Let’s Rock!
Last week, Apple hosted an event to show off their new music stuff. This included a new version of iTunes, a range of new iPods, and new software for iPhone and iPod Touch. I didn’t get up a 5am like the last event to see what Apple was announcing, I could wait till later because I don’t need an iPod and also a lot of the announcements were already rumored around the internet, mainly due to a Kevin Rose inside source.
To sum up everything in a paragraph, new version of iTunes, 8.0. Adds grid album art view and Genius which makes playlists from songs similar to the one chosen. New iPod Nano, old slim design, accelerometer and Genius plus also a gimmicky (useless) feature, shake to shuffle. New iPod Touch, same as old one, slight design changes, Nike+ built in, volume on side. 2.1 software for iPhone/iPod Touch, fixes the bugs in 2.0 and adds Genius. The only things that interest me is the iTunes 8.0 update and the 2.1 software.
I installed iTunes straight away and I have noticed that it works better than 7.7 did in Vista. It still isn’t perfect but I guess the only way to make iTunes work perfectly is to get a Mac. As you know, I prefer to play my music by album so the album art grid view is great for me. It allows me to select an album to play pretty quickly. I also had a quick play with genius. I was happy with the selection it made, although it could probably have made better choices here and there, but I’m sure it’s playlist selections will get better as time goes on. I think Genius is a great way to find similar songs that go together in your library in a quick and easy way. It also allows to rediscover some of the music that has been buried in your library for a while. I think it is great alternative over Party Shuffle in iTunes and definitely the shuffle mode.
I have yet to upgrade my iPhone to 2.1 but I am really looking forward to being able to. Genius on it is going to be great, although I am a bit worried about how well it would work with only one third of my music collection on it. In saying that, it has most of the songs, well albums, I enjoy listening to anyway. Also the bug fixes to the keyboard lag, random app crashes and long sync/backup time will be greatly appreciated. I’m just waiting for QuickPwn for Windows to get released and I’m on the bandwagon. I need the unofficial third party apps as much as I need the official ones, that is why I haven’t gone through with the upgrade already.
So the event was prety dull. I think it would have been more exciting if the products hadn’t been rumored in such great detail beforehand. It kind of ruined the anticipation of the announcements. Although I wasn’t expecting any new computers (MacBook please!) to be announced, that will be the thing I am looking forward to the most. I think I am turning towards the Apple side!
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I hate the new iPod look, I would try iTunes but I’m on linuxes now (on a mac -_-)
I dislike the new iPod nanos’. They look ugly (to me) and they’re not much of an improvement over the previous ones. It sounds to me like Apple are trying to kill off the hard drive based iPods (classic) and go all flash based, which is horrible for people like me who have large music libraries.
Peppery: In a year or two, when they get the iPod Touch up to 64/128GB, they will probably discontinue the iPod Classic. I don’t see it as such a huge problem because flash based iPods are less fragile to damage, and as storage sizes increase, there will be less demand for hard drive based players. I understand that people like to carry their whole music libraries with them, but would someone really need to carry around more than 80gb of music? If they do, I’m sure spending a few less bucks on music and invest those in a second iPod couldn’t do too much harm.
I don’t want a second iPod though. I enjoy having _all_ of my podcasts and tracks on my iPod. It’s handy when I go away or if other people are using it. I shouldn’t have to limit myself just because Apple says so.