Well we are here to do a review of today's exciting Apple Annoucments at the "The beat goes on" event.

 

With me is the Bill Palmer Publisher of iProng, the Publication for iPod and iPhone users found http://www.iProng.com

 

and my friend Adam Christianson host of the Maccast at http://maccast.com and the Maccast loop at maccast.com/loop.

 

Welcome guys

 

iTunes Starts

 

• 3Billion Songs sold
• Number 1 on line music store in every country they are in.
• Over 6 millon stores in every store.
• itunes is the number 3 music retailers in the US behind wal-mart and best buy. Ahead of Amazon and Target.
• Over 550 TV shows are carried and have sold 95,000 million shows (he made a mistake an said 95,000)

• there are over 125,000 podcasts over 25,000 of those are Video Podcasts.
• 32% of all music releases in the US were only digitally not on a CD. He was very amazed by that statitic. 1/3 of the music released in the U.S.
• new version of iTunes being shipped
  • make your own ringtones and sync directly to the iphone retails for $.99 in addition to the cost of the song/ So $1.98 for both. Ring tone maker right in iTunes.  Intesrting to have an audio editor rightt on the iTunes interface.
• iPod sales are rather strong with over 110M up to date

 

Then we went on to iPod Annoucements "today apple is refreshing or replacing the ipod!"

 

• 110 Million iPods to day. Holidays are the strongest season.
• there is now a product red shuffle 1gig is $79 the ipod shuffle is getting a refresh with new colors. Silver, Purple two shades of green and finally a ver nice NEW red one that is a part of Choose (PRODUCT) RED Special Edition where Apple gives a portion of the purchase price to the Global Fund to fight AIDS in Africa.

 

 

New Ipod Nano " A little Video for everyone"

 

• New Nano is the Fat boy, the Phatty what ever you want to call it, the rumor mill and pictures seemed to be pretty accurate but I must admit it's better looking than the pictures we saw. It's so think.
• 4Gig or 8gig versions 1,000 and 2,000 songs respectively
• It's got video and a screen size of 2. instead of 2.5 , same resolution 320X240. 204 pixel per inch.
• 5 colors to choose from Grey, Blue, Green , Black and the new Red red one that is a part of Choose (PRODUCT) RED Special Edition where Apple gives a portion of the purchase price to the Global Fund to fight AIDS in Africa.
• New user interface and high resolution with album artwork. Cover flow, lots more text and picture intergration.

 

• 3 games are bundled - one called vortex,Sudoku by EA will also be available to purchase.
• Better life is 24 Hrs. which is pretty awesome
• 4gb Moel is silver $149  and an 8 gb versions 8gb $199 with different colors will ship today
• Great John Steward humor with PC guy!!! . This is classic.
• Showed a nice slice show on the nano as well.

 

The iPod "The Classic Lives on"

 

• it's been renamed to iPod Classic thinner, full-metal body 40,000 songs!
• There will also be a thicker one at 160GB, but thinner than its predecessor (the old 80GB). So, 80GB and 160GB models. 40,000 songs in your pocket.
• 40 hours of audio playback , 7 hours of video

• Price: 80GB for $249, 160GB for $349. Ships today, with the new enhanced UI (Same as the Nanos). The 80GB model has 25 hours music, 5 hours video. The 160GB has 40 hours music, 7 hours video.

•  

“We’re not done yet"

 

• Steve went on to say that when they released the iPhone, they said the iPod on it was the best iPod ever. They’re moving that interface to an iPod, and calling it the iPod Touch (same as the rumor said). Yes, touchscreen iPod is here.
•  iPod Touch - taken the interface from the iPhone and put it on an iPod

• The iPod Touch is 8mm thin, and has just about the same size screen as the iPhone. “We think it’s one of the seven wonders of the world.” It has multi-touch, Calendar, Contacts, Clock, Calculator, Settings, and a bunch of icons they didn’t show yet. Stay tuned.

• The iPod looks exactly like it does on the iPhone. Cover Flow, big album art, and flick flick flicking to get around. There’s Video as well, same as on the iPhone (demo video: Weeds), displayed on the 3.5-inch screen. Photo library’s there as well (someone else’s family, naturally), complete with pinch and swipe and all the iPhone junk.

• The iPod Touch also has slide to unlock, and when you open it up, it has the home screen, which is similar to the iPhone.
• It has wi-fi in the form of 802.11 B and G. No N it's too much of a  power hog. The back of the iPod Touch has a black bit on the top right in order for the Wi-Fi antenna to connect out. “Others have done this before and failed.”
• Steve says you’re fine connecting to your Wi-Fi at home, but when you’re on other Wi-Fi networks in the outdoors, a webpage will pop up asking you to enter your information. This prohibits normal devices from accessing the net, but the iPod Touch has Safari, so you can log in just fine.
• It has Safari browser. Safari: It’s the same Safari as on the iPhone. Flips, landscapes, pans, flicks, scrolls, and is built right into the iPod Touch. Other similar features: Google and Yahoo search. can access all of the iPhone-optimized websites, such as Facebook.
• You can Watch You Tube videos over WI-Fi on the iPod Touch just like the iPhone.
• Pod Touch battery life: 22 hours music, 5 hours video.

• Storage: 8GB and 16GB, $299 and $399. Ships in a few weeks (this month).

  '

  keyboard on the ipod and safari and wi-fi , really does change everhing

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store. for iPod Touch and the iPhone Too

 

• Buy on the Fly , Play right away is how Apple describes this new service on their web page.
• ith the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store on iPhone or iPod touch, it won’t happen without you. Later this month, just find yourself a Wi-Fi hot spot and tap the iTunes button. From there you have access to more than six million songs. No matter where “there” is.
• Take a look at the Top Songs and Top Albums. Or find exactly what you’re looking for with a quick search. The built-in keyboard on iPhone and iPod touch lets you tap out the name of an artist, a song, or an album. From the search results, tap any song to play a 30-second preview or just tap the Buy button.
• Your song starts downloading instantly, and you can keep track of its progress by tapping the Downloads button
• There’s a featured section, as well as search (searches everything), and the same selection as on the iTunes regular store. Not a slimmed, gimped down store for the portable iPod Touch.
• Steve says: “Wi-Fi, as you know, is not only faster than 2.5G, but it’s faster than any 3G network”. Yes, Steve, keep saying that and people will forget that the iPhone only has EDGE. We’ll print that sentence out on a piece of paper and look at it every time an email takes 5 minutes to download.

 

I'll have a Latte with my iTunes

 

• A new partnership was annouced  with Starbucks.
• Starbucks integration: When you get near a Starbucks location, you’ll get a Starbucks icon in iTunes Store. You can buy songs that are playing over the Starbucks music selection, and you can even look at the last 10 songs that’s been played and buy the songs there.
• Starbucks CEO/Chairman got up on stage adn started , talking about coffee and how they’re expanding into entetainment and music. “Starbucks has become this third place, between home and work”. 
• Exclusive with iTunes, no login required, completely free access ot the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store while at Starbucks
• The CEO Of Starbucks spoke about their growth and ubiquidy.
• Their rollout starts October 2nd, starting NY and Seattle. 600 Stores, following up with San Francisco’s 350 stores in November, nothing in Christmas, and starts again in February ‘08 with LA (600 stores), and March ‘08 in Chicago. After these, that’s 25% of the Wi-Fi stores. In ‘09, they hope to have all Wi-Fi enabled stores online.
• Howard Schultz said he believesit will drive  incremental traffic to their stores, and become an increasingly prevalent way of discovering new music

 

The One more thing heard round the iPhone Owners World

 

• Jobs said iPhone owner satisfaction is higher than any Apple product before.
• On track to sell the millionth iPhone this month.
• Dropping the 4GB model, said that customers wanted the 8GB. Price of 8GB is being dropped to $399. Starting today. 
• Called the product line the best iPods ever. Shipping all around the world.
• Intersting side note Katie from the MacCore podcast just got an iphone about 15 days ago (or so) she went in to Apple store with recipt today and got 200 bucks back, eventhough it was a bit over 14 days. Interesting
• Steve also called the doc the iPod ecosystem.
• Steve is thanking Apple employees who worked on these products. Had them stand up and get some applause for their efforts.

And now the end is near. 

•   KT Tunstall has been "flown in" to perform
• Steve says "She's very talented and she's very hot"
• oh dear, her drum machine is broken