iPods coming your way next week/month

Apple has been known to update their line of iPods annually. So if these updates come out in October, where's all the hype that usually follows it prior to their release? Usually, it would be early in June when it goes on overload. But it seems that it starts 1 month prior to its release, which is well, September. It's not actually because of all this iPhone business, it's about lack of first-party information straight from Apple... and now they've finally burst the bubbles into the iPod mystery. Touch-screen? Wi-fi? It all gets answered in Steve Jobs' new conference. Of course, who would want to watch a conference that lasts an hour and 25 minutes, right? That's what I'm posting this for... so you won't have to.

"Let's 'refresh' the Shuffle"

Those cute little strappable MP3 players doesn't really have a major makeover... nor has it shrunk into an ant. They've just received new colors. That's all. But their project (PRODUCT) RED gives revenues to charity. They did that with the Nano, now

they do it with the Shuffle. It's still 1GB (max. storage), costs approx. Php 3,500.00 and is still easy to lose.

CAPTION: Roses are red, violets are Shuffle... Hell, that doesn't even rhyme at all! -->

"The Nano is the most popular MP3 player of all time... now it's even better."

The Nano now has a 2" screen which is more bearable for the eyes obviously. And if you look at the picture (at left), you might say, it's not so nano... and it's fat! But seeing it in Jobs' hands, it's definitely smaller than it looks. Heck, it's thinner too! This iPod is probably the one with the most major changes especially with Apple's acclaimed Cover Flow interface. And then there's also the inclusion of videos (thus the screen increase) and 3 preloaded games. Plus, they've avoided using plastic and settled with full metal in accordance to their Greener Apple program (though it wasn't actually mentioned). Wonder how it would be if it was in a touch-screen iPod though... Its tagline? "A little video for everyone."

There's 4 GB and 8 GB offerings. 8GB being the one with more colors and higher battery life of 24 hours audio and 5 hours video. 4 GB will approximately cost Php 7000 while the 8 GB product may cost Php 9,500-10,000.

"The term iPod... is sooo outdated."

This was what Steve himself said in his introduction of an iPod rebranding. Of course, where would all these iPod variants be without the classic iPod? This must be the concept they based in rebranding this iPod because it's now called the iPod classic. Not iPod 6G, not iPod video

and certainly not iPod 160 (more on this later), but iPod classic. Of course, it also incorporated games, videos and cover flow and it's brighter and it has more capacity (whopping is the precise term) because you can fit 40,000 songs in this baby. 160GB of your life to be exact. It's also all-metal by the way.

Add it with 27 hours of audio playback and 7 hours of video playback to boot! It's gonna cost less than the present 80GB iPod... approx. 19,000 pesos for the 160GB version and approx. 12,000 pesos for the 80GB version.

"One more thing..."

Jobs' doesn't usually leave a conference without surprising its audience. And for that, he unveils their latest new member to the iPod family...

READY?

DING.

My initial reaction was, "WTF?!, an iPhone?!". But when he made a live demo, it noticeably lacked a few buttons so I figured, Apple must be hiding more. Minutes later, we find out that it also contains a Wi-Fi receiver. So what? Well, he says that music players that incorporate Wi-fi usually fails (points at Zune''s cheap Wi-fi sharing)... now, the Multi-touch iPod touch incorporated its acclaimed mobile browser Safari as well as a portable Wireless iTunes Music Store. In truth, we won't have much use for the music store except if we want to preview some material for merely 30 seconds. Plus, Wi-fi isn't actually widespread in the Philippines yet... so if we do have Wi-fi at home and at work, we won't really find it in between

except for the coffee shops, EDSA and Ayala malls. Hell, we don't even have iTunes Store cards! What's the use, right?

Still it incorporates Apple's famous, user-friendly multi-touch interface and is also powered by accelerometers which read if you're reading/displaying it sideways or upright. Plus, the 3.5" screen is great for video and it also includes YouTube for on the go web videos.

Anyway, if you're still interested, though the iPod touch is similar to the iPhone in terms of looks and feel, it costs less than the iPhone and has a higher capacity to its hard drive based storage as well. And to differentiate it even further, it can connect to standard 3.5" headphones and is located at the bottom. Plus, it's thinner than the iPhone and it will ship before it (in Asia). It may cost approx. 19,000 pesos in 16GB and maybe 12,000 pesos in 8GB.

"In the new iPod line for the holiday season, we'll include..."

In its overview of the presentation, all the improved and refreshed iPods are displayed. But there's something blank about it... and it's revealed to be the iPhone. It's actually quite impossible to buy because of its Php 30,000 price tag and Apple must've suffered from it. So it has cut $200 (approx. 9,500 pesos) in its $599 price tag (I forgot to mention that Apple discontinued the 4GB iPhone so only the 8GB iPhone is left) to make $399 (about 19,000 pesos) to match the price ranges of the iPod lines (or so they say...).

In the Philippines though, people might actually compare the iPod touch with the iPhone instead of the other way around (Caryl comes to mind), and maybe even some may get confused and say, "What's the difference?" (Caryl comes to mind again). This is actually one flaw in the inception of these new iPods... more specifically the touch.

So here they all are. All-new but still the same.

Commercials and Publicity

Apple is famous for its simplistic commercials. Here are the ones they prepared for the conference and soon, for TV.

Stacks (iPod Nano 3G)

Rough cut of iPod touch commercial.

PHOTO CREDITS: Apple, C-Net

VIDEO CREDIT: Apple, YouTube

For the Apple conference, click here.

For more information on the iPods, click here.