple. At the same time, Jobs was not forgetting how and who helped him get here, taking the time to thank the gentleman who’s generosity at death that allow Jobs to get the liver and to encourage more to be involved in organ-donation program.
But we know, the event is not just about Steve Jobs. There were still the Rock and Rolling to present. In a nutshell, what we got at the end of the event was the new iTunes 9.0, iPhone 3.1 OS update, improved iPod touch with lower price and higher capacity, iPod nano with camera, increased capacity for iPod classic and new headphone options for the iPod shuffle.
Contrary to popular opinions and rumors prior to the event, we did not get an iPod touch that can go on par with the iPhone 3GS by having a camera, instead it appears on the iPod nano. According to Steve Jobs, the reason was that Apple is marketing the iPod touch as a gaming machine and keeping it affordable was a higher priority than having the camera. However, the iPod touch might still have a camera in its next update, combine that with its social networking ability, that will definitely challenge the market space of those handheld mini cameras like the Flip or Creative Vado. Apple keeps the 8GB model but lowers the price to S$308, with new models having 32GB (S$468) and 64GB (S$628) capacity and these two also included improved hardware that pushes the speed similarly to the iPhone 3GS and support for OpenGL|ES 2.0 which will improved graphics and video playback. These are all available now from the Apple Online Store.
Speaking of the iPod nanos, rumors of it having a camera began a long while back and finally we get to see it in action. At 30 frames per second, 640 by 480 pixels resolutions, it is not comparable to the Flips or the Vados in the market but in a small package like the iPod nano, it definitely becomes a handy gadget to capture moments with video and audio. Though it comes with pre-built effects, it unfortunately doesn’t allow editing on the fly like the iPhone. Plus with no connectivity, Apple lost a good chance to beat the crap out of handheld video cameras like how they did to smartphones with the iPhone. Surprisingly Apple threw in a FM radio receiver but with a twist. They added a Tivo-like feature that allows you to pause live radio and then resume playing from where you stopped. It also has enough buffer for you to rewind as far back as 15 minutes before resuming to the radio. Lastly they also put VoiceOver from the iPod shuffle and for the fitness geeks, it also has a Pedometer that tracks how many steps you take while you walk with the iPod nano.
[ad#ipod-family]
The iPod nano is available now at the Apple Online Store for S$228 for the 8GB to S$288 for the 16GB, with two colours – Yellow and the (Product) Red version exclusive only from the Online Store.
Last but not least, the smallest in the family – iPod shuffle – also had a makeover. Starting at a new low price of S$88 for the 2GB model to S$118 for the 4GB model, the iPod shuffle now comes in five great colors – silver, black, pink, blue and green – and a special polished stainless steel, 4GB version available exclusively from the Apple Online Store. Apple has also worked closely with more 3rd party manufacturers to create headphones and headphone adapters with built-in controls, allowing more alternatives for customers.
On the software side, iTunes 9.0 was released with new features like the iTunes LP, Home Sharing and Genius Mixes, a redesigned iTunes Store interface and improved syncing features. iTunes 9 also improved its file organisation, giving better sub-folders to store your music, videos and applications separately under a new iTunes Media folder.
When you plug in your iPhone or your iPod, you can sync music by genre or artists instead of generating Smart Playlists. Probably something Apple should have done back in iTunes 2.0. But better late than never. iTunes 9.0 also work closely with the rest of iLife suite – syncing photos by album, faces or events or movies with multiple criteria. A much wanted feature that was included is the built-in iPhone apps organiser that lets you arrange your apps between screens. You can drag and drop apps like how you do it on your iPhone or iPod touch.
Another feature which I liked most is Home Sharing, especially if you plan or are using a Mac to be your media center. With Home Sharing, you can authorise five Macs in your home that lets you import music and video between those Macs easily. So what it did was it released much needed hard disk space from my MacBook Pro and only keep those music I want to listen to in there, with the rest in my Mac mini. Whenever I want more tunes, I just need to start Home Sharing and drag and drop songs I want.
iTunes LP, is basically a digital album with inserts and additional media included – like videos, liner notes, lyrics and more information about the artist and band. But hey, if we can’t get to the iTunes Store to purchase music, this is basically useless. Humbug. But if you want more details – do check out a closer look at iTunes LP by Jay Robinson.
