IT tidbits: Apple announces iPod overhaul; cuts iPhone price - Sep. 5, 2007

Uhm, I need to wipe up. Excuse me for a moment..... Ok, I'm back and I'm calm. I've been waiting for this for a long while. Along with a whole lot of other Apple watchers and lovers, we knew this time would come; we knew it was inevitable.

When DW gets her new iPod (yes, she gets almost ALL new technology coming into the house first), it will be the fourth of six generations of iPods this family has owned (not including the shuffle which TC was able to successfully destroy as quickly and efficiently as her uncle used to). We still have all the iPods we purchased as they may get old, bulky, have shorter battery life and less featured than each successor but they still have purpose and function. We have the bulky 2nd gen touch wheel 20GB unit, the click wheel 4th gen 40GB unit (bought mere months before the bastards added colour and then photo capability, but I'm not bitter) and a click wheel fifth gen 80GB iPod video (bought at an incredible price from our local FS thanks to a flub in another store's flyer) which DW thought she would not use often enough to make it worth the expense but now uses daily.

Steve Jobs used to seem annoyed when people asked him about adding video to the iPod. He brushed off all suggestions of such a move saying that the iPod was a music player and that is what people wanted to do with it. Obviously, his tune for his "music" player changed quite rapidly and convincingly as he recognized that those who brought forth the first video players did not do it quite right. With the iPod video, he made it easy to watch video on a handheld unit and, with the already established click wheel interface, made it easy to navigate the various video files on the unit. Then, with the update in iTunes and the iTunes store, made it easy to purchase and store new videos, TV and movies on the iPod.

Evolution and Revolution are now upon us though. Not only is wireless capability being added to one model, but the anticipated new model iPod, the iPod Touch, is being released as everyone that has followed the iPhone new was going to happen. If you have been under a rock someplace, the iPhone is a smartphone from Apple that has been hailed as the coming of the phone that everyone really wanted. Naturally, that is not quite true but it is darn close (and possible once they add the features they bloody should have in the first place). The iPhone brought to market a touchscreen interface that basically worked as advertised. It utilizes a glass screen that everything I had read says is virtually impossible to scratch (i.e. keys scraped directly across it does nothing) but super easy to smudge, thus an included cloth. It's a very nice unit to look at too but the most important feature is the one you don't actually see but runs the whole thing: the operating system.

While a lot of different phones have a lot of different operating systems, only the ones based on the PocketPC format running a mobile version of Windows called Windows Mobile 6.0 (used to be Window CE) are close to what Apple is doing now. The iPhone, and soon every other device that Apple makes, will be running on a version of their venerable Mac OS X, which itself is based on BSD, a UNIX variant. What this means is that programming and developing for all Apple products just got a whole lot simpler for those in that line of work. It also means that every device running Mac OS X just got a whole lot smarter, more powerful and most important, more extensible. That last point is what drives the Apple machine; third party add ins. Let's be honest, nothing says individuality than having the latest and greatest gadget add on to your Mac, iPod, or Nano. There is a HUGE industry built up to provide us with things we do not need but we always want to set us apart from the other people around us with the same devices. That leopard-skin iPod case does not protect it anymore than the much cheaper silicone one but, arguably, looks so much better.

Now, while I will be looking more for a nifty new leather holster for the iPod, it is the new iPod itself that has me salivating and wet like a, er, nevermind. Suffice it to say that I am excited by the prospect of new technology. I wanted an iPhone and, now that it has been hacked to work on any GSM system, I may yet get one. However, the iPod Touch is definitely on the list of next to get. DW, prepare to receive new tech. Sweet Mother!!

Apple announces iPod overhaul; cuts iPhone price - Sep. 5, 2007