Kevin Rose, bound by vengeance to clear his name of false rumors past, has been laying the veritable smack down on Apple’s “Let’s Rock” Event. It’s like he’s got Phil Schiller on the Bat-iPhone or something.
The latest? The above mock up of what iTunes 8.0’s interface will look like, along with a roundup of rumors thus far. Maybe he’ll digg his way out of this yet! (Har!)
Meanwhile, Apple Insider is reporting that some users might have sneaked a copy of an early, pre-release iTunes 8.0 download. Nothing much there to substantiate it yet, but we all remember people getting iPhone 2.0 early last time, so who knows?
Kevin Rose rumored a newer, trip’ier, more galactic iTunes visualizer, and now according to MacRumors, he’s confirmed where it comes from:
Magnetosphere had been available as a free download from the developer’s site until a few months ago. The author has since responded to an inquiry by Allan White that the plug-in had been “sold to a third party”.
Since CoverFlow was acquired by Apple and integrated into iTunes (before progressing into Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard’s Finder file browser — and the iPhone!), this certainly has precedence.
Update: Kevin Rose has a new blog post up, with some additional info:
iTunes 8 includes Genius, which makes playlists from songs in your library that go great together. Genius also includes Genius sidebar, which recommends music from the iTunes Store that you don’t already have.
With iTunes 8, browse your artists and albums visually with the new Grid view; download your favorite TV shows in HD quality from the iTunes Store; sync your media with iPod nano (4th generation), iPod classic (2nd generation), and iPod touch (2nd generation); and enjoy a stunning new music visualizer.
No, that’s not spring in the air, that’s the rumor frenzy ramp-up to Apple’s June World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC), and here’s the aptly titled MacRumors with a mother load:
A MacRumors reader ran across a very unusual .Mac web page yesterday and was kind enough to forward it on. The page contained promotional images for Apple products [...] including teasers for iTunes 8, a 32GB iPhone [in Australia!], and a WWDC launch date (June 10th).
Turns out, not so much. The images came courtesy of one of MacRumors own forum members (though MacRumors continues to maintain they were associated with a legit @apple.com account).
In general, a 32GB iPhone, at least for the current generation product, would require a 32GB NAND chip for the single slot (due to the cell radio and other components, unlike the iPod Touch which boasts 2 NAND slots, the iPhone only has room for 1 — hence iPod Touch always offering twice the memory). If true, it may explain the price cuts on the 8GB models. iTunes 8 would only require some boosted features (App Store support?) and Apple’s marketing desire to bump the rev a full number. Australia rumors have been building for a long timenow, of course.
Also included were the first MacBook and MacBookPro case revs, going to aluminum and iMac-style black on aluminum respectively. (Both of which have also seen rampant rumor ramp ups — say that ten times fast!)
