Attn Santa!
It was just an iPod event 
Well, maybe not ‘just’, but Steve’s standup this morning was about movies, iPods and iTunes which are all very cool, and which all support the bottom line. It’s been a while since Apple did anything for the iPod and the webs was starting to get a little testy with comments about the iPod losing it’s sex appeal while other companies took advantage of the delay to introduce their own so-called iPod ‘killers.’ So far, these upstarts have amounted to little more than iPod ‘nudgers.’ Even Microsoft’s yet to be seen ‘Zune’ device was the usual letdown.
Now Apple’s raised the bar by making the Nano into a Mini version 2 and shrinking the Shuffle down to the size of a lapel pin while improving the specs and lowering the price per neatness. This should make for an exciting holiday season.
By differentiating the Nano cosmetically from the larger iPod classic with colors and a Mini like metal case, the line now makes more sense. The new shape of the Shuffle makes the lack of a screen seem less apparent and putting a clip on the back was a very good idea. The Nano is also smaller while the storage and battery life have been improved. The competition will have to rethink their rip-offs and maybe even come up with their own ideas for a change.
The big, but not really that big news was the non-introducution of the Apple iTV, which must not have made it out of the FCC in time to ship. That’s not even the real name, but it’s a wireless Mac Mini like box that sends music and movies from a computer to your TV. The Airport Express only does this for music, which may be better for your health. I’ll wait. The new iTunes7 is cool. The layout makes more sense, you can buy movies from the iTunes store and it has lots of little additions like a feature that automatically gets album cover art - sometimes. You can even clip it on your belt. No wait - that was the Shuffle. ITunes even seems to sound better and connecting to a remote music server appears to be more reliable. I miss some of the secret key strokes and had to search for features that were moved to different places, but this looks like an improvement.
What’s disappointing are some changes at the iTunes store. Podcasts have been moved off the front page to make room for all the movies and the search window is gone. I couldn’t find my Podcast by scrolling through the offerings. Perhaps you’re supposed to use the general search window built into iTunes, but I wish they’d have left a good thing alone.
No iPhone, no video iPod, no MacBook Pro upgrade, but enough to make WalMart and the kids happy.
Time to get back to work Steve.