Mike's News

So much for not being available until the end of the month. Those cheeky blighters at Apple have quietly released the iPod touch in to the world, in a select few places.. Very unlike Apple not to sprinkle a release WITH A TRUCK FULL OF HYPE. Come on, they even dedicated an entire press event to the launching of their massive hunk of plastic crap otherwise known as the iPod Hifi!


I did find this quite amusing yet straight to the point, something I normally have difficulty with.. A comment from a poster over at Engadget

"-too big for an mp3 player.
-not enough gb for a movie player (or mp3)
-no communications
-no point to this

... but, its shiny!"

Couldn't have said it better myself.. However, when he says no communications that may be a bit misleading.. there's wifi in it to connect to the wireless internet.. but I see his point.

Check out the obligatory unboxing Flickr Album here. It's always the way with high profile products like this from Apple that there's a rush on who can take an album full of unboxing pics first and get them up on the WWW for all to see. This particular accolade goes by the internet alias of jmobley, so a very sarcastic virtual pat on the back goes to you!

EDIT 1 - There's also now a youtube video of it, if you're that way inclined here

Then, you find yourself constantly refreshing the page at 30 second intervals until the Jesuspod is available for all to see, look at in amazement and buy. Maybe, just maybe it's only me doing that, but thankfully, I know that's not the case.

It was a busy afternoon then. Come 6pm, the fun began. It started off a little boring, I wasn't too interested in any of the iPhone news.. It's a phone yes, but a crippled one and isn't even out yet over here. Of note though was the fact that it was reduced from $599 to $399 and that's for the 8GB model. That's a huge chunk to take off an already hugely successful product. They've completely done away with the 4GB model which no one really wanted anyway. So, global domination it seems like? Well, that's not all.

Firstly, there was news of new iPod Shuffle colours. Brilliant.. I wasn't really paying attention at that point as the Shuffle doesn't really do anything for me.. it's great.. if you have 4 1/2 songs that you like and want to listen to.. repeatedly.

Source for my quotes and images are Engadget. Kudos to those guys for providing the live info.

This was the moment my ears pricked up. Quote from Steve Jobs. Source - Engadget.

"Now let's talk about the iPod. It's doing really well. They're... rather strong." Teehee. "We've sold over 110m to date... and you'll notice the place where the sales curve is strongest is during the holiday season... today we're going to refresh or replace EVERY single product in this lineup to get ready for this holiday season."

That meant one thing, and one thing only. Widescreen iPod. Huge applause took place.. Well, it said on the text feed 'Huge Applause' and I took it from there..

Then, the new Nano. I have to say it looks gorgeous. The screen is absolutely pin sharp. It's tiny, it's thin but I wouldn't want to watch video on it.. I don't think my eyes would like it.

"It's incredibly tiny, this is the new nano, it's incredibly thin. It's REALLY nice." Huge applause. It comes in beautiful colors. So what's the video like? New nano: larger 2-inch screen, it's going to look the same as it did on the iPod video, it's the same QVGA resolution. We've achieved this with a screen with the highest pixel density we've ever shipped."

Their main tag line for the Nano is 'A little video for everyone'

When they say little, they are certainly right. I may be proven wrong when I see one physically in the flesh in store but I'm not sure watching video on it is going to be the most enjoyable experience. Completely my opinion off the bat from seeing it in photos. Don't get me started on how the average joe will take to having to learn all about dimensions for movies suited to the Nano screen, what software to use to encode films, how to encode them, what to do with them when they are encoded.. it's something that they obviously gloss over but is something that each and every person buying one of the new iPod Nano's will have to consider.

Next, was the iPod Classic. This garnered a bit more interest. I was interested in how they were going to take this forward. "The iPod... it's got a... it's got a funny name. It's got a funny name. It's time to give it a name: we're calling it the iPod Classic because it's the original iPod." Ha! It's going to come in two sizes.. For starters, the intro model pitches in at 80GB. Retrospectively, take that in to account and that's the largest hard drive iPod around at the moment.That's the starter iPod Classic now! Weighing in at $249 also is an absolutely incredible feat. Agressively priced and well specced. Yesterday, if you wanted to buy an 'old' 80 gigger it would have cost you $349. Now, you can get a 160GB 'new' iPod for that. Amazing scenes.



The 160GB is $350." Applause. "They're both available today, they're shipping and be in stores by this weekend. We think you're gonna love 'em, and the enclosure is just gorgeous.



Everyone, and I mean everyone who is watching online always waits for the 'One More Thing' that Steve Jobs saves the most important product announcement until. Kinda like a 'Here's what you've all been waiting for'

"But... we're not done yet. Far from it."

"People have been asking us when we're going to bring the iPhone technology to the iPod. The answer is we're going to do it today. And this is what the product looks like." It's a friggin iPhone!" The crowd I would assume at that point went ABSOLUTELY MENTAL. Not being there however, I couldn't tell you whether that actually happened.



It's called the iPod touch. "It's the same size screen as the iPhone, but it's even thinner. It's 8mm thin. Unbelievable. The new iPod touch. It's one of the 7 wonders of the world." Cue uproar and laughter.

I was going to go on about every new feature they've packed in to this iPod but I would be here for quite a while so I'm going to let an image do it all for me.. What was the famous saying, a picture speaks a thousands words?


So along with having Wifi, it's got optimised sites just for the iPod / iPhone.. "We've got Facebook, Facebook and Facebook, we're pretty excited about this"

This really is the phone-less iPhone. "But besides being able to log into WiFi, you get an incredible web browser! It is the best web browser on any mobile device, and it's built in to the iPod touch."


After announcing about Wifi and all that comes with it the much rumoured Wifi iTunes Music Store was announced to much fanfare.

From Engadget -

"It looks like you'll be able to do plenty more than browse YouTube and Facebook with the new iPod touch's built-in WiFi, with Jobs also taking the opportunity today to announce the iTunes WiFi Music Store. It'll let you search for anything in the iTunes Store, preview it, and download it directly to your iPod touch. That then gets synced to your main iTunes library for safe-keeping and, if the download isn't quite done, it'll even finish things up for you. Those less certain of what they're looking for can also make use of the buttons for featured music and top tens. Unlike the ringtones for the iPhone, songs bought on the iTunes WiFi store cost the same as they do in the regular store and it'll be available in all 22 countries Apple operates in."

One of the last things towards the end was the pricing and capacity for the iPod touch models. This is a clever move because the cynic in me says that everyone is so mesmerised by what's being put before them that they will buy one regardless of the cost. Happily though the iPod touch will be $299 and $399. That's approx £150 and £200 but will more than likely be £200 and £250 knowing Apple UK. However, my major gripe with the iPod touch isn't the price, it's the capacity of the touch models. 8GB and 16GB ? That changes it's market completely. That changes my mind as to if I actually want it anymore. I think you call that a deal breaker. I was absolutely dead set on putting down the £ for an iPod touch with 160GB so I could take advantage of my rather large film library and the sufficiently large screen to watch them on.

However, it's the Classic iPod that has the 160GB hard drive and I'm stuck in a bit of a quandry. Do I want Classic or Touch? 160GB or 16GB? I know in the grand scheme of things with I should be more worried about world famine, war, slogan tshirts, Mr T, reality tv, global peace, being able to drive, getting a degree, eating and such trivial issues like that which should be more prevalent in my life, my quandry is a minor one but it's still quite a difference. I'm going to have to cut back on my music collection if I'm to go for the 16GB yet I don't have enough to get anywhere near 160GB..

And finally, here we are, during the time that I've written this article look what's happened. The Apple Store is live again. (Ok, so I've been writing this on and off for a few hours now) So I try to buy the iPod Touch.. I try to fill Apple with my love and dollar but Firefox crashes. I try again, same treatment. Thanks Steve. It seems that everyone else has the same idea too because I can't get any further than the main page on the store that you see here below.. I really wouldn't be able to tell you how many people were glued to their computers and the live feeds from the event..

Would anybody care to take a guess?


GO GO GO !