Edible Apple

ReadWriteWeb has a nice list of 10 things about Ping you might wanna be aware of.

 
Rever to Saved astutely points out a number of curious UI changes in the newly released iTunes 10. First and foremost, the grey shading on the left sidebar is particularly egregious.

iTunes previously coloured its sidebar items. This enabled you to—without thinking—associate certain items with certain colours; even if you didn’t do this, each item was differentiated. Now, you have to think before you click, and the usability of this area of the app has been substantially reduced.

What gives, Apple?

As expected, Apple yesterday introduced a brand new iPod Touch that inches the device ever so closer to the iPhone. Much like the iPhone 4, the latest iteration of the iPod Touch comes equipped with Apple’s high-res Retina Display, an A4 processor, a rear HD camera, a front facing camera with FaceTime support, a speedy A4 processor, and a 3-axis gyroscope. And with the ability to shoot HD video, the iPod Touch will also be able to make use of Apple’s mobile iMovie offering, an app which was previously and exclusively available on the iPhone 4.

Starting next week, the next-gen iPod Touch will be available in 3 capacities. $229 for the 8GB model, $299 for the 32GB model, and $399 for the 64GB model.

In a press release announcing the latest iPod upgrades, Steve Jobs noted:

We’ve put our most advanced technology inside the new iPod touch. Whether you’re listening to music, playing games, making FaceTime video calls, browsing the web, capturing HD video or watching TV shows and movies, the new iPod touch with its Retina display, A4 chip and 3-axis gyro is more fun than ever.

The device, which Apple touts as the world’s most portable game player, will come equipped with iOS 4.1 which will include Apple’s long anticipated Game Center. Game Center will allow iPod touch users, or shall we call them gamers, to compare their scores and achievements against other players and engage in multiplayer gaming. It will also help users discover new games their friends happen to be playing.

Aesthetically, the latest iPod Touch is a tad slimmer than last year’s model, measuring in at a svelte 2.3 inches. Some other notes of interest include: The latest Touch supports up to 40 hours of audio playback, 7 hours of video playback, and can fast charge to 80% of battery capacity in just 2 hours.

Going way back, Apple’s new iPod Nano commercial uses Cake’s “Short Skirt/Long Jacket” to showcase the wearability of the updated MP3 player. Decent commercial, but how can users use multitouch accurately when the Nano is attached to their clothing?!

Check out Apple’s latest iPod Touch commercial, “All kinds of fun.” The song is “Come Home” by Chappo and is pretty catchy. As you can tell, the commercial emphasizes all the ways you can use the new Touch - from HD video recording, gaming, and FaceTime. Catchy.

Apple today upgraded its entire iPod lineup, but the most drastic hardware change belonged to the newly revamped iPod Nano which has now abandoned the iconic clickwheel in favor of a multitouch screen. As anticipated, the new Nano now has more of a squarish form factor and is small enough to warrant a clip for easy attachment to clothing. “It’s instantly wearable,” Steve Jobs remarked.

The device itself comes with a 1.5-inch screen sporting a 240×240 resolution. Notably, it also comes with a 30-pin connector which ensures that the device will work just swimmingly with an assortment of iPod peripherals you might already have at home.

The device will come in 6 colors and in two capacities - $149 for the 8GB model and $179 for the 16GB model. Battery life on the device is listed at 24 hours of music playback on a single charge.

In a press release announcing the new product, Jobs noted: “This is the biggest reinvention of the iPod nano since its debut in 2005, and we think users are going to love it.”

Some of the other features on the device, which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone, include shake to shuffle and a built in FM-tuner.

Steve Jobs today announced iOS 4.1, an upcoming upgrade that promises to fix some long standing bugs while also bringing some worthwhile new features to the table. Some of the bug fixes include a proximity sensor issue that has been plaguing some iPhone users for the past couple of weeks, along with improved Bluetooth performance and widely reported system clunkines for iPhone 3G users running the latest version of iOS.

Some of the new features iOS 4.1 has in store include High Dynamic Range photos, the ability to upload HD video over Wi-Fi, TV show rentals, and what looks to be cool as hell, a Game Center for iOS apps.

Developing…

Steve Jobs kicked off today’s media event with a few interesting tidbits of information. First, Jobs announced that Apple is activating 230,000 new iOS devices a day. And in a veiled jab at Google, Jobs noted, “ We think some of our friends are counting upgrades in their numbers, but we think strictly new activations is a better metric.”

All told, there are now over 250,000 apps in the iTunes App Store (25,000 available for the iPad) with approximately 6.5 billion apps having been downloaded to date.

iLounge posts a few tidbits about the upcoming iPod Touch expected to be unveiled later this afternoon:

* The Sleep/Wake button has shifted from the top left of the device over to the top right, mimicing its placement on the iPhone family.

* The camera is below the Sleep/Wake button, with a microphone pinhole off to its right.

* Volume buttons appear to be separate from one another rather than one piece, but stay in the same general position as in the second- and third-generation iPod touch models, as do the Dock Connector port and headphone port on bottom.

* It is slightly thinner than the second- and third-generation iPod touch. The rear casing has corner and side radiuses that are, as we previously noted, MacBook Pro lid-like, and the center does not bulge, so it can rest flat on a table like the first-generation iPod touch. What used to be a soft curve of the rear shell that wrapped around to surround the front glass is gone.

MacRumors reports:

It came as a surprise to everyone tonight when Apple announced that they would be live streaming video of their September media event across the web. The news, however, was somewhat dulled by the fact that Apple announced that the stream will only be viewable on an OS X 10.6 Mac or an iOS device (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad). The reason for the limitation isn’t entirely arbitrary, as Apple is using a new streaming technology called HTTP Live Streaming which was introduced alongside Snow Leopard’s QuickTime X and iOS 3.0.

While the protocol has been proposed as a standard, so far Apple is one of a few companies who has implemented it. As a result, the video will only be easily viewable on the specified platforms. There seem to be some advantages to the system over existing streaming technologies. Notably, there should be no router/firewall issues as the stream is sent over standard HTTP protocols.

If you’re not sure you will be able to view stream, you can try loading this HTTP Live sample stream that Apple has provided.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Frothy anticipation about Apple’s event Wednesday has centered on music and expected updates to iTunes and the iPod lineup. But television also is likely to be on the menu.

As part of the Apple event Wednesday, News Corp.’s Fox and Walt Disney’s ABC networks are slated to be announced as offering 99-cent rentals of television shows through the iTunes store, according to people familiar with the matter.

Not saying we ever perused Twitter for a pirate stream of an Apple media event, but suffice it to say that we’re glad to see Apple finally offering folks a live stream of one of their media events. Apple made an official announcement on the matter a short while ago.

Apple will broadcast its September 1 event online using Apple’s industry-leading HTTP Live Streaming, which is based on open standards. Viewing requires either a Mac® running Safari® on Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard, an iPhone or iPod touch running iOS 3.0 or higher, or an iPad. The live broadcast will begin at 10:00 a.m. PDT on September 1, 2010 at www.apple.com.