iPod iTunes Zone

Apple has released iTunes 9, brining with it support for Apple’s new iTunes LP enhanced album format, app organization features, an improved iTunes Store layout, smarter syncing, Genius Mixes, and Home Sharing. iTunes LP is a new enhanced album format that gives users an interactive, DVD-style presentation of the content, including lyrics, photos, writing, videos, and more. The new content will launch on a number of new albums, including Pearl Jam’s upcoming release Backspacer, as well as “Deluxe Edition” reissues of classic albums such as Highway 61 Revisited by Bob Dylan, American Beauty by the Grateful Dead, and The Doors: 40th Anniversary Mixes. An equivalent feature called iTunes Extras will be included with select movies, offering a DVD-style interface with extra features, including (for Wall-E) 3-D set fly-throughs, details on different robots, and more. Continue reading for more on iTunes 9 and for screenshots of the new software.

“iTunes 9 is a great iTunes release, with innovative features that make using iTunes better than ever and iTunes content richer than ever,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iTunes LP, for example, lets artists share more of their creativity with fans and gives music lovers the feeling of being immersed in an entire album with art, lyrics, liner notes, photos and videos.”

iTunes 9 also adds a new application management feature, which allows users to set up pages of apps from their existing application library, move and reorder entire pages of applications, and can of course still change them on their devices. Genius Mixes are an expansion of Genius Playlists, utilizing a “Genius DJ” that creates “endless mixes of songs that go great together”—up to 12 from a media library. When syncing in iTunes 9, users can now choose to sync by artist or genre automatically, in addition to playlists, sync photo Events and Faces in addition to Albums, and automatically sync new purchases of music, movies, TV shows, audiobooks, and applications. Also new is a feature called Home Sharing, which lets families copy iTunes content to and from 5 authorized computers in their house, using drag-and-drop, and can also auto-sync new music, movie, TV, audiobook, or application purchases across all 5 computers.

iTunes 9 brings with it a completely redesigned iTunes Store, with a new navigation bar at the top of the Store, providing one-click access to different parts of the store, drop-down menus to dig deeper into different sections of the store, and new artist pages, movie, and TV pages. Users can now preview and buy songs and albums right from the top charts, with easier Quick View and previewing of albums, and a new arrow next to the buy buttons lets users create wishlists, gift albums or songs, and share links on Facebook and Twitter, directly from iTunes. iTunes 9 is available as a free download starting today.

source: iLounge

The fifth-generation iPod nano ($149/8GB, $179/16GB) preserves the shape of its fourth-generation predecessor while adding six primary features: a video camera capable of having special effects applied to realtime video recordings via holding down the Click Wheel’s central button, a microphone, an internal speaker, a wider 2.2” screen, an FM radio tuner, and a pedometer for use in exercise. The microphone and video camera are found on a chromed plate on the unit’s back, in the lower left corner; it reverses the prior headphone port and Dock Connector arrangement on the device’s bottom. Apple has also used a new “polished anodized aluminum” technique to give the devices each glossy but otherwise similar—not identical—colors to last year’s versions; purple becomes richer, “black” lighter, and so on. It is, as expected, a challenge to hold the iPod nano to actually record video, but once you’re doing so, it’s actually impressive to see how Apple smoothly fades transitions from menu screen to menu screen within camera mode.

The third-generation iPod touch (8GB/$199, 32GB/$299, 64GB/$399) is cosmetically identical to the second-generation model, and has received only one major hardware change: the addition of a 50% faster processor set for the 32GB and 64GB models, the latter now the largest-capacity iPod touch ever sold. According to an Apple representative on site at the event, the specifics of the hardware changes are not being discussed by the company other than the faster processor claim, which also adds OpenGL ES 2.0 support to bring the model in parity with the iPhone 3GS. When asked whether 802.11n support had been added to the device’s hardware, the comment was that there was nothing to announce on that at this time.

The third-generation iPod shuffle (2GB/$59, 4GB/$79) is the same as its predecessor released earlier this year, except for the addition of four new color options. Both the 2GB and 4GB models are available in three new colors—pink, blue, and green—which are more muted and iPod mini-like than the fourth and fifth-generation iPod nanos, without possessing the polished anodized aluminum. They all possess stainless steel rear clips. A new 4GB, entirely stainless steel model is being sold as an Apple Store exclusive special edition for $99, and predictably is a bright chrome through and through. No other changes were supposedly made to these models.

The iPod classic (160GB/$249) was not available for demonstration in Apple’s hands-on area after the event. It possesses the same thin profile as earlier 80GB and 120GB iPod classic models, but supposedly has no other changes from the second-generation version introduced last year.

source: iLounge