…And the Kitchen Sink in Five Weeks
At least, that’s what it seemed like. Apple released just about everything else left, after all the product releases so far this year. The iPod Shuffle, Nano, and Touch; iOS 4.1, and a look at 4.2 for the iPad; iTunes 10 with Ping; Apple TV completely reworked, and AirPlay.
The iPods, perhaps, had to be reworked to keep ahead of the iPhone’s shadow, and there’s some pretty cool stuff–a lot of it for people who don’t want the phone.
iTunes 10 looks OK, but really it’s all about Ping. It’s a question as to whether it will actually take off, but frankly, it looks like a no-brainer. Me, I’m not so centered on my music, and I tend to stay with what I’ve had for some time. But I can see a lot of people doing this, and more significantly, use it as an engine to sell music. Bands can use it to popularize their music, and for people who are really into music, it’ll be with them quite a lot. Will it come close to Facebook or Twitter? If anything can, it probably will.
Between these products, it’s not a far stretch to say that Apple is keeping a pretty solid lock on the hold they have on the market by now.
But the potentially big thing is Apple TV. I didn’t used to want it. Now I kinda do. It’s affordable enough, and looks so versatile about content that I’d love to be able to have it there. My only problem is that I live in Japan, which is a crummy place for video content, alas. But even with that–and so much of what the product does closed off to me–I’m still thinking about this.
This could be Apple’s chance to finally have their TV box take off.
FInally, just a quick word about Apple’s streaming webcast: I like it. Not perfect–at some points, it sputtered and blacked out for a minute at a time, but it gave a great picture, high quality, despite streaming live–Apple is doing some pretty nice things with video. It looked perfect in its 850 x 480 window, and almost as good full-screen. Below are some screen shots, displayed here at 500 pixels, but they’re full-screen (1440 x 900) screenshots; click to see the full images. And it’s late, so good night!

Ping is an interesting consolidation effort.
MySpace was the originator in this space I think, or at least the market-leader for music acts to publish web 2.0 content to their fans.
With Facebook killing MySpace, there is something of a gap Apple can try to claim, perhaps.
Like you, this is all young person stuff to me, I haven’t bought a new music release since 2007.
I just ordered the new iPod Touch. As a developer it’s something of a September habit for me, 2007 1st Gen, 2009 3rd Gen . . . (2nd gen was ho-hum so I skipped it).
Usually I get the smallest GB model since I can rotate content on it easy enough (you eventually have to do this management hassle anyway regardless of storage space ) but with the HD camera option and its 5GB/hr the biggest space is clearly advised. . .
(I’ve refused to get an iPhone, paying AT&T $1700 for two years instead of Virgin ~$200 would be throwing money away, plus I prefer keeping phone function separate from the PMP)
$100 is a pure no-brainer for iTV thing, to connect the TV to my storage, plus Netflix.
Steve joked about making a watch but I’ve thought they should do so for a very long time. Watches are still stuck in the 80s! I wouldn’t expect much functionality — battery life is key here, needs to go at least a week between charges — but just a very high DPI display and a basic widget API to allow 3rd party developers to do what they can do with it.
Apple hasn’t done interesting in the PC space since forever, oh well. I was also hoping that the new iTV would support home gaming, but no such luck.
I wonder how Microsoft’s new phone and zune will fare against this iOS 4.1 advance. . . . interesting fight.
What I’d digg is an iPod with good photo camera, preferably with movie recording. You could record a movie, edit it and send right away to YouTube, together with your comments.
Wait, new iPod has camera :/ Gosh I’m backwards
I’m likely to get an Ipod touch in the next two months, but I am price sensitive on this. However, one of the things I’ve envisioned was simply wearing the thing on my rist with some kind of modified clip on sport band, which I have been surfing the net for for about a month.
Seems to me that wearing an ipod or smart phone on the rist is a natural thing. I confess my motiviation stems from reading and watching Dick Tracey cartoons from when I was 11. A watch, phone, one that could do video no less, was pure fiction that I thought would never happen in my life time, maybe never. Now it seems all of the pieces are here and only need to be put together.
Furthermore, when I worked at Sprint in 2000 and 2001, we talked a lot about digital convergence: it seemed to me then, event that large screens (and to a lessor extent large popout keyboards) were going to be possible drivers of demand. But bigger screens are more difficult to fit in the pocket.
Most of the last 3 years of my life has been spent in Seoul Korea. Life there is dominated by riding public transportation, especially the metro. I think that life style too would lend itself to a wrist wearing capacity.
So think of it this way: I have a ipod/iphone/smartphone on my wrist, extending up my forearm. I want to no the time, I just lift of my wrist and I see, time temp and weather forecast on my wrist (is it raining outside the subway?). I get a call, I don’t have to dig for the devise out of my pocket, I just lift my wrist see who’s calling or is texting. If I want to talk, I can blue tooth it, &/or I can speak into my wrist the way Dick Tracie did, or I can pop it off my wrist to talk or text. If i want to watch video, I can do it right off my wrist instead of holding it (which is still an option).
So I’m intrigued with the new Ipod touch (I can’t make use of an Iphone write now because my life is still mobile), but in Seoul I can get an egg router that does hi speed mobile wifi that would still have to sit in my pocketp\ possibly allowing me to use the ipod as a phone.
Anyway, one of the more obvious solutions is wearing the device on the wrist like a watch, and using it as a replacement for a watch. This is less available for women, and some people might worry about loss due to theft. but for me it represents a child hood dream, temptingly close to coming true.
Sorry, I know wrist is spelled with a W. I’m coasting on very little sleep and suffering from jet lag etc…
Luis,
I’m about ready to head back to Japan after a two month stint in the states. Do you want me to bring an extra Apple TV? If you set up a simple VPN router in the states you can connect to it that way.
ps – there is much more to Apple TV than I think people realize. This may be the beast that breaks the US cable companies and forces them to finally offer a la carte cable to compete. The idea being that most channels will be available via apps. The big rumor is a $15 a month HBO app. And then there is the competition. i.e. you are already seeing Google TV showing up in LCD’s in the states.
-Jim
Jim:
Thanks for the offer, but I’ll have to pass this time. I am not in a good position now to set up a VPN router. That’s something i would probably have to arrange on a trip back, when I could get the unit myself anyway. But I appreciate the thought!