The Music themed event obviously yielded a bunch of newness in terms of Apple’s iPod lineup. There were however a few surprises.
iPod Classic
Gets a 160GB hard drive, stays at $249. Pretty sure this is the last year the Classic will hang on; the Touch will catch up with a 128GB flash drive next year.
iPod shuffle
Gets a lower priced 2GB variant ($59), three new colours, and a special edition polished stainless steel version, priced at a premium $99. It’s only available for order from the Apple online store.
iPod nano
The biggest upgrade of the lot. Gets a video camera, but no still camera. I’m sure the resolution is nowhere compared to the iPhone 3GS, but it will sell the nano for sure. You can even add video effects while shooting, much like Photo Booth. The nano also gets a larger wider screen, at 2.2 inches, better suited for shooting those widescreen videos. With the video camera comes the microphone, which enables voice recording without the need for a headset.
Lastly, god alone knows what reason, after everyone had given up hope, Apple has decided to include an FM tuner. It’s got a slick ‘live pause’ feature, which allows you to cache up to 15 minutes of radio playback. You can also ‘tag’ songs you hear, which can later be downloaded from the iTunes Store. 8GB for $150, while the 16GB comes in at just $180.
The iPod Touch
The biggest let down of the event, the Touch did not get any camera upgrade. It did however get beefier in terms of storage space as well as performance. Now going up to 64GB for the top end model, the Touch also features the innards of the iPhone 3GS making games silky smooth. The Touch comes in at $199 for the 8GB (with old processor), $299 for 32GB, and $399 for the 64GB.
The 3.1 Software Update
A seemingly minor update, the 3.1 update does have some tasty features included. Big on the list is the ability to organise your applications right from within iTunes. You can move home screens around, sort applications by category, and it all syncs over perfectly to your iPhone. Second, is Genius recommendations have been added to the App Store as well. And third, is the ability to create Genius mixes, an automated feature of iTunes 9. There’s also:
- Remotely lock iPhone with a passcode via MobileMe
- Option to ”Save as new clip” when trimming a video on iPhone 3GS
- Warn when visiting fraudulent websites in Safari (anti-phishing)
- Use Voice Control on iPhone 3GS with Bluetooth headsets
- Paste phone numbers into the keypad
Simply hook up your iPhone or iPod Touch to iTunes and hit update. For iPod Touch users, if you’re already on 3.0, this update is free.
