It was a busy day at the YBCA Theater in San Francisco today as Apple unveiled a slew of new products and services to its crowd, and to those watching live on the Web. We saw upgrades to the iOS software for all iOS devices (even the iPad), a new line-up of iPods for the holiday season, iTunes 10 with its social network Ping and of course, the new $99 Apple TV. Here’s a run down of everything that happened in one handy-dandy list in case you missed it!
Retail Store Update
- Apple has opened three new stores internationally in Paris, London and Shangai. They now have 300 stores in 10 countries, with their 11th, Spain, coming soon.
- Apple has single days where over 1 million people visit their stores, and more than 50% of their customers are buying their first Mac.
iOS 4.1 and 4.2
- 120 million iOS devices have been sold since the first iPhone launched. 230,000 new activations occur each day.
- 6.5 billions apps have been downloaded from the AppStore, which now hosts 250,000 apps. 10% of those apps are iPad apps. 200 apps are added tot he store each second.
- iOS 4.1 – The next iOS iteration will be available next week for iPhones and iPod touches and features bug fixes for issues associated with the proximity sensor, Bluetooth and iPhone 3G.
- iOS 4.1 also features high dynamic range (HDR) photographs within the camera app, which takes three photos at varying exposures and blends them together to make rich photographs.
- Game Center will finally be lauching with the 4.1 release. It allows game enthusiasts to network with friends, get matched up for multiplayer games, see leaderboards and get push invitations to play online. Mike Capps from Epic Games (makers of Gears of War) demoed a new game, “Project Sword,” which features Game Center functionality.
- iOS 4.2 Sneek Peak – Apple also provided a first-look at iOS 4.2, which will bring all the functionality of iOS 4.1 to the iPad. Folders, multitasking, and other familiar features will hit the bigger screen in November. Also, 4.2 will allow for wireless printing to networked printers on the iPad.
New iPods
- Apple has sold 275 million iPods to date.
- A new iPod Shuffle is a “best of both worlds” approach, which combines buttons and voice controls in a new small design. It will be in 5 colors, will get 15 hours of battery life and will hold 2GB of music for just $49.
- New iPod Nanos have eliminated to the click-wheel and gone touch screen with a square-shaped miniature iOS device. It also features a clip on the back like the shuffle, and the screen can be rotated with a pinch-and-twist motion. It has the same colors as the shuffle, plus granite and red versions. $149 for 8GB, and $179 for 16GB.
- The iPod Touch, the #1 portable game player, is now thinner and gets all the hardware upgrades from the iPhone 4, including the Retina Display, the A4 chip, the gyroscope. Also, it features forward and front-facing cameras, and can now run FaceTime for chatting with iPod and iPhone owners. $229, $299 and $399 are the prices for 8, 32 and 64 GB models.
- All of the new iPods are available next week, and can be reordered starting today.
iTunes 10 and Ping
- A new iTunes is available today and features a new logo (finally) and Apple’s foray into social networking with Ping, a place to discover music and follow friends and artists.
- A new Hybrid View lets you view album artwork when browsing your library in list view. It only activates when you have more than 5 songs in an album as to not waste space.
- Ping, the iTunes social network, will feature a stream of activity and customized Top 10 lists based on your friends’ music tastes. It can be accessed on-the-go from iPhones and iPod Touches.
One More Thing Hobby: New Apple TV – $99
- Apple unveiled a $99 Apple TV that is a fourth the size of the original and features a dark black design. It has no local storage and streams all of it’s content from the Internet and your local machines.
- It has HDMI, ethernet, 802.11n WiFi and a remote.
- Users can stream music, TV shows, movies, podcasts, radio stations, photos and more with the device.
- Users can now rent first-run HD movies for $4.99, and HD TV shows for $.99 from FOX and ABC. Jobs thinks more networks will “see the light” soon.
- It also supports Netflix, YouTube, Flickr and Apple’s MobileMe.
- It will retail for just $99, and is available in roughly 4 weeks.
Wow! That sure was a lot from Apple. Those new iPods look pretty slick, especially the new square Nanos that look like a watch-face (some one please make a watch strap accessory!). Ping and iTunes 10 should be fun to play around with, and I don’t know about the rest of you but that $99 Apple TV looks very enticing. Oh yeah, and iOS 4.1 looks cool too – the HDR photos is sure to excite the photo bugs out there.
Let us know what you think in the comments below!
