Skatter Tech

Today 09/07/05, Apple released a few new products. The first most important product is the iPod Nano. The Nano is a flash based iPod which comes in both 2GB and 4GB, which are meant to replace the iPod Mini product line. It has about 14hrs of battery life and looks very similar to a regular iPod. It also has a color screen (1.4″) and consists of similar features that the iPod Photo has. The unit is only 1.6w”x3.5h”x.27d”, it has standard iPod controls except that the headphones are on the bottom of the unit, which is available in both black and white. This new iPod also is worn differently that the classic iPods, the headset is plugged into the bottom of the unit, which goes around the back of your neck and then into your ears. Some other new features included in the software are a stopwatch, a new analog and digital clock, alarm and sleep timer, and screen-lock.

The second product the released today was the Motorola iTunes compatible phone (ROKR E1). This phone can be purchased for use on Cingular‘s network. The phone it self has enough memory to hold about 100 songs, which are transferred via USB. The phone itself supports taking pictures, videos, and has stereo speakers for playing music out loud. (has regular headphones as well) If you receive a call, the song you are on will automatically pause and allow you to answer the call. It has bluetooth headset support, 9hrs of talk-time, and weighs 3.77 ounces. It includes plenty of other features and can currently be purchased for $249 w/ a 2-year contract.

Apple is also expanding in other markets. They made a deal with Acura, Audi, Honda and Volkswagen to have iPod integration in all 2006 cars. Some of these cars will support using voice commands to control, browse, and search through your music. Apple estimates that over 30% of cars that will be sold in the U.S. by the end of 2006 will have iPod support. Apple has already made deals with other car high-end car companies such as BWM. (BWMs currently support controlling iPods through the steering wheel.)

Apple also released iTunes v5.0 (Mac & Win) and the Windows version of Quicktime v7.0. after three public previews. (Mac version released a few months ago.) Win QuickTime v7.0 now allows playing the H.264 codec, which provides view high quality videos at a high compression rate. iTunes 5 got a new theme, minor layout changes, smart shuffle, outlook sync, playlists, new search tool, and many more features. (P.S. There isn’t going to be a Video iPod coming out anytime soon!)

Link: iPod Nano | Moto ROKR | iTunes 5 | QuickTime 7
Related: iPod | iPod Shuffle |
Coverage: Apple Keynote (Steve Jobs) | iPod Nano VR
-BetaNews: Moto ROKR | iPod Nano | iPods + Cars
-Engadget: iPod Nano | Moto ROKR | ROKR vs. Mini
-Others: DownloadSquad | Slashdot