Apple Event
September 1st, 2010, 3:14pm by JakeJust flipped through the highlights here. Apple TV at $99 looks pretty cool, although I’d rather just get the same content via Amazon or whomever on the TiVo– still no TV rentals such as Daily Show or whatnot. iPod Shuffle gained the buttons that the Nano lost, might be time to grab a last-gen Nano as they’re cleared out– no idea why Apple is killing off that form factor. The iPad Mini (aka iPod Touch) looks stellar at $229, probably the perfect companion to a Palm Pre Plus. What are your takes?
September 1st, 2010 at 3:34 pm
Does Amazon give you movie rentals the same day the DVD comes out (XBox still doesn’t)? That seems like the biggest deal with the new aTV service if it’s pretty widespread. Otherwise, for movie rentals, who cares (Apple vs. Amazon). I agree if you already have a TiVo (sunk cost), no reason to switch unless you determine that the DVR service isn’t worth paying for. As for TV rentals at $1, the price is right, but good luck expanding that catalog beyond broadcast. A la carte premium shows for $99 would kill cable (and TiVo too). For $99, I’m tempted to get one for the same-day movie rental access (and podcasts), although I’m not sure my bandwidth could accommodate the streaming.
I love how Steve called podcasts “amateur hour.” Leo Laporte isn’t going to like that!
September 1st, 2010 at 4:16 pm
I noticed that the last generation Nano can now be had for $99 refurbed. I think that’s what I paid for the 1G nano I bought… 4 years ago? Bonus points in that it should run fine with iTunes 9.
September 1st, 2010 at 4:22 pm
Missed the whole thing today, actually forgot about it. From what I’m reading, no surprises from the rumors of the last couple days. After looking at the Apple home page and reading the above, here’s my quick take:
AppleTV: As an owner of the last-gen AppleTV (never thought I’d say those words, since I didn’t think there’d ever be a “next-gen”), I’m not convinced I should upgrade, for a couple reasons. First, there are few new features, with only the Netflix streaming seeming compelling. Unless I’m mistaken, most of the rest of it is already done on the old AppleTV. They still don’t appear to support streaming of non-Apple video formats from hard drives, and I’m guessing that enabling that feature by hacking the thing to run Boxee will be a little less straightforward (though there is a micro USB port on the back). So I’m not going to be first in line for this one.
iPod nanos and shuffle: Who cares about these anymore? Seriously, buy an old one on eBay. My 1st gen nanos are still working great, with no real loss of features.
iPod touch: Looks good. All predictable upgrades, given the iPhone 4. Jake, why do you see this as a companion to a Pre Plus? What does it add, if you’re already into the Palm ecosystem? Just wait for the new webOS hardware, right? Personally, for that reason, I’m not sure why anybody would want an iPod touch, unless they have a feature phone.
iTunes ping: I’m sick of adding social networks to everything, aren’t you? (In response to Lance’s tweet) I don’t think this will be the death of last.fm, for 2 reasons: (1) not clear to me that Ping scrobbles, and (2) without that feature, last.fm would be dead to me anyway. I like to see what people are listening to, but last.fm is much more platform-agnostic, since almost everything can scrobble these days.
OK, I’ll have to go read engadget and see what the tech world thinks…
September 1st, 2010 at 4:28 pm
I won’t buy an iPod Touch, it’s too close in function to the Pre, and there’s enough to keep me busy. Still, with a Pre Plus I could use it to video chat on the go (or w/ a hacked Pre) using the WiFi HotSpot. My old Nano works fine, too. But it is capacity constrained, would be nice to get loads of podcasts & music on the device.
September 1st, 2010 at 4:54 pm
Mike, wouldn’t you expect your Apple TV to get an upgrade to the new AppleTV software? Certainly, there’s not going to be a different pricing model for you, right ($3 to purchase a TV show for old users, $1 to rent for new!?). Of AppleTV’s new features, the one that intrigues me is the ability to act as a remote display for the iPad/iPhone, depending on whether 3rd party support is offered. Apple TV doesn’t need it’s own apps if you can use your iPad to project ABC, HBO, ESPN etc content to it. Facetime too! How Star Trek it would be to be video chatting on your iPhone4, then transfer the video to the TV just by using Voicecommand to say “On Screen.”
Anyway, the iPod Touch is and will remain a huge seller because it’s contract free. Like I told Mike yesterday, I see myself as an epicurean of apps. An iPod Touch helps me experience all apps :). Plus, I get all sorts of battery anxiety whenever I let Lucas play games on my Pre.
When iPad-mania dies down, I still expect a smaller screen size (like the iPod Touch) to prove more popular. I saw a guy walking a dog yesterday while watching a video on his iPad (cradled in his forearm). It just looked so ridiculous. An iPod Touch still makes so much more sense for most portable situations.
September 1st, 2010 at 6:29 pm
That didn’t take long. 99 cent TV already available on Amazon/TiVo. Might pick up the season of Futurama for $0.94/episode.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/01/amazon-streaming-99-cent-abc-and-fox-shows-right-now/
And three clicks later, Futurama will be waiting when I get home!
September 4th, 2010 at 8:57 pm
The old AppleTV won’t be getting a software upgrade, but will continue to function as before, with the ability to actually buy movies and tv shows directly on the device (as I understand it). The fact that the old hardware has a hard drive, and the new one doesn’t, is a pretty big difference.
If you’re not a fan of the iTunes store, i think the most compelling alternatives for the set-top box are probably the xbox, then these $250 Sony blu-ray players that can do netflix, amazon, and YouTube streaming.
September 4th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
Not sure I’d agree. The XBox is only useful if you have a windows media center for streaming. Otherwise, the facebook/ last.fm/ twitter/ netflix options require an XBox Gold subscription. Then there’s pay per view or purchase that costs the same as iTunes. No Youtube, no podcasts, no Amazon. So it depends on what you want.
September 4th, 2010 at 11:29 pm
All I know is, I just got the new TiVo Slide QWERTY remote, which is going to make it a heck of a lot easier to search for ‘net content on the TiVo. Of course, until they enable YouTube content in HS, thhe quality is unnecessarily poor.
September 5th, 2010 at 3:37 am
Youtube? People want professional content, not amateur hour.
September 5th, 2010 at 7:46 am
Jake, did you type that on your new keyboard? I was trying to figure out what “HS” was!
As for xbox, I didn’t really do any research into how it’s used as a media center (the above sounds complicated and expensive), I just figured you could install XBMC the same way I install Boxee, and get pretty much the same features. At that point, most of these consoles have the same basic functionality, and you choose on the “added” features — ability to play games, play Blu-Ray discs, or get content from the iTunes store. In that comparison, Xbox looks pretty good to me (though actually, Wii can do some of this stuff, too, right?). I wouldn’t want to pay a monthly subscription fee (or a premium for lifetime service), which is why TiVo isn’t a consideration for me.
September 7th, 2010 at 10:36 am
I guess I’m too far inside the Apple RDF to see how popular the iPod touch is, since for me, it’s a
prettyvery redundant device, but if this report is to be believed, the iPod touch made up 37.7% of iOS device sales to date. Furthermore, it was estimated that there were about 3 iPod touches sold for every 4 iPhones (45M vs 60M). I think that qualifies as “selling like hotcakes.”September 7th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
Yes, that’s a lot of iPod Touches. Coupled with the boatloads of iPads that are selling, and Apple’s claim of 230K sales per day is less impressive, compared to Google’s claims.