Apple's Press Event In A Nutshell

Personally I hate sitting through press events, even if I could do it from the comfort of my own home as with today's streaming event from Apple. There is something about hearing company clonies dragging on and on about their latest greatest product and how much I need it in my life that kind of bores me. So I wait for the condensed version, dissect it, and draw from it the information I want or need.

Well for those of you that share my disdain for the ramblings of cooperate heads here is the condensed version of Apple big event:

Apple Introduces New iPod touch

Apple announced the new iPod touch, packed with new features including Apple’s Retina display featuring 960 x 640 pixels—four times as many pixels than before, FaceTime video calling, HD video recording, Apple’s A4 chip, 3-axis gyro, iOS 4.1 and Game Center—all combined in a new thinner and lighter iPod. The new iPod touch features up to 40 hours of music playback and seven hours of video playback on a single battery charge.

The new iPod touch will be available next week for a suggested price of $229 for the 8GB model, $299 for the 32GB model and $399 (US) for the 64GB model through the Apple Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.

Apple Announces New iPod nano With Multi-Touch Interface and iPod Shuffle

Apple today unveiled a completely redesigned iPod nano featuring Apple’s Multi-Touch interface that lets users navigate their music collection by simply tapping or swiping a finger on the display. Nearly half the size and weight of the previous generation, the new iPod nano features a polished aluminum and glass enclosure with a built-in clip.

The new wearable iPod shuffle has an all-aluminum enclosure with a built-in clip and comes in five brilliant colors—silver, blue, green, orange and pink. The new new iPod shuffle will sale for just $49 while the new iPod nano with Multi-Touch will have a starting price of $149 and should be on-sale in time for the holiday season.

Apple Introduces iTunes 10 With Ping Social Music Discovery

One of the more exciting announcement was the announcement of the newest version of iTunes, iTunes 10 with Ping, a new music-oriented social network for following your favorite artists and friends to discover what music they’re talking about, listening to and downloading. iTunes Ping lets you post your thoughts and opinions, your favorite albums and songs, the music you’ve downloaded from iTunes, plus view concert listings and tell your friends which concerts you plan to attend.

iTunes 10 will also allow users to rent their favorite HD TV shows commercial free from ABC, ABC Family, Fox, Disney Channel and BBC America and watch them at home or on the go for just 99 cents an episode. Apple promises that thousands of episodes are going to be available, many the day after broadcast, to watch on your Mac or PC, iPhone, iPod touch and the all-new Apple TV, and you have 30 days from the moment you rent an episode to start watching it, and 48 hours after that to finish it.

iTunes 10 is available immediately as a free download at www.itunes.com.

Apple Premieres a New Smaller Apple TV

Apple's new entry into the set-top market is the new $99 Apple TV box. The new Apple TV box features streaming content from ABC, ABC Family, Fox, Disney Channel and BBC America for just 99 cents and first run movies for $4.99. Users will also have the option to stream content from Netflix, YouTube, Flickr and MobileMe, as well as music, photos and videos from PCs and Macs to directly to their HD TVs.

Apple TV will be available late this month for a suggested retail price of $99 (US) and can be pre-ordered beginning today on Apple’s online store (www.apple.com).