This may not be the case this time; all of the updates announced today are relatively subtle. iTunes 8 is a good for-instance. I installed it full of hopes. It looks basically the same in the frame. The new view is nice, but for the first ten minutes made my machine (QX6800, 4GB) hang in a manner briefly reminiscent of installing Crysis on my pre-QuadCore machine.

The Genius feature wanted to spend 4 hours of my life (and 2GB of my RAM) capturing my Play data. And I didn’t find the new visualizations until prompted by a post. Despite all of this, I am now a lot happier with iTunes than I was yesterday. It took hours and I’m almost pleased. This is a new experience for me with Apple products; usually it’s the initial wow which blinds me to other obvious flaws. This time it’s the ‘perfection’ that hides the lack of new wow.

Don’t get me wrong; iTunes 8 isn’t perfect. It’s still nowhere near as fast as it could be on Windows Vista. I would also like to see some sort of attempt at use of Glass in it. I like Look-and-feel native applications. It’s what OSs are designed for.

The new iPod Nano 4G which has been much-rumored was released as expected. It’s a lot better-looking than I expected, although even some of the demonstration shots show Glare on the curved screen. Something that I would be hesitant to introduce! The new software looks gorgeous as ever, and may be tempting enough to push my fatty-nano out of my gym bag!

The $80 headphones announcement was a pleasant surprise and will definitely be finding their way in to an iPod incredibly near to me. That said, I use the wired hands-free for my iPhone a lot as it doubles as my headphones; I wonder if there will be a version of these with the in-line mic? (update: they all do)

I’m not surprised to not see a laptop or desktop line upgrade here; as I posted earlier, ‘Consumer’ is the key. Things that will drive immediate sales this Christmas, with no uncertainty or possibility of postponing purchasing for later features. We all know that Intel is releasing it’s new generation of processors in Jan / Feb which offer huge benefits for mobile computers. This is most likely what we’ll see in the next major revision of all Mac lines. Snow leopard too will not be making any more appearances until next year for the same reasons and I think Microsoft would be wise to take the same approach with Windows 7.

I am very pleasantly surprised by this round of Apple announcements; they show a brilliant matching of form AND function and will genuinely improve the experience of all users of Apple products (especially iTunes, iPod and iPhone).

I will forgo mentioning 2.1 iPhone firmware until Friday when it’s released.

I found out over on TUAW that the iPhone App Air Sharing is available free for the next week (ish). Air Sharing allows your iPhone (or Touch) to become a wireless drive for your PC / Macintosh.

I know that I for one am heading over to download it now.

(about 1 1/2 hours to go!)

Personally, I can’t wait to see what Apple come out with but there’s a lot of rumours and supposition.

iPod Nano 4G Sneak Peak

The iPod Touch is most likely going to retain it’s specs to allow for a price drop to compete with the subsidised iPhone.

A major version release of iTunes (iTunes 8) is expected bringing a few new features; among which is the ‘Genius’ feature to allow for smart playlist generation; perhaps a feature that could be more useful if iTunes ever adopt a subscription model. But most exciting is a rumour that I’ve heard (semi-reliable source) that suggests the newest version of iTunes will be coded to be truly Vista-compliant and not just an XP version that has been hacked together to work; i.e. no more rediculously slow operation!

There’s been lots of talk of Mac Book updates; I doubt we’ll see anything on the pro side, but an Air update is probably round about due now (unless they choose to wait for the new Intel processors next year beginning) and the Mac Book vanilla may see an update now in time for Xmas.

I think the key to remember is ‘Consumer’. This event will most likely be about the consumer ranges in order to drive excitement (read: sales) for Xmas.

More to come…

(photo courtesy of engadget)

Here’s hoping that whatever new iPhone they announce will be available in Apple stores to be cracked like old 1.0 because I definitely want! Oh yeah… did I mention… I picked up an Air and it’s amazing! I’ll be sure to post more on that soon!

Finally, new Giggle screenshots of the redesign soon: watch this space!!

Chris

While apparently downloaders of the Eve Source utilizing torrent links are being banned, there is a MegaUpload link from which I’ve heard no such rumours.

You can find it over at: REMOVED
(hit up your favourite torrent site if you’re feeling brave)

Remember; you heard it here first! Unless CCP is asking!

Chris

Auditionees are invited to come to the Mahalo HQ to complete their audition, however for people outside of LA, there is the option to make a 1 minute mini-clip of a Mahalo-style episode. This should create a barrage of interesting (and amusing) content for us viewers and apparently even the auditions themselves will be streamed live.

So, if you’re female and think you’re up to the challenge of becoming a Veronica replacement, pop over to Mahalo Idol and try your hand at filling her formidable boots!

Chris

Jason has Andrew Keen on his uStream for a lunch interview. It should be a good view.

Find it over at:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/jason-calacanis

Chris