Apple Unveils iPod Upgrades

By EDGARD HILARIO

September 2, 2010, 5:17pm

Apple CEO Steve Jobs walks onstage as he reveals onscreen exciting upgrades in the (from left) iPod Shuffle, Nano, and Touch gadgets on Wednesday, September 1, 2010 (Thursday in Manila), in San Francisco, USA. (AP)

Following the successful release of the iPad and iPhone 4, Apple is forging on with a trailblazing 2010 by announcing upgrades of its iPod Touch, Nano, and Shuffle gadgets for millions of tech-crazy consumers globally.

First up is the new iPod Touch, said to be packed with incredible new features including Apple’s stunning Retina display, FaceTime video calling, HD video recording, Apple’s A4 chip, 3-axis gyro, iOS 4.1, and Game Center – all combined in the thinnest and lightest iPod Touch ever.

The new iPod Touch features up to 40 hours of music playback and seven hours of video playback on a single battery charge. Filed under: iPod+iTunes. Read more: apple.com/ipodtouch Next is the iPod Nano, which has been completely redesigned with Multi-Touch, allowing you navigate your music collection by simply tapping or swiping a finger on the display.

Nearly half the size and weight of the previous generation, the new iPod nano features a polished aluminum and glass enclosure with a built-in clip, making it instantly wearable.

Apple also announced the redesigned iPod Shuffle that features both clickable buttons and Apple’s innovative VoiceOver technology, enabling you to easily navigate your music and playlists without ever looking at your iPod shuffle.

The wearable iPod shuffle has an all-aluminum enclosure with a built-in clip and comes in five brilliant colors – silver, blue, green, orange, and pink.

From apple.com came these “major” upgrades to some of its “minor” products that are expected to sustain the excitement generated by the iPhone 4 and iPad releases early this year.

Also new but already available for download is iTunes 10 that features Ping, a new social network for music that lets you follow your favorite artists and friends to discover what music they’re talking about, listening to, and downloading.

With Ping you can post your thoughts and opinions, your favorite albums and songs, and the music you’ve downloaded from iTunes – plus view concert listings and tell your friends which concerts you plan to attend.

From mobile gadgets to home entertainment, Apple also introduces the new Apple TV. It offers the simplest way to watch your favorite HD movies and TV shows on your HD TV for the breakthrough price of just $99.

With Apple TV, you can choose from the largest online selection of HD movies to rent, including first-run movies for just $4.99, and the largest online selection of HD TV show episodes to rent – from ABC, ABC Family, Fox, Disney Channel, and BBC America – for just 99 cents. With its cash register still playing happy tunes with the relentless orders for the iPhone 4 and the iPad globally, Apple is expected to report a banner year in revenues.

Published in Manila Bulletin Septemb er 3, 2010.

Multimedia PC offers rich touch experience

Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines--Apple’s new touch-enabled iPad may have received all the hype, but HP’s TouchSmart 600 definitely has the edge.

The TouchSmart 600 is a touch-enabled all-in-one desktop PC that is a tad better than the iPad when it comes to touchable screen size and performance in handling multimedia tasks, which only takes a mere swipe of a finger.

Although it is not a tablet PC like iPad, TouchSmart still has notable features like a user interface that is sensitive to touch. Its multimedia applications, such as music player, video or even photo editing software, respond immediately to finger drags, snaps and twirls.

Intuitive

Called “TouchSmart” apps, these touch-enabled applications allow the user to experience music, video, and photos with finger gestures such as pinch, rotate, arc, flick, or press.

These apps or widgets can also be drag to access information, entertainment and social networks in an intuitive way.

The HP TouchSmart 600 is a wireless all-in-one desktop solution that features a 23-inch high definition (1080p Full HD) widescreen display where the TouchSmart applications may be accessed.

Slim and pretty with piano-black finish and chrome accents, the TouchSmart is targeting home PC users looking for an elegant device with which to adorn their living rooms.

Extremely responsive

The TouchSmart operates on Windows 7 and boasts of Intel Core Duo processor T6600 (2.2 Ghz, 2 MB L2 Cache, and 800 MHz Front Side Bus), 4 GB DDR 3 memory module, and a 750-GB hard disk drive, which may be more than enough to contain all the family’s games, movies, photos, and song collections.

It also features a 1 GB NVIDIA N10 GT230 discrete graphics, which allows the touchscreen interface to be extremely responsive.

As a full HD capable PC, it features HDMI and DVI connectivity, as well as a built-in TV tuner.

Anther notable feature of the HP TouchSmart 600 is its TouchSmart Link, which allows for fast transfers of files via Bluetooth.

Handwriting recognition

The device also features game console connectivity, handwriting recognition (for doing file searches or notetaking that can be saved right onto the screen), photo editing using the finger for resizing or twirling of photos, camera with face recognition capability, and a great photo gallery slide show.

Priced at a whopping P84, 990, the HP TouchSmart 600 comes with wireless mouse and keyboard.

Apple iPad: Is iBooks enough to get Apple back into education?

Posted by Christopher Dawson @ 10:51 pm

Not yet. And maybe it never will be, but I’m not quite as willing to write off the iPad announced Wednesday as I was last week. I’m also not as convinced that my midnight snack tonight should consist of too much crow, either. Like most pundits, I was completely underwhelmed by the device, surprised by its price, and dubious about what it brings to the table. I think the more interesting question in education, though, is what it will force to the table in the next year.

iBooks is what really has me wondering. Wednesday, Apple announced partnerships with Penguin, Harper-Collins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and the Hachette Book Group. Macmillan/McGraw-Hill, of course, is one heck of a big textbook publisher and the iPad just happens to be the first multitouch color e-reader(-like) device that can go with interactive textbooks where the Kindle, Sony Reader, and Nook never could.

The iPad, however, has less than a 10″ screen, no keyboard, and no stylus (I know, there are accessories and who wants a stylus, right?). What this means is that it’s a nice, if small, platform for viewing textbooks, but taking notes via keyboard or handwriting is out. Apple, however, did a couple big favors for education, whether or not any of us embrace the iPad. First, they standardized to EPUB for their iBooks application. EPUB documents can be read on an awful lot of devices, can be implemented with or without DRM, and EPUB is an extensible standard that will grow as ebooks mature.

The second and arguably more important gift that Apple gave us was to partner with a textbook publisher, push them towards interactive book development, and drag them to the EPUB party. Given Macmillan’s size, it isn’t a significant stretch to expect other publishers to follow a model that lets them get in on the game.

That game, although centered around iBooks and its iTunes-like store for e-books, will ultimately make a lot more interactive (or simply electronic) content available in a format that is highly usable on netbooks, laptops, and desktops. In fact, one could argue that, despite the lack of multitouch, netbooks with their generally larger screens, built-in keyboards, and lower prices might make better e-textbook readers than the iPad. Without the iPad, though, how long would it have taken publishers to jump on the bandwagon?

That being said, there are a few missing links. Although Jobs mentioned textbooks today, I saw a lot of leisure reading and the New York Times. No revolutionary interaction with texts. It’s early though, and I’m more than happy to give this time.

The second is price. $499 was shockingly low. Kudos to Apple on that one. Greedy public educator that I am, though, I want more (or actually, less). We haven’t seen if Apple will offer an educational discount, but even $50 would bring the iPad in line with Intel’s convertible Classmates (which have built-in EPUB reader software, keyboards, styli, and touch capabilities, but aren’t nearly as pretty).

The iPad is, as Jason Perlow puts it, most likely a “game changer”. In education, though, I think it will change the e-textbook market far more than it will make most of us want to run 1:1 programs with iPads. Anyway it goes, I’m glad the game is finally changing.