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>> What's cracking and welcome to the Apple Bite. And as you guys know, Apple recently had their annual music event. We were there, so we'll give you all of our thoughts and impressions. Now first let's check out some of the action. We sent one of our own unpaid interns to the scene.
>> What's up guys. Brian Tong here with the Apple Bite at the hands on event after Apple's big announcements, and obviously the big news is Steve Jobs is back. So it was good to see Steve back. He's looking great. Now inside this room we have iPod touches, iPod nanos, even got Tyrese Beck over there, so you know who we have to talk about. Let's check out the iPod nano. So here it is, the new iPod nano. Check it out, we have the built in camera on the back. This is a really shiny, polished, anodized aluminum. Don Abell is gonna give you guys more details. Is this thing gold? ^M00:00:53
>> It's a little bit of a larger screen. It's a 2.2 inch screen instead of the 2 inch screen on the last version. The finish of the device is a little bit different. It's a polished aluminum finish instead of more of the matte look we saw last time. If you go to the video camera, the iPod's new--nano's new video camera, and you hold down the center button, you get a list of effects you can apply to the video as you're recording it. You've got voice recording built in now. Now there is a microphone in here that you can do voice memos directly on the device without having to plug in some weird third party set of headphones or headphones with a mike. Another new feature here is the genius mixes, which kind of builds off of the genius play list feature we saw on the last version of the nano, but goes a lot, lot longer. These mixes can go for hours and it takes usually, like, a genre based selection of music. Another new feature on the nano that I thought we'd never see, is they added an FM radio to this thing. And they did it right. They really made an FM radio that the users are going to be excited about. Aside from just being able to tune into the FM stations, it includes the ability to pull in RDS information, so you can see station identification tags, you can see song tags on the stations that send out that information. Overall, it's a--it's a lot of welcome additions to the iPod nano. The design really hasn't changed that much, but the price point has dropped a little bit and there's lots of new little features here that should inspire people to pick these up. ^M00:02:13
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>> I am kind of sad that there's no camera on the iPod touch. I'm guessing we'll probably see it down the road, but they did drop the pricing. The 8 gig model is now 199. We're also going to be getting the 32 gig model for 299 and a whopping 64 gigs, 399. Apple also announced new pricing on the shuffles. The 2 gig model is going to be $59, a 4 gig model is gonna be $79, and a little special thing they have here is this guy over here, the special edition. It's gonna be $99 only online. What's so special about it? It's silver, and Apple says it's special. Apple, for the first time, is really positioning the iPod touch and the iPhone as a gaming platform. There's over 20,000 games and entertainment apps on their platform, compared to the Sony PSP and the Nintendo DS, but if they're gonna try and sell us that it really is a better overall gaming experience, you'll have to sell me a little harder.
>> Alright. We are here with Tyrese Gibson, actor, singer, entertainer. What brings you out here?
>> My--my comic book. My--I've, you know, invented, along with the folks who invented iTunes, the first ever digital--full-on digital comic book.
>> Okay, okay. Where can you check it out? Do you just search for Mayhem?
>> It's--it's a part of all of the new stuff that Steve announced today.
>> You refer to Steve by first name? Are you guys, like, tight or something? How tight are you?
>> Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs.
>> Could we just do a little, like, sign off, like, have I told you I love!
>> Man, you sound just good. Man, you sound amazing doing it. He's hitting all the right notes, too.
>> Tyrese, back me up!
>> Come on, man. I don't know.
>> Thanks for that report Mr. Tong. Now, I really think Tyrese was a little confused, because he was promoting his digital comic told me he didn't have any iTunes LP content, but then I checked out the iTunes Store, and guess what I found. A song of his bundled with his digital comic Mayhem in the iTunes LP section. Whoops! Okay, as for the event, I was impressed the most by the iPod nano. The video camera and built in pedometer is nice, but its best feature hands down is the FM radio. Now Apple has finally put one in an iPod. It looks and works great, but I don't know how many of you are still looking to get a nano? Not me. Alright, so there were really no big announcements, but the biggest surprise was the lack of camera or any major feature on the iPod touch. In a New York Times article Steve Jobs said, "What we were focused on is just reducing the price to 199. We don't need to add new stuff, we need to get the price down where everyone can afford it." Alright, now that might be the magic price for the Big A, but ask the consumers. A camera and FM radio on the nano, but not the touch? A 15 percent speed bump? Voice controls and memos? This guy could pretty much pass for the previous model and you're calling this the 3rd generation iPod touch? By far, the biggest disappointment of the show, and we're throwing out the Bad Apple. Now you could also tell Apple was bringing their attitude to the event, ripping into rivals like Microsoft, as usual.
>> Microsoft, pulling in the rear at just about 1 percent.
>> Showcasing the iPod touch as a pocket friendly computer, unlike others--
>> And it really fits in your pocket. Not everybody can say that. Not everybody's computer fits in their pocket.
>> And for the first time, directly pitting themselves against Sony and Nintendo in the portable gaming world. My friends, a new line in the sand has been drawn. ^M00:05:43 Now let's check out some other quick bites. At the end of the New York Times interview, Jobs did say he was feeling great and he's eating a lot of ice cream to gain back his weight. And if you're looking to put on the pounds, that is the right way to do it, Steve. Now you guys might also notice that the iPod nano has a video camera, but no still camera. And the reason? Well, Jobs said the sensors for video are thin, but for stills with a higher resolution like the iPhone, the nano was just too thin to fit it. So, there really is such a thing as too thin, even in the tech world. Now iTunes 9 looks great. I'm digging the improved syncing for your apps, and home sharing of content the most, but a couple of things have been taken away. Palm users can shed more tears or pull their hair out because iTunes 9 has broken Palm pre-synching again. And if you like the Shopping Cart, say bye-bye to it, because it's being replaced by the more friendly sounding Wishlist. Now Steve, welcome back. It's good to see you again, and to celebrate you return, come on man, this one is for you. ^M00:06:42
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^M00:06:45 Alright. That's gonna do it for this week's show. I love to hear your thoughts on Apple's announcements, so send your e-mails to the applebite@cnet.com. I'm Brian Tong. Thanks for watching. Come on, it's time for another bite of the apple. It's good. ^M00:07:03 [ Music ] ^E00:07:08
