World of Apple

Apple today announced that the iPod shuffle is now even more affordably priced at $49 (£32) and that it is introducing a new 2GB model of the iPod shuffle for $69 (£45).

“At just $49, the iPod shuffle is the most affordable iPod ever,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide iPod Product Marketing. “The new 2GB model lets music lovers bring even more songs everywhere they go in the impossibly small iPod shuffle.”

The new 1GB iPod shuffle is available immediately for a suggested retail price of $49 (£32). The 2GB iPod shuffle will be available later this month for a suggested retail price of $69 (£45).

Apple has announced that it has added a new pink iPod nano to the current selection of iPods. The move comes ahead of next months Valentines day.

“Customers are going to love the gorgeous new pink iPod nano,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide iPod Product Marketing. “The pink iPod nano is perfect for people who want a great new color this spring, or who are searching for a special Valentine’s Day gift.”

The new pink 8GB iPod nano is available worldwide immediately for a suggested retail price of $199 (£129) and joins the other 8GB models available in silver, black, blue, green and a (PRODUCT) RED special edition.

Apple® today announced a major software upgrade for the iPod touch, making the best iPod into even more—the world’s best Wi-Fi mobile device. iPod touch customers already have the most advanced mobile web browser in the world with Safari™, and now Apple is adding five more great mobile applications—Mail, Maps, Stocks, Weather and Notes. The iPod touch software upgrade also includes new features such as Web Clips, a customizable home screen and beginning today, the ability to watch iTunes Movie Rentals. New iPod touch products shipping from the factory will include the software upgrade and existing iPod touch customers can get the software upgrade for $19.99 by purchasing and downloading it from iTunes.

“These amazing new mobile applications make iPod touch not only the best iPod, but the best Wi-Fi mobile device in the world,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “With its revolutionary touch interface and software, plus its stunning 3.5 inch screen, iPod touch is evolving into the first mainstream Wi-Fi mobile platform of the 21st century.”

Mail on iPod touch is a rich HTML email client that fetches email in the background from most POP3 or IMAP mail services and displays photos and graphics along with the text of the email. Users can configure Mail for Google’s Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, .Mac Mail or most POP or IMAP based mail services with just a few clicks.

Maps on iPod touch features the ability to automatically find your current location using nearby Wi-Fi base stations*, and use it as a starting or ending point for directions or to find local points of interest. Users can get real-time traffic conditions, and view maps in map or satellite view, or a hybrid view which combines map and satellite views so you can see major street names overlaid on satellite imagery.

Stocks and Weather allow users to access live stock and weather reports at their fingertips, and Notes lets you jot down information on-the-go using the intelligent keyboard.

The iPod touch home screen can now be customized, allowing users to reorder and add new icons, with support for up to nine different home screens which they can easily flick between. With the new Web Clips feature, you can even create custom icons on your home screen for your favorite websites. Web Clips are a great way to easily track web sites that you frequently check such as news, blogs, sports sites, movie listings and more.

With Apple’s new iTunes Movie Rentals, movie fans can rent movies on their computer, easily and quickly transfer them to their iPod touch, and watch them anywhere on iPod touch’s gorgeous 3.5 inch screen. Users can also now navigate forward or backward through their movies by chapters, select alternate language tracks and view subtitles, if available.

The software upgrade for iPod touch is available immediately. New iPod touch products shipping from the factory will include the software upgrade and existing iPod touch customers can get the software upgrade for $19.99 by purchasing and downloading it from iTunes.

Fujitsu, Hitachi Quit Micro Hard-Drive Business, Icon Wiggle in Patent

A report from Reuters notes that an increasing shift to flash-based storage has forced Fujitsu and Hitachi out of the ultra-small rotating hard drive business.

Both Fujitsu and Hitachi had supplied micro hard-drives for Apple’s iPod in the past but even Apple has begun moving across to flash-based storage with the iPod classic being the last remaining hard-drive based iPod.

Toshiba continues to make micro hard-drives.

Icon Wiggle in Patent

Hrmpf.com has noted that the recent icon wiggle seen in the recent videos of iPhone Firmware 1.1.3 are reminiscent of that in a recently published patent.

The patent filing for a reconfigurable touchscreen interface notes in detail the wiggle of the icons when a user selects them.

The patent does include some details of the ability to “toss” icons which appears to have not made it to the iPhone in firmware update 1.1.3.

Final Cut Meeting Holds Answers

AppleInsider writes that a collection of Final Cut Pro user groups will hold a meeting at Macworld Expo later this month.

According to the rumour site Apple will have a surprise for the attending guests.

The meeting which will take place on January 16th; the day following Steve Jobs’ anticipated Keynote will feature “something super secret” from Apple.

Apple has debuted a new iPod + iTunes advert featuring musical artist Mary J. Blige. The ad is in the style of the long running iPod silhouette adverts.

The advert which can be seen on Apple’s website (direct QuickTime link) features Blige’s newest single ‘Work That’ from the album ‘Growing Pains’.

Along with today’s release of the iPhone firmware update, Apple has also released an update for the iPod touch.

The biggest feature of the update is that iPod touch users can now Add Calendar Events to the iPod touch calendar.

The update is now available via iTunes.

Apple has posted a new advert featuring the iPod touch on its website. The ad which started airing over the weekend was inspired by a student made advert posted on YouTube by Nick Haley.

The advert was touched up and made ready for broadcasting by Apple’s long standing adgency, TBWA/Chiat/Day.

iPhone 4th Top Selling Mobile

MobileTechNews writes that recent data from Strategy Analytics on 3rd quarter 2007 marketshare data for mobile phones showed that the iPhone was the 4th op selling handset in the U.S.

The iPhone was also the top selling device for AT&T accounting for 13% of all AT&T phone sales.

Apple Faces Class Action Over Capacity

Apple faces yet another class action lawsuit, this time over the figures it publishes regarding iPod storage capacities.

iPods are sold in varying storage capacities, such as 4GB, 8GB, 80GB etc. But the final size varies from that advertised due to not only the pre-installed operation system but also the method of measuring the capacity.

The majority of hard drive manufacturers, including Apple define 1 gigabyte as 1,000,000,000 bytes, but the majority of operating systems and software calculate a gigabyte by dividing the bytes by 1,073,741,824. This causes a hard drive which is advertised as 250GB would most likely appears as 232.83GB.

Montreal law student, David Bitton, first noticed this discrepancy when he took a look at his new ‘8GB’ iPod nano - a device in which actual capacity was 7.45GB.

Bitton has filed a class action lawsuit in the Quebec Superior Court, a lawsuit that notes all Apple products offer on average 7.5 per cent less storage than claimed. He’s demanding a full refund or a 7.5 per cent refund on the product price to compensate for the ‘missing’ data space.

Apple appears to have little to worry about because the company states on all iPod and Mac related materials that “Actual formatted capacity” is “less” than advertised.

Apple CEO, Steve Jobs has posted an open letter revealing that Apple will release a third party SDK for the iPhone and iPod touch in February 2008.

Letter reproduced for convenience:

Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February. We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users. With our revolutionary multi-touch interface, powerful hardware and advanced software architecture, we believe we have created the best mobile platform ever for developers.

P.S.: The SDK will also allow developers to create applications for iPod touch. [Oct 17, 2007]

Apple announced the iPod touch last week at its Special Event held in San Francisco, initial units were estimated to arrive in stores, and with customers around the end of September; but some stores in America are already stocking the iPod touch and PC Magazine managed to get hold of a pre-release review model.

The PC Mag review favours the iPod touch over many other media players and gave the device 5 out of 5 stars.

The relatively hefty $300 and $400 price tags for 8 and 16 GB, respectively, don’t bug me either. Why? This is probably the best portable media player ever made.

The magazine also writes that the iPod touch is “much skinnier” than the iPhone, a tad shorter and a bit wider. The review also looks at the iTunes W-Fi Music Store which is said to be well integrated into the device.

One feature of the iPod touch which is demonstrated in Apple’s Guided Tour is the “double-click” home button.

Pressing the only tactile button on the player twice makes music controls appear over whatever screen mode you happen to be in—Safari, YouTube, etc. Even if the player is locked, double-clicking will bring up a set of music controls that features track information, play/pause, forward and backward within a playlist or album, a Music button to take you directly to the Now Playing screen, and a Close button to escape.

The magazine rounds off the review with:

At $300 and $400 for 8 and 16 GB, respectively, these are not cheap devices, especially considering the storage limitations. Still, factor in the slick interface, elegant Web browser, the beautiful glass display, the seamless integration of the WiFi music store, and the iPod touch is worth the price. No portable media player has ever done this much so easily, or looked so good doing it.

iPod touch Unboxing | Courtesy Flickr

One user over at Flickr has posted a few pictures of the iPod touch unboxing process, it is very similar to that of the iPhone.

Gizmodo also offers a selection of pictures and a video of the iPod touch.

Apple has met the early release of the iPod touch by unleashing the support website which comes with a Features Guide (PDF).