Apple Announcements

BY Lynne d JohnsonTue Sep 12, 2006 at 9:53 PM

Apple announced a host of new products today including iPods, iTunes 7, QuickTime 7.1.3, and iTV.

iPod

The new iPod Shuffle is now about the size of the iPod Radio Remote with an aluminum design and contains one gigabyte of flash memory.

The all-new iPod nano has a thinner design with a new aluminum body and a brighter screen display. With 24 hours of battery life, the new nano also promises to contain more than twice the music capacity than its predecessor. It also features gapless playback, lanyard headphones, a new armband, dock, and adapter. The new nano is available in an 8GB model.

The new iPod, available in both a 30GB model and an 80GB model, features 14 hours of battery life, along with a 60 percent brighter and more vibrant 2.5-inch color display. Like the other new iPods, the model features gapless playback and can play video games, such as Bejeweled, Cubis 2, Mahjong, Mini Golf, Pac-Man, Tetris, Texas Hold’em, Vortex, and Zuma, that are available for purchase on the iTunes Store.

iTunes 7

iTunes 7 features new album and Cover Flow views of music, TV shows and movies. In addition, the iTunes Store now offers over 75 movies from Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar, Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films. Movies will become available on the iTunes Store the same day they are released on DVD, with new releases priced at $12.99 when pre-ordered and during their first week of availability, and $14.99 thereafter, and library titles available for just $9.99 every day.

The National Football League (NFL) and Apple also announced that they will bring 2006 NFL regular season action to the store, offering video downloads of highlights from individual NFL games the day after they are played.

Videos are downloaded in near-DVD quality at a resolution of 640x480, which is four times higher than before. Downloaded videos can be played on computers and iPods.

QuickTime 7.1.3

QuickTime 7.1.3, available for download from the Apple QuickTime Web site, has been released to help facilitate new features in iTunes 7, including the ability to play back movies that have been purchased from the iTunes Store, and fixes seven security flaws.

iTV

Apple also announced a new product -- akin to a Mac Mini -- code-named iTV, that will enable both Mac and PC users to watch movies or television shows purchased from the iTunes store on flat screen televisions in the comfort of their living rooms. iTV features built in Wi-Fi for networking with computers as well as home entertainment devices, such as receivers and set-top boxes.

The iTV product will not be available until some time in the first quarter of 2007.