Curtain call for Apple Showtime
Most of the rumors surrounding Apple’s anticipated "It’s Showtime" media event were confirmed today by Mr. Jobs himself. If you can’t spare the 77 minutes it takes to watch the entire webcast, here’s a quick rundown of all the wholesome goodness.
iTunes Store
The iTunes Music Store, redubbed the iTunes Store with today’s introduction of iTunes 7, has expanded its offerings to include a limited selection of full-length movies ($10-$15 each), great games like Tetris and Bejeweled ($5 each), and pretty cool new features like automatically fetching album art and Cover Flow.
New iPod Nano and Shuffle
Both flash players were given aluminum bodies and a redesign. Available right now in a slew of colors (silver, pink, green, blue, black) and storage capacities (2GB, 4GB, 8GB), the new Nano sports a brighter screen and 24-hour battery life. The ultra tiny 1GB new Shuffle has an integrated belt clip and will ship next month for $79.
Updated Video iPod
And let’s not forget the company’s bread and butter. In addition to a 60% brighter screen, the new iPod got a price drop and bump in storage capacity (30GB for $249, 80GB for $349), as well as – the best part – support for Gapless audio playback! The device also boasts a much improved battery life: 30GB – 14 hours for music and 3.5 hours for video; 80GB – 20 hours for music and 6.5 hours for video.
Media center
Currently codenamed iTV, the wireless video streaming wonder will sell for $299 when it’s released next year.
I’m definitely not the poster child for iPods, but I must say that these are some pretty fantastic announcements. If I were an Apple fanatic, I would probably be in serious need of resuscitation.
