We’ve been watching MacRumorsLive’s constant updating of the Media Event being put on by Apple today in San Francisco. Here are some of the highlights from the first hour:
- iPod’s will now be 60% brighter with brighness control, have 3.5 hours video playback (up from 2 hrs… big version goes to 6.5 hours), new headphones, gapless playback
- You’ll now be able to play Games on iPod’s and Games will be available on iTunes for 4.99 each. Titles include: Bejeweled, Cubis 2, Mahjong, Mini golf, pac man, tetris, texas holdem, vortex, and zuma
- The nano, will now come in 2, 4, and 8Gb sizes. The 2Gb model is only available in Aluminum. The 4Gb will come in an array of colors including, green, silver, black, blue, and pink. The 8Gb version will only be available in black.
- iTunes 7 will launch today and is available for download from Apple
- 3 different views of iTunes, list view, album view (with art and tracks), then “cover flow view” lets you rapidly find what you want by album cover. iTunes will give you cover art for free if you are missing cover art.
- TV shows will now be encoded at 640×480 (h264), up from 320×240
- iTunes, as rumored, will now offer Movies with 75 films online today, more every week and month. Films from Walt Disney, Pixar, Touchstone, Miramax. (all Disney owned). Movies will be encoded like the TV shows, 640×480.
- Most movies will be 9.99. Movies will be available the same day a DVD is released. New releases 12.99 preorders and first week, after that up to 14.99
- Apple is releasing its long-rumored set-top box in Q1 2007. Tenatively titled iTV, its 1/2 size of Mac Mini, built-in power supply, USB, Ethernet, 802.11 wireless, component video, optical audio and HDMI ports, plus old RCA stereo audio ports, and will work with the Apple Remote
We’ll have a more extensive update once more information becomes avalable! Stay tuned!!
[...] Sometime last week, analysts were speculating that Apple would announce refreshes to their iPod, MacBook, and MacBook Pro lines at a media event this September. The reports are still unconfirmed, but would make sense considering Apple has been predictably updating their iPods in the month of September for the past few years. [...]