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Archive for September, 2008

Apple Event planned for September 9th

Thursday, September 4th, 2008 | Apple, News | 28 Comments

September is traditionally the month that Apple releases updates to the iPod line, and recent invites sent out by the company confirmed that there will indeed be an event on Tuesday, September 9th. Journalists are speculating on not just upgraded storage for existing devices, but also new designs for the iPod Nano and iPod Touch.

Kevin Rose, founder of digg.com and avid Mac user, mentioned on a recent episode of MacBreak Weekly that he received inside information on what to expect Tuesday. From his blog:

a revamp of the entire iPod line
small cosmetic changes to the iPod Touch, and a significant redesign for iPod Nano (see image below)
fairly large price drops to distance the iPods from the iPhone
iTunes 8.0

According to Kevin, iTunes 8 will include Genius, a feature that makes playlists from songs in your library that ‘go great together’. Genius also includes Genius sidebar, which recommends music from the iTunes Store that you don’t already have (this is similar to what services like last.fm do).

iTunes 8 will also allow you to browse your artists and albums visually with the new Grid view, download TV shows in HD quality from the iTunes Store, and sport a new music visualizer.

As with all Apple Events, we’ll have to wait and see. Some people have complained that the iPod Nano pictured above has a curved screen that would cause excessive screen glare when watching movies, but as with many past Apple products I think having it in-hand and actually using it will resolve these kinds of complaints. A good example is when photos of the the previous redesign of the Nano, nicknamed “Fatboy Nano“, were leaked. The design was criticized until the device appeared in stores, after which it quickly became a hit.