Live Reaction To: “It’s Showtime” - iTV Will Be Massive!
iPods enhanced today - longer video playback time - maybe better for watching movies? Plus a bunch of new games. You can now buy games for the iPod on iTunes.
New iPod nano - new colours and now software is like the regular iPod. Looks like a thin iPod mini. Could be pretty popular.
TV shows from the iTunes store now encoded at higher resolution - 640×480, compared to the previous resolution of 320×240.
New version of iTunes - version 7 announced - which includes the ability to download free album art. Also, you can now sync your iPod between multiple computers.
So far, so good.
Now, on to movies - one of the things people were waiting to hear about. From today, Disney coporation movies from Walt Disney, Pixar, Touchstone, Miramax available. Seventy five movies today, more over the coming weeks and months. New releases priced at $12.99 if pre-ordered, and $14.99 after that. Most titles, though, will be $9.99. US-only service until 2007.
Apple is claiming that the quality is “near-DVD” - time will tell on that one. Also, movies encoded with Dolby surround. Sounds like Apple is preparing for something to show movies on a TV…
And it seems the new TV playing device will be announced in a minute… (despite Steve Jobs wrapping up).
Here we go… preview of the device, which will be launched Q1 2007…
Apple will be selling a wireless set-top box. Box is like the Mac mini, but thinner. Might be called iTV, but no final decision taken on naming yet. Will stream content from your Mac to your TV, wirelessly (component-quality video). Interface like next-generation version of Front Row.
I think they’ll do very well with this product. It’s not for serious movie buffs - the quality won’t be good enough. But, because it’s wireless, it should be easy to install (assuming they get the software right).
So, there we go - they finally did it! I’ve written before that Apple were going to release something to compete with MS Media Center, and they’ve done it…
The really interesting (and unexpected) thing is: the new device interacts not with a Mac, but with iTunes; and that means iTV will connect to a Windows PC running iTunes. Priced at $299, this is going to be MASSIVE!. Make no mistake, this is a great move by Apple…
Asam Bashir wrote:
Yah, it’s just the start, think they where pushed into releasing iTunes 7 sooner then they wanted, maybe forced my Amazon’s efforts, anyway, this just the start, they’ll work to add more film distributors now - European and art productions should do well….
Posted 16 Sep 2006 at 2:24 am ¶
Asam Bashir wrote:
And mobile phone space awaiting invasion and radical reorganisation of standards in a market place currently dominated by players that have zero clue about human interface and GUI’s,
http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2006/09/20060913215342.shtml
Posted 16 Sep 2006 at 2:35 am ¶
Asam Bashir wrote:
Interesting thing about iTV was that they didn’t pin it down to a particular 802.11 standard, so leaves open, plus Blue Ray yet to be added to SuperDrive on Mac’s.
Posted 16 Sep 2006 at 2:38 am ¶
Asam Bashir wrote:
Hi Si, check out this weeks NewScientist, some interesting articles on your online life and social networking:
http://www.newscientist.com/contents/issue/2569.html
Posted 17 Sep 2006 at 12:16 pm ¶