Mike's News

Christmas No1? Look no further.

nobody@vox.com(mikesnews) — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 14:38:52 +0100

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Definitive Review.

nobody@vox.com(mikesnews) — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 12:29:27 +0100

A 10 page review is now up and available on iLounge reviewing the iPod touch. They've spoken about publications rushing to be the first review out there but rightly so mentioned that the first to market (in this instance being a review) isn't always the best. So, the writers at iLounge have taken their time and crafted what I would say is the perfect review.

iLounge has been around since the iPod started and is among the most respected iPod related sites, if not the best out there. With this, what they say, people trust. They know what they are talking about.

Find the review here and let me know what you think after.

Final thoughts after 10 pages of review copy..

"We cannot in good conscience generally recommend the iPod touch to all of our readers. The essential elements of the “true video iPod” we and others have been waiting for are obvious—an iPhone-matching screen with iPod classic-matching capacity and battery life—but between its so-so screen, limited storage and below-nano battery life, iPod touch doesn’t equal or surpass the best portable products Apple has released this year. If you need similar storage space and don’t need a big video screen, get an iPod nano. If audio quality and capacity are important to you, buy an iPod classic. And if you’re a video fan, consider an iPhone if it’s available in your country, or save your money. Wait until Apple (or someone else) gets the “true video iPod” formula right. We sincerely hope that it will be sooner rather than later."

Good job I cancelled my preorder!

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16/09/07

nobody@vox.com(mikesnews) — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 15:19:49 +0100

16/09/07

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16/09/07

nobody@vox.com(mikesnews) — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 15:19:42 +0100

16/09/07

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16/09/07

nobody@vox.com(mikesnews) — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 15:19:32 +0100

16/09/07

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iPod touch already available and unboxed..

nobody@vox.com(mikesnews) — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 23:48:36 +0100

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!

Ipod-touch-unboxed

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

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Anybody still interested in an iPod touch?

nobody@vox.com(mikesnews) — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 19:04:49 +0100

Ok so it's only just been announced but I really don't understand why there isn't more fuss about this.. The brilliant new 605 Wifi Archos.

My friend Joe put it quite succintly. "Yeah, because it's made by Archos" My counter to that was that if it had been made by Apple it would have made the world over hark that it was the greatest piece of technology since.. the toaster..

Here it is, a screenshot from the site.. That's right.. touchscreen, wifi and up to 160GB..

Product page here

Picture 1

It has an absolutely astonishing spec, and for anyone looking at buying the iPod touch, myself included, you should be ashamed of yourself !

Engadget cover the new line release here

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For the Hells Kitchen watchers..

nobody@vox.com(mikesnews) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 16:51:13 +0100

This makes me laugh immeasurably from the front page of his homesite.

Picture 1

If his career wasn't over before, it certainly is now.

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Buyers Remorse.

nobody@vox.com(mikesnews) — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 18:01:31 +0100

After the announcements discussed previously from Apple I was debating whether to get a Classic or the touch iPod. I'd decided I could weed my music down to 16GB in order to get the iPod touch. However, then I thought, really, why should I have to?

I had a bit of an epiphany and cancelled my order for the 16GB iPod touch. I had previously been convinced I was making the right purchasing decision with having a voucher for £20 off the iPod touch. I thought to myself I'm getting a bargain! But then that element of doubt crept in to my head.. I certainly didn't need it. It was a flashy gadget that I wanted, but definitely don't need.

So, I did the right thing. I cancelled my order. I was pleased with myself.

Picture 2

I'm going to at some point order one of the 80GB Classic iPod's in Black (the silver finish looks horrible) to store all my music on. I had to remind myself I've got the Archos 604 to watch movies on. That's got a touchscreen, and a 30GB hard drive and I've had it must be about a year.. So the need for an iPod touch just isn't there when I'm thinking logically and sensibly about it.. it's a nice shiny new gadget though..

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Meet the best iPods ever*

nobody@vox.com(mikesnews) — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 20:04:13 +0100

*For starters, they aren't my words, they are the words of that non biased source going by the name of Apple..

Sit back, relax, grab a drink maybe. This was meant to be a very brief review going over what happened at the Apple Event. Then I kinda got carried away with it all and it ended up to be a pretty huge essay.. If you've got a few minutes, take a look and then let me know what you think at the end of it be it positive or negative I'd love to hear.

Ok so here we are after Stevenote. To recap, the following new stuff was announced.

Before we go on with that, this has to be probably one of the best things you can see after an Apple Presentation. It's like knowing somethings great is going to be so close to seeing online, adding to your checkout, buying and then a short while later it actually physically being in your hand. Incredible emotions are running through me right now.. Excitement? Yes. Maybe with a twinge of disappointment though.

Here we go.

Picture 3

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.

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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.

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"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'

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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."

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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."

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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?

Picture 4

GO GO GO !

Picture 6

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