Apple "Rock & Roll" Media Event

Apple held a media event today. It focused on music. iPods and iTunes mostly.

There is a new iPhone OS update available today. OS 3.1. Hopefully it fixes the bugs that have bugged me. Specifically, the keyboard is REALLY SLOW on some apps. Also, the SMS and Email routines have a tendency to spin into landscape mode while I am holding the iPhone upright and not moving. That annoys me.

One of the big rumors was there would be a new iPod touch released that has a camera. Close but no cigar. It's the new nano that comes with a camera. A video camera no less. Also a built in mic, speaker, and FM receiver. Nice, but I can't imagine the average consumer would pick a nano over a touch given the touch can run app store programs and (in a wi-fi environment) is basically a pocket computer.

The new version of iTunes appears to be focused more on the iTunes store. By the sound of it everything there is changing. (at least the look and feel is) Movies will now come with all of the DVD extras. (for an extra fee?) Buy full albums (LP mode) will now come with extras such as artwork and lyrics and stuff. I like that upgrade very much, thank you. Also, for networks running iTunes on multiple machines, you can now drag songs from one shared iTunes into another and it will copy the files onto the second machine. That. Is. AWESOME!. I have been waiting for that since... ohhhh... day one.

There was one glaring omission in the Apple "Rock & Roll" event: The Beatles. It was rumored that The Beatles catalog would finally be available for purchase in the iTunes store. Nope, not this time. There was even supposed to be an interview with Yoko Ono published online last night that quoted her as saying today was the day. The article was immediately and (if it actually existed) somewhat alarmingly squashed and erased from the ether. Given the events of today I would suggest that the whole thing was a hoax. I know that's a leap of logic on my part.

The only other thing that is drool worthy for me personally is that the new iPod Classic has a 160 gig capacity (I own an 80 gig classic that is about 98% full and never leaves my side) and the price has been reduced to about $240 or so. I'm too lazy to look up the actual price, but it's close to that. It's about $20 cheaper than the 120 gig Classics were selling for when you went to bed last night. I think that might be something to save up for as an upgrade. I am a storage capacity whore who cannot get enough memory. I always need more.

So today is the day that The Beatles Rock Band comes out as well as (finally!!!!!!) the remastered versions of the entire Beatles catalog. The stereo versions are being sold as a boxed set. I will save up for that and get it one of these days. I have everything the band has published, and I have mountains of stuff that they... ummm... haven't published. There is nothing new in these remasters for me other than the (hopefully, please please please) cleaner sound. I am going the audiophile root here and only interested in getting the CDs. Had the new remasters been released on iTunes I would not have even considered buying them there. I want the full resolution this time, thanks. As for Rock Band... I'm saving up for that one too.

So today is a big day for Apple fans and for Beatles fans. I hope you enjoy all the neat stuff as much as I am positive I will.

Happy 09/09/09.




as in...


number nine?
number nine?
number nine?