Apple “Let’s Rock” event now viewable

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Corporate News, Portable Audio / Video, Videos

If you are tired of hearing us talk about all the Apple news of the day, maybe you’d prefer listening to Steve Jobs himself deliver the news. If that is the case, you’ll be happy to know that the Let’s Rock keynote is now available online for your viewing pleasure. You can stream is now from the Apple Special Event page. If downloading is more your thing, we are sure it will be hitting iTunes 8 shortly.

Read More | Let's Rock event video

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iPod nano updated, elongated, and nano-chromatic

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Design, Music, Portable Audio / Video

The worst-kept secret of today’s Apple Let’s Rock iPod event was the newly updated iPod nano. Apple officially let the cat out of the bag today, sharing all the details. The new iPod nano is taller, and also turns out to be the thinnest iPod ever made. It’s available in a record nine colors, and you get two models to choose from - an 8GB version for $149, and a 16GB version for $199. The battery will hook you up with 24 hours of music or 4 hours of video. The nano now has an included accelerometer, which allows it to sense if you are holding it in portrait or landscape mode, so it can then change the screen orientation accordingly. That same accelerometer also gives rise to a new “Shake to Shuffle” feature. It’s exactly what it sounds like. If you don’t like what you are listening to, shake the nano, and you get a new random track. You can order the new iPod nano now at the online Apple Store, or pick one up at a physical location as they arrive over the next few days.

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iTunes 8 now available, HD TV shows, NBC is back, Genius recommendations

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Movies, Music, PC / Laptop, Software

iTunes 8 was announced this morning as part of the whole Let’s Rock Apple announcement festivities, and there were a few nice pieces of news. First, NBC is back on iTunes with shows like The Office, 30 Rock, and Ballestar Galactics. What’s more, though, is that iTunes will now be selling TV shows in high definition. Aside from the feeling that I know my wallet is about to be drained, this is a very welcome addition. My only hope is that they allow those of us who have purchased shows in SD to “upgrade” to the HD versions at a discount. It’s only fair, right?

In other news, Apple has added “Genius” to iTunes - that being a recommendation engine that looks at the track you are listening to, and recommends other tracks in the iTunes store that it believes you would like. In addition, Genius can also create truly customized playlists on the fly, again, just by sampling what you are listening to. It will pull other songs from your iTunes library that it believes would complement your selection, without any work to be done on your part. We must admit, it looks slick. Speaking of which, they’ve also included a new visualizer, which is just off the hook. You’ve gotta see it to believe it.

iTunes 8 is available now.

Read More | iTunes

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iPod classic gets bumped to 120GB

Posted by Dennis Velasco Categories: Apple, Music, Portable Audio / Video, Storage

As part of this morning’s Let’s Rock event, Apple announced that the iPod classic was going to be available in one model from here on out, that being 120GB. While that is down from the 160GB model that was available previously, it is also up from the 80GB version that most people were buying. In case you didn’t know, that amount of space gives you the ability to save 30,000 songs. 30,000! Does anyone really have the time to do download, and listen to, that many songs?  If so, I’d like to meet him (or, more appropriately, her) - on second thought, maybe I don’t.  In either case, this will be the only version of the classic iPod moving forward and it will retail for a cool $249. You can order one now at the Apple Store Online.

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Steve Jobs to WSJ: App Store rakes in $30 million in first month

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Cell Phones, Corporate News, Handhelds, Software

Well, if you were curious just how successful the App Store has been since its launch, Steve Jobs spilled the beans in an interview published in the Wall Street Journal this morning. First and foremost, the most amazing part is that sales in the App Store hit about $30 million. Now, if you think about that figure and realize that Apple only keeps 30% of it (well, 30% of sales of apps that aren’t their own), that is $9 million for Apple, and $21 million for developers.

Of course, a large percentage of apps downloaded are free. You just know those have to be popular, right? Well, we didn’t get an official breakdown of free app downloads versus paid, but Jobs did say that there have been over 60 million downloads from the App Store. That’s an average of 2 million downloads per day, every day. If you had any doubt that the App Store would be a hit, well, there’s your proof.

Click to continue reading Steve Jobs to WSJ: App Store rakes in $30 million in first month

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WWDC Keynote video 2008 now online

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Cell Phones, Handhelds, Internet, Software, Videos

We know that all this talk of the iPhone 3G has you chomping at the bit to see it in action yourself. I mean, we live blogged the keynote, and we threw up our iPhone 3G gallery, but sometimes images don’t do products justice, right? Well, you are in luck. Apple has just posted the video of the WWDC 2008 Keynote Address. Hit the link below to watch the entire thing, highlighting the iPhone 3G, App Store, MobileMe, and more.

Read More | WWDC 2008 keynote video

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Live blogging the WWDC 2008 Steve Jobs Keynote

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Cell Phones, Corporate News, Handhelds, Internet, PC / Laptop

In just about five minutes, Steve Jobs will be taking the stage to give his WWDC 2008 keynote. We are monitoring all the news, and will be bringing you updates on everything going on, live, as it happens on stage. In case you’ve been summering in Antarctica, we are expecting the new 3G iPhone to be launched (and not expecting it to be as radical as others think it will be - no front-facing camera, no iChat video chat - just some 3G and GPS goodness), Snow Leopard should be given out to developers to take home with them in anticipation of the launch of OS X 10.6 at MacWorld 2009, and the new .Mac replacement we’ve all been hearing about, Mobile Me, should be announced and shown off to the masses.

Well, it’s just about time. Let’s get started…

Click to continue reading Live blogging the WWDC 2008 Steve Jobs Keynote

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MacWorld 2008: Apple announces iTunes movie rentals, including HD rentals

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, HDTV, Movies, Portable Audio / Video, Software

Apple has finally made iTunes movie rentals official, as Steve Jobs made the announcement in his MacWorld 2008 keynote address. The studios taking part in the festivities include Disney, MGM, Touchstone, Miramax, Lions Gate, Warner Brothers, Fox, Paramount, Universal, and Sony. Rentals will be available starting today alongside an iTunes 7.6 update, and you can expect 1,000 movies to be available be the end of February. Rentals will cost $2.99 USD for a standard movie, $3.99 for new releases. If you want the HD version, it will cost you $1.00 more. You have 30 days to begin watching the movie, and once you’ve started, you get 24 hours to watch it as many times as you like. Rented movies can be transferred to a video-capable iPod or iPhone, and can also be viewed on Apple TV.

Read More | iTunes Movies

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MacWorld 2008: Apple MacBook Air Notebook Announced

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, PC / Laptop, Wireless / WiFi

During this morning’s MacWorld keynote, Steve Jobs announced the new MacBook Air notebook. We’ve all been expecting some sort of Apple sub-notebook, and this one looks amazing. Apple it touting this as the “world’s thinnest notebook”. The MacBook Air is 0.16-inches to 0.76-inches. The thickest part of the Air is thinner than the thinnest part of a Sony TZ series notebook. That is impressive. The device features an 80 GB 1.8-inch hard drive, with a 64 GB SSD drive as an option. It ships standard with 2 GB of RAM and a 1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo chip, with the option to switch to 1.8 GHz. Other features include a 45-watt MagSafe, 1 USB 2.0 port, a Micro-DVI port, and audio out. There is no Ethernet port (otherwise they couldn’t have gotten it this thin) so you will have to rely on the built-in 802.11n WiFI and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR. The MacBook Air also leaves out the optical drive, but you can purchase an external SuperDrive accessory for $99 USD. It also ships with software that allows it to “borrow” the optical drive of another Mac or PC. Expect 5 hours of battery life out of this one - or more if you opt for the SSD drive. The MacBook Air will hit retail in about two weeks, and will cost $1799. Pre-orders start today.

Read More | MacBook Air Product Page

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MacWorld 2008: iPhone 1.1.3 update is real

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Cell Phones, Handhelds, Software

This morning, Steve Jobs demoed the iPhone 1.1.3 firmware, which looked strangely similar to the one we showed you guys a few weeks back that many were calling fake. Well as it turns out, the leak was real, but we did miss a few things, such as chapter options and language compatibility in iPod mode. The 1.1.3 firmware also features lyrics support for music. Rounding out the features are all the things we showed you in our iPhone 1.1.3 video - Web clips (web bookmarks on home screen), Maps with location finder, Home Screen customization, and SMS multiple people.

By the way, if you are looking for an excellent program to create custom ringtones for your iPhone, check out iPhone RingToneMaker.

Read More | iPhone 1.1.3 Video Walkthrough

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