WMExperts (via Crunchgear and Gizmodo) rounds up the latest on Zune HD, linking up the above hands-on video, and news that it might just drop at $100 lower than the iPod touch. In other words, Microsoft to Apple: “it’s broughtn’ed”.
Now, there’s no getting around the Zune HD being an OLED iPod touch two years too late, much as the original Zune was a Wi-Fi squirting iPod classic two years too late. At even $100 discount, can Microsoft compete with a 3rd generation iPod touch, rumored to include a camera, perhaps video recording and sharing, and a 65,000+ strong App Store?
Meh. They’ll get some iPod rebels and budget conscious adaption, no doubt, and that’s probably all they intend. A strong #2 in the music player market, much like they’re going for against Google in the search/advertising space, is likely enough for them now. Understandable, to be sure, but we’d still rather see a mind-blowing Windows Mobile Phone with Zune-like interface and hardware specs, Mobile Xbox gaming, and awesome Windows integration.
As part of the just-completed Q3 2009 conference call, Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook revealed that the iPhone OS, the software behind both the iPhone and iPod touch, now enjoys an install base of over 45 million.
Combined with previous announcements of 65,000 apps, 100,000 registered developers, and 1.5 billion downloads, and it looks like Apple has quite the mobile platform on their hands. Scratch that, they have quite the platform in consumer hands.
Rumors of the third generation iPod touch getting a camera — even video camera — is nothing new, however Wired.com now claims they may be getting a built-in microphone as well:
A well-connected source tells us those rumors are on the money, and that Apple’s factories in China are already manufacturing iPod Touch models with integrated cameras and microphones. An Apple spokesman declined to comment when reached by phone.
With the addition of video to Camera, and the Voice Memo app, combined with a built-in mic making VoIP even easier, we’ll come out and say it — ultimate non-phone handset is nigh.
Apple typically unveils new iPod touch models once a year at their special music event, alongside other iPods and related announcements — which last time, at Let’s Rock included the iPhone 2.1 firmware and iTunes 8.
Apple’s third generation iPod touch seems to be going out for a little web-based test drive. Designated iPod touch 3,1, we first saw code hints of it in the iPhone 3.0 beta firmware, and then in rumors about the iPod touch getting a camera. Now, according to app analytics provider PinchMedia:
we’ve been noticing an “iPod 3,1″ string appearing in our version reporting, signifying what we believe to be a new yet-to-be-released version of the iPod Touch.
For the last two years, Apple has reveled new iPod touch models during their fall music-focused events. Last year, the second generation iPod touch debuted at Let’s Rock alongside iPhone 2.1, and iTunes 8.
Since Apple likes their product cycles, does this mean we’ll see iPod touch 3,1 and iPhone 3.1 sometime this September?
Could the iPod touch and iPod nano also be getting in on the camera action? We’ve heard the rumor before but evidence continues to mount with Techcrunch claiming:
One of our sources in Asia say that Apple has placed an order for a massive number of camera modules of the type that they include in the iPhone. These are inexpensive cameras, in the $10 range. And the size of the order, our source says, means they can only be used for one thing – the iPods.
As Dieter mentioned on iPhone Live! a camera is such a natural fit for the iPod touch that it’s hard to imagine Apple not doing it at this point. Adding video recording, editing, and sharing (along with the beefier chipset) also seems like a no-brainer port from the already-enabled iPhone 3GS. Even if Apple sticks with VGA resolution, users who want highly portable video recording might easily take the iPod integration over the better quality of a dedicated device like a Flip Mino HD.
Macrumors is also showing off a case that, if real, re-enforces the iPod nano camera rumors as well. Absent the iPod touch interface and processor power, however, it’s hard to see that being functional for anything but still photography. That being said, it remains a great way for Apple to keep moving the traditional iPod line forward even as it approaches market saturation.
I, Robot. The Butlarian Jihad. Terminator. Cylons. The Matrix. And the endless sci-fi stories that inspired them. All that cultural warning and still, like lemmings, we humans rush towards inventing our replacements.
No one to blame but ourselves now really. And Apple for making our eventual overlords so aesthetically pleasing…
We’d heard rumors about the iPod touch getting a camera already — makes sense and would tie it even more closely to the iPhone OS. HardMac (via MacRumors) is now saying the iPod nano will as well.
Sounds plausible as it provides an easy way for Apple to both strengthen ties within their ecosystem and incrementally update both platforms in time for the holidays.
Not content with having only sold 37 million iPhone OS-based devices (which includes the iPod touch), Apple has set about stalking and capturing a whole new class of prey: our moms.
Fiendishly clever, Apple. Who’s mom wouldn’t want all those pictures of the kids (and maybe grandkids), home movies, email and chat access, and multitouch gaming hardcore enough to put the curl back in her beehive.
Only one problem, Apple. Our moms may jailbreak!
(Joking, we still have to help them start “the internet” with that little compass or curled fox icon… Sigh…)
So much iPhone news came today that it’s tough to keep track of it all. One thing we wanted to make sure didn’t get lost in the shuffle was the iPod Touch news that came out today. Specifically, the iPhone 3.0 software will come to the iPod Touch for a $10 upgrade fee and will include an “unlock” to give the iPod Touch the Bluetooth functionality that’s being added in iPhone 3.0.
Wait, what? Yes, the iPod Touch (at least the 2nd gen version) does indeed have a Bluetooth chip in it. We don’t know exactly where or how the thing is hidden away inside, but Apple came clean today and said they could ‘unlock’ it. Longtime readers may remember that back in September this very issue raised its head and the verdict was that, well, we didn’t think it was there. The deal is that modern devices like Smartphone and the iPod Touch often cram multiple radios and other functionality into a single chip. Back in September it looked as though the chip on the iPod Touch could support Bluetooth but that, well, it was more likely that it was there for Nike+’s “proprietary 802.11 protocol.” So rumor smashed — incorrectly.
Apple really, really thinks the iPod touch is the funnest ever, and just so they’re sure we know it as well, they’ve released a second 2nd gen iPod touch gaming music videoTV commercial.
TUAW’s commenters pointed out Apple has even gone to the trouble of setting up a special App Store gaming page just for the games shown in the Franz Ferdinand covered commercial.
Will these commercials help sell iPod’s to more gamers? Take a bite out of the upcoming Nintendo DSi pie? Or, like with the iPhone, is focusing on apps taking away from the core purpose of the devices (media + internet)?
