[Music]
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>> Mr. Tong: What's up. I'm Brian Tong
and welcome to the Apple Byte. All the good
and bad inside the world of Apple is right here
so let's get to the stories. Now the biggest
news this week is really what the competition
is doing. We all know about the iPod refresh
but what about the Zune HD? Yeah. I know this
is mostly an Apple show, but I'm pretty
impressed with Microsoft's latest gadget. So
instead of all the Apple lovers turning a cold
shoulder up your mind a little and take a peek
at some of it's unique features with Donald
Bell.
>> Mr. Bell: Why would somebody buy a
Zune HD over an iPod Touch? I think the most
noticeable advantage of the Zune HD is its
screen quality. Microsoft really stepped
things up here by putting a gorgeous 3.3 inch
wide-screen formatted OLED screen that knocks
the snot out of the Touch. If I was stuck on a
plane and I wanted to watch a movie, I would
choose the Zune HD in a heartbeat. Plus
Microsoft is now offering low-cost movie
rentals for the Zune HD. The second advantage
the Zune has over the Touch is a radio tuner
that supports both HD broadcasts and standard
FM radio. If you like to idea of listening to
your favorite radio broadcast, no iPod is going
to offer as many stations and as high a quality
as the Zune HD. Plus if you hear a song you,
like you have the option to tag the song and
download it later which is pretty cool. The
last feature the Zune HD can really brag about
is subscription music integration. If you buy
a Zune and really love hearing new music, you
can sign up for a Zune Pass subscription that
allows you to download and synch all the music
you want for $15 a month. Included in the plan
are 10 free MP3 purchases a month which are
yours to keep even if you cancel the
subscription plus you get unlimited song and
album streams from any computer when you log on
to zune.net. The long story short the Zune
subscription service is one of the better
values out there and no other device does a
better job of integrating the streaming and
downloading of subscription tracks than the
Zune HD.
>> Mr. Tong: Donald, back to back
episodes on the Apple Byte, dude, maybe next
week it will be you up here instead of me. Now
for the Zune HD I'm not going to throw it or do
anything violent to it it's really a great
device and it proves that Microsoft can win
over my heart. But the lack of any Apps Store
which Microsoft says is not coming to the Zune
and it's incompatibility with Macs are the
biggest deal breakers though for now it's like
a pretty hot chick that I won't ask out yet.
Now Apple announced knew products last week and
guess what the rumor mill is hard at work once
again. According to Tech Trader Daily research
firm Wedge Parters is predicting the release of
new iMacs and MacBooks in the next several
weeks. This is a little curious with no
rumblings at all about any major upgrades. The
iMac is getting close towards its life cycle of
about 8 months and if you're looking at an iMac
I would just wait and see. But the MacBook the
entry-level White MacBook that thing was just
updated about three months ago. There is no
way they are trying to reinvent that product.
And as for latest tablet rumor we're not going
to even talk about that because we might as
well start throwing darts on a calendar like
these analists are. Now Apple TV fans have
been dying for something to happen to the shiny
box but we know that's not happening any time
soon. Sony cut their PS3 by a hundred bucks
and sales have exploded. But I'm not so sure
we'll be seeing the same consumer reaction
here. All right. Let's check out this week's
App of the Week. The App of the week is Shake
It Photo. It's 99 cents but this thing is well
worth it. So what you have to do is take a
picture and then when you want to keep it a
classic Polaroid style photo appears with that
classic sound. And if you want the image to
appear what do you do?
^M00:03:45
[Music]
^M00:03:56
>> Mr. Tong: Shake it, Oh, yeah. Shake
it. You know those guys at CNET TV really now
how to get down. All right let's check out
some quick bytes. The iPhone OS3.1 has been
jail broken by a iPhone dev team but there's a
catch. Currently it only works on older iPhone
and iPod Touches so if you own an iPhone 3GS or
second or third generation iPod Touch you are
out of luck. And if you are complaining about
touch screen keyboard on your iPhone check out
this product called the iTwinge from Mobile
Mechtronics. It's the first physical keyboard
that I have seen. Sure it adds some bulk.
Okay. It adds a ton but for you girls or guys
with really long fingernails this could be the
answer. It's $29.99 and the they say they'll
be shipping in mid-November. That's going to
do it for this week's show. Keep sending your
e-mails to the AppleByte@cnet.com. I'm Brian
Tong. Thanks for watching and come back next
time for another Byte of the Apple.
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