September 9th Follow-up
Of the seven items on my wishlist, five (and a half) of them were announced at today’s Apple event. I’m counting the new Nike + iPod announcement as a half since it wasn’t expanded to include iPhones. Kind of a bummer, but maybe that just means I have an excuse to buy a new iPod nano.
Today will also go in my calendar as the first time I’ve ever really been jealous of iPod touch owners. They have the ability to download the new 2.1 firmware immediately, while the iPhone firmware won’t be available until Friday. I’m anxious to get my hands on it. From what I’ve read so far however, there was no mention of the push notification service at the event today — which leads me to wonder if we’re in for another firmware update by the end of the month. It’s a feature that could be really handy for apps like NetNewsWire and Twitterific (or Twinkle, if that’s your thing), and I was surprised that there was no mention of it.
I like the new visualizer in iTunes. It’s actually not quite as awesome as I was hoping, but it’s still fun. I was a little curious as to why it’s listed under the nondescript label, “iTunes Visualizer” while the other visualizers have names like Lathe, Jelly and Stix. Either way, it’s something I probably won’t use very often. But it’s nice that it’s there.
I’m really excited about HD shows coming to iTunes. I’m not as excited about the 1.5GB that each episode is going to take up, but having the option there is very cool. It’s also worth noting that when you buy an HD episode (which is a dollar extra) you still get the standard version too.
Even cooler still are the Genius playlists. I have a lot of music that I never really listen to. I tend to roll through a few bands at a time, then slowly migrate to another. I’m not a fan of shuffle. I like listening to the albums the way they were produced — in order and (generally) uninterrupted. Shuffling makes me uneasy as I have no control over what’s going to play. The Genius playlists afford me a safety net of general musical similarity. I like that.
And now that I’ve settled down a bit, I can clearly see that we once again have no new displays. I really thought we had that one on lockdown this time. Oh, well. I guess you’re really can’t have it all. But HDTV sure is a good start.