The big star of today’s Apple event in San Francisco had to be the latest version of the iPod Nano. Chief amongst the music player’s new features is a video camera placed on the bottom rear of the device.
After the presentation, out editor-in-chief Lance Ulanoff managed to get some hands-on time with the new device on the show room floor. Check out some more exclusive images of the new iPod Nano after the jump.
Apple didnt miss a beat in the iPod line today, even updating the lowly Shuffle. The worlds smallest MP3 player now comes in new colors, including pink, green, blue, silver, and black, priced at $59 for 2GB and $79 for 4GB. A new special edition stainless steel version of the player is also available now.
The new Shuffle also tells you when your battery is full (via the built-in voice feature). The company has also expanded the number of headphones that will work with the players in-cord controller, including the big Beats by Dre model.
Not to be outdone, the iPod Nano also got at upgrade today during Apple’s music event in San Francisco. The big news here is the eagerly awaited addition of a video camera built into the rear of the device.
Videos captured on the device can be viewed directly on the iPod or uploaded straight to YouTube via a PC. Just to drive the point home, Steve Jobs displayed a big picture of the device next to the much more sizable Flip video camera.
The newest Nano also (finally) features a built-in FM radio–and, interesting, there’s also a built-in pedometer, ala the Nike Run. The delay of the device was apparently wrong. It’s available today in 16GB ($179) and 8GB ($149) capacities.
Turns out Apple is keeping the iPod Classic alive for a while longer. The company upgraded the metal bodied iteration of its 5G iPod today, bumping its capacity up from 120- to 160GB. The new larger version of the iPod will maintain the pricepoint of the 120GB version at $249.
Apple today kicked off the hardware portion of its event in San Francisco event by upgrading its flagship line of music players, the iPod Touch. The capacity of the device has been doubled–from 32GB to 64GB. The player now comes in three sizes, 64-, 32, and 8GB.
The prices on the existing capacities have also been dropped. The models are now priced at $399, $299, and $199, respectively. According to the company, the models are now faster than their predecessors, as well, and sport the ability to run Open GL.
The media queuing up for today’s Apple event.
Well, folks, tomorrow night is the start of the NFL season, which can only mean one thing: Apple will announce new iPods today so it can show the new toys off in commercials during tomorrow night’s game. Other than the promise seeing the same ad 400 times in the next month, what can we expect from today’s event in San Francisco?
Predicting is always a crap shoot when it comes to Jobs and company, but here’s my guesses: a 64GB iPod touch with a built-in camera, one last go-round (gasp) for the iPod classic, a newly designed nano, and the introduction of new iTunes features and the (sort of) highly anticipated Cocktail. Who doesn’t want a cocktail? It’s morning over in here in San Francisco, but by the end of this day, I’ll probably need one.
Oh, and here’s what I hope Apple introduces: a touch-screen nano. Sound silly? A touch-screen would ensure that all iPods–except the classic, which will be dead in a year, if not by the end of the announcement today–will operate using the same interface in the same manner; it’ll just be smaller. The nano already has an accelerometer, so I’d bet Apple is considering this…
Anyway, we’ll fine out soon enough! Come right back to this post before 10 AM Pacific time, 1 PM Eastern, when I’ll be live-blogging the announcement.
12:43: Lance Ulanoff and I are sending photos and updates already; check out our live coverage after the jump!
Still have doubts that Apple plans to refresh its iPod line at today’s big event in San Francisco? The company all but confirmed the updates this morning when it cut the prices on a number of models across its music player line–in fact, all models save for the Shuffle have been reduced.
The company’s high-end 32GB touch has gone from $399 to $279, 16 GB are $249 down from $299, and the 8 GB model is $189 down from $229. The 16GB Nano has dropped down to $149 and the 8 GB is $126. The 120 GB Classic, expected by many to be retired after today’s event, is down to $229.
The atmosphere is starting to get tense at the PCMag offices. That can only mean thing: It’s time for another Apple keynote. Our ground troops are flying out to the event as we speak, ready to live-blog the event tomorrow at 10 A.M. PST, 1 P.M. EST. In the meantime, we don’t have much to go on beyond the standard litany of rumors. Fortunately, we’ve got rumors in spades.
Given that the timing of the event, which coincides with Apple’s annual music announcement and the above fliers, seem not-so-subtly to confirm such focus, we think we’ve got a fairly good grasp on what the company will be discussing. After the jump, check out a roundup of guesses at what may be coming at us tomorrow, including a new Apple Tablet, The Beatles, camera-equipped iPods, and Steve Jobs himself. Oh, and if you think we’ve left something of the list, let us know.
Steve Jobs no like delays! Steve Jobs smash! The run up to an Apple keynote is usually a time of eager anticipation amongst the tech-obsessed–leaked photos and blurry spy shots. But this latest rumor, should it prove to be true, would likely put something of a damper on this week’s event.
Word is that Apple won’t put those anticipated camera-equipped iPods on sale as soon as they’re announced, as the company is wont to do. The camera modules in the music players reportedly have “bad parts.” No word on whether such a delay would force Apple to remove the hardware from the store entirely.
In the great scheme of Apple rumors, this ranks just below new colors for the iPod Shuffle. At next week’s announcement, amongst all the talk of new iPods, iTunes, and the Beatles catalog, word is that the company is getting set to release pre-made ringtones. This might be exciting were it not so easy to turn songs into ringtones via the iPhone.
Still, Apple has reportedly been in talks with major labels about releasing snippets for download on iTunes, presumably for the extremely lazy. No word on pricing, save for talk that they’ll go for “far less than $3.”
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