Is anyone surprised?
Monthly Archive for September, 2007
Maybe it was. In a rare glimpse inside what Apple uses for codenames for their unreleased products, I noticed this image name on the iPod Touch page on Apple.com:
Hero, huh? That sounds about right. Can anyone at Cupertino or elsewhere confirm this?
EDIT: I guess I’m wrong. Clint and Adam corrected me in the comments, explaining that these big, prominent product photos on the Apple site have been called “hero shots” for a long time. Makes perfect sense. Thanks for keeping me honest, guys! 
The new iPod Touch just dominated the web tablet market. Just like that. The iPhone was already well on its way, but it was hampered by being shackled to AT&T, which not only excluded anyone outside of the U.S. from (legitimately) using one, but a lot of people in the U.S. who couldn’t or didn’t want to switch to AT&T for whatever reason.
Now, there’s no excuse. The iPod Touch is the best web tablet device out there, and it’s not even out yet.
How can I say this? Well, I’ve been using the iPhone for 67 days, and I’m convinced that it’s the best web tablet experience out there. I literally have an Asus R2H UMPC and an HTC Hermes (AT&T 8525) on my night stand, which I use for web tablet stuff. They all use WiFi. And hands down, I use the iPhone more. The experience is just SO much better. The UI is smooth and beautiful (much higher DPI on the screen). It’s so light and thin compared to the others. It’s a pleasure to hold and to touch and caress (you iPhone owners know what I’m talking about).
I use my iPhone to keep connected with my network of people. I read and post to Twitter. I read and post to Facebook. I read my RSS feed subscriptions with Google Reader. I read Digg and Techmeme. I read and post on the forums at Ars Technica. All the things I usually do when I’m at a “real” computer, and the experience is smooth. Yeah, you can do those things on a Windows Mobile device, or a Nokia web tablet, or a UMPC or MID (which aren’t even out yet), but the experience is just SO much better on the iPhone/iPod Touch.
So, I’m boldly predicting that Apple has just owned the web tablet/ultra mobile/mobile internet device market. Anyone who wants to argue otherwise had better have a heck of an ace up their sleeve, because at this point, you’ve got to knock Apple off the top of this hill if you’re going to make a difference.
Guess they really are getting rid of the 4GB iPhone model, because it’s available on “Clearance” from the online Apple Store for only $299. That’s a heck of a low price for an amazing device. Get it while it lasts.
Hat tip to Frederic at Last Podcast for the link.
Among all the iPod announcements made today, Apple also announced a price drop for the iPhone. The 8GB model is now $200 cheaper, at $399. Great news for people who want to buy one, but a kick in the teeth to all the poor saps (like me!) who paid $600 for one 67 days ago or less.
People on the web are already starting to clamor for some kind of gesture of relief/acknowledgement from Apple. A free iPod Nano (even one of the old ones, to clear out inventory)? An iTunes gift card? A Shuffle? “We’re Sorry”? Anything?
I don’t think it’s likely that Apple will do anything at all for the suckers people who paid the Early Adopter Tax. But they’d garner a WHOLE bunch of good will and loyalty and PR if they did.
If you’re one of the victims of this, check the terms of the debit/credit card you used to buy your iPhone. Many offer “price protection”, for exactly these situations. For instance, my MasterCard offers 60 days of price drop protection. You can file a claim, showing the new lower price compared to what you paid, and they’ll send you a check for the difference. But this might only work if you DIDN’T buy it on launch day (June 29). If you did, you’ll be sad to note that it’s been 67 days since then. Too late.
But, if you’re lucky enough to have this policy on your card, and you waited a week or more to buy your 8GB iPhone (or you have longer than 60 days protection), go file a claim and get some of your Early Adopter Tax back.
Just don’t count on anything from Apple to make up for it.
Dave Winer has been calling for a podcast player that has the ability to add/remove and update podcast subscriptions directly from the internet over wifi for a while now. With today’s announcement of the iTunes WiFi Music Store, and the ability to browse and buy music directly over the internet from an iPhone or iPod Touch, we’re one step closer to that.
In fact, unless they deliberately remove/restrict the Podcasts section of iTMS from the WiFi store, we should be able to browse and subscribe to podcasts directly on the device. Wouldn’t that be nice.
I’m not counting on it, but it would be a nice feature. I guess we’ll see when the iPhone software update and/or the iPod Touch hit the streets.
The iPod Touch got announced. It’s basically an iPhone without the phone bits. It can do all of the media stuff. It has WiFi and Safari and YouTube. But it’s interesting to me the applications that it DOESN’T have, that it easily could:
- No Email
- No Google Maps (this would have been killer)
No Calendar- No Weather
- No Stocks
- No Notes
No Clock app
But for some reason it does include an Address Book, and a Calculator. Those seem like unusual choices for what is essentially a media-rich web tablet.
Which leads to the question “how easy is it going to be for homebrew hackers to copy those apps to the iPod Touch?” My guess is “pretty easy”. From what I’ve seen of the internals of the iPhone OS, it seems to follow pretty standard Mac OS X/UNIX file structures and app packages. No doubt it will be trivial for hackers to copy the missing apps over for people who want them, and aren’t afraid.
But still, for something that basically just redefined the “web tablet” market, it’s interesting to analyze the choices that were made.
Related:
You have to live under a rock to not know about the Apple announcement going on today. It’s press only, and the invites seemed to indicate an iPod update (which makes perfect sense). Journalists and bloggers are gathered in the Moscone Center in SF as I write this, and I’ve got Engadget and Ars auto-refreshing, watching my Twitter stream, and chatting with a few friends on Google Talk. Oh, and writing this post.
No news yet, except that the Apple Store site for the U.S. is down. I’ll update this post as the announcement goes along.
I’m also playing with the brand new MarsEdit 2 to write and update this entry. I’m really liking it so far, and I’ll probably plop down the money for it when the trial period ends.
Oh, man. It appears that Twitter has fallen over and died. Probably overwhelmed from the traffic. It’s rough being the world’s backchannel.
First up: iTunes. Talking about how huge the iTunes music store is. 3rd largest music seller in the U.S. Largest electronic music store in the world. A third of the music released in the U.S. last year as digital only. Wow. New version of iTunes shipping tonight, with… Ringtones! Yawn. And it will only cost you $0.99 ABOVE what you already paid for the track in iTMS. What about MP3s that I’ve ripped or downloaded? Rumor mill was 100% right on this one. Color me underwhelmed.
Next up: iPods. Every iPod is being updated today. First, the Shuffle gets a PRODUCT(RED) version, and some new colors. Same price. No other changes. Yawn.
The iPod Nano gets a remake - the rumor mill was right on this one, too. The fat Nano is real. 2″ 320×240 color LCD, video and games and Cover Flow, all metal construction (no more plastic caps). More storage, too. 4GB is silver only, $149. 8GB in all colors for $199. Price drop? So much for hopes of a 12 or 16GB model. So I guess the Nano is now just like the full blown iPod, but smaller and flash-based.
So far, the rumor mill is batting 1000.
What about the big boy iPod? The “iPod Classic” will be even thinner, 80GB ($249) and 160GB ($349)models, all metal. Hmm. The “classic” name seems to hint at another iPod model at the top of the lineup… Shipping today, in stores soon. New user interface - whuh?
That brings us to the iPod Touch (rumor mill still 100%). About the same size screen as the iPhone but thinner (8mm). Whoa. That’s REALLY thin. Same multitouch interface from the iPhone. Looks just like the iPhone. Slide to unlock. If it has WiFi and Safari, this is going to be a KILLER product. Not as if they won’t sell millions of them anyway. Aannndd it DOES have WiFi. And Safari for web browsing. I want one of these, and I already have an iPhone. THAT’S how delicious it sounds. It’s got YouTube, too, and I see a calculator icon, but what about email? There are a LOT of empty spots for apps on the home screen. Homebrew hackers, start your engines!
What about storage and price? It’s too thin to have a hard drive, so it must be flash. My bet is on 8GB and 16GB. Gotta entice iPhone owners somehow. Looks like I was right - 8GB for $299, 16GB for $399, available “in a few weeks”. A whole lot of people’s wallets just got three or four hundred dollars lighter.
And now there’s “one more thing”…
iTunes Music Store over WiFi - browse and preview songs on your iPod Touch (and they’d BETTER update the iPhone to use this!), buy songs over the air, and they sync back to your computer next time you sync. Very nice, and once again, the rumor mill was right on.
This is interesting. A partnership with Starbucks. When you go into a Starbucks with an iPod Touch, a new icon will appear on the screen, and with one touch you can buy whatever song is playing in the Starbucks at that moment. That’s kind of cool, but I doubt I’d ever use it. It also apparently includes free access to the iTunes Music Store via WiFi at Starbucks. I wonder if it works for Safari and YouTube, too? That would be pretty cool.
There will be an iPhone update later this month that adds all of these features. Whew.
Oh, and here’s a lovely kick in the teeth. They’re dropping the price on the iPhone. The 8GB model (they appear to be dropping the 4GB model altogether) is now only $399. Compared to the $599 schmucks like me paid TWO MONTHS ago. Gah! And nothing to ease the pain - no “we’re going to give a free Nano to you poor fools who paid $600″ or anything. The price we pay to live on the edge in Steve’s world, I guess. Still sucks.
That seems to be it for the announcements. Some musician is up on stage playing now. Let the commentary, raving, and gnashing of teeth begin!
Consider yourself forewarned - I expect to be doing lots of microposts via Twitter today during and around the Apple announcement. New iPods are expected, and the rumor mill is in high gear.
If you don’t like the noise of those microposts, well, just forgive me, and all will be back to normal in a couple of hours.
If you want to join in the conversation with me, you can follow me on Twitter, and drop me a note to let me know to follow you back.
T minus 45 minutes! I LOVE new gadget days from Apple!
Update: Twitter was up and down like a yo-yo during the event, so I ended up liveblogging the announcement, as well as posting some post annoucement thoughts on what got left out of the iPod Touch and the possibility of podcasts on the iTunes WiFi Store.
MOTOROKR S9 Stereo Bluetooth Headphones, originally uploaded by Josh Bancroft.
Sprint sent a pair of MOTOROKR S9 Stereo Bluetooth headphones as part of their Sprint Ambassador program. I’ll be playing with them, and will update soon. Too bad they don’t work with my iPhone - it doesn’t support the Stereo Headphone music gateway profile. Maybe in a future software update!
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