iPod Shuffle: The hidden gem

I have owned iPods and always been happy with them. One of my favorite iPod is the small and cute shuffle. Apart from its form factor and the wearability, the design intrigues me: it just couldn’t get simpler. While other MP3 player are adding knobs and switches to their products to fool the customer by it’s useless features, Apple just purifies the design again and again, until they reach ultimate simplicity. The iPod shuffle is a witness to that. Only the essential parts are included with the shuffle (play, pause, next…). I own an older blue 1GB shuffle I have bought about 1 year ago. If you just want to have your best songs and no extra weight in your pocket. I could see that work for people working out (making out?), people jogging etc… You can clip it anywhere. I usually clip it to my pocket or belt. Simply sync, clip, enjoy. In my opinion everyone should have a shuffle. Come on 49$ for the 1GB model, don’t cheap out on me here!?! This object is a real work of art.

Is the iPod Classic dead?

The iPod classic, the iPod that started the whole iPod craze. And now, it is rumored that it’s death would be very near. The sign that started these rumors is the elimination of the 160GB model, that was aimed at the hardcore music fans, replaced by a “one size fits all” 120GB model. Apple justified this product elimination because customers preferred the “thin” model (80GB) over the “thick” model (160GB) and because it didn’t sell much of them anyway. The other sign was the change of the name to “Classic” which is typically meaning that the product is on it’s way to the door, or meaning that no improvements are to be awaited on that product. I personally don’t think that Apple will completely erase this product, but will be keeping it around, maybe a memory gain here and there, with incremental upgrades but no revolutionary new features. I don’t think Apple will kill the Classic because, come on, it’s the Classic isn’t it??? There’s some nostalgia associated with this product, I mean it started it all, didn’t it? Well, I personally hope it will stay around for a while until Apple decides it no longer needs to be on the market anymore…

New iPod Nano

The holiday season has come and with it, the usual refresh of the iPod line, bringing us a new Nano and a new iPod Touch. The new Nano is just gorgeous! I fell under it’s seduction power the second eye contact with it, proving once again that Apple always has the most sexy and appealing products on the market. Let’s rewind back before the Nano’s launch, when the rumored (and soon discovered to be true) pictures have been published on Kevin Rose’s blog, I thought the picture was awful and that Apple could not permit itself to release something like that, with a curved screen, perfect for a maximum reflection and glare. Now, I am just in love with this product and plan to buy it this holiday season and write a hands-on review. One of the fun (but not ground-breaking- features is the shake to shuffle, which permits the user to shake (quite violently) his iPod and turn on shuffle. This is just a well thought-out Apple-ish feature that only the Cupertino-based company can pull off. The integrated accelerometer permits the iPod to be rotated horizontally, and have the cover flow artwork show up, proving that Apple has learnt a lot from the iPhone and applying it to their other products. What do you think of this iPod, or the Touch? Feel free to drop a comment stating your feelings about the current iPod holiday lineup.

iTunes 8: Initial reactions

That’s it! The next major version of iTunes is out, now iTunes has turned to version 8.0, bringing with it some worthwhile but not revolutionary changes and tweaks. First: the new grid view, 100% inspired by the iPhone’s iPod interface (the buttons are the same except they are black in iTunes). The new view is my new default view (I used cover flow before grid view) and I am very much satisfied by this new interface tweak. Next: Genius, which takes a song that you chose and takes similar songs (same genre, same pace, based on user information). Now, this feature is bound to evolve because it becomes even more intelligent when Apple gets even more information from the users and collect metadata about the songs. I personally enjoy this feature, which made me re-discover some of the dark and forgotten corners of my music collection, but it really isn’t a HUGE feature that I couldn’t live without. So, this is a brief description of Apple’s new x.0 iTunes version, next’s 9.0!

My Predictions for the September 9th “Let’s Rock” Event

I will take a shot at predicting what will be announced at Apple’s “Let’s Rock” event. I think we will definitely see a refreshed iPod Nano with a new design and more storage (up to 16GB). The iPod Software will also get a new interface which will be a free upgrade for old nano users and will be out of the box for new nanos. I don’t think we will see a MacBook or MacBook Pro speed bump or design change, which is long overdue. I think Apple will wait until MacWorld to announce new Macbook line refresh because of the new Intel chips shipping in 2009. iPhone and iPod touch Software 2.0.3 will be released with the Apple server thing that permits for example IM apps to send received messages without having the application running in the background. I also think the MacBook Air will get a 100$ price drop but no new design or speed bumps. Well this is pretty much it, will my predictions come out to be true, we will know soon enough.