Apple September 2010 Stevenote

So, Apple announced a whole bunch of stuff at the September Stevenote this year. As a tech blogger I feel obligated to tell you about it.

ALL OF IT. (not exactly in the right order but what the heck)

I haven’t included pics because I’M LAZY!!! But you can find pics elsewhere.

So, here it is:

• Obligatory non-announcement blah blah blah: Apple is opening stores in France, China, Spain (its first there), and London. There are days (multiple times a month) where the stores get 10 million visitors. 120 million iOS devices have shipped; 230,000 are activated each day. Over 6.5 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store (an average of 200 per second) and there are over 250,000 apps in the store (of which 25,000 are iPad). 275 million iPods sold, the most popular model being the touch (last year it was the nano). The iPod touch outsells the DS and the PSP combined. 11.7 billion songs, 450 million TV episodes, and 100 million movies have been downloaded from iTunes, plus 35 million books from iBooks. iTunes has 160 million accounts with credit cards in 23 countries.
• Focus on more/cheaper HD content in iTunes, especially rentals. $4.99 for new release HD movie rentals. $0.99 for commercial-free HD TV show rentals (ABC and Fox only right now). US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, and Australia, with more countries coming.
• iOS4.1. It has Game Center (Xbox Live-style online gaming service with online play and achievements), plus lots of bug fixes (Bluetooth bugs, proximity sensor bugs, and poor iPhone 3G performance). In addition, you get HDR photos, TV rentals, and (for iPhone 4 users) the ability to upload HD video to YouTube over Wi-Fi. It drops NEXT WEEK for FREE for iPhone and iPod touch (presumably not first-generation hardware) users; iPad users will have to wait for…
• iOS4.2. In addition to being available for iPod touch and iPhone users, it’ll bring all the iOS4 features, including multitasking, to iPad. Other features will include printing and the ability to stream content from your computer to your device via AirPlay (a new version of AirTunes that also supports photos and video – you can start viewing on one device and finish on another). It drops in November.
• Product demo time: Project Sword form Epic Games. Runs on Unreal Engine. Graphics look amazing. Multiplayer support over Game Center.
• New iPod shuffle. Apple has acknowledged that the 3rd gen shuffle sucks, so the new one goes back to a smaller version of the 2nd gen’s form factor, with the circular button layout, the hold switch and the clip. 15 hour battery life, playlists (including Genius Mixes) and VoiceOver. All for $49 for 2GB. Available in five colors: aluminum (with aluminum Apple Remote-style black buttons), yellow, blue, green, and pink (all of those with white buttons). Drops next week. Preorder today.
• New iPod nano. It’s small – 46% smaller, 42% lighter. Square, just a bit larger than the shuffle. Multi-touch screen (with physical volume buttons) instead of click wheel. Tap the screen to bring up controls, then scroll through everything iOS style, complete with customizable icon layouts (4 icons per screen). Rotate fingers to rotate screen (convenient!) No camera, but it does have a clip (and can even be used as a watch), as well as VoiceOver, FM radio and Nike+, and a 24-hour battery life. Comes in the same colors as the new shuffle, plus graphite and [PRODUCT]RED. $149 for 8GB, $179 for 16GB. Drops next week. Preorder today.
• New iPod touch. It’s thin. A4 chip, retina display (4x the pixels – 326ppi, 24 bit color LED), 3-axis gyroscope, rear facing camera with HD video (no flash), front facing camera with FaceTime, 40 hour (music playback) battery life. $229 for 8GB, $299 for 32GB, $399 for 64GB. Drops next week. Preorder today.
• iTunes 10.0. No CD in the logo. “Ping” – social networking features so you can see what your friends are listening to, talking about and downloading. Looks like Facebook. Custom top 10 list of songs and albums based on who you follow. Follow your favorite artists – get Facebook-style posts, including concert listings (17,000 concerts). Post what you’re listening to, what concerts you’re going to, etc. Fine-grained privacy controls. Also available for iPhone and iPod touch (iTunes app). Drops TODAY.
• New ads, if you’re interested.
• New Apple TV (this was One More Thing). Tiny – 1/4 the size, you can hold it in your hand. Black. Power supply built in, HDMI-out, USB, optical audio, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Ethernet. Comes with the aluminum Apple Remote. Focus on rentals (to the point that you can’t buy things via an Apple TV anymore). When looking for something to rent, you can see customer and RottenTomatoes reviews. No storage management (streams via AirPlay instead). Can even stream from iOS4.2 to Apple TV via AirPlay – you can start watching a video on an iPad, then tap a button and instantly continue it on your TV. Can view content from Netflix, YouTube, Flickr, and MobileMe galleries. You can subscribe to TV shows podcast-style (complete with red badges). $99. Drops around the end of this month.

In Which I Blog

Yay, blogging! It’s like Twitter, but longer.

I’ve tried, several times, to start blogs before. I’ve really tried. And failed. Miserably.

I will post whatever comes to mind at any given time. Mostly about tech, mostly Apple. If you are not a geek, this is most likely not the droid you’re looking for. (If you didn’t get that joke, this is DEFINITELY not the droid you’re looking for. Wanna buy some Death Sticks?)

So, yeah, blogs! Woot!