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So yesterday was fun as Apple rolled out a series of new products. I was really surprised that unlike previous events, the product was not available in the Apple store the day of announcement. They used to always have product available at the stores when announced, that just doesn’t taste right. The day the iMac 2007 was announced, there were several setup in the store when I got there after work. It sounds to me like some last minute software/hardware/delivery issues spoiled some of the thunder.

And speaking of thunder, how about that $200 iPhone price drop? The last remaining 4GB models at the local Apple store were flying off the shelves as people picked up a second unit for a spouse, kid, friend, whatever. A great deal on a great product, congratulations to those who got them. Even $399 is a sweet deal and will likely expand the installed base of people using the iPhone. If you think about it, remember the Motorola RAZR when it first came out? $399, no discounts on Cingular. Within a few months it was down to $199 and now you get them for $69. Price reductions are a fact of life — rather than whine about the $200 “fan-boy” tax, just enjoy the phone. Not that I wouldn’t mind an iTunes store credit or something as a thank you for helping launch/beta-test their product!

As for the new products, unless you live in a hole, you’ve seen them already. The iPod Classic is the old classic iPod with a bigger drive (are we still using moving parts in portable devices?), the iPod Nano got short and fat and video support, the shuffle got some new colors, and the big news was of course the iPod Touch. An iPhone without the phone and e-mail support. It also doesn’t have Google Maps, Weather, Stocks, or a Camera. But it does have WiFi.

Both the Touch and the iPhone are getting the iTunes Mobile Music Store. Now you can drunk-buy songs while out and about. Very cool. No word on whether or not you can download them over EDGE yet or only WiFi, I guess we’ll see. Take that Verizon/Sprint with your phone-only $2 a song crap ass stupid music store of suckage. And as for the Zune, well, at least you’ve got “The Social.”

Oh, and since none of the product was actually in the store last night, I spent a couple of hours with the very helpful Tulsa Apple store staff and the MacBook Pro. The applications are so familiar, so friendly and so easy to use it just makes it harder and harder to wait for Leopard. My only concern at this point is waiting for a just-out-of-the-oven version of OS X compared to a known, updated version that has seen a lot of user testing. I don’t want to have the “Vista” experience all over again with a fresh operating system, but I also don’t want to pay a $129 buy-it-now tax to upgrade to Leopard when it’s all said and done.

Okay, so the title doesn’t quite cover it. Apple is hosting a press event at the Moscone center September 5th, 2007. The Moscone center means get ready for some major product announcements. It’s not at the Apple campus in Cupertino, it’s at the Moscone center. So small little things like a new iMac aren’t going to be able to hold a candle to what’s coming out tomorrow.

Most of the regular technology blogs have given their take of what’s coming tomorrow. These sites base their information on what “insiders” tell them and some creative extrapolation based on these tips. So they have to try and stay somewhat entrenched in reality. Me, not so much.

As a true Apple fanboy (who doesn’t even own a Mac, FYI), I have to put down what I think is going to be announced tomorrow. If I’m wrong, meh, nobody reads this blog anyway so who cares.

Full-Screen Video iPod

A full-screen iPod Video, based on the same platform as my beloved iPhone. Expect the OS of the iPhone, but don’t expect any of the web features. So take away the WiFi, the cellular modem, the Bluetooth, the mail client, the web browser, the other stuff. Expect the other stuff that iPods have always had, including a new line of games that have been tweaked to work with the touchscreen experience. I’m split on HD/Flash at this point. Flash is so cheap, but Apple loves margin. Hard drives break, flash basically doesn’t. But a 16 GB iPod Video seems like a pretty limited replacement for the 5G iPod. So I’m going for a standard 5G thickness unit with a 1.8″ hard disk, probably up to 120 GB at the top end. It’s unfortunate, but they need to keep the storage kings happy.

iPod Nano with Video

A video-capable iPod Nano with a size upgrade is likely. Some new colors are possible, along with new memory sizes including maybe a 16 GB model on the top end for those Apple Lossless freaks like me. Of course, that’s a big maybe. The price points will likely remain the same with the base model now being 4GB (face it, flash is freaking cheap). Video is a given considering their continued push into video on the iTunes Music store.

iPod Shuffle 2GB

The shuffle goes 2GB for the base model. Come on, you can get 2GB flash drives for under $14 on sale, make the move on the shuffle. Some new colors if you like, whatever, I don’t care.

Media Management (iTunes)

iTunes still sucks when it comes to media management. All videos show up together and there is no way to organize a large library. There is also no way to really enable any genre-specific parental controls. What does this mean? Your porn shows up in the same video folder as Barnyard. That ain’t good folks. iTunes, the iPod Video, and the Apple TV need to be upgraded to support advanced media categories for all types of media: music and video. And the tools need to be available to block the kids from even seeing cover art for things they, well, shouldn’t see.

Bluetooth

Apple added Bluetooth as a standard feature to their products long before other manufacturers and have continued to support the standard. There are a few companies making great stereo headsets that support A2DP and AVCP but music players have been slow to add support. Well, this might be the time for that to be added. Perhaps the Nano will gain Bluetooth headphone support, allowing it to be used without any wires during your workout. I know the Motorola S9 would be a good workout set to use while listening to your Nano tucked away in your shorts.

Wireless Products (Airport Extreme, etc.)

Could Apple update the Airport Extreme to support 802.11n? Not likely. The iPhone only supports 802.11g, as will any possible WiFi that might end up in the regular iPod. It sure would be nice to be able to stream your iPod to the Airport Express, but that’s not expected. Battery life would certainly be impacted, so I just don’t really expect it. The iPhone is the networked device, leave the cost low on the other items. Of course, the Zune has wireless so WiFi seems to make sense but only really for the full screen unit. And then you’re talking about the hard disk units (unless they drop drives completely) whose battery life is always an issue. I don’t know, but I don’t expect much here. I’d love to see it, as we’d likely see any new features as an iPhone update on the same day (if not shortly afterwards).

If they do support WiFi, they need to support Last.fm (or some wonderful .mac clone of the service) to allow social sites to pick up on what you’re listening to on your iPod. After all, it’s gotta be social.

Apple TV

Could any product be as neglected as the Apple TV? Without third-party tools like Handbrake and without YouTube content, the Apple TV is a real turd. I own one and it has limited usefulness. Sure, we’ve ripped many of our DVDs into our iTunes library (which is of course a generic folder called Videos) so we can easily throw something on for the kids to watch without digging for the disk. And we can navigate our music library from the home stereo (which with over 8,000 tracks spread over more than 600 CD’s and iTunes downloads can be a real chore since there is no search feature). I’m really hoping for more on the Apple TV, but I doubt it based on what they’ve done so far.

iPhone

They had better add some features to the iPhone. Video coverflow maybe, better Bluetooth support (A2DP perhaps), more widgets, games, ringtones, basically everything that people have been hacking into the phone. Of course, I’m not going to cry if they do nothing.

iTunes Integration with External Media

Okay, it’s obvious that companies are starting to jump ship. NBC, Univeral Music, and other content owners are trying to break from iTunes. But how should Apple respond? Integrate. Just like with iTunes support for podcasts, they took an open format and made it easy to get the content on your iPod. So if other online stores add DRM-free content (Amazon, Universal, others) delivery, I think iTunes should make it very easy to import that media in your iTunes experience. iTunes is all about the iPod/iPhone. It’s all about making it very easy to get content on your Apple hardware. If other sources of content become available (as it was with podcasts, particularly video podcasts) they should quickly make it easy to use that content on the top selling hardware player: the iPod.

That’s all, I’m done ranting. I’m excited about the new products because they likely mean upgrades to products that I already own. Expect a follow-up of my take on what really happens after the announcements tomorrow.

And yes, I’ll likely be at the Tulsa Apple store after work tomorrow checking out the new gear…

According to Apple Insider, the iTunes Music Store will start offering higher quality tracks for download (256-kbit AAC) without DRM protection for $1.29 each. This minor increase in price is more than acceptable given the improved quality of the higher bit rate. It appears that only EMI is on board so far, but expect more to follow as the possibility of increased revenues is too hard to ignore.

While looking for some LCD applets to make my G15 more useful since I no longer play EQ2, I came across an awesome applet that lets you control iTunes. The program works great and was easy to install.

You can start iTunes completely from the LCD, navigate your library, start, stop, search (using an iPod style UI on the LCD), and adjust your settings without exiting the application you are in (which is likely intended to be a game or something).

You can check it out on the author’s website.

Indications are that you’ll be able to walk into any Best Buy this week and pick up an Apple TV. Now, there are only a few at each store (likely about 6), but considering the market for this device you just may be able to score one. If you’re lucky enough to still have an Apple Store right next door (unless your CompUSA closed, sucks to be you), you can probably get one their as well, along with a nice demo they’ve setup to explain the device to normal humans (read: most of the buying public).

Early reviews are scattered, but for what the device is marketed to be, I think they reached their goal. It’s a single-core Pentium box with a 40GB hard drive, 802.11n wireless networking, and an HDMI output. Pretty cool stuff. It connects to iTunes just like an iPod, so you sync content to it. You can also stream to it from iTunes for playing video, audio, photo slideshows, etc. Pretty slick stuff. If you have a nice home stereo and always wanted to be able to listen to your music on it, as well as playing your videos, this could be the hot setup.

Here is the real killer app for me though. Kids. That stack of scratched, lucky if the play correctly, likely seen 100 times videos that comprise the kids video library. At least I’m smart enough to burn backup DVDs of all the movies (without the annoying ads, menus, and other things that frustrate young viewers). With the Apple TV, an easy to use remote, pictures on the screen of the movie instead of just words, and a library of 40-50 movies makes for some serious babysitting. At least you would think so, kids surprise you every day.

Another place I think the Apple TV would completely rock… The car. If you snagged that double-din unit with video inputs, you can likely try to hack a component to composite 480i output and use your Apple TV in the car. Upgrade the drive to 120GB (or more) and have a ball with tons of video and audio content on the movie. I’m thinking of this option myself, actually.

So check it out, and don’t let the less than favorable reviews by XBOX360 fans steer you away from it. It’s just like buying another iPod, only it hooks to your TV. And you can play content OTHER than iTunes Music Store content, you just have to choose from a dozen different programs that will rip your DVD content to H.264 for playback in iTunes. Or use DivX and one of the hacks to add the DivX codec to your unit. After all, it’s just running Apple OS X. Chew on that MS, Windows Mobile < Apple OS X.

In a minor product update today, Apple released four new colors for the iPod Shuffle. The tiny 1GB player is now available in blue, green, orange, pink, and the original silver. Now if they would only release a new 16GB Nano in all those same colors. With the freefall price of flash memory lately, it shouldn’t cost a dime over the price of the current 8GB unit ($249).

Saw this from CES, looks like a winner. Available in March for under $1000, it includes navigation, DVD video playback, solid high-speed iPod integration, support for AAC, and numerous other features. Look for this one to get some serious penetration.

Pioneer AVIC-D3

There is also a community for the AVIC line of receivers at AVIC411.COM.

UPDATE: Pioneer has the full details on the D3 posted online. Looks like iTunes AAC support is included now as well. I wonder if that includes Apple Lossless Codec support for playing ALC tunes from your iPod via the D3.

With the world still shaking from the amazing iPhone announcement, I’m going to take a short step back and make some real-world comments about the device. Yes, it’s a wonderful piece of engineering. The UI is gorgeous and responsive, the feature set is very solid, and the sex appeal is truly there. But what is missing and why would you want to wait for a second generation device?

The easiest answer is 3G support. We have UMTS/HSDPA in Tulsa, and I’ve seen the numbers on a laptop (1 Mb down, about 384 Kbps up). With the powerful browser in the iPhone, a 3G chipset makes sense. But that brings us to the next real question…

The battery is not user accessible. While this makes sense in an iPod that you can live without for a week while it is being replaced, most people cannot go even a few hours without their phone. So even if the battery has good battery life (unlike the Samsung Blackjack, which ships with two batteries to get you through the day), there is the possibility that many customers will want to be able to replace the battery quickly. Now, Apple can address this by equipping Cingular stores with the tools to do it so it’s not much of a concern. And charging is not even an issue, there are probably 1000 different plugs you can charge an iPod with today.

Wireless Sync, Bluetooth, iTunes. It’s no secret that Apple is testing Tiger upgrades that improve Bluetooth device syncing. My guess is that you might be able to at some point sync your iPhone over Bluetooth or 802.11 — but you can’t today with the announced feature set. But we’re talking about software, and that’s easy to add between now and June. So that is up in the air. But what about being able to buy from the iTMS while connected via WiFi with your iPhone? That would be awesome, but doesn’t seem to be in the current feature set (again, software, upgrade, done).

The final big one for me is storage. 8 MB is pretty thin, 16 MB would be my bare minimum. I do my music in ALC (lossless) and I carry about 14gb on my current 30GB iPod. I’d like to see at least a modest increase in storage. Of course, I’d really like to see the UI sans phone make its way onto a 4.5″ screen version of the same thing, perhaps even an iPod table in the 6″ to 7″ range. That would be smokin’ hot.

But enjoy the current iPhone, it’s at least 5 years ahead of everything else out there.