Marie Heitmeyer blog

Apple Announces New iPods, iTunes 10, iOS 4.1, and a New Apple TV

At a special event this morning, Apple unveiled a whole new line of iPods (new shuffles, nanos, and a powerful iPod touch), iTunes 10 with a built-in “Ping” social network, announced iOS 4.1 and teases iOs 4.2...and revealed a new $99 AppleTV with Netflix support and $0.99 television show rentals through iTunes.

New iPods

During the event, Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced a revised iPod line, introducing newand , along with a newthat has a lot in common with the iPhone 4.

The new iPod shuffle is even smaller than the current teeny-tiny iPod shuffle, but feature both physical buttons (much-missed in the current edition), and features playlist and voice-speaking features of the third-generation model, including support for Genius mixes. The shuffles retain their 2 GB storage capacity. Apple says the new shuffles will handle 15 hours of music playback, and will be available in five colors (blue, gold, green, pink, and silver) at a retail price of $49.

The iPod nano is getting smaller...and gaining a multitouch color display. The new iPod nano loses the signature clickwheel controller in favor of a multitouch display-and gains a clik so its instantly wearable like the iPod nano. The new iPod nano is almost half the size and half the weight of its predecessor, and supports 29 languages along with offering 24-hour battery life. Jobs’s demonstration of the iPod nano seems to show it is not an iOS device; nonetheless, the nano borrows several conventions from Apple’s experience with the iPhone and iPad-anyone familiar with current Apple offers will feel right at home. Users can even rotate the display around by twisting it with a two-fingered touch gesture. The iPod nano will be available in a PRODUCE (RED) version, as well as graphite, blue, gold, green, and pink: it’ll be $149 for an 8 GB version and a $179 for a 16 GB version.

Jobs then highlighted the iPod touch as the most popular iPod model, but also the most popular game playing device in the world, outselling Nintendo and Sony portable game device combined. So Apple is revising the iPod touch to focus more clearly on games and apps: the new iPod touch will feature the same 326ppi “retina display” Apple debuted with the iPhone 4, as well as the Apple A4 processor that powers the iPhone 4. The new iPod touch will also feature Game Center, a front-facing camera with FaceTime capability, enabling real-time video chat over Wi-Fi, along with a rear-facing camera with HD video recording capability-and remember that the iPod touch has in-device video editing capability via Apple’s iMovie application. The iPod touch will also support up to 40 hours of music playback on a single battery charge. The iPod touch will be available in 8 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB models for $229, $299, and $399, respectively.

All the new iPod devices are available for pre-order now, and will begin shipping next week.

iOS 4.1

Jobs then announced iOS 4.1, on one hand a bug-fix for outstanding issues in iOS 4.1 (Bluetooth syncing, performance on the iPhone 3G, problems with the proximity sensor), but will also introduce TV show rentals, high-dynamic range photos, the ability to upload high-definition video over Wi-Fi, and Apple’s previously-announced Game Center. iOS 4.1 will be available next week for the iPhone and iPod touch, as a free download via iTunes.

iOS 4.1 will offer high-dynamic range (HDR) photography as a standard feature in iOS 4.1. HDR photos essentially take three images at once in rapid succession, one under-exposed, one over-exposed, and one with normal exposure settings. Software then merges the images together to create a single image with both high contrast and a wealth of detail that would normally be lost in a photograph with a single exposure setting. HDR photos can offer stunning quality; however, taking three pictures in rapid succession is also very vulnerable to motion and blur from camera shakes.