Hello iTunes 7
Mmm, this is great. Worthy of the build up alone, really. Deserves its own post.
Bigger capacity iPods
Just as well I can’t afford one. Or I might be tempted. And then how would I feel when the video iPod comes out.
New Nanos
Okay, we’re back to the colours. They’re now little iPod minis.
New Shuffle
I was expecting this to be phased out, and have to dash in and buy one before they disappeared. Now I can get “the smallest MP3 player” in the world. But hang on, it looks wider than the old shuffle. And can you still us it as a flash drive dongle? Hmmm. Not sure, do I want this, or an old style one?
One More Thing: iTMS
That M stands for Movies, of course. Better than I’d expected. Upgrading to 480×640 makes it all just a bit more worth while, and being able to play a movie seconds after you start the dowload is critical. Having a Worldwide date (albeit an aspirational one) is good for us UK folks, still waiting for the TV shows. But the pricing is wrong. Do I want to spend more on a download than on buying the DVD with (slightly) higher quality and the extras? Surely only if I want it right now. In which case it’s a rental. Which isn’t available.
Although music is generally around the same as it costs on CD, iTMS have the advantage of being instant and being able to choose a track. Although TV shows are around the same cost as on DVD they have the advantage of being (potentially) released right after the TV show, letting you choose particular episodes, and catch a missed show during a run. But movies to keep I’ll stick with DVD unless the price really drops. Rentals for £1.99 would be a winner though.
Another One More Thing: iTV
This is indeed the rumoured video streaming device. Although it’s not miniature as I speculated, we don’t know yet, it might have 802.11n. I’m a bit underwhelmed. At half the price of a Mac Mini, I still think I might go for a Mac Mini to do the job of set top box. A Mac Mini has DVI, optical audio like the iTV. Okay, it doesn’t have the component video, but it includes a DVD player and since it runs OS X is far more flexible. A cheap, miniature Airport Express video might have tempted me…
