I swear that’s not a typo. See, check it out for yourself.
Apple, since it’s rebirth (aka, Steve Jobs returning), has been a company to be reckoned with during their famous keynote events, whether that be MacWorld, the World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC), or special events/Town Halls. I mean, you can’t claim too many events where people were extremely happy when they put a 56k modem in a laptop (see: original iBook). Or when if they boo somebody who is a million times richer than they are (see: Bill Gates). It’s been called the Reality Distortion Field, and its power supply seems to be draining rather quickly.
Let’s just set one thing straight first: I am NOT a market analyst; if Apple doesn’t release refreshed notebooks at a music event, I won’t say “OMG!!!1!!1! They failed! Lower the stock price more!”, partially because I’m an Apple stockholder. That said, let’s begin.
The iPhone. An amazing product announced two years ago this coming January. Ahead of it’s time and something some people have been waiting years for. This brought the number of people interested in Apple to a new high. Lots of people knew them for the iPod, but now an iPod with a cell phone built in? Sign me up. It was also the end of an era – an era where Apple can impress people at every event.
There isn’t much you can do anymore to gain the original iPhone hype unless you release a laptop that can fold into a tiny rectangle the size of an iPhone and still be as powerful as a MacBook Air. Everybody was speculating what it would all do. It had this shroud of secrecy around it as only a handful of people got to actually touch one before it was released. I mean, the display unit was inside a glass cylinder surrounded by throngs of people.
With Apple’s music event that took place this past Tuesday, it seems to be confirming my sadness: Apple is losing their luster. An iPod nano overhaul, iPod touch revisions, new iPod shuffle colors, and iTunes 8. We’ll start with the iPod nano.
First off: too all the 3rd Gen nano owners, I’m sorry and I feel your pain. If you own one (or an iPod touch), you know what I’m talking about. The all too-dreaded stainless-steal backing that scratches the minute you expose it to the air. Apple has been consistent on flipping between both all aluminum (2nd and 4th) and stainless-steal (1st and 3rd) so get the nano now if you don’t want it scratched.
The 4th gen nano is essentially just the 2nd gen the outside, just wish the wheel moved down, a taller screen, and it’s now curved with a curved glass screen to go along with it. It now has an accelerometer built-in to determine when to switch between regular music view and Cover Flow (think iPhone/iPod touch). It can also rotate when you are gaming, viewing photos, and watching videos. Comes in a full rainbow of colors, and can match your purse! Nothing much to gripe about, but it’s just not the original iPod nano announcement when we saw how thing it was.
Did anybody else’s eyes just start bleeding when they saw that? “Funnest”? FUNNEST??? Apple, you need a talk with your English department. Funnest is not a word. That said, there isn’t much that’s new in the iPod touch this time around. The casing (still stainless-steal for God-knows-why) is curved like the iPhone 3G and there is a slight chrome border around the faceplate to give it more of an iPhone look. Oh, and it apparently has a Bluetooth chip in it. Let’s not get into that, shall we? Wait, let’s shall.
When Apple announced the built in Nike+iPod receiver, they said they were using a proprietary 2.4GHz receiver. Little did we know, it’s a Bluetooth receiver. Something they reported that they can’t let the iPod touch 1st gen and iPhone models use because it was “proprietary” to the 2nd gen touch. So, you’re telling me that you could still have backwards compatibility on all the iPod nanos, but not include it for a device that has a frickin’ SDK? What kind of BS is that? I don’t care if you think that people could break their iPhone/touches while jogging; give them that risk. If they break it, you get more money. Tada, problem solved.
There are also new headphones with a microphone built in that apparently the iPod touch 2nd gen is now compatible with. Yes, a microphone. Opening up the possibility for a VoIP app on the iPod touch. Of course, Apple being the company they are, the mic isn’t compatible with the 1st gen touch, which is completely acceptable (it’s an engineering design issue), but if a VoIP app is released, what happens to the first gen iPod touch owners? Will Apple or a third-party release a microphone/headset adapter through the dock connector? Who knows.
Lastly, a word of advice. Apple, either stick with the music moniker or move on to the ultimate media device. You’re slacking on the keeping it all fresh. You’re just rehashing the same thing as last year.
iTunes 8. Again, new features, but it’s nothing that will make you cry in happiness.
The biggest feature is arguably Genius. Genius scans your content library, sends it to Apple who analyzes it, and send information back to you.
What happens is that when you select a song and click the Genius icon (looks like an atom), it makes a playlist of songs similar to the one you chose. This is something I’ve been interested in when people don’t always suggest music that you are interested in. It can also recommend what songs to buy based on a song.
The next, and really last, feature is the album art grid view. It just lays out albums on your screen where you can click on the album and it starts playing. Just think of them as icons in Finder. Click it, it starts. That’s it. Woo, go Apple.
If you couldn’t tell, I was not surprised with Apple’s announcements. But overall, I have been disappointed with Apple lately. Leopard, at launch, was a buggy product and they’re already releasing another one, possibly, in January. People have been experiencing huge issues with the iPhone/iPod touch OS, and let’s not bring up the horrors of iPhone 3G day, please. That was bad.
If I were to send one line to Apple, it would be the last phrase of this blog post…
Apple, you need to shape up.