Apple's event today packed plenty of surprises. If you missed our live blog, you can check it out here. But it's hump-day and we're all busy people so there's a condensed version below if you're short on time.
New iPods
The fall Apple event is always iPods and music orientated. Though this year did bring an Apple TV announcement (it's not called iTV), the biggest surprise still involved iPods, amazingly enough. This is because Apple decided to completely revamp the iPod line, introducing all new designs across the line.The iPod shuffle is both regressing and progressing as Apple is bringing back the click-wheel from the second generation shuffle, but keeping the VoiceOver playlists that everyone loved about the third generation shuffle. It's teeny, holds 15 hours of battery and it comes in five colors. Available next week, it's got 2GB of storage and it costs $49.
The iPod nano also got a major redesign, despite the fact that it was updated last year. Apple ditched the video camera that they added just recently, completely took away the scrollwheel, made the screen smaller and added multitouch. It's now a tiny little cube with a multitouch display covering the front of the device. Steve and his friend's also added the clothes-clip that shuffle users will be familiar with. It's still got Nike+, an FM radio, a clock, etc, everything is just in a really small package. While the old iPod nano was supposed to be pretty good for watching videos (hence it's widescreen display), I can't imagine anyone but Thumbelina would want to watch video on this thing. Swipe to either side to reveal more menu items (playlists, artists, radio, Nike+), and use two fingers to rotate the screen. This has 24 hours of battery and comes in seven different colors. It sells for $149 for the 8GB version, $179 for the 16GB. Again, it'll be available from next week.
