Digg overlord Kevin Rose was the first technolepidopterist to successfully pin the wings of the fluttering iPod Nano 4G rumors, and now he’s giving the scoop on what we can expect from iTunes 8: almost nothing I care about!
iTunes 8 includes Genius, which makes playlists from songs in your library that go great together. Genius also includes Genius sidebar, which recommends music from the iTunes Store that you don’t already have.
With iTunes 8, browse your artists and albums visually with the new Grid view; download your favorite TV shows in HD quality from the iTunes Store; sync your media with iPod nano (4th generation), iPod classic (2nd generation), and iPod touch (2nd generation); and enjoy a stunning new music visualizer.
“A stunning new music visualizer.” Who even uses those, frantic hosts of thalidomide ragers aside, at whose venues iTunes visualizers are cast trippily upon the orgyroom floor?
Still, the juicy tidbit there is the parenthetical “second generation” around the iPod Classic, confirming albeit rumorously that the Classic will be updated with an iPhone proportioned screen. The iPod Touch being updated was basically a given, but it’s nice to see: the Touch has really been the lame duck of the line-up since the iPhone 3G weighed in at under $200. But what can they really do with it? My guess is a major price drop. My hope is up to 64GB of SSD storage.
What’s New in iTunes 8 [Kevin Rose]
But what can they really do with it [iTouch]?
- Stick a 160Gb drive in there.
- Add a Mic.
- Open up the Application interface. It’s not a phone, right, so what harm could Apps do?
Oh. Wait. This is Apple. A Wifi VoIP box might take sales away from their precious iPhone and opening it up too much would make baby Jesus cry.
Man, I’d settle for bug fixes. I was a happy MediaMonkey user until I got my iPhone and had to use iTunes to sync my stuff. To be charitable, it’s not a very good piece of software.
I think the intent is good, but the execution is really in need of revision. If they could fix performance and footprint, I’d be happier without these useless features.
You can only include the added monthly fees in the cost of an iPhone if they are above what you are currently paying for a phone to be replaced with the iPhone. If you have a $70 a month AT&T plan, and you replace it with a $70 a month AT&T plan, the only cost of the iPhone is the upfront. Of course, it’s likely somewhere in the middle (you will get a more expensive plan, but not a new phone line)..
So iTunes 8 isn’t going to open up access to the unused ID3 tags that the MP3 specification permits, allowing us to tag our media however we want to, have non-hierarchical genres and so on so forth..?
Apple, why do I ever both hoping for anything from you?
I’m doubtful that the iPod Classic (2nd gen) will have an elongated screen, else we may have seen a case leak for it by now.
My thoughts? They’ll probably refresh the lineup with 160GB and 240GB drives.
i’m not sure what drug you were trying to reference, but thalidomide is a very serious and expensive drug used for chemotherapy in cancer patients. yep, those crazy cancer victims are always throwing tripped out sex parties with visualizations on giant screens. what a bunch of jackasses.
Can we please stop talking about the iPod Touch looking expensive next to the iPhone. The 3G iPhone doesn’t really cost $199, it’s just that you don’t have to pay most of the cost up-front. Now that O2 have announced a price for a PAYG iPhone 3G, we have a real price to compare with the iPod Touch, and it’s £349 (inc 17.5% VAT) — call it US$540 plus tax. Which makes $299 for a Touch look rather more competitive.
No, we can’t. The iPod Touch DOES -look- expensive next to the $199 iPhone.
Which is to say, Apple can not bank or expect Joe Consumer to make the sort of informed rationalization you are making to say the iPod Touch is cheaper. If they do so, the iPod Touch will fail as a product. They need to do something to make the iPod Touch cheaper against the iPhone’s PERCEIVED price, not its real price.