“You might have noticed there’s an empty spot on that dock of the new iPod touch,” said Steve Jobs. “What could that possibly be for? Well, it’s for a new app we’ve written called the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store.” You know what, Steve? I’ll forgive you just this once for that mouthful because I am psyched.
Inside, you’ll find four buttons: features, top tens, search, and downloads. Top Tens lets you pick the top tens from all of iTunes or just specific genres. If you see a track you like, tap it to preview, and if you want to buy, tap it and hit the Buy Now button and it’ll download the song. The next time you dock it with your computer, it’ll sync to iTunes. There’s also a downloads playlist on the iPod, so you can easily go through tunes you’ve purchased. You can search for anything in the entire iTunes store and you’ll get the same prices and the same exact selection. Plus, the store will be available in all twenty-two countries where iTunes is currently available, and Apple will be rolling it out to the iPhone later this month in a software update.
Apple’s also struck a deal with Starbucks. “We love Starbucks. What we want to be able to do is combine our great iPods and love of music with their great coffee and love of music.” Wait, wait…iPod coffee? Not quite. In the iTunes Wi-Fi store, when you get near a participating Starbucks, a fifth button will appear in the store: a Starbucks button. You can use that to find out the last ten songs they’ve played in Starbucks, and you can buy them with a tap of your finger. “So,” said Jobs, giving it a demo, “they’ve just built a Starbucks backstage…” I don’t think he’s even joking: those things are everywhere.
Anyway, this, my friends, is portable music done right. Apple’s trademark simplicity means that there’s no hoops to jump through and it seems like this will work exactly as you’d expect a portable version of the music store to work. The Starbucks thing doesn’t really do that much for me, but at least it won’t bother you if you’re not near a Starbucks. Personally, I’m literally itching to give this a run through. Or maybe that’s hives.
Lord have mercy... tell me this doesn't mean you're going to buy another (!) iPod!
Do you ever get the feeling that Apple is just toying with the competition? In one fell swoop, they effectively retired the Nokia N800 (with iPod touch) and put the last nail in the now-$200 Zune's coffin (with iPod classic + iPod touch's WiFi technology that you actually want to use).
Don't count the Zune out. For its first outing it was impressive enough that Apple had to expand on some of Microsoft's ideas. Although the 160GB iPod and video capable Nano are attractive feature-wise, they look like something out of a Hello Kitty commercial (what's up with Apple's design team lately?). On top of that, what's the point of a touch screen Nano? They would've been smarter to either throw a hard drive in or, because flash RAM is getting cheaper everyday, drop the price. I can buy a 16GB USB 2.0 flash drive for $138 on Newegg.com. What in the Nano Plus is worth the additional $261? I know I'd probably drop $400 on a touch screen iPod with 160GB storage, but for now I'll stay with my 2 30GB Zunes, 60GB iPod, and 8GB 2G red Nano.
On which Microsoft ideas has Apple expanded today? I see no squirt in the iPod touch. I see no online store or Web browser in the Zune. The features seem completely orthogonal.
Microsoft has probably poisoned the well for the squirt technology by agreeing to the byzantine licensing restrictions for songs shared by Zune.
I find the idea that the iPod Classic is the "flagship iPod" to be amusing. The Nano, and the Mini before it, have outsold the "Classic" since they were introduced. The iPod Nano is the best-selling iPod so it is fitting that the new flagship iPod touch is based on it.
However, I must say I am miffed that the iPod touch doesn't appear to do email, weather, or stock quotes. It seems odd to put Safari on there and then cripple it by removing most of the other applications.
For the price difference I can't imagine I'd buy the iPod touch in any case. The drop on the iPhone makes it pretty compelling.
I will buy an ipod touch and check my e-mail on Yahoo (I have a Yahoo email account) and check weather on the web site of TWN.
That's good enough for me actually. One has to understand that they need to keep some distance (feature-wise) between the ipod Touch and the iPhone.
You're kidding me, right? At least I can admit that Apple was the forefather of the PMP movement. Is it so hard for people to give credit where credit is due?