Today Apple streamed its media event, announcing new versions of its iOS for its mobile devices, evolutionary iPods, and a new version of iTunes that contains Ping, a “social network for music.” As Dan Gillmor writes in his Salon piece, anyone who believes that “probably expected Amazon to remain just an online bookstore.”
The difference that makes a difference with Ping, compared to all of the other social media networks, is nothing short of astounding: Apple already has the credit-card numbers of 160 million verified users. It’s easy to explain why the record companies haven’t done something like this (their brains were small and, like the dinosaurs, they died). But it’s incomprehensible why Amazon wasn’t the first-mover here. As Gillmor writes, “... Amazon, which has been leagues ahead of everyone else on so many things, and which has had all the pieces in place for years now to create a transformative social/community operation, never tried.”
Apple has never done network products or social media well, but Ping may be different. Early reports are that Ping has an API (or will have) but Apple requires approval of the integration code.
Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, announced that iTunes 10 with Ping was available “now.” It’s not. And still no Beatles music in Apple’s iTunes Store.
Apple also announced the second version of Apple TV. One-fourth the size of the original, the new version loses the storage and becomes a streaming receiver. At a new price of US$100, it’s a pretty good deal and I plan to get one just to stream media from all of our computers to our one television set. At US$5 per rented HD movie (available on day of DVD release; US$4 for “library” releases) and US$1 per television show (HD or SD), it’s probably not a cable killer, but it will likely get there eventually. For now, Roku and the like are toast. Apple TV also supports Netflix streaming if you subscribe to that service.
Surprisingly—or maybe not—Apple doesn’t include an HDMI cable (but digital optical audio ports are provided), and the AppleTV doesn’t support gigabit Ethernet. An iOS device can be used as a remote control. The AppleTV only accepts streaming content from computers through iTunes 10+. This is a problem for Apple, because most of us want to spend less time in iTunes, not more.
I haven’t ordered an Apple product on the day of introduction for a very long time, but I sprang for both a new iPod Touch and the AppleTV.
For the first time, Apple streamed the event live on the web. This is a wonderful step in the right direction, the stream was only jumpy a few times and self-corrected. Apple claimed, in a media alert, that the event would be webcast using its HTTP Live Streaming, “which is based on open standards.” While it’s true the specification for the HTTP Live Streaming protocol is an IETF internet draft, it’s currently supported only by Apple’s Macintosh OS X 10.6+, iOS 3.0+, and the iPad.
Update: Thursday, 02 September 2010 12:43PM CDT: The rear camera in the new, fourth generation iPod Touch is not the same camera as in the iPhone 4 and is capable of capturing images at less than a megapixel. That lack of resolution renders the camera in the iTouch virtually useless for still images. Feh; I’ve cancelled my order.
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