Apple began the event by running through their statistics, the standard pats on the back commence. Some of the numbers are actually quite impressive.
- Some Apple retail stores now get over 1 million people in a single day.
- 250,000 Apps in the App Store, 25,000 iPad apps
- iOS4.1
shipping today(includes bug fixes, HDR, Game Centre) – shipping next week.
Next up was a game demo called Project Sword to demo Game Centre – impressive 3D capabilities.
iOS4.2 Sneak Peak
- Demo’d on iPad
- Coming in November
- Game Centre and HDR photos also coming to iPad (ahh Steve, iPad doesn’t have a camera).
- AirTunes renamed as AirPlay (stream more than just music around your home)
- Folder support
Apple have sold 275 Million iPods, are now refreshing ALL iPods in the range. The biggest update to iPods – EVER!
- New iPod Shuffle now has small size and now with buttons (15 hours of battery life) – 2GB A$69
- iPod Nano has multi-touch (24 hours of battery), FM Radio, works just like any other iOS device.. no 3rd party apps yet. 8GB A$199, 16GB A$229.
- iPod Touch now being discussed (Jobs claims, #1 portable gaming device in the world). Doesn’t have the same body as the iPhone 4, instead thinner than before. Retina display, front and rear facing cameras, Facetime (between iPhone and iPod Touch), Game Centre.
- New iPod Touch prices – 8GB A$289, 32GB A$378, 64GB US$499
- All new iPods available next week (need to confirm that includes countries outside US)
- No mention of classic, now killed off, SSD only.
On to iTunes now
- 11.7 billion songs downloaded
- 450 million TV episodes
- 100 million movies
- 35 million books
- iTunes 10 announced
New in iTunes 10
- New Logo – ditches the CD.
- New view includes Albury Art and list view combined
- Music discovery – Ping (“a social network all about music”) – follow music, artists and friends, shows as a feed, includes comment system, think Facebook for Music.
- You can follow people, if you choose to you can be followed (can be global, or circle of friends)
- Ping will be available to 160 million iTunes users in 23 countries at launch
- Ping available on iPhone and iPod Touch.
- When will we get iTunes 10 – Today !
One more thing,,, / hobbie – Apple TV update
- Users want Hollywood movies & TV shows, everything in HD, lower prices, don’t want to connect a computer to their tv, manage storage, don’t want to sync, silent, cool, small hardware.
- 1/4 the size of the old Apple TV
- HDMI, no power brick, Ethernet, 802.11N, No storage
- No purchases on Apple TV anymore, rentals only (streaming including HD where available).
- US$4.99 for new movies in HD, same day as DVD release.
- US$0.99 for HD TV show episodes (ABC and Fox shows only)
- US customers get Netflix support for Netflix subscribers
- Still allows for photos from flickr, Videos from YouTube, Audio + Video Podcasts
- No mention of 1080 – New Apple TV only does 720p
- iOS devices can stream to Apple TV, killer feature ! iPad to Apple TV demo’d.
- Launching in US, Canada, France, UK, Australia
- New Apple TV – A$129, pre-order today, available in 4 weeks
Jobs is doing a wrap-up now, the event is coming to a close. There were a few surprises – iTunes 10, Ping, a complete revamp of the iPod line-up, but a lot of the speculation prior to today were right.
Update
The Apple store has now been updated with the new products. Local pricing is actually pretty good in comparison to US prices.
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