Apple’s The Beat Goes On – Live!
Apple’s The Beat Goes On has begun. There’s a computer on stage, which means software demo time!
And away we go!
Steve Jobs is now onstage sporting his usual uniform…”Today we’re going to start with iTunes…”
Stat time, Number 3 music store in the US…yadda, yadda, yadda…
Announcing Ringtones via the new version of iTunes…
Just announced an iTunes ringtones builder, you can turn songs that you purchase from iTunes into Ringtones, cost 99 cents in addition to the cost of the songs. Initially 500,000 songs will be available…
Steve Jobs is demoing the Ringtones Builder now…
Pick a song, choose 30 seconds of the track to make into a ringtone, create a fade in, fade out, listen to the finish product and only then choose to purchase it. Plug in your iPhone to iTunes and a new Bell icon will indicate which songs can be translated into Ringtones. Cool!
The Ringtone Builder will be available startng next week…
FutureMusic Predictions: Not Predicted
Steve just announced that they will be replacing the entire iPod lineup!
iPod Shuffles will get a color refresh, plus a new PRODUCT [RED] Shuffle!
New colors include: Lavender, Teal, Seafoam, plus the Silver and the aforementioned RED.
FutureMusic Predictions: 1/1
New Nano! Yes, the Nano “Midget” (our name —Ed.) is a reality with 320×240 resolution. Comes with three games (Apple officially enters game market!) Sudoku, Vortex, missed the name of the third one…beat.
Cool new interface for browsing content. Two flavors: 4GB and 8GB. 4GB will only come in the Silver color and cost $149; 8GB will come in all new colors and cost $199. New nanos have shipped to stores and will be available this weekend. Marketing Tagline: A Little Video For Everyone
FutureMusic Predictions: 2/2
New iPod Classic
Apple is doing a refresh of the basic HD-based Apple line up. New storage flavors: 80GB and 160GB, prices: $249 and $349 respectively. Same interface as iPod nano. Available now! (Sorry, but can’t get too excited about this…) And now the flagship??
FutureMusic Predictions: Not Predicted
YES!!!! The iPod Touch is a reality!!!
“We think it’s one of the seven wonders of the world.â€
The iPod Touch with multitouch technology is about the same size as the iPhone but only 8mm thick. Comes packaged with many apps Clock, Calculator, Calendar, Contacts, Settings, and other icons that can’t be read…wait…Wi-Fi!!!
Special Wi-Fi antennae that extends out the back of unit. Touch has Safari, and some kind of weird security action for accessing networks outside the home…Demonstrating Safari browser…very cool! Pricing 8GB for $299 and 16GB for $399. Claimed battery life is 22 hours for music playback and 5 hours for video. Ships at the end of this month…“One more thing…”
FutureMusic Predictions: 3/3
iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store!
Steve Jobs is demonstrating the purchase of a John Lennon album via iTunes Wi-Fi. Very simple, great interface. Man, Apple just makes every other Digital Media Player manufacturer look sissy! Steve is yammering on about the speed of Wi-Fi, yet does not mention AT&T’s pokey EDGE network…where’s he going with this? Ah, here we go: Starbucks!
Just announced a partnership with Starbucks. When you’re sipping a Latte at Starbucks, a Starbucks icon will light up in the Wi-Fi store allowing you to purchase the current song playing. (No mention if Wi-Fi access in Starbucks is free —Ed.) You’ll be able to view the last ten songs played at that Starbucks…and purchase those tracks…This is only cool if Starbucks Wi-Fi access is free for owners of Touch and iPhone…Answer: The big, fat “NO!” Starbucks will only give free access to the iTunes Wi-Fi store. Ridiculous, but a cool meat space/internet integration for the music industry. The first stores to have Apple Wi-Fi store access on October 2nd, will be New York City and Seattle, 600 Stores total for the initial rollout. San Francisco’s 350 stores will launch sometime in November. Target is to have all Starbuck Apple iTunes Wi-Fi enabled some time in 2009.
FutureMusic Predictions: 4/4
New iPhone Pricing:
The 4GB iPhone has been discontinued. 8GB iPhone has dropped $200 in price to $399. New 16GB model? Nope.
FutureMusic Predictions: Not Predicted
Game Over!
Well, we went 7 for 9 in our Apple — The Beat Goes On — rumor predictions. Not too shabby…
Update: It took Apple over an hour to open their Apple Store after the media event was over…
