Keynote over, some quick thoughts.
* iPhone ringtones for $0.99 for 30 seconds. What a rip-off! I’ve always thought that about ringtone companies but I’m used to just using an mp3 as my ringtone. To charge for this is pretty cheeky in my book.
* iPod Nano. Ugly. Proportionally it just looks wrong. Probably need to see one in the flesh but I’m unconvinced by this. It’s gone from sleek and slender to looking like a bastard child of the iPod.
* iPod Classic. New name for the iPod. Nice and gentle re-design, new controls including coverflow but big news was price – £159 for 80GB! £229 for 160GB. I think those are great prices.
* iPod Touch. Big announcement. Same form factor as iPhone so includes touchscreen and coverflow. Also has WiFi and includes Safari and YouTube. £199 for 8GB, £269 for 16GB. The size of the memory was the biggest disappointment for me. If they announced a thicker iPod Touch with 80GB of space then I would have bought one tonight. As it stands I’ll stick to the iPod and pick up an iPhone when it’s released. They are great looking devices especially if you have a small music library or don’t mind picking and choosing music you want to sync with the device. Just not for me.
* Ignoring Starbucks and WiFi iTunes Store I was pleased to see a $200 drop in the price of the iPhone and a scrapping of the 4GB version. No doubt there will be some angry early adopters in America. However, early adopters are always stung, especially by Apple, so they shouldn’t be surprised. They were also quite willing to pay $599 for the iPhone – if they thought it was overpriced they shouldn’t have bought it. Saying that, I’d be pretty pissed if it had happened to me.
A mixed keynote for me but I think it’s cleared up what I’m buying next…although cost and 3G could still be deal breakers. My trusty 6G iPod, only just a year old, will be with me a good bit longer.
There is a 6g iPod?
Well, the “classic” is considered 6g I supposed…
It’s like that coke scam all over again
Yep – your right – 5G. Never could keep track of all the updates. Makes mine feel old now 😉
How come the touch is the same price here (more or less) as the US iphone? Is it all down to VAT? I wonder how that will translate into the UK mobile network model? I smiled when I saw the ringtone bit, how he managed to keep a straight face during that lord knows.
Compared to most ringtone companies $0.99 seems cheap – but I agree, having bought the mp3 you have to pay again to use it as a ringtone? Rip off.
iPod nano – Ugly Betty.
iPod classic – told someone at work that updates were coming out this week and to hold off, but she insisted on buying one cause she wanted it for her hols. sigh.
iPod touch. I love. I don’t have a huge music collection and considered a PSP for the web browser alone. But the touch looks like it has a more than passable browsing experience. But it really depends on the ongoing costs of the iPhone. I agree with Roy – the price of touch in the UK seems a bit steep. But my Dad’s off to the states in a couple of weeks…
For the last five years I’ve had phones that allowed you to select an MP3 and use it as the ringtone. For Apple to charge for a 30 second snippet the same as it does for the whole song just seems wrong.