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Movie iPods, movie download services and everything from the bizarre to the mundane have been under speculation for the last year around Apple and movie services. Some speculation has been right on; much has been wrong. Today, however, Apple took the first serious step into the home theater market. The announcement craze started last Tuesday with a simple invitation from Apple: It's Showtime. Early this morning, the iTunes Store was taken offline with the message: It's Showtime - The iTunes Store is being updated. This culminated with an Apple spectacle in front of nearly 800 attendees that exhibited all the pomp and circumstance one has come to expect from Steve Jobs and Apple. Today's Apple announcements include:
- Movie downloads
- Sneak peak - coming in Q1 2007 - iTV (not the final product name) set-top box
- Upgrades to iTunes and the iTunes Store
- Upgraded iPods
Check at our detailed review with a side-by-side quality comparison between iTunes and DVD.
Read on for details of announcement.
Announcement Details iTunes 7
- Free download, available now
- Enhanced interface with separate libraries for all forms of media
- Gapless playback
- Automatic download of free cover art
- Enhanced views, list, album, and a cover flow CD-like browser
- TV shows encoded in h.264 at 640x480 (up from 320x240)
- Seamless iTunes video playback
iTunes Movie Store - Today, 75 movies from Disney, Pixar, Touchstone, Miramax (all Disney-owned studios)
- Buy pre-orders and new releases (first week) for $12.99; $14.99 after first week
- Buy most titles for $9.99
- Movie encoding 640x480 encoded in h.264 ~ movies approximately 1.3GB
- Dolby surround (not digital) audio
iTV (not the final product name) Set-top Box - HD-quality video
- HDMI video output
- Component video
- Optical and RCA audio
- Ethernet and Wireless 802.11
- Mac Mini footprint, half the height
- Internal power supply
- Updated Front Row-like interface
- Apple remote compatible
- iTunes access and Internet content access
- Works with iTunes on a Windows PC or Mac
- $299
- Available Q1/2007
iPods - iPod Features
- New ear buds
- New software features including instant searching on 5G and newer iPods plus gapless playback
- New $4.99 iPod 5G games for sale at the iTunes store (Bejeweled, Cubis 2, Mahjong, Mini Golf, PacMan, Tetris, Texas Hold'em, Vortex, and Zuma)
- iPod Video
- 60% brighter
- 60GB ($249) with 3.5 hours video playback
- 80GB ($349) with 6.5 hours video playback
- iPod Nano
- 24-hour battery life
- New charger
- New armband
- New lanyard
- Aluminum finish in multiple colors (green, silver, black, blue, pink)
- 2GB ($149) in silver only
- 4GB ($199) in green, silver, blue, pink
- 8GB ($249) black only
- iPod Shuffle
- Worlds smallest MP3 player in a substantially reduced size - about the size of the iPod Radio Remote
- Metal body
- 1GB ($79)
- Ships in October
Check at our detailed review with a side-by-side quality comparison between iTunes and DVD.
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