So we sit in anticipation for the latest iPhone update, post Apple Event September '08. The update was announced alongside the iPod nano re-design and iPod 2 unveiling. Well, I'd like to go on record by saying "woohoo!".

It's only a few minutes until the update goes live, and there might not be all the great features that was promised in early rumors, but one feature will make up for that if they don't make an appearance. I have one word: Genius.

I've playing with the new Genius tool since iTunes 8 was released this past Tuesday. Now, I may not have thousands upon thousands of songs that most people have, mostly because as a pauper writer, I still choose to buy all of my music. This leaves me with a library of less than 2000 songs. Well, after the genius side bar was introduced this week, my library has grown a little bit more. Much to the shagrin of my bank account, the Genius does it's job well. Not nearly as well as the playlist function. Since I've discovered how effective this feature is, many neglected songs have seen their play count rise.

With the advent of the iPhone 2.1 release, I'm looking forward to the all the bug fixes and the ability to make similar playlists on the go on my phone!

Yay, Apple. You've just become my own personal Jesus, 2.1.

Before I start I would just like to point something out: *cough, cough* (kevinrosewasright...)

Browsing

The new browsing feature in iTunes 8 is a grid view. While this is a fairly obvious feature and one that is available in other media players (such as Windows Media Player) it has taken until version 8 of the world's most popular digital jukebox for it to arrive. Before now, I didn't feel like I needed grid view but now that I have it, I'm not going back. I think of it best as a comfortable mix between Cover Flow and the list view with albums covers. Music is viewable in the same categories as were previously available: artists, albums, genres and composers. For those who don't wish to flow through their music with ease, the list view is still available. Cover Flow has been drastically improved. Where as before when Cover Flow would lag if you scrolled fast, now it breezes through albums with no hiccups.

Genius

Genius! I love Genius!! Genius is a brand new feature to iTunes 8 that attempts to mix the world's of Pandora and Last.fm with the smart playlists already available. What Genius does is analyses your entire music library to tell you what music goes great together. This is not a process that just analyses your music alone, Genius synchronizes with Apple's database containing millions and millions of other data like yours, making the analysis more accurate. All you have to do is select a song, then hit the Genius button down the bottom right of you iTunes window to create a Genius playlist. This new playlist suggests a list of songs that sound great together. My personal experience with Genius has been great, the playlists it creates contains songs that I wouldn't have put side by side but now I can see why. Choosing '15 step' by Radiohead gives me a playlist containing Bloc Party, Coldplay, Madonna, The Fray and even Bob Dylan. The oddest sounding playlist that makes perfect musical sense. You really have to try it for yourself but be warned, some haven't had the best experience with it so far. As time goes by, Apple's database will grow and evolve and so will the Genius' recommendations.

Podcast Management

Something overlooked by nearly everyone is the more refined podcast management options in iTunes 8. In iTunes 7, you could tell iTunes to check for new podcasts and how often to, tell it what to do when new episodes were available and how many episodes to keep. This was great, but not if you have different podcasts which you want to download/keep at different times. iTunes 8 adds the ability to choose all of the aforementioned settings for each individual podcast. I find this useful when I get lapse at listening to daily podcasts, but when still want to keep the podcast feed, and when I still want my weekly and periodical podcasts to still always download. This new revision of podcast management give you greater control over you content and how you use it. A must for anyone who listens to podcasts!

Visualizer

The incredibly date iTunes visualizer has been given a new breath of life with a new audio visualizer! For those who didn't know this feature even existed, play a song and hit ctrl+T (command+T for Mac) and see what you were missing. I love and hate this visualizer. I love it because it's georgous and pretty and fantastic in every way. I hate it because it's so pretty it distracts me too much and I have to turn it off. This is different from the visualizer that I saw but it is still amazing. While this is nothing to be over the moon about and is by no means a key feature, it's still nice to have.

While all of these new features are an amazing improvement to what iTunes 7 offered, it all comes at a price. The RAM consumption of iTunes is phenomenal! Currently, iTunes is taking up 317.5MB of my 2GB or RAM. Talk about hulking! I have no idea if this number varies from library to library but it has definetly increased since the introduction of iTunes 8. For me this is no problem, but if you have an older computer, multitasking may become an issue.

See why I decided to split all of the new products up?

Tenemos ya confirmadas las fechas en que se presentara la nueva edición de la Macworld en el Moscone Center de San Francisco.

Se trata del 5 al 9 de enero y ya esta abierto el periodo de inscripcion al evento que como de costumbre, reune a todos los Mac Users y en general seguidores de Apple ya que Steve Jobs tambien estara realizando su keynote para mostrar las novedades para el año que viene tanto de software y hardware y creemos que tambien sera un buen momento y lugar para presentar Snow Leopard con toda la ola de novedades que traera la 6ta. version de Mac OS X.

Asi que vamos preparandonos para un cierre de año espectacular y el comienzo de un nuevo año donde Apple estamos seguro que nunca parara de deslumbrarnos

Fuente: MacWorld Expo

El evento podria concretarse unicamente a los nuevos Mac, cosa que ya estabamos esperando. Este rumor surgen de John Gruber, de Daring Fireball quien asegura que una de sus fuentes "familiarizadas con Apple" esta preparando un evento especial en Octubre.

Si todo sale bien como pensamos que ocurra, tendriamos nuevos MacBook, seguramente rediseñados con carcasa de aluminio tipo MacBook Air y el MacBook Pro con "algo nuevo" quiza el diseño o alguna nueva funcionalidad. Lo que es seguro es que todos, incluido el MacBook Air y las iMac podrian cambiar en el aspecto de hardware implementando discos duros mas grandes y quiza el nuevo procesador i7 de Intel

Esto se "reafirma" aunque no se confirma con el hecho de Apple hace ya unos meses menciono una transición para el ultimo cuarto del año 2008 con lo cual entonces estariamos a un mes de un nuevo evento que promete deslumbrarnos.

Fuente: Gizmodo

Puedes verlo en Streaming de baja resolución y en HD:

-Watch the Keynote Address
-Watch the Keynote Address in HD 

Fuente: Apple Events

Uiteraard waren de aanwezigen bij het Apple Event in San Francisco voornamelijk geïnteresseerd in de presentatie van de nieuwste hardware en software van het bedrijf, zoals de nieuwe versies van iTunes software en een nieuwe iPod Nano (de dunste ooit). Toch was er dit keer ook meer dan gewone interesse in de hardware van Jobs zelf: zijn fysieke gesteldheid.

...lees verder op DutchCowgirls...

CC foto: acaben

El dia de ayer en la pasada keynote, Steve Jobs menciono al comienzo que "La noticia de mi muerte fue una exageración" ("The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated") con ello aclarando las olas de noticias en toda la Web los pasados meses que afirmaban que la salud del CEO de Apple habia estado muy deteriorada por lo que desde la pasada WWDC se comentaba que persona podia subir al lugar que Steve Jobs ocupa dentro de Apple.

Y es que no sabemos la verdad que pase el dia (que no queremos que ocurra) Steve Jobs deje el honorable puesto en Apple. Se han mencionado nombres, nombres y mas nombres pero en la realidad no es el nombre de la persona el que preocupa mas bien las ideas ya que Steve Jobs ha dado un gran aporte a la historia de la computación.

Por si fuera preocupante esto, a la Bolsa de Valores de Nueva York le preocupa mas ya que Steve Jobs es una de las personas mas influyentes en el mercado y el esta ligado al futuro de Apple ya que como hemos visto las acciones de Apple pierden o ganan peso entre cada keynote.

Entonces lo unico que esperamos es que tenga salud y que continue como siempre sorprendiendonos tanto a los miles de seguidores, usuarios (y Redmond) con los nuevos productos que soñamos Apple los traiga a la realidad. Saludos Steve Jobs!

Fuente: Tomado del Apple Event

1. iTunes 8 - We've all been using iTunes 7.x for what feels like years now and now FINALLY apple's given it a bump. There's not that much that's new about it really; slightly updated user interface; you can now browse your music by looking at a wall of album covers which is nice. After that though there's Genius; a new music recommendation engine which will create playlists of music trachs which go well together. This is based on data Apple asks your iTunes account to send to its servers and then makes suggestions based on what other iTunes users from all over the planet have put together, so far it seems to work pretty well. The update also allows you to download HD TV shows for $1.00 more than Standard Definition though I am yet to see any HD content in the UK iTunes store. You can download the update now and if you're a mac user make sure to run software update to get the latest version of Quicktime (and then again to get the FrontRow update too..).
2. iPod Classic - Now only available in a 120GB size; essentially the small classic now has a bigger hard drive and the thicker one is gone forever.
3. iPod Shuffle - The shuffles weren't actually mentioned by Steve on stage but they did get a small update by taking on some of the colours of the new nanos, which brings me to number four.
4. iPod Nano - The new iPod Nanos are back to their original form-factor; tall and thin. This fourth generation of the Nano is their thinnest iPod yet and boasts a tilt censor which allows you to switch into coverflow by turning it on its side. It's also useful for changing the viewing angles of photos or (and this is the fun bit) shuffling your music by shaking it; I'm not sure what's going to happen if you go jogging with this thing; a new track on each step could get to be a little tiresome, though I'm sure you can disable it. And of course the new colours, which for my money are MUCH better than the old pastely ones are BRIGHT! They've got a new advert too which is pretty nice.
5. iPod Touch - The touch has a newly sculpted design which makes it even thinner than it was previously and is now curved (like the iPhone) on the back. It comes with software update 2.1 which is free for iPod touch owners running 2.0, or £5.99 for users running 1.x who wish to upgrade. The new software doesn't add much more than 2.0 did in the first place, though it does add support for iTunes' new Genius feature which could be pretty useful. Also all new iPod Touch models come with a built in receiver for Nike+ which is a pretty nice little addition.
6. iPhone 2.1 - Ever since first-gen iPhone owners installed 2.0, or 3G owners got their new phones, we've been waiting for 2.1 to be released and finish off all of the odds and ends which weren't quite right upon release, well there is good news ahead. Come Friday Apple is releasing the 2.1 update which will take us from 2.0.2 to 2.1 and hopefully make the iPhone 3G as much of a pleasure to use as the original iPhone was.

Apart from ALL of that I don't think there's that much more worth mentioning and I don't think I forgot anything. For full coverage check out the streaming video of the event and see the presentation for yourself.

ooooooo - Colorful.

Alrighty everyone, the biggest news of the week just landed. As Apple tends to do around the pre-holiday season (like now), they announced today the new updates to their iPod lines.

Nano:

Among the several updates to the product line is the heavily rumored 4th generation Nano, which I think is awesome (Orange iPods = Awesome). With a screen long enough for wide screen video and photo playback yet a continuing the slender design of the 1^st and 2^nd Gen Nanos, it looks really good-- and ridiculously thin, as in paper thin.

It turns on it’s side to watch movies, using an  accelerometer (like the Touch/iPhone) that senses when you turn the Nano on it's side for features like Cover Flow. The accelerometer also brings a “shake to shuffle” feature that shuffles your music when the iPod is shaken (very fun and cool). The software remains mostly unchanged from last year's iPod Classic/Nano software, with the exception of a new "Genius" playback software, which automatically generates iPod On-the-Go playlists based on similar types of songs found on your iPod. And not to fear: all the old games from the last Nano still work on this model.

Prices were changed as well.  For $150, instead of a 4 GB of the 3rd gen, your money now buys an 8 GB version, and a new 16 GB version goes for the extra $50 ($200 total), that previously would've gotten you an 8 GB. Both are available in an astounding 9 colors. (Once again, Orange iPods = Awesome!).

Touch:

Also coming out today is the new iPod Touch. Since Apple’s spent the past year or so developing the software ecosystem for the Touch and iPhone, obviously it stays the same. However, new features were added with built in Nike+ iPod Touch support-- no little plug on the bottom of the iPod needed though you still must purchase the shoe receiver separately. The Touch also received physical volume control buttons similar to the iPhone, receiving speakers (FINALLY!) and an even thinner design then ever (yes, appearently thats possible).

Price here was cut to $230 for 8 GB, $300 for 16 GB, and $400 for 32 GB. The iPod Touch and iPhone also get the 2.1 software update, available free for iPhone owners and purchasers of the 2.0 update (C’mon Apple, stop charging for software updates already--its just plain ridiculous.), which adds the new Genius feature (see above) to the Touch and iPhone, as well as fixing numerous bugs, especially those regarding applications and dropped calls on the iPhone (we know you iPhone users must have had some of them).

New iPod Touch, with Nike+ Application on left, but notice the thinness!!!!

iPod Classic:

The iPod Classic was also updated today with a bump in storage for the old 80 GB, now boasting 120 GB for the same price as its predecessor-- $250. Attention all Storage Lovers: the 160 GB model has been discontinued-- buy them while they're still in stock (at a lower clearance price too :)).

Itunes:

You wouldn't think good 'ol iTunes would be left out in the 'Let's Rock" event would ya? iTunes also received an update with iTunes 8, which includes the "Genius" playlist generator (see above) that in addition to making entire playlists in iTunes based on a specific song, it will recommend similar songs from the iTunes Store (nice way to make a sale Apple ;) ). iTunes also gets a new visualizer and a different album view called Grid (similar to Cover Flow except better formatted for non-touchscreen devices. Instead of scrolling horizontally, you just go through a list by the Album art). Also, NBC returned to iTunes (Heroes and the Office are back. Woohoo!) and HD TV shows were added as well.

For some hands-on reviews of all these Apple announcements, see here.

WOW!! Lot of stuff here. Anyways, stay tuned for our own review of iTunes 8 (which is available now- click here), and feel free to sound off in the comments on what you think of these new Apple announcements, as well as if you'll be springing for one of these new iPods.

Pix and Info from Apple.com

iTunes 8 is said to have many functionalities as Pandora. I love Pandora and think it's algorithims are amazing, so having an Apple based version should be even better. Now when it comes to the iPods, I must say my favorite revamped model is the nano. Although I must say holding the new iPod Touch is truly amazing. I find myself walking over while working and just picking it up and playing with it.

There's much to write about even these relatively small-scale updates, but now is not the time: it's a little too late for me to get into the minutiae of them all, such as the new, metal-faced iPod Touch, the accelerometer-endowed nano, or the availability of HD TV shows for download from the iTunes store. Perhaps tomorrow, when it's all sunk in. 

For now, though, the important news - far more important than all this hardware nonsense -  is all about Browser view in the new iTunes 8, and the unfortunate fact that you can no longer remove the hideous, useless, and horribly distracting 'Genre' column from it. As any fool knows, me being no exception, the only columns you ever need in your iTunes Browser pane are those of Artist and Album, and it's been to my consternation all evening that I've not found a way in iTunes 8 to remove the Genre carbuncle and prevent it from spoiling my lovely, entirely sensible, interface with its idiotic pigeonholing and false distinctions.

Until about ten minutes ago, when I discovered the following fix.

Open the terminal app in OS X. Type: 

defaults write com.apple.iTunes show-genre-when-browsing -bool FALSE

and hit enter. Then launch iTunes. Voila: no more Genre column in browser view.

Phew. Until Apple add back in the option to remove this UI blot in the next iTunes update (which they surely will, if both mine and many others' feedback is anything to go on), I hope this interim fix serves you as well as it has me.

I'll be back with a full roundup of all the Apple Event news tomorrow evening, unless it's rendered superfluous by intervening blogs - which is fairly likely. For now, though, enjoy your Genreless iTunes 8 browser. Oh, and don't forget to try out the new Magnetosphere-derived default visualiser: it's an absolute stunner.

Los pronósticos se han cumplido y Steve nos ha presentado los nuevos iPod nano y iPod touch como se había estado especulando, además de una actualización del classic a 120 GB por $249.

Lo que más llama la atención del renovado nano es la vuelta a los colores eléctricos que nos recuerdan al nano 2G, el nuevo formato alargado de la pantalla y la actualización que ha sufrido el software.

Dispone de un acelerómetro como el del iPhone, para mostrar fotos y vídeos en panorámico, además de estar integrado con CoverFlow (al girar el nano, aparecen las portadas para desplazarse con el ClickWheel). Cuenta además con la curiosidad de que, si lo agitas… ¡entra en modo aleatorio!

La autonomía de la batería ha aumentado su capacidad a 24 horas para música y 4 para vídeo. Incluyen unos nuevos auriculares con control remoto además de dar la opción de conseguir unos auriculares mejores in-ear por $79 más.

El nuevo iPod nano se venderá en 8 colores distintos frente a los 6 de antes; En capacidades de 8GB a partir de ya y la versión de 16GB la semana que viene, al precio de $149 y $199 respectivamente.

En cuanto al iPod touch, su diseño ha sido mejorado con un adelgazamiento. Ahora dispone de un control de volumen a la izquierda y se le ha incluido un altavoz (al más puro estilo iPhone). La vida de la batería es de 36 horas para música y 6 horas para vídeo.

Mejora la interfaz de usuario gracias al firmware 2.1, incluyendo el Genius al igual que el nuevo iTunes 8. ¡Vendrá con Nike+ de serie! La actualización es gratuita para los iPod touch anteriores siempre y cuando poseas la versión 2.0 del firmware, en caso contrario, la actualización cuesta $9,95

Incluirán los mismos auriculares que el nano con la miama opción de conseguir mejores auriculares. Se venderá en capacidades de 8GB, 16GB y 32GB a $229, $299 y $399 respectivamente, desde hoy.

Fuente: AppleWeblog

Ya estamos listos para comunicarles todas las  noticias a menos de 10 minutos de que inicie el Show que Apple nos tiene hoy preparado ya mucho hemos dicho, que si un nuevo iPod Touch, Nano, Apple TV, iPhone 2.1 OS, que si Apple compra Microsoft (jaja) entre tantas cosas que no dejan de rumorearse.

Te recordamos que este evento es en el Yerbabuena Center en San Francisco y son las 9:57 en San Francisco, 11:57 en México. El Horario que ocuparemos sera el local de San Francisco, es decir 11:58, tiempo al final de este renglon.

LivePost, enterate en Vivo.
Mighty Apple
Iniciando....

9:58 - Suena la canción The Doors -"Touch Me" sera algun tipo de señal?
10:00 - Las luces se apagan, entra Steve!
10:01 - Steve dice que hoy vamos a hablar de musica.

10:02- iTunes cuenta con 8.5 millones de canciones, 125k de podcasts, 30 mil episodios de TV Show, 2.6k de peliculas de Hollywood y 3000 aplicaciones para iPod

10:05- Hoy tenemos iTunes 8!!!! Si, tiene accesibilidad, nueva exploración y una función "genius" (ya habia sonado)

10:08 - Ahora tu puedes navegar los albums por caratula en una nueva vista (Grid View)
La nueva funcionalidad: Genius Sidebar; automaticamente se hacen playlists de tu libreria para siempre con un solo clic. iTunes creara playlist de la musica que tu escuchas

10:12 - La nueva funcion enviara "los gustos musicales" a una nube de Apple.  Incluira información acerca de tu libreria musical, nombres de canciones, ratings, listas de reproduccion, play counts etc.

10:13 - Estamos viendo una nueva estetica en la forma de navegar por los albums. Y si si podras descargar peliculas en HD. 

10:15 - Jobs tambien esta haciendo un demo de la nueva caracteristica Genius. Toca una cancion y hace una Genius Playlist. Basicamente mostrara tus canciones al tipo de Pandora.
iTunes 8 estara disponible hoy en Apple.com. La funcionalidad Genius tambien sera para TV Shows

Ahora comenta que Apple se esta moviendo junto con el iPod quien tiene el 73.4% del mercado tan solo en USA. No es de sorprendernos, todos tenemos un iPod en el bolsillo (incluso en el celular!)

10:16 - Nuevo iPod Classic!, bueno mas delgado. El de 80 GB se actualiza a 120 GB y el de 160 GB desaparecera....
10:17 - El nuevo (ahora si) iPod Nano, todo como los rumores lo sugerian!

10:19 - El nuevo iPod Nano es mas redondeado y estilizado y es el iPod mas delgado jamas creado. Cuenta con Accelerometro. Se podran crear listas Genius directamente en el iPod Nano.  Tiene una nueva opcion de grabacion que se activa cuando detecta al microfono.

Nueva interfaz! Los iconos son mas grandes y el esquema es similar como lo habiamos rumoreado antes al del iPhone!

Viva la Vida! Viva Apple!

10:22 - Nueva caracteristica! Mueve el iPod y se turna a modo Shuffle! Obviamente esto solo es la punta del iceberg.
Su bateria durara 24 horas para musica y 4 para video. Reiterando, es el iPod mas delgado creado por Apple

Y tambien el mas limpio! ya que cumple con rigurosos materiales faciles de reciclar y no dañinos a la naturaleza

10:26 - Disponible en 8 colores! en 8 GB disponible hoy al precio de 149 dolares y 16 GB al precio de 199 dolares disponibles el fin de semana!

10:30 - Los nuevos accesorios!

Los nuevos audifonos tienen control de volumen y control de reproduccion (atras, adelante, play) y tambien incluira un microfono. Precio: 29 dolares disponibles el siguiente mes

Tambien se renuevan los Audifonos In-Ear ahora con Woofer y Tweeter solo por 79 dolares!

Nuevo comercial de iPods Nano! 

10:32 - Nuevo iPod Touch: Integra controles de volumen y bocina asi como la creación de Genius Playlist y al parecer tambien incluira Nike+iPod!
Y el iPhone?

10:36 - Steve Jobs cuenta que la App Store esta ya en 62 paises! con mas de 100 millones de descargas en 60 dias!

10:37 - Steve invita a Phil Schiller al escenario para demostrar algunos juegos en el iPod Touch. Se trata de Spore Origins, Real Soccer09 y Need for Speed!

10:45 - El nuevo iPod Touch tiene una bateria que le durara para 36 horas de musica y 6 de video.  Precios: 8GB en 229 dolares, 16 GB en 299 dolares y 32 GB en 399 dolares!

Nuevo comercial de iPod Touch

10:48 - Parece ser el nuevo iPod Touch Software Update 2.1 que incluira Nike+ y la Genius Funcion. Gratis para los iPods Touch con Software 2.0 y a 9.95 dolares para usuarios de software 1.x

Software Update para iPod Touch disponible hoy!

10:50 - Si yo ya estaba preocupado, por fin el iPhone 2.1 Sofware Update gratis e incluye una "gran cantidad de bugs!" además de mejorar la vida de la bateria, problemas de crashing e incrementa la velocidad de respaldo del iTunes.
Disponible el viernes! 

10:55 - Steve dice que tiene los mejores iPods y el mejor iTunes  de toda la historia. Comenta que los reportes de su muerte fueron exagerados! (ya lo quieren en Redmond ver asi pero no se les va a hacer)  Ahora sube un cantante: Jack Johnson, numero 1 en ventas en iTunes y parece que esto ya se acabo!

11:00 - Las tiendas aun siguen cerradas y no hay cambios en Apple.com 

Y el One More Thing?

11:05 - Steve Jobs vuelve al escenario y agradece al publico su asistencia. La Keynote ha finalizado.

La Apple Store ya esta abierta! Sorpresa Nuevos iPods Shuffle!
Gracias por estar con nosotros, ahora dejamos este Livepost y nos vamos a detallar lo nuevos productos en la pagina principal. 

Imagenes cortesia de Gizmondo y Engadget

From the International Business Times:

The Cupertino-based company is being tight-lipped about what's going to be announced, but many industry analysts predict the company is going to unveil new iPods and lower prices for some of its digital music players.

The event, titled "Lets Rock", will make it the fourth year in a row that Apple has held an event focused on its popular iPod in September.

"We anticipate a modestly redesigned 4th-generation iPod Nano and slimmer 2nd-generation iPod Touch, with lower price points and higher storage capacities," said Shaw Wu, an industry analyst with American Technology Research. "New Macs (are) not likely at this event,"

However, "radical changes in the iPod portfolio" are unlikely, he noted.

Apple may also make some announcements about new software. "Very often when the hardware gets revised, we see a new version of iTunes," the company's online music service, said Ross Rubin of NPD Group, a market research firm.

Apple has sold over 100 million iPods since the wildly popular device first became available in 2001, while rival Microsoft in May announced that it has sold over 2 million Zune devices since the product was released in late 2006.

From CNET:

As today's Apple event gets underway and journalists from all over the world are waiting on bated breath to see what Steve Jobs has to say, it's abundantly clear that the vast majority of people going and those that read the news, will be disappointed.

No, it's not because Apple will waste time or that all those people are Windows fanboys and want nothing to do with Apple. Instead, it's because Apple, unlike every other company in the technology industry, has created such a hype machine that unless it offers something major like a touch-screen Mac or a new iPhone, it'll disappoint even the most giddy fanboy.

See, the problem with Apple's success is that it's expected to keep up with it. How many times has the company announced a press event, carted Steve Jobs onto stage, who then announced a few minor upgrades, only to see less than shining press opinions later on because it wasn't "newsworthy" enough? Probably more times than we can count.

Apple's success over the past few years has revolved around these press events. The company has consistently made huge announcements at Macworld and other assorted locales over the years. But in recent years, it hasn't. Not because it's failing to release good products, but because it's so difficult to create and release groundbreaking products every few months.

But it's Apple's fault that all this happened. The company is big on these events and it does its best to build up the hype around each of them. I can't blame it - it's in the business of good coverage and big profits and the best way to do that is to build up some serious hype.

But because it relies on these events so much, the very thing that makes it successful is also becoming a problem. How can you satisfy the press and make sure that they continue building the hype, while ensuring that the right products are made available at the right time? After all, doesn't Apple have a responsibility to its shareholders first?

I'm Evan Herlan, the West Coast Correspondent for the "Tech2Day" show. I'll be at Apple's "Let's Rock" Event at 10am PST to live Blog the entire event. Check back at 10am (1pm EST) to get the latest.

For Now Check out Tech2Day at: tech2dayshow.wordpress.com ]]> http://mightyapple.wordpress.com/?p=33 Tue, 09 Sep 2008 03:26:13 +0000 danurigom http://mightyapple.pt-br.wordpress.com/2008/09/08/lets-rock-apple-event-september-9/

Aqui vamos. Apple ya ha enviado las invitaciones para el evento que se llevara a cabo mañana, 9 de septiembre a las 10:00 am en Yerba Buena Center, San Francisco.

La invitación que ves aqui nos da la idea de lo que veremos, nuevos iPods, el rumoreado iTunes y mucho mas he incluso algun One More Thing

Estaremos mañana desde las 11:00 am dando cobertura y los ultimos detalles que giran entorno a este evento que en tiempo local de México será a las 12:00.

How the green-eyed monster may be stalking backstage at tomorrow's Apple Event 

As Apple gears up for its imaginatively titled 'Apple Event' in San Francisco tomorrow at 10 a.m. (6 p.m. BST), the usual outlets of internet rumour are sourcing, crafting and spinning the usual variety of scoops and predictions about the show's content.

This is, of course, entirely normal: what would be the point of the internet were it not for its primary function as a vessel for amplifying even the faintest of Chinese whispers and transmitting them, if not at the speed of light, at least at the speed of the finest optical fibre cable to every inch of the globe covered by its octopoidal embrace? 

It was ever so with Apple's stage shows: both the company's devotees and its detractors have always been fairly easy to whip up into a frenzy by a little Jobsian oratory, to the extent that 'one more thing' now has a similar effect on a certain audience as 'once more unto the breach' once had on its congregation. The chattering classes have always loved their drama.

Increasingly, though, the slightest of Apple's announcements, even the most sotto voce of its declarations, has provoked the most disproportionately intense media speculation far beyond the usual technorati circles. The reason, of course, is Apple's latter day success in the consumer market, principally with the iPod, the iTunes store and, now, the iPhone. Both the company's detractors and those in the general media without any axe but the dull instrument of 'good copy' to grind are now in on the act, and the occasion of an Apple Event offers the ideal showcase for such whetting and stropping.

Likely announcements

We'll sample a little of the whetting and stropping later. Turning to the Apple Event itself, a quick tour of the usual places shows that the following announcements are likely to be made tomorrow:

• iTunes 8 for OS X and Windows, featuring a new visualiser called Magnetosphere (which will, no doubt, 'rock')
• A 'genius' mode in iTunes that will attempt to create playlists of songs in your collection that would fit well together, and will suggest purchases to complement said playlists
• HD video downloads for computers as well as the existing ones for Apple TV
• Upgraded iPods, principally a new Touch and a new 4th Gen nano (pictured below)

It's speculated that when the new nano is held horizontally while a video plays, that too will rotate to provide landscape viewing in the fashion of the iPhone/Touch. Seems pretty logical, and credible.

Other, weaker, rumours are of a possible iTunes Store subscription service, and upgrades to the MacBook range (although it's at least equally likely that this will come later in the year).

If the compass of these rumours is anywhere near accurate, this will hardly be an earth-shattering event: pleasant enough as a tick-over, but nothing more. However, it still puts a spotlight on the company's success, and as is the case with these things, the spotlight often throws some stark shadows. Co-incidentally or not, the past 24 hours have seen some more negative attention drawn to Apple's stage to counter the whoops and cheers.

Shadows behind the curtain

In an article in the Mail online, it has been revealed that the creator of the iPod was not in fact the Devil via a pact with messrs Jobs and Ive, but one Kane Kramer, a British inventor who came up with the idea - and even patented it - in 1979. Unfortunately for Mr Kramer, the 'design' became public property in 1988 when he was unable to raise the money needed to renew the patents. Apple have used his testimony on the lineage of the iPod to defend an action against the firm Burst.com, who had themselves claimed the possession of patents to the tech, so - despite the Mail's proclivity for hyperbole - it looks as though this story has a certain degree of credibility, this underlined by a drawing that Mr Kramer made of his 1979 prototype:

Obviously, that's not actually an iPod, but (in the absence of direct access to the deposition filed by Mr Kramer) it's not entirely unreasonable to to conclude that there is more to his father figure claims than a mere sketch. Kramer has yet to see a penny for his 'invention' and is, by all accounts, in fairly dire financial straits these days, giving him an ideal opportunity to deliver a killer one-liner:

‘I can’t even bring myself to buy an iPod for myself,’ he said. ‘Apple did give me one but it broke down after eight months.’

Nice touch. Although there's no doubt that Apple's actions here are perfectly legal - the patents had slipped, after all, however sketchy or detailed their conceptualisation - it'd be hoped that the negotiations in which Kramer has allegedly now entered with Apple will bag him at least a small part of the billions that Cupertino has made from the Walkman of the 21st century. It'd be an exceedingly poor show if he didn't profit from his own invention, even if all that ultimately amounted to was series of sketches used to defend Cupertino from allegations of impropriety. And, with all the success Apple is having of late and the cyclical nature of these things, Steve Jobs might need all the good karma he can get one day.

Apple is the new Microsoft

So says Daniel Lyons in a unremittingly tendentious piece for Newsweek that carries the headline 'One Bad Apple'. Oh, please, Daniel: your slip is showing.

We've all read these supposed 'parallels' between the two companies before, alongside the accusation that Apple's monopolistic practices would have been as much clamped down on as Microsoft's were Apple the success that its rival is. And this one adds nothing much to the argument, save for being timed to coincide (however, erm, co-incidentally) with yet another Apple Event and riding on the wave of the company's recent successes. So I'll not devote too long to this one - I include it more as an example of how sharp those knives can get when they've been sharpened for so long than for any reason of credibility, in contrast to Mr Kramer's story - but I'll select a couple of snippets that should give the flavour of the piece.

A former lieutenant of Steve Jobs's once told me something surprising about his ex-boss. "Steve is a monopolist at heart," he said. "He's just like Bill Gates. He just hasn't been as successful." Well, Jobs is getting there.

That's Lyons' rather tart (if not outright bitter) stall set out right at the beginning of the piece. Tart, yes; surprising, decidedly not.

Not long ago Apple was just a niche PC maker selling to diehard fans who were quick to forgive (or even celebrate) Apple's quirks and foibles.

Ouch. I never knew that about myself until now. I was always fond of a nice caricature, though, so fair play. By the way, have you heard the one about the lazy journalist?

The really scary thing about Apple is that it doesn't just make hit products—it controls entire ecosystems. Just as Microsoft controls both the operating system and the applications that run on top of it, Apple owns popular hardware platforms (iPod, iPhone) and operates the only store that can sell music, movies and software programs for those platforms. Apple sets prices and takes 30 percent of the money.

Looks like Daniel's not only seen the caricature but been so impressed with it that he bought the cliché. Because if that's not the personification of lazy journalism, he must be correct in the central premise of his piece, and if so it is impossible for me to have bought music from the other retail stores I've bought music from to put on my iPod. I've also never ripped my own CDs to the device. And I've clearly never, ever, put any films, or TV shows, or home videos, or music videos onto my iPod, unless they were bought from the iTunes store, even though I have clear recollections of having done all these things and still have all of these songs, music videos and films on my iPod. Because I can't have done that, else the control of the entire ecosystem that Apple has, and which is the central tenet of this article, does not, in fact, exist.

Perhaps a quick trip to Bleep.com (or any other of the many online music stores that provide music in a way that's compatible with the iPod) might change Mr Lyons' mind. But I suspect not: one should never let an awkward plot detail - and certainly not the odd fact or two - get in the way of a good drama.

Better watch yourself, Steve: the knives are out backstage, and they're sharper than ever.

Alors, news qui va être courte mais efficace. Apple event le 9 septembre qui annonce entre autre le nouvel iPod nano.

Dans le suite vous pourrez voir différente vidéo des animations proposées par Apple sur le future plateforme musicale(iTunes 8). Certe sa sert à rien mais en tout cas c'est très réussi.

Vidéos dans la suite...

Source : Nowhereelse

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.1543889&w=425&h=350&fv=clip_id%3D169308%26server%3Dvimeo.com%26autoplay%3D0%26fullscreen%3D1%26md5%3D0%26show_portrait%3D0%26show_title%3D0%26show_byline%3D0%26context%3D%26context_id%3D%26force_embed%3D0%26multimoog%3D%26color%3D00ADEF]

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.1543891&w=425&h=350&fv=clip_id%3D174357%26server%3Dvimeo.com%26autoplay%3D0%26fullscreen%3D1%26md5%3D0%26show_portrait%3D0%26show_title%3D0%26show_byline%3D0%26context%3D%26context_id%3D%26force_embed%3D0%26multimoog%3D%26color%3D00ADEF]

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.1543893&w=425&h=350&fv=clip_id%3D305947%26server%3Dvimeo.com%26autoplay%3D0%26fullscreen%3D1%26md5%3D0%26show_portrait%3D0%26show_title%3D0%26show_byline%3D0%26context%3D%26context_id%3D%26force_embed%3D0%26multimoog%3D%26color%3D00ADEF]

Now rumors are going above and beyond making this event to be larger than life. Apple has even told reporters that it will be a "big deal" and even put a huge banner up. Could this "big deal" just mean there will be a bunch of really good deals or just a lot of new stuff? Nobody knows. Rumor even has it that the iPhone 2.1 update will be released and that there might be secret features in the update also. Rumor is that they took many features out of the betas for developers to keep them secret. Everyone expects new iPods at this event and even the new iTunes 8. So on Tuesday September 9th expect many great new things from Apple and hold off on buying any iPods til then.

]]> http://ibuffet.wordpress.com/?p=103 Sat, 06 Sep 2008 20:33:18 +0000 marcopako http://ibuffet.pt-br.wordpress.com/2008/09/06/todo-listo-para-el-martes-let%e2%80%99s-rock-apple-event/

En el evento tendremos varias sorpresas que incluyen iPods y un nuevo iTunes con toda seguridad. Se llevará a cabo este martes 9 de septiembre en el Yerba Buena Center for the Arts en San Francisco, California; los horarios son los siguientes:

10:00 horas en California
12:00 horas México
19:00 horas España
14:00 horas Argentina
18:00 horas en Canarias
13:00 horas Chile/Colombia
12:30 horas Venezuela

     On September Ninth, 2008, we are going to make history, with the Real Steve Jobs.  Steve.  I want a new iPod.  

From Macrumors.com

from Engadget.com

iLounge.com

Photo from San Francisco, CA.  Let's rock event.  [From http:gizmodo.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2008/09/letsrock.jpg]

     The New iPod Touch just takes a few design q's from the iPhone 3G, and adds a volume rocker.

     Idk about blutooth.  I hope so, but I won't be getting a new touch, i'm getting an iPhone.

-KM

     If you think multiple things are going to be announced on WWDC, your wrong.  Wait until Macworld.  WWDC is a developers conference, its for the people that make your Mac and iPhone worth it's while.  I expect they will sell out of tickets this year.

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