Apple only had two surprises in store for us today.
The first was the brand new iPod Nano (pictured). Sporting a shuffle-esque look (complete with clothes clip and bright colours) and a multi-touch screen, it is a truly radical redesign. To give you a sense of just how minuscule the new Nano is, take a look at an iPhone or iPod touch. See the icons on your screen? The iPod Nano's screen holds only four of those per page. Obvious problems arise when taking this approach. They all centre around the fact that the device itself is impractically small. So small, in fact, that when Steve Jobs himself was using it, he had to take off his glasses and bring it up to his face to see properly. You can't watch videos on that screen. You can't look at photos. You can't even see your album artwork! Apple took out the video camera. They took out the accelerometer (to rotate the screen you need to use two fingers). They took out the clickwheel (the only iPod that still uses a clickwheel is the iPod Classic, and that was the only iPod not updated today). Apple took out everything that defined the Nano and made it appealing. They took it out, kept the price the same and added a screen many people will need a magnifying glass to see. Everything about the new Nano screams downgrade not upgrade. The problem? This iPod is not a Nano. It is an iPod Shuffle with a screen - an iPod Micro, of you will. It needs a micro price tag to succeed. With the new retina display, dual camera and iOS 4 equipped iPod Touch a mere $50 upgrade, the Nano is no longer relevant. The Nano is overpriced, under featured and poorly designed. It might as well not exist, and to reflect that, I hereby dub it the iPod Nono - 'an iPod Nano without the iPod Nano'. The iPod Nono proves that sometimes less is not more. It's just less; after all, if you tried to play a song beginning with the letter "Z" you'd still be scrolling down when the next version came out! That said, the device looks extremely cool and critics of Apple products are proven wrong more often than not.
The other surprise? A new iTunes feature called Ping. A stab in the dark aimed directly at the heart of Twitter, Apple's "Social network for music" is intriguing. It allows you to follow artists you like and connect with your friends. It allows you to post about cool music you've heard and gigs you'll be attending. Even better, it creates a Top Ten Most Downloaded list tailored specifically to you and your friends. Unfortunately, that is the extent of my ability to comment on Ping. Why? Because social networks need people to function, people to turn the cogs of the machine so that people like myself can see how it works. Right now, Ping has no one.
But there was "one more thing" as indeed there always is. Unsurprisingly, the Apple TV, the previous ugly duckling of Apple's product line, was provided with a major upgrade. Apple took out the hard drive from the old model (and apparently lots more) and the new, matte black version is a mere 1/4 the size of it's predecessor. It revolves around a different philosophy than the one Google used when they introduced their Google TV. It revolves around the philosophy that people don't want their televisions to be computers. They have computers for that. A television is a separate product, and it shouldn't sync to a computer either. The new Apple TV is a fully autonomous entertainment hub capable of streaming rental only $0.99 HD TV Shows and $4.99 HD Movies. Not only that, but with WiFi (802.11n) and Ethernet built in you can stream videos, photos and music from your computer or iPad. You can access Netflix, YouTube and several other internet services as well. The deal breaker? The last Apple TV cost almost $250. This one costs just $99 and it ships in 4 weeks. Sound too good to be true? That's because it is. The only networks that have currently signed up for $0.99 TV show rentals are ABC and Fox. But with more sure to sign up soon, however, the new Apple TV looks like a very attractive product.
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