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!

Yesterday I managed to make the frontpage of Digg. This is a difficult thing to do in my opinion, although there are people that are naturals and get heaps of stories on the frontpage daily. Anyway, I strategically got a story that was bound to make it to the frontpage to get there before someone else submitted it.

First off, I needed to work out what the reader wanted to see and/or know and find a place that would be able to provide that information. I decided to go with the big topic of Apple’s new iPods, one that is seen on Digg at least 5 times a day. I was going to submit one of those stories!

One thing that hadn’t been done is the dissection of the new iPod Touch. Okay, it may seem like nothing but one question that is on a lot of people’s minds is Bluetooth, is it or is it not in the iPod Touch? The only way this could possibly be answered if in one of two ways, either Apple confirms it, or someone rips apart a unit and discovers a chip for Bluetooth.

I knew where I had to go to find the story. iFixit had recently taken apart the iPod Nano and iPod Classic and I was positive that they were going to do the same to the iPod Touch when they got their dirty hands on it. I frantically waited for signs of them having their way with her, refreshing the page every minute. The iPod was out and they had to have one by now.

After about an hour of refreshing, in fine print down the side of the page was the first sign on life “Check out our first look at the iPod Touch.” I click and saw a bunch of unboxing pictures. When are they going to rip into her? Are they going to? There was no mention on the site about taking it apart, but they had to! I refreshed a couple of times. I went to submit it to Digg, entering in all of the field waiting to submit it. I went back to iFixit. After more minutes of refreshing, finally there as a sign, they were going to take a look inside.

This was when I finally submitted it. I was hoping no one else had submitted it during my period of hesitation. To my luck, I was the only one. My story is bound to be on the frontpage by the time they finished stripping her naked. I get Peppery to digg it, he did as well as twittered it. I submitted it to Pownce, thats where a lot of the Kevin Rose Fanboys… errmm… I mean Diggers hang out.

Every 10 minutes, a picture of the iPod Touch went up, each one more less article of clothing from the last. After two hours, she was completely stripped of her glory and out there for the world to see her bits, every single component, every single chip. Every hour, I got one or two diggs. 6 hours later, my story only has 20 diggs. The problem was the timezone conflicts. I was going to have to wait till the morning to see the progress of my story. I went to sleep. In the morning, I wake up to discover my story hit the frontpage an hour ago. 400 diggs by the time I wake up. Yay! I got there! I win!!!

I’m going to quickly touch on my opinions on the 4 new iPods that were announced yesterday at Apple’s Keynote.

Lets start small with the iPod Shuffle. New colours, big whoop! I have never really though of the Shuffle as a proper iPod. Its really just a thing that plays music that looks pretty nice. I’m not a huge fan of the new colours though, I preferred the old ones. Whenever I see a shuffle, which is rare, I think of that person as someone that can’t afford a real MP3 player.

3rd Generation iPod Nano’s look a little squashed and plumped. The colours aren’t that nice either. Yes it now plays video but how good of a player would it be in a small screen? I suppose I’d have to use one to properly judge it. I have never been a huge fan of the iPod Nano’s, or the Mini’s for that matter.

The iPod Classic looks pretty similar to the iPod Video, and the functionality is pretty much the same too, but with minor differences there and here. One of them being the implementation of coverflow, a feature I would find myself using quite a bit. Its also at a very nice price too and comes in the 80GB and 160GB models.

Last but not least, the one everyone as waiting for, iPod Touch. This iPod has most of the functionality of the iPhone, but without the communication feature. I was disappointed to find out it only comes out in the 8GB and 16GB varieties. I would have preferred if they had gone with Hard Drive storage for bigger capacity than going with Flash memory. I wouldn’t pay the money for a 8GB, or a 16GB iPod touch knowing that I can get the 160GB iPod classic with more storage, even if it has less features and no touch screen.

To sum it up, I wasn’t that pleased with the new iPods. I couldn’t justify buying the iPod touch at the price point it is since it only has a minimal amount of storage, 16GB at the most. I can see myself paying for the pretty reasonable 80GB iPod and if I had $399, I can see myself getting it without a second thought.