Apple’s latest has landed at last! – Updated.
By Staff reporters
New iPods, new software and new accessories are finally here, and as always, it’s amazing to see what the rumour mill gets right and what it gets wrong. While we’ve all speculated about widescreen iPods and iPod phones which, as it turns out, haven’t arrived this time around, there’s still a lot to be happy about with Apple’s latest harvest – and thankfully, that’s whether you’re buying a new iPod or not! Let’s take a look in some more detail below, in the longest post I’ve written! Don’t worry, you’ll read through it all quickly… :-)
Before we launch into the new models above, a quick mention for iTunes 7, new iPod’s headphones, new firmware and, in 2007, a new set top box currently code-named iTV that will connect to your iPod or Mac. iTunes has some excellent improvements, the standard iPod headphones are better than ever, and if you own a current 5th generation iPod, there’s new firmware that lets you have ‘gapless’ play between songs, if you choose (which is great for dance music CDs mixed together) and new games to buy and download for your iPod too. More on these developments below.
But first… the new iPods. Let’s start with the iPod shuffle. Apple claims it is now the smallest mp3 player in the world, and it certainly is very elegantly designed. Just as with the previous shuffle, it’s a 1Gb player that holds up to 240 songs and doesn’t use a screen. Some of the improvements include the smaller size, a clip for easy external access, up to 12 hours of battery life and a lower price of AUD $119 (down from $149).
The only socket is the headphone socket of the unit, and when you dock the shuffle into it’s tiny included dock, recharging and a USB connection is entirely delivered via the headphone jack! It’s an ingenious way to deal with the problem of the visible USB port you see on just about every other mp3 player. Of course you’ll need the dock with you if you want to load new songs onto the player, or if you want to use it as a USB storage device and load files onto it, but you’ll know this before buying and anyway – it’s your mp3 player. You probably have a USB stick or two already for data. The new shuffle is a worthwhile update and is likely to sell by the squintillions as a music player alone, and will be in Australian stores at the end of October.
The second new iPod is the iPod nano, and as Apple say, it’s been ‘completely remastered’.
A thinner case, a screen that’s 40% brighter, a new 8Gb model, a ‘durable anodised aluminium’ case that’s better able to cope with the rough and tumble of life (how well this resists scratches we’ll all soon find out, but at least should mean it won’t scratch anywhere near as easily as the original iPod nano), a new feel to the click wheel, the return of the cool colours first seen with the iPod mini and up to 24 hours of battery life – despite the brighter screen. Apple explained the battery life increases by optimisation of the iPod’s software and use of the latest lithium-ion battery technologies. It will be interesting to see the real world reports of battery life but at least it should mean longer battery life than the previous models. There’s also new lanyard accessory to purchase separately. It’s quite similar to the existing nano lanyard but has light grey headphones in the new configuration – but no black, green, blue or red headphones. Perhaps 3rd party accessory makers will set up to the plate and release them.
With the 8Gb version, you can store – or wear – up to 2000 songs. At AUD $219 for the 2Gb version (500 songs), $299 for the 4Gb version (1000 songs) and $380 for the 8Gb version, this is better value than ever – and how cool that the colours are back! I’ll bet plenty of kids will be getting at least a 2Gb nano this Christmas – if they’ve been extra good (or extra good at nagging) they might be lucky enough to get one with more storage. They’re available in stores now, so expect the nagging to start… or the feeling of temptation working its magic on you!
So where does that leave us with the new 5th generation iPod?
The graphic above really says it all. No iPod has ever performed so many functions, or performed them so well. Despite competitors offering clones with larger screens, more features, cheaper prices and compatibility with a larger range of video and audio formats, the iPod’s simple and intuitive interface and the seamless integration with iTunes for easily transferring songs to your iPod remains something the competition hasn’t been able to copy. Some attempts are close, but the iPod is still the easiest mp3 player to use, and with the latest version, it does more than ever!
It’s interesting to see the US version of the graphic above, where the sale of TV shows and movies is available through the iTunes Store. Australians aren’t able to purchase TV shows and movies yet, with distribution rights and other issues likely to be getting in the way. There’s no word on when you’ll be able to buy them locally, but hopefully it will happen sooner rather than later.
I guess we can think of this new 5th generation iPod as a 5th and a half gen unit, or 5th gen SE (second edition). Apple aren’t calling it a 6th generation model, because it isn’t. A 6th gen model would have the rumoured widescreen, while a next-gen nano would be the nano phone. Maybe we’ll see these mid-2007, giving enough time for accessory makers to have a good range of stuff for the 2007 Christmas/holiday season. But we’ll have to wait and see, and in the meantime, the new iPod is still the best iPod yet!
A nice bonus is the new 80Gb model. Selling for only AUD $499, this is $99 cheaper than the 60Gb model that previously sold at $598. The 30Gb model sells for $380 - the same price as the 8Gb iPod Nano. A new ’search’ feature that lets you use the click wheel to rapidly scroll through an alphabet and use the button to select letters and type in names. As the 80Gb model can hold up to 20,000 songs (or 100 hours of video, or any combination of photos, audio books, songs, videos, games etc), this search feature is most welcome. Unfortunately Apple says that the new firmware update for existing 5th generation iPods won’t upgrade them with this feature, but it will do other cool things for your current 5th gen unit, such as ‘gapless’ playback, especially great for dance music CDs, where you can remove the gap between songs just like you can with a CD player. That in itself is an excellent feature and you use iTunes 7 to apply the firmware update and then in your library, select gapless playback for your chosen tracks.
Another feature of the firmware update for existing 5th gen iPods is the support for cool new games downloads on iTunes you can play on your iPod. Sold at AUD $7.50 each, there’s Tetris, Vortex, Bejewelled, Pac-Man and more. It’s surprisingly playable retro fun – and it’s nice to see the gaming functionality on iPods improved at last.
I played a few games relatively quickly on the iPods at the Australian launch and they are fun. I’m going to buy Tetris and Pac-Man at least! Your existing 5th gen iPod can play these games too once you use iTunes 7 to transfer the new firmware as well as download and transfer them to the iPod itself.
Battery life is now up to 6.5 hours for video on the 80Gb model - more than twice the life of the previous 5th generation unit, while battery life for audio is rated at 20 hours. The 30Gb model features 3.5 hours for video (up from 2 hours) and 14 hours for audio.
It’s quite clever of Apple not to release new widescreen iPods just yet. If they had, accessory manufacturers would have had very little time to get accessories to market. With the new iPods, most accessories will work perfectly well, so sales this Christmas won’t be affected. Available in stores now!
On to iTunes 7 – the other half of the iPod equation. There’s plenty inside which you can explore at by clicking the link or the image below.
But some notables: an updated interface, a cool new way to show you the cover art for albums and singles in your collection that you can navigate through, along with a better way to manage your existing iPod – firmware updates, a new graphic showing you how your iPod’s storage is taken up, new games you can download to the existing and the new 5th generation iPods as we spoke about before, and even easier options for synching your iPod with your collection.
The new headphones are designed for better bass and are slightly smaller where they fit into your ears. They automatically come with all new iPods and are available for separate sale too if you want to upgrade, although if you want to do that there are plenty of competing headphone brands to choose from.
Other news includes the release on October 28 of the Nike + iPod accessory that turns your iPod nano and your new Nike sneakers into an intelligent training program that you can listen to while running.
Choose power tunes, run to different sets of music – and then when you get back, sync your iPod and gather than data of how far you ran, how many calories you burned, you can compare your runs to others you done before, and through Nike’s website, you can track your performance against others worldwide. Brilliant stuff if you love exercising and getting fit! It should also help and encourage you to really stick at it and continue getting better and better.
Finally for now, there’s a set top box coming in 2007 that’s currently going by the codename ‘iTV’. Half the size of the Mac Mini, this stylishly small device will connect to a regular TV or better still an HDTV, lets you watch high-def content which can be streamed from iPods, networked PCs and Macs, through 802.11 Wi-Fi, Ethernet and USB 2.0. It will sell for US $299, and it certainly sounds like it will be simple and easy to use, and will ’just work’ in Apple’s traditional style and we’ll certainly hear more over the next few months.
Image from TVEnvy.com - Steve Jobs with the rear of the iTV.
You’ll see HDMI, component and optical digital audio outputs, an internal power source, Wi-Fi that could be a fast 802.11g or perhaps the very fast but still in draft format 802.11n standard. We’ll find out more over the next six months.
I’m sure there’s other little features here and there to be discovered, but for now that’s the wrap of the latest goodies from Apple. They’ve made it harder than ever for their competitors – Apple is likely to keep on selling many millions of iPods this Christmas and stay in the No.1 spot!
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