Tag Archives | Apple. iPod

Apple's September Music Event is Official

Posted by Harry McCracken on August 25, 2010 at 11:06 am

I just got an invitation to an Apple press event in San Francisco on September 1st. Here’s the art–either the company is finally making its long-awaited move into the guitar business, or it’s scheduled its traditional September iPod launch.

Sadly, I won’t be covering this particular Apple event in person. (I have a good excuse: I’m going to be in Berlin at the IFA tech show.) But I’m curious about just how significant the news will be. New iPods are a given, and there are rumors of an Apple TV replacement and a seven-inch iPad. As is my wont, I’ll ask you for formal predictions shortly before the event, but any initial guesses and/or hopes?

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A Brief History of Those Apple Event Invites

Posted by Harry McCracken on January 19, 2010 at 2:14 am

Apple may be the world’s most famously secretive tech company, but it’s impossible to be completely secretive about a press conference if you want the press to show up. So the week before the company holds one of its product launches, it issues invitations. With an Apple event that supposedly involves a tablet computer a bit over a week away, it’s instructive to review past invites and how the world reacted to them.

These invitations aren’t a comprehensive record of every interesting product Apple has released–some of the biggies have been announced at Macworld Expo and Apple’s own WWDC, which are held sans cryptic invites. And I haven’t attempted to document every invite here–just a bunch of representative highlights.

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Does the Lack of Apps Doom the Zune HD?

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 15, 2009 at 5:10 pm

T-PollOver at Wired News, Brian X. Chen has posted what’s probably not the only article we’ll see in the next few days that juxtaposes the words “Zune” and “failure.” Brian talked to a bunch of Microsoft-watchers, and the gist of their consensus is that the fact that the Zune isn’t a true software platform sets it up to bomb.

I don’t agree that it’s destined to tank–I’m guessing that Microsoft would be thrilled if it sold half as many Zune HDs as Apple sells iPod Nanos, and the Nano is even less of a software platform than the Zune. But yes, the iPod Touch is core to Apple’s future, and there’s no way that the Zune in its current form is core to Microsoft’s fate. Even in a best-case scenario, it’ll just be a neat media player that sells well.

(Speaking of the Nano, MKM Partners’ Tero Kuittinen has an interesting suggestion for Microsoft in Brian’s story: Lower the price of the Zune HD so it’s a cooler, more powerful alternative to the Nano rather than a more limited iPod Touch rival.)

Anyhow, I bring this up mostly because I’m interested in what you think…

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Fifth-Generation iPod Nano: The Technologizer Review

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 11, 2009 at 5:57 pm

iPod NanosWeird but true: For Apple, 2009 has turned out to be the year of inner beauty. Most of the company’s new products, including the iPhone 3GS and the latest MacBooks, are virtually indistinguishable from their predecessors, but which pack meaningful improvements inside. The trend continues with the fifth-generation iPod Nano. For the first time, Apple’s annual reinvention of its most popular music player isn’t about aesthetics–in fact, the new Nano is the same size as the old one and differs visually only its slightly larger screen and slightly smaller clickwheel, the camera on its backside, and the slicker and more vividly colorful (and, I’m hoping, more scratch-resistant) finish on its aluminum case. But the latest Nano carries more new features than any of more outwardly revised predecessors.

In fact, this is the first Nano that feels a little less like a music player and a little more like a Swiss Army Knife. Much of what Apple has added has nothing to do with music: The Nano is now a video camera, a stand-alone voice recorder, and a pedometer. And the major new music feature–an FM radio–is so retro that I’d long ago assumed that Apple would never add one to one of its products. Like most Swiss Army Knives, the new Nano doesn’t match every single-purpose product in every respect, but the improvements add up to a fun upgrade that retains a logical place in the iPod family even in the era of the much fancier and more versatile iPod Touch.

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Apple Event: Big Whoop? Medium-Sized Whoop? Nonwhoop?

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 9, 2009 at 4:33 pm

smallsteveToday, Steve Jobs and company announced iPhone OS 3.1 (Genius mixes, ringtones); iTunes 9 (iPhone LP content, iPhone app management, fancier syncing, media transfers, new look); cheaper iPod Touches with more capacity; iPod Shuffles in new colors with a lower starting price point and a stainless steel version; a capacity bump for the iPod Classic to 160GB; and an iPod Nano in fancy new colors with with a video camera, FM tuner, voice recorder, and pedometer. It also gave a bunch of iPhone OS game companies a chance to show their new wares. Oh, and Steve Jobs returned to the stage and Norah Jones sang a couple of songs.

Seems to cry out for a T-Poll:

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Your Apple Event Predictions: The Tally

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 9, 2009 at 1:41 pm

Apple Music EventOn my way into this morning’s Apple music event, I told a fellow attendee that those of you who participated in our survey yesterday had collectively predicted that Apple would announce an iPod Touch with a camera and a version of iTunes with social networking features, and that Steve Jobs would make an appearance. “I think they got two out of three right,” I said. By which I meant that I thought the Touch and iTunes predictions were spot on, but that Jobs would most likely not preside.

Turns out that you did get two out of three right–but you were right about iTunes and Jobs, and wrong (like most everybody else) about the Touch. You were also wrong (like many folks) about the iPod Classic being discontinued, but it was a squeaker: 51 percent thought it was toast, and 49 percent rightly believed it would stick around.

Only one other thing came to pass that you thought wouldn’t: An overwhelming 75 percent of survey-takers predicted that there wouldn’t be an iPod Nano with a camera. Apple, it turns out, thought otherwise.

Okay, so those results fall short of being uncannily accurate–at worst, they’re comparable to those of most big-time Apple pundits. You guys ever thought of doing this for a living?

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Fifteen Questions Prompted by Today’s Apple Event

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 9, 2009 at 1:24 pm

iPod Nano with VideoIt seems to be a mandatory component of the kabuki that is Apple press events and coverage thereof: Nearly every such product rollout is initially dismissed as a disappointment. Despite the welcome return of Steve Jobs, this morning’s one certainly is certainly getting lukewarm reviews, in part because it failed to involve even such relatively mundane rumored gizmos as an iPod Touch with a camera.

I came with my expectations firmly in check, and saw at least one bit of news which will change my life as a user of technology for the better (iTunes’ new tools for managing iPhone apps). So while I may not have been wowed, I also wasn’t nonplussed by the lack of all-new products or other major developments. And as usual, a lot of what was interesting at this event had as much to do with implications as the concrete facts. After the photo of Steve, fourteen questions and attempts at answers…

Steve Jobs

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Your Predictions For Wednesday’s Apple Event

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 8, 2009 at 11:13 pm

Apple Music EventTwelve hours from now, Apple’s music event will be underway, and I’ll be  sitting in the audience providing liveblog coverage right here. The big news won’t quite have come yet, but by noon we’ll know all. For now, though, it’s still predictin’ time–and here are some from you guys.

Yesterday night, I posted a quick survey about the event, asking you to pick which items would happen from a list covering some things that have been rumored or predicted, or which just sound logical. If we define a prediction as something which more than fifty percent of the folks who took the survey think will occur, only three made the grade: You think we’ll see an iPod Touch with a camera, that Steve Jobs will make an appearance, and that there will be a new version of iTunes with social networking features. It now looks like the Beatles won’t show up on iTunes tomorrow; you made an almost-prediction that they would, with exactly fifty percent of respondents predicting their arrival.

Here’s everything you voted on. (I should have also asked about Apple’s reported “Cocktail” format for digital albums, but didn’t).

I also asked whether Apple will discontinue the iPod Classic tomorrow. You predicted it would, in a squeaker: 51 percent versus 49 percent.

Thanks for voting, everyone; I’ll check back in tomorrow with a final tally of how we did…

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What Will Apple Announce on Wednesday? You Tell Me!

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 7, 2009 at 11:30 pm

Apple Music EventLast time Apple had a big product rollout, I asked you to make some predictions. Collectively, you did better than some of the big-time Apple pundits. Now we’re just hours away from the company’s music event, which Technologizer will cover live beginning at 10am PT on Wednesday.

So let’s try this again, with another quick survey. I’ve listed some of the products that have been rumored or predicted for the event, and also let you predict whether the iPod Classic will get the axe or live on to play another day. I’ll close the survey Tuesday night and report on your verdict before the event happens–then follow up with a look at just how uncannily accurate you were.

Click here to take the Apple Music Event survey.

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Is the Classic iPod a Goner?

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 6, 2009 at 11:41 pm

Heavenly iPodTumblr developer/blogger Marco Arment has posted his best guesses about what Apple will announce–iPodwise, at least–at its music event next Wednesday (Technologizer will be there to liveblog the news). Arment’s predictions seem logical enough–which doesn’t guarantee their accuracy, of course–and the most interesting thing about them is that he thinks that Apple will discontinue the iPod Classic, the high-capacity, small-screen, no-touch, no-apps model that’s the direct descendent of the original 2001 iPod.

In the era in which the iPod Touch is unquestionably the most exciting iPod and the Nano is the dominant “traditional” iPod, are there any reasons why Apple wouldn’t kill the Classic?

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