Well, Apple’s annual iPod refresh has come and gone – with little surprise. In uncharacteristic Apple fashion the announcements were leaked out weeks in advance, so I watched the event just waiting for something truly new. No such luck really. A new rainbow of “stick” Nanos, updated iPod Touches and iTunes 8 were officially announced. These were pretty much givens by Tuesday morning. As a fanboy, I feel some what ashamed to be such a downer about the event. I kept waiting for “one last thing” to no avail. I guess I was a little bias because I really have no need for a new iPod. My iPhone is still amazing and my trusty 5th gen 60GB iPod is always with me in the truck. While it is not able to hold my entire collection, it always has more than enough to choose from. So I guess I was not the primary target of today’s event.
All was not lost though. After I was able to digest the event as a whole I found a few gems. First is the new HD TV shows. With the package of my HD TV, an Apple TV and the jump in dsl speed I have become, what my buddy Morgan proudly proclaims, a “HD whore”. The ability to have HD content (whether it be TV shows, movies or vidcasts) without a dependency on cable or dish is great. Having access to the shows shortly after their air date also lets me stop watching them online. So I can now use the $$ that cable/dish would cost to buy my own – commercial free – HD versions that I can have forever.
Now it is not to say that this is the perfect setup. I will still have to watch new-to-me shows online before I start paying for them. My wish would be to have the ability to rent all shows so I can try new ones and then only buy my favorites. But it is still early in this development, so we will see where it goes.
Two other highlights were the much needed iPhone 2.1 update and the “Genius” aspect of iTunes. The 2.1 update should be out by the end of the week and comes with the promises of faster sync/backup and stability. I have my fingers crossed! As for the addition of Genius to iTunes, the jury is still out. It is supposed to give me recommendations for other songs/bands every time I play something in my library. As I am writing this, it is just a bit past half way with it’s scrubbing process. I will update this post after I dig deeper into iTunes Genius.
So the summer of Apple comes to an official close. It has been a crazy one but I have enjoyed helping many people get on the iPhone bandwagon. Now if Apple would release those Macbook and MB Pro updates!!
Watch the keynote – “Let’s Rock”
