Roundup of Apple’s Special Event: iPod Nano with Camera, iPhone 3.1, iTunes 9

Apple’s special event – It’s Only Rock and Roll, But We Like It, held on Sep 9, is now over. Right after the event, Apple has made the keynote available online and you can now watch it online. If you have missed the event, do check it out at Apple’s website and enjoy Steve Jobs’ keynote.

As a roundup of the special event, here are what have been covered:

New iPod Nano with video camera and radio
As expected, Apple introduced a new iPod Nano with video camera that supports VGA 640×480 recording. Other than that, the new iPod nano is refreshed with the following features:

Larger 2.2 inch Display
Microphone for voice recording and Speaker
Voiceover Support
FM Radio (great feature that many iPod users have awaited)
Built-in pedometer to support Nike+ natively
Still polished anodized aluminum but with more color choices
VGA 640×480 recording, H.264

iPod Nano with Video Camera Interestingly, the iPod’s camera only supports video recording but doesn’t allow to take still pictures. As Steve Jobs explained in an interview, by David Pogue of The New York Times, it’s due to a technical constraints:

the sensors you need to record video are extremely thin these days—thin enough to fit into the wafer-thin Nano. But the ones with enough resolution for stills, especially with autofocus (like the sensor in the iPhone), are much too thick to cram into a player that’s only .02 inches thick.

The iPod nano is now available at Apple Store and sold at US$149 (8GB) / $199 (16GB).

For U.S. customer, you can also check out MacMall to purchase iPod nano. At US$149, it comes with the new iPod nano and a free Altec Lansing Orbit Ultra-Portable Speaker.

A Faster iPod Touch with Price Cut
Though bloggers and analysts speculated Apple would announced a new iPod Touch with camera, the truth is the new iPod Touch only got a minor upgrade with a faster processor. Like iPhone 3GS, the new iPod Touch focuses on speed and you can enjoy better gaming experience as Apple advertised. As a consumer, the big news is iPod Touch is now more affordable. The 8GB edition of iPod Touch only costs US$199. For those looking for a larger storage, there are also 32GB (US$299) and 64GB ($399) available.

iPod Shuffle with more Color Choices
ipod-shuffle-special-edition Another minor update for the iPod family is iPod shuffle now comes with five colors. Additionally, Apple offers a special edition of iPod shuffle in polished stainless steel. The special edition is exclusively sold on Apple Store. The 2GB edition costs only US$49 and the 4GB edition costs $79. For the special edition, it’s sold at US$99.

iTunes 9
Apple announced a new release of iTunes – iTunes 9, which is now available for download. This new version is a great release with lots of innovative features:

iTunes LP – remember what’s included in a CD album? It bundles the music, photos, lyrics, liner notes, essays, and all sort of contents. But when you purchase song from iTunes store, it’s just a song. iTunes LP is the Apple’s way to bring back all sort of visual experience bundled in a CD album. With iTunes LP, you do not just get your favorite song. While you listen to the songs, you can dive into animated lyrics and liner notes, watch performance videos, view artist and band photos.
Home Sharing – Let you easily share music, movies and TV shows on iTunes. With home sharing, you can browse the iTunes libraries of up to five authorized computers in your house. By sharing the iTunes libraries to other computers, you can drag & drop content from one library to other or even stream the content.
Redesigned of iTunes Store – Refined the navigation and redesign with slicker interface to make you easier to browse songs, movies and TV shows
Genius Mixes – This new feature automatically searches your iTunes library, finds songs that go great together, and creates multiple mixes you’ll love.
Improved Syncing and iPhone App Management – Offers more flexible ways to sync your music, movies or TV shows from your computer to your iPhone or iPod. For iPhone, iTunes 9 also lets you manage and organize the iPhone home screen right from it. After reorganization of iPhone screen, you can simply sync the change back to iTunes.

itunes9-app-management

Social Networking Support – Now you can tout your favorite music, movies, and TV shows on Facebook and Twitter right from the iTunes Store.

iPhone 3.1
Apple also introduced the iPhone 3.1 OS. The new OS comes with lots of bug fixes and some features update including the support of genius mix. The new iPhone OS is now available via iTunes for free download. I’ll further cover all the new features in upcoming post. Stay tuned.

Share with Your Friends

What's Next?

If you find the post is useful, subscribe to Simon Blog using RSS or Email to get free iPhone updates. Alternatively, you can follow me on Twitter or join us on Facebook.

Related Post you'll like: