Okay folks. We gave just seen El Jobsco releasing a whole plethora if updates and new product releases. This was perhaps one of the most leaked event in the history of Apple events but hey, even Old Jobs was cool about it! So here is the event wrap up.
Firstly, Jobs started the whole Keynote with a simple sentence about reports of him dying. He called them ‘exagerratrd’.
iTunes 8.0
The first major announcement for this keynote address was in fact the release of iTunes 8. This was one of the 2 software releases. As rumoutrd and claimed by Digg founder, Kevin Rose, there is in fact a feature known as Fenits. What genius is basically, a Automagic Playlist maker. With one click, a user can crwate an entire playlist of 25, 50, 75, or 100 songs, all that sound perfect together. I used to sit down and do this manually, because that is how I like to listen to my music. They all need to fit right. But with Grnius, we can all take this one step further.
So how exactly does genius work? Well that’s really simple. I was thinking along the lines of BPM, artist locale, genre and such. Well, it’s all if that, plus more. You see, computers, no matter how advanced, will never be able to approviate and let alone understand music the way we do. So, how did Apple pull this off? Simple. They got help from humans. Not just one or two humans, but the entire population of the world that usues iTunes. Genius uses algorithms written specially for this feature. It reads playlist compilations from all over the world and remeners them. It also uses other factors like BPM and Gener to figure out the beat possible listening experience that a user can get. One thing though, the team at Infinitech is not sure if this works with non-iTunes purchased music. It will be a pity if it doesn’t. Seriously. The Infinitech Team discovered that Genius does indeed work with our own music.
Apparently, to turn Genius on, one would require an iTunes Music Store Account. Thus, this new feature would be a bummer for folks living in Places without one. However, Genius is really very easy to activate. The whole process is automatic. However, it does take a while if your Library is really large.
To make sure that Genius appears on your iPods, you have to enable this feature in your Computer. We believe this measure only affects the iPod Touch devices.
Activating Genius is a Simple, 3-Step Process
Other updates that we have seen to the new iTunes include more accessablilty options. These are a Mac related feature and do not seem to be present on the Windows version of the Jukebox. Another great feature is a new colour code for Applications on the Capacity Bar. The Capacity Bar is an indicator at the bottom of any iPod’s Screen in iTunes, that shows a graphical representation of your iPod (or iPhone’s) capacity and its usage. In iTunes 8, Appls a coloured green instead of being lumped with Others as seen previously.
Apps now appear Green
iPod Galore
This event also saw one of the best line-up of iPods that Apple had ever brought to the table. With new refreshes and upgrades, we think Apple is all set to earn more money in the coming months. Stock holders, get ready for some rise and profits!
The iPod Nano is probably the most purchased iPod due to it’s small and convinent size. However, people were bit really happy with the “fat nano” that Apple released last year. This event brings to us the new Nano. Images of this iPod has been floating on the net for nearly over a week now. And Lo and Behold, we get Steve introducing this iPod to use today. So, what is new? A ton of stuff. This includes many thing borrowed from the iPhone. The new nano brings to us a new interface that has a Now Playing screen similar to that of the iPhone’s. The software for this iPod has integration for the new Genius feature. You can make Genius playlists right on the Nano. Just press and hold the Centre Button to access a new popup menu. We also see an inclusion of the Accelerometer, a first for anything outside of the Multi-touch interface product range. This, together with a whole new range of 9 colors dubbed Nano-chromatic, makes the Nano, the funkiest iPod in town. The structure of the iPod is now made of Aluminum. This makes the iPod free from any scratchable materials resulting in a Very Durable iPod.
4th Generation iPod Nano
The next big thing this morning was the iPod touch. Heralded as the next best thing to the iPhone, this baby just got better this morning. The 2nd Generation Touch sees the inclusion of a Volume Control. This has been the most sought after feature on this iPod. Another interesting upgrade is the inclusion of speakers. I believe that this would make the most sense as the iPod can now play games and such that can be downloaded from the straight AppStore. The new iPod Touch also features an in-built receiver for the Nike+iPod module. All you need to do is to get the foot module that you would have to put into the shoe. Apple now seem the Touch as the funnest iPod after all those upgrades. The structural aspect of the iPod seems to be a little iPhone inspired. There is the inclusion of the tapering sides, as well as a change in material. The back of the Touch is now Stainless Steel. Not completely scratch-proof, but less prone than the Chrome that we are used to seeing. Looks like Apple is finally making all of it’s products more durable!
2nd Generation iPod Touch
Apple has also discontinued the Fat Classics and increased the capacity on the Thin Classic to 120 GB.
Software and The Environment
The next Software announcement made today would hebrelease of the 2.1 update that everyone has been waiting for. It is free for Both the iPod Touch and the iPhone, but most importantly, Steve has promised us a stable software and all bugs fixed. So, no more crashing Apps! Also, songs are now listed with thier Artist Names and Albums unedr them in grey. A nifty little improvement I must say!
The new update is out for iPod Touch today, and iPhone on Friday (USA), and Saturday (Singapore and Asia).
Apple has also been very environmentally conscious about it’s new products. All of it’s new iPods are Fully Recyclable.
The Infinite Loop 