Apple unveils iTunes phone and iPod Nano

Apple unveils iTunes phone and iPod Nano
Apple Computers has finally unveiled the much anticipated iTunes phone and also a brand new smaller iPod called the iPod Nano. Rumours had run round the web last week when it was revealed that Apple was to make a big September announcement. Most tech sites had already guessed that the announcement had to be about the iTunes phone, but other possibilities circulated to like the possibility of a video-compatible iPod.


iTunes Phone



Let's take a look at the iTunes phone first and see whether or not it is worth the $249.99 price tag that accompanies it (for customers who sign up for a two-year service contract). The Motorola ROKR phone is capable of storing about 100 songs and comes loaded with Apple's iTunes software. This makes the device the first mobile phone that can play downloads from Apple's iTunes music store, which currently has the majority of the worldwide market for music downloads.

"It’s an iPod shuffle right on your phone," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Cingular Wireless, a venture of SBC Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp., will be the exclusive U.S. carrier of the phone. The phone also displays album art when you play a certain song. It has side lights that sync with games, ringtones, music and ambient sounds. It has an integrated Digital VGA Camera with 4x Digital Zoom and supports video Capture and playback.

It is advertised as being capable of playing up to 15 hours music playback using wired headset and up to 6 hours using the Surround Sound feature. It takes approximately 30 seconds to transfer 4MB songs from iTunes to the phone. All in all it's another nice gadget to add to the list, but will have competition pretty quickly from other upcoming devices including Nokia's N91 phone, which was unveiled several months ago. The iTunes phone will be available in stores on Thursday, as it is Apple's strategy to unveil something new right before it is released.


iPod Nano

Now next on the list is the new iPod Nano. Steve Jobs unveiled the new device which will replace the iPod Mini. It is only one-third the size of the iPod mini and is advertised as being capable of storing up to 1,000 songs with its 4GB storage capacity. "It’s impossibly small," Jobs said at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco. "It’s thinner than a No. 2 pencil."



It can store music (of course), games, photos and a calendar and also has a "screen lock" feature that restricts the access to the content to the owner. Its price tag is a steep $249, and another 2GB version will sell for $199. Both devices will be available this weekend, according to Jobs. In other news from Apple, digital audio versions of the Harry Potter series will be exclusively available on the iTunes download site.


Source:
MSNBC


(Thanks to bpitt for News Submission)

Written by: James Delahunty @ 8 Sep 2005 4:14
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  • 77 comments
  • Jauzzi

    damn... that iPod nano is gotta be thethiniest, coolest, mp3 player i've seen so far... if anybody knows a smallest coolest mp3 post the link cuz i've been saving a while for a mp3 player and this shit is the best i've seen so far...

    8.9.2005 05:03 #1

  • masturb8

    ipod phone doesnt mean much. you could buy a gig sd card and put it in a normal phone. when they said ipod phone i thought they were talking ipod style with gigabytes with the capability to talk and text rather than a motorola that plays itunes...........

    8.9.2005 05:29 #2

  • rooster33

    very dissapointed with the iphone. why wouldn't they want a design award-winning product like the ipod to do what it does best and now just add the phone capability? i think this motorola phone looks awful. poor showing for apple on this one.

    on the other hand, the nano is awesome.

    8.9.2005 06:43 #3

  • hypes057

    damn well that [REMOVED] sucks! i just bought a mini 4gb a month ago, now they come out w/ this [REMOVED] for $50 more? grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat

    8.9.2005 09:53 #4

  • spooky2k

    hate to burst your bubble....but in today's world you should expect these things to happen.
    either return it, or just deal with it. it happens.
    Th ephone is a huge disapointment, and the nano is awesome. but not for me as i have a 40GB ipod. here's hoping that the next gen full-size ipods carry a similar size.
    Dan x

    8.9.2005 10:17 #5

  • Doggy_Bot

    My bro said hes getting the Nano (4G) in black and he will give me his old (but still good) 10 G! Ill have a 10 G and a shuffle!

    8.9.2005 12:48 #6

  • Lethal_B

    im sorry but who wants a (cr*p) phone with the capacity to store only 100 songs which are restricted AAC's when you can have your favourite phone put 200 unrestricted songs plus space for videos.....

    8.9.2005 13:57 #7

  • borhan9

    Well personally i like the new look of the Ipod Nano thing...

    But the phone like others storage should of been more and i personally dont like motorolla and i reckon another company like nokia's new phone will beat it

    @hypes057
    edit ur post no profanity allowed got young users using this sight also...

    8.9.2005 13:58 #8

  • Lethal_B

    Quote:$249.99 price tag that accompanies it (for customers who sign up for a two-year service contract)psssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhh

    8.9.2005 14:00 #9

  • neurokasm

    Why bother making an iPod any smaller? Geez... Well, at least they're making black ones now. I always thought a black iPod would be cool.

    8.9.2005 14:42 #10

  • rihgt682

    I want this ipod so bad. I would have never though of this small cool ipod. They should have ipod in red. or blue or green. They should have nano in like 9 colors. my 2cent

    8.9.2005 15:23 #11

  • Lethal_B

    hows about an ipod that dont scratch when you take it out the box



    stewie - look, i have my finger up my nose! dont you find this disgusting????!

    bryan - you're talkin to a guy who uses his tongue for toilet paper...

    I love roxanne odell loads xxx

    8.9.2005 15:26 #12

  • elroyjet

    yeah.. i aint "feelin" the ipod phone, i got a nokia 3300
    with 1 gig mmc card and i can play pretty much and format of music i want mp3 wma etc. on the other hand the NANO looks pretty slick!

    8.9.2005 16:15 #13

  • Nephilim

    hypes057

    You're history if I see you use language like that again.



    Forum Rules! http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/2487

    My movies! http://www.intervocative.com/dvdcollection.aspx/Rephaim

    "And there we saw the giants, and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight" - Numbers 13:33

    8.9.2005 18:42 #14

  • Reasons?

    This is pretty sweet, nano. The phone thing is dumb though, come on, just use jhymn to convert all your music to .mp3, then put it on any other MP3 enabled phone. Seriously, doesn't that make more sense to anyone else?

    8.9.2005 20:19 #15

  • punx777

    i have to admit, (if you dont know me, i absoulutly despise apple) but the nano is pretty cool, (the thin-ness) but i dont see why its all stretched out that kind of makes it look wierd. hopefully they will abolish the shuffle, and hopefully creative will follow (i say that because they will make it better then apple ever could have)

    8.9.2005 20:22 #16

  • sirmugen

    I just bought the black nano, and its so sweet, you can wear it around your neck, and it has all the features of the regular ipod. So when a song is playing instead of having album cover a picture, I have a slide show of porno picture (sweet). If you guys want... I can post pic.

    Later.... going to play with my nano :)

    sirmugen

    8.9.2005 20:32 #17

  • rihgt682

    @sirmugen did you buy it at store?

    I think ipod shuffle is so stupid. why would you want to carry hundrends of music with no screen. The worst part is, it cost so much for the shuffle.

    I like the ipods but one thing i relly hate is Build in batteries. Is it so hard to make the batteries removeble!!!!! But other then that i don't see why ipods can't be perfect.

    8.9.2005 20:56 #18

  • sirmugen

    Yes... I bought it locally at my apple store, I was going to buy another shuffle because my girlfriend wanted my suffle, but I saw this online, so I called my local apple store and they had a couple of them left, so I picked one up... I wanted to be able to wear it around my neck

    REALLY NICE !!!

    sirmugen

    8.9.2005 21:01 #19

  • sirmugen

    Also for you students out there (or former student who still have thier student ID from college or University) you get a $20 off of the nano if you show them your ID. You also can get other discount from Apple accessories with student ID.

    *Note* you can also redeem online too

    This is for the US.. (dunno about the rest)

    sirmugen

    8.9.2005 21:15 #20

  • rihgt682

    Good thing about online is no tax.

    8.9.2005 23:02 #21

  • johnodd4

    this sucks it's just a ipod mini with a color screen it still holds only 1,000 songs 4gig's not enough for good quality video thats for sure

    battery life is going to suck royal do to the fact you have to run a color screen and even worse...

    most videos are 600 megs or better so at 4 gigs that doesn't leave a whole lot of space

    dumb product i feel sorry for all the suckers that buy this one

    9.9.2005 00:55 #22

  • masturb8

    who said anything about video????????

    9.9.2005 01:50 #23

  • Douglar02

    That is a very nicley written article.

    9.9.2005 03:52 #24

  • Reasons?

    Micro-HDD are history, I like them, but they are gettin gkicked for pure flash memory. Micro HDD is so much cheaper for the storage though. Eventually HDD's will be entirely flash too, but that will take awhile.

    9.9.2005 06:39 #25

  • sirmugen

    @rihgt682
    Yes there is tax online for Apple.

    The picture that the screen display is very high quality, also itunes compress the picture somehow that it doesn't take as much space. I put a folder (2.92GB)with picture (about 1000 pic) of high quality resolution (1067 X 800) on my nano and 300 song, it still had like 60% left of space. To me thats tight, you can run a slide show while the music is playing.
    This is on a 2GB nano

    sirmugen

    9.9.2005 06:49 #26

  • rihgt682

    There's tax when you order online!!!! Well that's got to be first.

    9.9.2005 09:53 #27

  • Reasons?

    I have 7GBs worth of 128kbps music. The regular Ipod is frickin huge and gay, the mini is perfect.

    My 6GB mini is the only option for me and they better not get rid of it (Mini, and it's dev to at lest 8GB) until they can give me 6GB for $250 with a Nano.

    4GB just isn't enough, unless you carry your laptop with you everywhere, you'll find that somehow the song you feel like once in awhile isn't their.

    The nano is sweet, but the capacity is half baked for the money.

    9.9.2005 13:34 #28

  • Doggy_Bot

    hehehe, check this out: http://video.craveonline.com/video/index.php?showVideo=1241


    *WARNING* COMPUTER
    TESTING IN PROGRESS!!


    9.9.2005 16:53 #29

  • Invasian

    I hope this phone is awesome cause I traded in my RAZR V3 in for it.

    9.9.2005 17:09 #30

  • rihgt682

    @Doggy_Bot
    LMAF that thing is so funny.

    9.9.2005 18:07 #31

  • Doggy_Bot

    Actually i find it pure stupid.


    *WARNING* COMPUTER
    TESTING IN PROGRESS!!

    http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?Doggy_Bot


    9.9.2005 18:21 #32

  • rihgt682

    Well i had a relly good laught.

    9.9.2005 23:00 #33

  • Toiletman

    It's as thin as paper. I hope you can fold it up into an aeroplane.

    10.9.2005 08:21 #34

  • rihgt682

    If i would have to choose Ipod or Ipod nano i would choose ipod. Even it's $50 more and bigger, It can store a lot of music. 1,000 is not enought for music lovers. Beside Ipod is small.

    10.9.2005 10:09 #35

  • hooshies

    I respect that people like to store 1000s of songs on their mp3 players.

    BUT, I personally don't think storing THAT much music is necessary. The 2 GB version of this nano can hold 500 songs, that's over 2000 minutes of music. You couldn't even listen to the whole 2000 hours on 1 charge.

    Anyways, no need to worry. Sooner or later (most likely sooner) hard-drive technology will change, and you will see mp3 players smaller than the iPod nano with a 50 GB capacity...

    10.9.2005 11:29 #36

  • rihgt682

    I don't relly care about the size cause it's already small. If they do make it small that means smaller screen.

    10.9.2005 15:02 #37

  • pollution

    That video was something else Doggy_Bot, it made me smile, thanks.
    How apple and every company have all these advanced technological gadgets but will only go one step at time to maximize there profit is great for them.
    Just imagine what there is that has not been released.

    I do not plan on buying the ipod, 1-i am in college, 2-i am a cheap ass

    10.9.2005 18:07 #38

  • kinza

    great more crap from apple. what sucks this time is that my brother is getting it.

    10.9.2005 19:53 #39

  • borhan9

    @kinza

    Well if he wants it... let him have it... some people have to lurn the hard way :) i personally as i said in my earlier post i would have liked a better phone that that...

    Thats preety basic considering what tech is out there :)

    "THE MEDIOCRE TEACHER TELLS.
    THE GOOD TEACHER EXPLAINS.
    THE SUPERIOR TEACHER DEMONSTRATES.
    THE GREAT TEACHER INSPIRES."

    -"William Arthur Ward"

    Ace

    Scuba Petes Guide http://www.dvdplusvideo.com/tutorial007.html

    10.9.2005 22:45 #40

  • sbaron178

    yo get a free ipod nano (4 gb, black or white)...check it out hehe I'm banned

    11.9.2005 04:35 #41

  • Toiletman

    We don't like free iPods.

    Everyone is entitled to their own true opinion. Either respect that or don't.

    11.9.2005 08:37 #42

  • Auslander

    how'd that guy get to junior member status? that's two free ipod scams of his i've seen today.

    If only I was half wolf...

    http://allpoetry.com/poets/Auslander http://www.fictionpress.com/~ghostlyauslander
    Ich bin ein Ausländer. Damn proud to be a furry! :D

    11.9.2005 09:25 #43

  • Doggy_Bot

    @ kinza

    My brother is getting one too, personally i like the iPods from apple!
    Now he will give me his 10 gb!YAY!


    *WARNING* COMPUTER
    TESTING IN PROGRESS!!


    http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?Doggy_Bot

    11.9.2005 10:01 #44

  • Auslander

    i'll take my 60 gig Creative Zen Nomad Jukebox over any ipod any day.

    If only I was half wolf...

    http://allpoetry.com/poets/Auslander http://www.fictionpress.com/~ghostlyauslander
    Ich bin ein Ausländer. Damn proud to be a furry! :D

    11.9.2005 10:03 #45

  • kinza

    he had an archos av420 but he's more of a fashion statement person so he returned it.


    Pakistan Zindabad!

    11.9.2005 10:05 #46

  • weazel200

    My brothers friend gave me his to load songs on to yesterday and I must admit it's a very nice gadget but I have absolutely no interest in buying one. It is very light and can easily get lost if you dont look after it. The album picture which is displayed next to the song currently playing is pretty nifty.


    A TRUE LEGEND!!!!!

    11.9.2005 10:31 #47

  • Doggy_Bot

    Here is a pic of the iPod Nano in black:

    btw it is only 3.5 inches long! Thats cool!


    *WARNING* COMPUTER
    TESTING IN PROGRESS!!


    http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?Doggy_Bot

    11.9.2005 14:34 #48

  • rihgt682

    There's two things i don't like about ipod. 1. PRICE!!! 2.build in batteries.
    you can store windows media songs in ipod right?
    What is BTW means?

    11.9.2005 15:15 #49

  • Hunter007

    It means "by the way". And I like the nano up to a point. It is cool, and I like how small it is but really we don't need to go any smaller. I have a mini and am happy with it. I don't need a color screen, because I hardly ever even use the display and it's small enough for my liking. I never have more then 1200 songs on it at a time anyway, so it doesn't bother me.

    Hunter007

    11.9.2005 15:22 #50

  • kinza

    no, ipods don't play any other format except .AAC, right?


    Pakistan Zindabad!

    11.9.2005 15:28 #51

  • Auslander

    that's another reason i went with Creative, Kinza :D

    11.9.2005 15:31 #52

  • kinza

    yes, in adittion to that it is soo expensive.

    11.9.2005 15:36 #53

  • Auslander

    never before has it been more economical to defy the mainstream and be relatively unique in a world of electronic technology.....and i'm loving it.

    11.9.2005 15:47 #54

  • kinza

    the only thing now is for the average person to realize the insensibility of buying an ipod.

    11.9.2005 15:50 #55

  • spooky2k

    why anyone would actulaly want to play WMA at all is beyond me. the songs are terrible quality and i don't even consider myself to be much of a 'sound quality buff'. YOu can put .mp3 files onto an iPod...there's a standard fo ryou right there.
    Format issues are a mute point as far as Windows media audio is concerned.
    Dan x

    11.9.2005 16:00 #56

  • Auslander

    they've got their good points. they're on the cutting edge with this stuff...i just feel that creative does it for a lot better amount of cash, lol. for you ipod fanboys out there, i'm not a creative fanboy. i'll use anything as long as it's cheap and good. lol, my agenda isn't against ipod...it's against republicans!!!!XD

    11.9.2005 16:01 #57

  • Auslander

    spooky, it depends on your encoding. i rip my cds at a mathematically lossless setting to wma and i love the sound of it. my creative re-encodes to a lower bitrate, but it's still wma and i hear not difference whatsoever.

    11.9.2005 16:03 #58

  • kinza

    same here, i actually prefer .wma, i bought a ptunes for my pda for $30 because that was the only program that could play wma's

    11.9.2005 16:08 #59

  • Auslander

    lol, kinza, you're starting to make me feel a lot less lonely out here in ipod country...i was thinking i'd have to fight off those insane cultists alone there for a moment :-P

    11.9.2005 16:11 #60

  • kinza

    ipod hatred is mutual amongst the sensible. djscoop hates mac, he has that sig.

    11.9.2005 16:13 #61

  • Auslander

    if only i had a katana...

    *swings his arms wildly at ipods*

    i don't have a problem with Mac...if they're stuff worked mor universally, i'd use it...but then again, i hate M$...*can't win*

    11.9.2005 16:17 #62

  • kinza

    I get frustrated when I think that people actually go through converting all their music and still think ipods are the best thing in the world.

    11.9.2005 16:20 #63

  • Auslander

    it doesn't make any sense to me, either.

    11.9.2005 16:29 #64

  • noname5

    Why would they use a name that Creative is already using? Is that even legal? Can another company come out with something like a rio ipod? Or is it simply that Apple can get away with anything in the mp3 market?

    11.9.2005 17:22 #65

  • rihgt682

    so ipod can only read AAC. what is AAC? So if i get a ipod how can i listen to my songs in my computer.
    What kind of format should i make my song to? Best sound. I get my music at Peer to peer.

    11.9.2005 20:09 #66

  • noname5

    Re AAC: Most players like winamp have an AAC plugin. I think mp4 is similar to or the same as AAC.
    Unfortunately, if you're converting from mp3 to AAC or vice versa you are losing some quality each time.

    11.9.2005 22:09 #67

  • Jauzzi

    linux, Auslander, l i n u x...

    12.9.2005 05:19 #68

  • Auslander

    i love linux, and desperately want it, but i don't want to give my games... :( and i'm not gonna run a bunch of emulators, either. i'm stuck with XP until a user-friendly version of linux pops up...something that can use MS proggies/games with relative ease XD

    12.9.2005 10:12 #69

  • WiteWizrd

    MAN!
    There milkin this IPod thing as much as they possibly can arnt they.


    Will the madness EVER STOP!?!?!?

    12.9.2005 13:48 #70

  • Hunter007

    I've NEVER had to convert one song when transferring to my iPod. I don't know why everyone seems to think that you have to convert your music before you put it on your iPod. Maybe a ripped version of a song, but all my songs are .mp3s and I haven't had to convert any.

    Hunter007

    14.9.2005 10:35 #71

  • borhan9

    @Hunter007

    I think users of ipod convert other file fprmats to mp3 because of the compression so they can fit more songs than they could if the file was in another type of format... Otherwise u can just leave it on ur pc's and have more space than u would ever have on an ipod :)

    14.9.2005 12:58 #72

  • juniorken

    hm, this guy is happy with his creative zen 5gb. Maybe less fancy than ipod but also nice design, good quality, replacable battery and if you flash the firmware of the player it gets 100% compatible with media player and xp. I mostly use cdex and lame for grabbing my cds to mp3 and afterwards I just drop the files on my zen using standard xp-explorer. No need to install any kinda driver, its all in xp sp2. What more do you need? For me no ipod please.

    14.9.2005 19:48 #73

  • myndphuk

    @rihgt682

    For your future questions... try http://www.acronymfinder.com/

    15.9.2005 06:03 #74

  • MarownIOM

    I have two co-workers that both own a Nano.

    They play MP3 and AAC only.

    The ITunes application will convert just about any format to AAC before copying to the Nano. This includes WMA. You will have an AAC copy of you WMA files so your disk space will take a hit.

    As far as "Why anyone would want to use WMA format". I only use it for books on tape. FM quality sounds excellent and takes a very little disk space. Many MP3 players do not support Mono MP3's; but, all WMA compatible players support Mono WMA. MP3 FM quality is terrible (lisping and digital burbling are common).

    I've never tried AAC; but, most things Apple does is excellent.

    Regarding the Creative Labs Zen. It worked well and I liked the blue light and the interface. If you have any MP3 larger than 7 minutes long then good luck FF and REW. I have 45 Minute books on tape recorded and if I can't FF past the 7 minute mark then I can't use it. Another thing. Try Rewinding past the beginning of a song and see what it does (not what you'd expect).

    Personally, I have the Rio Carbon. I do hate the 15 to 20 second start up time; but, it can do all the things I need in a player and the Rio music manager is multi-threaded so you can add and remove songs while files are being copied to the player.

    I'd love to try the Ipod Nano. I don't like the idea of having all my WMA's duplicated as AAC's though.

    3.10.2005 08:56 #75

  • kinza

    You don't want the nano. my bro got it and took really good care of it, it was all scratched and looked 5 years old in two days.

    3.10.2005 12:22 #76

  • m0thr4

    Quote:i love linux, and desperately want it, but i don't want to give my games... :( and i'm not gonna run a bunch of emulators, either. i'm stuck with XP until a user-friendly version of linux pops up...something that can use MS proggies/games with relative ease XDOff topic but...: Then what you need is a Mac my friend. I work with Linux and Solaris for a living and I recently sold my home PC (after finishing Half Life 2 of course) and bought a G5. It's built on BSD Unix, which should satisfy your Linux fetish, it's far more user-friendly than XP and you'd be surprised at just how much software is released for both the PC and the Mac, only for the Mac version to be superior in quality and performance.

    4.10.2005 01:29 #77

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