As promised, Apple held its secret product announcement, ah, gathering this morning in San Francisco. Contrary to the name of the event, the company unleashed a number of new products. Let's take a look and gauge the importance of each. Note that these impressions are first reactions only; I may have to adjust my thinking after I've actually seen and used these products.
Fifth generation iPod. As expected, Apple released new versions of its suddenly-stagnant "iPod classic" line, adding video playback capabilities, a bigger color screen, and a much thinner form factor than the previous generation. I haven't seen one in person yet, but the update looks solid, if fairly predictable. Frankly, I had hoped that the first video iPod would have featured a horizontal, rather than vertical, form factor, with a wider screen. But it's not horrible. Sizes are 30 GB and 60 GB (and not 80 GB or 100 GB as predicted), starting at $299. Overall, this one gets a grade of B+. There is so much more possible here, but Apple deserves credit for evolving the design, if slightly. Extra credit for making them available in black and white, like the nano. On the other hand, I feel little need to own one: My 40 GB iPod photo (rev 2) is still going strong.
iMac G5 rev 3. Now this one is particularly interesting. Previous versions of the iMac G5 were alternatively lauded for their thin form factor and bemoaned for their propensity for overheating. I don't know if the problems have been fixed, but the new iMac G5s look sweet. The biggest change in this version, however, has little to do with the PC: Apple has finally unveiled its nascent Media Center challenger, called Front Row, which interacts with the user via a bundled remote control (the latter of which looks almost identical to an iPod shuffle). Front Row provides a fun front-end to the music, photos, and videos you have stored on your Mac, and can play back DVD movies. What it's missing, of course, is TV functionality (tuner, watching, recording), so it gets a B. Also holding back Front Row: Apple won't let you buy the software separately. This would be a killer addition to any Mac, especially the living room friendly Mac mini. Ah well.
As for the iMac, the new version also gets a built-in iSight camera (eh), a new even thinner form factor (making me worry, again, about heat), and, gasp, even decent pricing (the 17-inch model starts at $1299, while the 20-incher goes for $1699 with a 2.1 GHz Power PC G5 processor). Assuming that heat is magically not an issue, the iMac gets an A.
iTunes 6. Looking suspiciously similar to the last version of iTunes 5.x (why didn't they wait until version 6 to unveil the new UI?) iTunes 6 adds just one major new feature: Video support. You can now download over 2000 music videos and a whopping 6 short films (from Pixar, go figure) for $1.99 each. A tiny collection of newer TV episodes are also available for download, and Apple added a new "Video" section to the iTunes UI. This is bare bones stuff, people. Even the WMV-based online movie download sites like CinemaNow beat the living crap out of this (and, for whatever it's worth, I can't download any video content for some reason). On the other hand, I expect Apple to dramatically improve this service, and certainly it doesn't take a thing away from the fact that iTunes is the best music player/jukebox anywhere. I love iTunes. A+, I say. The new video functionality, however, gets a C.
Accessories. In addition to the above-mentioned major new products, Apple also introduced a number of interesting accessories. The iPod gets a new universal dock ($39), which features TV connectivity for video playback in addition to the features found in previous-generation docks. It should come with the iPod for free, but it still gets a B+.
The new Apple Remote ($29), which comes free with the new iMac G5, can be used to control the new iPod remotely. That's not to shabby, especially when you consider that the iPod is powerful enough to handle about 75 percent of the duties of a typical Media Center PC (the other 25 percent being the all-important TV recording/playback features). This one gets a B+ as well.
What didn't happen. The rumor mongers were proven wrong about dual-core Power Mac G5s and new PowerBooks, though Apple has certainly proven that it can deliver such product upgrades with no fanfare at a later time. The video iPod didn't really happen, since the new iPod is quite definitely just a toe-in-the-water kind of thing, and not a true video device. Overall, the rumor mongers were pretty much out in the cold on this one.
[ Posted at 4:26 PM | Permalink ]
