Apple's new iPod nano, iTunes 8.0 download, Genius, etc.

What everybody in the tech world was waiting for was finally out, and the rumors & leaks turned out to be true. Apple CEO Steve Jobs (doesn't he look frail?) faced a roomful of techies to announce Apple's new line up for the rest of the year, just in time for the holiday season - the new, sleeker 2008 iPod nano, the iTunes 8.0 (available for download today!) and the new iPod Touch - complete with new pricing and accessories. Dubbed as Apple's 'Let's Rock' event, it was an eagerly anticipated event to confirm the rumors about Apple's new products. Here's a rundown of the new releases.

First on the list is the new iTunes 8.0. HD shows will now be available for download, with NBC spearheading the bunch with The Office, Monk, Battlestar Galactica, 30 Rock, Heroes, etc. HD
downloads will be available for $2.99 while the SD downloads will be priced at $1.99. All of these wiil be available together with the over 8.5 million songs, 125,000 podcasts, 35,000 TV shows and 2,600 Hollywood movies available for download.


iTunes 8.0 will be available for download starting today as a FREE download at apple.com. Aside from the HD TV shows already mentioned, iTunes 8.0 will be offering new browsing options, accessibility technologies and something called the Genius - it lets you automatically make playlists from songs in your music library that "go great together". There's a button in the bottom right corner that lets you make a Genius playlist. A Genius sidebar makes recommendations from the iTunes store that might match your Genius playlist by tracking albums, artists, account names, play counts, ratings, etc. from your music library. It does this not just for one user but for all the users of the iTunes Genius system. From all these data collected, the Genius algorithm then makes its recommendations.

Apple iTunes 8.0 download available here
Now let's go to the iPod news. The iPod classic has been very popular ever since its release, both the thin and thick versions. The thin ones are much more popular though with almost everybody favoring it over its chunkier sibling. For this reason, the fat ones are going to be phased out and the slim ones have been upgraded. The 80GB jumps to 120GB for the same price of $249, which means it can now accommodate 30,00 songs compared to the previous 1,000. Wow!


The new Apple iPod nano 2008. Exactly like the spyshots that have been going around for the past weeks, with the following features:

New curved aluminum design, and curved glass over the display. Thinnest iPod ever built, enhanced user interface, and it's got the iPhone/iPod Touch's accelerometer. And you can create Genius playlists right on the nano. The new interface looks a lot like the interface introduced with the 3G nano/iPod classic. Full-sized album art, and it inserts album covers at the bottom. And, of course, you can flip it into landscape mode. Holding down center button brings up a pop-up menu, browse albums, artist, build genius playlist all from the playing. Voice Recording program built-in, along with all the other standard additions (clock, timer, etc.)

The new 2008 iPod nano also has improved battery life: 24 hours of music and 4 hours of video. And, in keeping with today's environment-friendly products, the new 2008 iPod nano has arsenic-free glasss, BFR-free, Mercury-free, PVC-free and highly recyclable materials. Looks like Apple really went all-out with this latest nano version. He he. But there's more, they're 'nano-chromatic' too, available in purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, pink, and silver. And the prices: $149 for 8GB and $199 for 16GB.

The iPod Touch has a new version as well. It looks a lot like the iPhone. Same tapered back, thinner than the previous version, same 3.5" display, integrated volume controls, wireless network, built-in speaker, Genius playlist creation, and the App Store built-in. Another significant improvement is the integration of the Nike + receiver into the Touch - runners using the Nike + system will require only the transmitter in their shoe to enjoy the benefits of the iPod Touch. Whew! The new iPod Touch comes in three models: 8GB goes for $229; 16GB for $299; 32 GB for $399. All available starting today!

new iPod Touch & iPhone software update/upgrade announcement

Together with the realease of these new products, Steve Jobs made this announcement about the latest software versions for the iPod Touch and iPhone:

The new iPod Touch has 2.1 software. If you have a first-generation Touch, you can get version 2.1: it's free upgrade from 2.0. If you haven't, it's $9.95 to update from 1.x. The updates are available today. If you have an iPhone, there's a 2.1 software update as well. It's a big update: it fixes lots of bugs: fewer call drops, significantly improved battery life, not as many crashes, backing up to iTunes is "dramatically faster." And some new performance enhancements as well. Free to all iPhone owners.

Read more: leaks about the new iPod nano 2008 and iTunes 8.0 | new Google Chrome updates released, security bigs fixed | Apple refreshes iPods | new iPod nano 2008 review |


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