APPLE ROUNDUP

Apple made some pretty big announcements today at their annual fall event, centered around media.  Some of the items have been leaked and/or rumored to appear at the event while others were surprises.  A full list of the announced items is below.

Apple TV

Apple TV:
The new Apple TV will be streaming only.  At a quarter of the size of the original it will pack a built-in power supply, HDMI, ethernet and 802.11n.  Pricing will be just$99.  It will stream movies from iTunes (more on that later) or from your own computer, bypassing local storage.  Not much change in the interface, however there is an inclusion of Rotten Tomatoes ratings.

iTunes:

iTunes Logo

iTunes 10 has a new logo and some nice new features.  There is a new social network called Ping.  Ping is built into the iTunes store and you can see the recent activity of your friends and artists you may be following.  Some of the new features in iTunes 10 include album art appearing if you have 5+ songs listed, streaming content to your Apple TV, $1 TV and $5 movie rentals.

iPod Nano:

iPod Nano

The Nano has had a major facelift.  The wheel has disappeared and it has a new touch interface.  The unit is 46% smaller and 42% lighter than its predecessor.  It has buttons for volume, a FM radio, Voiceover, Nike+ support, and a pedometer all with a 24 hour battery.  The new OS allows the user to poke around with their fingers and there is a home screen which you can populate with your most used items, which can be rearranged, just like on iOS devices. $149 for 8GB and $179 for 16GB.

iPod Shuffle

iPod Shuffle:
Despite the iPod Shuffles small form factor, it's buttons have returned and it boasts 15 hour battery life.  $49 for 2GB.

iOS 4.1:

iOS 4.1

Apple will be releasing an update to the iOS 4, used in their iOS devices like iPhone, iPod and iPad.  Some of the highlights in the 4.1 are HDR photos, proximity sensor fix and Game Center support.

iPod Touch:

The new iPod Touch is an iPhone 4 without the phone part.  It will have the 326ppi Retina display, Apple A4 processor, gyroscope and digital cameras on the back and front for FaceTime.  It can record video in 720p, edit them with iMovie app and take photos with the back camera.  The playback time has been increased to 40 minutes and will come with iOS 4.1.

HDR Photos:
What are HDR photos that iOS 4.1 will allow?  HDR stands for High Dynamic Range - the range between the lightest and darkest ranges of an image.  They look more similiar to what your eyes see than regular photos.  HDR photos are made of several photos, by blending photos with different exposures to make more dynamic scenes.  Steve Jobs states the iPhone and iPod Touch will shoot real HDR photos vs. ones manipulated with software, ie the device will take a number of photos when the user clicks the button to create the HDR photo.