AfterDawn: Tech news

Apple unveils iTunes phone and iPod Nano

Written by James Delahunty @ 08 Sep 2005 4:14 User comments (77)

Apple unveils iTunes phone and iPod Nano Apple Computers has finally unveiled the much anticipated iTunes phone and also a brand new smaller iPod called the iPod Nano. Rumours had run round the web last week when it was revealed that Apple was to make a big September announcement. Most tech sites had already guessed that the announcement had to be about the iTunes phone, but other possibilities circulated to like the possibility of a video-compatible iPod.
iTunes Phone

Let's take a look at the iTunes phone first and see whether or not it is worth the $249.99 price tag that accompanies it (for customers who sign up for a two-year service contract). The Motorola ROKR phone is capable of storing about 100 songs and comes loaded with Apple's iTunes software. This makes the device the first mobile phone that can play downloads from Apple's iTunes music store, which currently has the majority of the worldwide market for music downloads.



"It’s an iPod shuffle right on your phone," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Cingular Wireless, a venture of SBC Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp., will be the exclusive U.S. carrier of the phone. The phone also displays album art when you play a certain song. It has side lights that sync with games, ringtones, music and ambient sounds. It has an integrated Digital VGA Camera with 4x Digital Zoom and supports video Capture and playback.

It is advertised as being capable of playing up to 15 hours music playback using wired headset and up to 6 hours using the Surround Sound feature. It takes approximately 30 seconds to transfer 4MB songs from iTunes to the phone. All in all it's another nice gadget to add to the list, but will have competition pretty quickly from other upcoming devices including Nokia's N91 phone, which was unveiled several months ago. The iTunes phone will be available in stores on Thursday, as it is Apple's strategy to unveil something new right before it is released.


iPod Nano

Now next on the list is the new iPod Nano. Steve Jobs unveiled the new device which will replace the iPod Mini. It is only one-third the size of the iPod mini and is advertised as being capable of storing up to 1,000 songs with its 4GB storage capacity. "It’s impossibly small," Jobs said at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco. "It’s thinner than a No. 2 pencil."

It can store music (of course), games, photos and a calendar and also has a "screen lock" feature that restricts the access to the content to the owner. Its price tag is a steep $249, and another 2GB version will sell for $199. Both devices will be available this weekend, according to Jobs. In other news from Apple, digital audio versions of the Harry Potter series will be exclusively available on the iTunes download site.




Source:
MSNBC


(Thanks to bpitt for News Submission)

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77 user comments

18.9.2005 05:03

damn... that iPod nano is gotta be thethiniest, coolest, mp3 player i've seen so far... if anybody knows a smallest coolest mp3 post the link cuz i've been saving a while for a mp3 player and this shit is the best i've seen so far...

28.9.2005 05:29

ipod phone doesnt mean much. you could buy a gig sd card and put it in a normal phone. when they said ipod phone i thought they were talking ipod style with gigabytes with the capability to talk and text rather than a motorola that plays itunes...........

38.9.2005 06:43
rooster33
Inactive

very dissapointed with the iphone. why wouldn't they want a design award-winning product like the ipod to do what it does best and now just add the phone capability? i think this motorola phone looks awful. poor showing for apple on this one. on the other hand, the nano is awesome.

48.9.2005 09:53
hypes057
Inactive

damn well that [REMOVED] sucks! i just bought a mini 4gb a month ago, now they come out w/ this [REMOVED] for $50 more? grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 08 Sep 2005 @ 6:41

58.9.2005 10:17

hate to burst your bubble....but in today's world you should expect these things to happen. either return it, or just deal with it. it happens. Th ephone is a huge disapointment, and the nano is awesome. but not for me as i have a 40GB ipod. here's hoping that the next gen full-size ipods carry a similar size. Dan x

68.9.2005 12:48
Doggy_Bot
Inactive

My bro said hes getting the Nano (4G) in black and he will give me his old (but still good) 10 G! Ill have a 10 G and a shuffle!

78.9.2005 13:57

im sorry but who wants a (cr*p) phone with the capacity to store only 100 songs which are restricted AAC's when you can have your favourite phone put 200 unrestricted songs plus space for videos.....

88.9.2005 13:58

Well personally i like the new look of the Ipod Nano thing... But the phone like others storage should of been more and i personally dont like motorolla and i reckon another company like nokia's new phone will beat it @hypes057 edit ur post no profanity allowed got young users using this sight also...

98.9.2005 14:00

Quote:
$249.99 price tag that accompanies it (for customers who sign up for a two-year service contract)
psssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhh

108.9.2005 14:42

Why bother making an iPod any smaller? Geez... Well, at least they're making black ones now. I always thought a black iPod would be cool.

118.9.2005 15:23

I want this ipod so bad. I would have never though of this small cool ipod. They should have ipod in red. or blue or green. They should have nano in like 9 colors. my 2cent

128.9.2005 15:26

hows about an ipod that dont scratch when you take it out the box

138.9.2005 16:15
elroyjet
Inactive

yeah.. i aint "feelin" the ipod phone, i got a nokia 3300 with 1 gig mmc card and i can play pretty much and format of music i want mp3 wma etc. on the other hand the NANO looks pretty slick!

148.9.2005 18:42

hypes057 You're history if I see you use language like that again.

158.9.2005 20:19
Reasons?
Inactive

This is pretty sweet, nano. The phone thing is dumb though, come on, just use jhymn to convert all your music to .mp3, then put it on any other MP3 enabled phone. Seriously, doesn't that make more sense to anyone else?

168.9.2005 20:22

i have to admit, (if you dont know me, i absoulutly despise apple) but the nano is pretty cool, (the thin-ness) but i dont see why its all stretched out that kind of makes it look wierd. hopefully they will abolish the shuffle, and hopefully creative will follow (i say that because they will make it better then apple ever could have)

178.9.2005 20:32

I just bought the black nano, and its so sweet, you can wear it around your neck, and it has all the features of the regular ipod. So when a song is playing instead of having album cover a picture, I have a slide show of porno picture (sweet). If you guys want... I can post pic. Later.... going to play with my nano :) sirmugen

188.9.2005 20:56

@sirmugen did you buy it at store? I think ipod shuffle is so stupid. why would you want to carry hundrends of music with no screen. The worst part is, it cost so much for the shuffle. I like the ipods but one thing i relly hate is Build in batteries. Is it so hard to make the batteries removeble!!!!! But other then that i don't see why ipods can't be perfect.

198.9.2005 21:01

Yes... I bought it locally at my apple store, I was going to buy another shuffle because my girlfriend wanted my suffle, but I saw this online, so I called my local apple store and they had a couple of them left, so I picked one up... I wanted to be able to wear it around my neck REALLY NICE !!! sirmugen

208.9.2005 21:15

Also for you students out there (or former student who still have thier student ID from college or University) you get a $20 off of the nano if you show them your ID. You also can get other discount from Apple accessories with student ID. *Note* you can also redeem online too This is for the US.. (dunno about the rest) sirmugen

218.9.2005 23:02

Good thing about online is no tax.

229.9.2005 00:55
johnodd4
Inactive

this sucks it's just a ipod mini with a color screen it still holds only 1,000 songs 4gig's not enough for good quality video thats for sure battery life is going to suck royal do to the fact you have to run a color screen and even worse... most videos are 600 megs or better so at 4 gigs that doesn't leave a whole lot of space dumb product i feel sorry for all the suckers that buy this one

239.9.2005 01:50

who said anything about video????????

249.9.2005 03:52

That is a very nicley written article.

259.9.2005 06:39
Reasons?
Inactive

Micro-HDD are history, I like them, but they are gettin gkicked for pure flash memory. Micro HDD is so much cheaper for the storage though. Eventually HDD's will be entirely flash too, but that will take awhile.

269.9.2005 06:49

@rihgt682 Yes there is tax online for Apple. The picture that the screen display is very high quality, also itunes compress the picture somehow that it doesn't take as much space. I put a folder (2.92GB)with picture (about 1000 pic) of high quality resolution (1067 X 800) on my nano and 300 song, it still had like 60% left of space. To me thats tight, you can run a slide show while the music is playing. This is on a 2GB nano sirmugen

279.9.2005 09:53

There's tax when you order online!!!! Well that's got to be first.

289.9.2005 13:34
Reasons?
Inactive

I have 7GBs worth of 128kbps music. The regular Ipod is frickin huge and gay, the mini is perfect. My 6GB mini is the only option for me and they better not get rid of it (Mini, and it's dev to at lest 8GB) until they can give me 6GB for $250 with a Nano. 4GB just isn't enough, unless you carry your laptop with you everywhere, you'll find that somehow the song you feel like once in awhile isn't their. The nano is sweet, but the capacity is half baked for the money.

299.9.2005 16:53
Doggy_Bot
Inactive
309.9.2005 17:09

I hope this phone is awesome cause I traded in my RAZR V3 in for it.

319.9.2005 18:07

@Doggy_Bot LMAF that thing is so funny.

329.9.2005 18:21
Doggy_Bot
Inactive

Actually i find it pure stupid.

339.9.2005 23:00

Well i had a relly good laught.

3410.9.2005 08:21

It's as thin as paper. I hope you can fold it up into an aeroplane.

3510.9.2005 10:09

If i would have to choose Ipod or Ipod nano i would choose ipod. Even it's $50 more and bigger, It can store a lot of music. 1,000 is not enought for music lovers. Beside Ipod is small.

3610.9.2005 11:29

I respect that people like to store 1000s of songs on their mp3 players. BUT, I personally don't think storing THAT much music is necessary. The 2 GB version of this nano can hold 500 songs, that's over 2000 minutes of music. You couldn't even listen to the whole 2000 hours on 1 charge. Anyways, no need to worry. Sooner or later (most likely sooner) hard-drive technology will change, and you will see mp3 players smaller than the iPod nano with a 50 GB capacity...

3710.9.2005 15:02

I don't relly care about the size cause it's already small. If they do make it small that means smaller screen.

3810.9.2005 18:07

That video was something else Doggy_Bot, it made me smile, thanks. How apple and every company have all these advanced technological gadgets but will only go one step at time to maximize there profit is great for them. Just imagine what there is that has not been released. I do not plan on buying the ipod, 1-i am in college, 2-i am a cheap ass

3910.9.2005 19:53

great more crap from apple. what sucks this time is that my brother is getting it.

4010.9.2005 22:45

@kinza Well if he wants it... let him have it... some people have to lurn the hard way :) i personally as i said in my earlier post i would have liked a better phone that that... Thats preety basic considering what tech is out there :)

4111.9.2005 04:35
sbaron178
Inactive

yo get a free ipod nano (4 gb, black or white)...check it out hehe I'm banned

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 11 Sep 2005 @ 3:40

4211.9.2005 08:37

We don't like free iPods.

4311.9.2005 09:25

how'd that guy get to junior member status? that's two free ipod scams of his i've seen today.

4411.9.2005 10:01
Doggy_Bot
Inactive

@ kinza My brother is getting one too, personally i like the iPods from apple! Now he will give me his 10 gb!YAY!

4511.9.2005 10:03

i'll take my 60 gig Creative Zen Nomad Jukebox over any ipod any day.

4611.9.2005 10:05

he had an archos av420 but he's more of a fashion statement person so he returned it.

4711.9.2005 10:31

My brothers friend gave me his to load songs on to yesterday and I must admit it's a very nice gadget but I have absolutely no interest in buying one. It is very light and can easily get lost if you dont look after it. The album picture which is displayed next to the song currently playing is pretty nifty.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 11 Sep 2005 @ 10:55

4811.9.2005 14:34
Doggy_Bot
Inactive

Here is a pic of the iPod Nano in black: btw it is only 3.5 inches long! Thats cool!

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 11 Sep 2005 @ 2:36

4911.9.2005 15:15

There's two things i don't like about ipod. 1. PRICE!!! 2.build in batteries. you can store windows media songs in ipod right? What is BTW means?

5011.9.2005 15:22

It means "by the way". And I like the nano up to a point. It is cool, and I like how small it is but really we don't need to go any smaller. I have a mini and am happy with it. I don't need a color screen, because I hardly ever even use the display and it's small enough for my liking. I never have more then 1200 songs on it at a time anyway, so it doesn't bother me. Hunter007

5111.9.2005 15:28

no, ipods don't play any other format except .AAC, right?

5211.9.2005 15:31

that's another reason i went with Creative, Kinza :D

5311.9.2005 15:36

yes, in adittion to that it is soo expensive.

5411.9.2005 15:47

never before has it been more economical to defy the mainstream and be relatively unique in a world of electronic technology.....and i'm loving it.

5511.9.2005 15:50

the only thing now is for the average person to realize the insensibility of buying an ipod.

5611.9.2005 16:00

why anyone would actulaly want to play WMA at all is beyond me. the songs are terrible quality and i don't even consider myself to be much of a 'sound quality buff'. YOu can put .mp3 files onto an iPod...there's a standard fo ryou right there. Format issues are a mute point as far as Windows media audio is concerned. Dan x

5711.9.2005 16:01

they've got their good points. they're on the cutting edge with this stuff...i just feel that creative does it for a lot better amount of cash, lol. for you ipod fanboys out there, i'm not a creative fanboy. i'll use anything as long as it's cheap and good. lol, my agenda isn't against ipod...it's against republicans!!!!XD

5811.9.2005 16:03

spooky, it depends on your encoding. i rip my cds at a mathematically lossless setting to wma and i love the sound of it. my creative re-encodes to a lower bitrate, but it's still wma and i hear not difference whatsoever.

5911.9.2005 16:08

same here, i actually prefer .wma, i bought a ptunes for my pda for $30 because that was the only program that could play wma's

6011.9.2005 16:11

lol, kinza, you're starting to make me feel a lot less lonely out here in ipod country...i was thinking i'd have to fight off those insane cultists alone there for a moment :-P

6111.9.2005 16:13

ipod hatred is mutual amongst the sensible. djscoop hates mac, he has that sig.

6211.9.2005 16:17

if only i had a katana... *swings his arms wildly at ipods* i don't have a problem with Mac...if they're stuff worked mor universally, i'd use it...but then again, i hate M$...*can't win*

6311.9.2005 16:20

I get frustrated when I think that people actually go through converting all their music and still think ipods are the best thing in the world.

6411.9.2005 16:29

it doesn't make any sense to me, either.

6511.9.2005 17:22
noname5
Inactive

Why would they use a name that Creative is already using? Is that even legal? Can another company come out with something like a rio ipod? Or is it simply that Apple can get away with anything in the mp3 market?

6611.9.2005 20:09

so ipod can only read AAC. what is AAC? So if i get a ipod how can i listen to my songs in my computer. What kind of format should i make my song to? Best sound. I get my music at Peer to peer.

6711.9.2005 22:09
noname5
Inactive

Re AAC: Most players like winamp have an AAC plugin. I think mp4 is similar to or the same as AAC. Unfortunately, if you're converting from mp3 to AAC or vice versa you are losing some quality each time.

6812.9.2005 05:19

linux, Auslander, l i n u x...

6912.9.2005 10:12

i love linux, and desperately want it, but i don't want to give my games... :( and i'm not gonna run a bunch of emulators, either. i'm stuck with XP until a user-friendly version of linux pops up...something that can use MS proggies/games with relative ease XD

7012.9.2005 13:48

MAN! There milkin this IPod thing as much as they possibly can arnt they. Will the madness EVER STOP!?!?!?

7114.9.2005 10:35

I've NEVER had to convert one song when transferring to my iPod. I don't know why everyone seems to think that you have to convert your music before you put it on your iPod. Maybe a ripped version of a song, but all my songs are .mp3s and I haven't had to convert any. Hunter007

7214.9.2005 12:58

@Hunter007 I think users of ipod convert other file fprmats to mp3 because of the compression so they can fit more songs than they could if the file was in another type of format... Otherwise u can just leave it on ur pc's and have more space than u would ever have on an ipod :)

7314.9.2005 19:48
juniorken
Inactive

hm, this guy is happy with his creative zen 5gb. Maybe less fancy than ipod but also nice design, good quality, replacable battery and if you flash the firmware of the player it gets 100% compatible with media player and xp. I mostly use cdex and lame for grabbing my cds to mp3 and afterwards I just drop the files on my zen using standard xp-explorer. No need to install any kinda driver, its all in xp sp2. What more do you need? For me no ipod please.

7415.9.2005 06:03

@rihgt682 For your future questions... try http://www.acronymfinder.com/

753.10.2005 08:56

I have two co-workers that both own a Nano. They play MP3 and AAC only. The ITunes application will convert just about any format to AAC before copying to the Nano. This includes WMA. You will have an AAC copy of you WMA files so your disk space will take a hit. As far as "Why anyone would want to use WMA format". I only use it for books on tape. FM quality sounds excellent and takes a very little disk space. Many MP3 players do not support Mono MP3's; but, all WMA compatible players support Mono WMA. MP3 FM quality is terrible (lisping and digital burbling are common). I've never tried AAC; but, most things Apple does is excellent. Regarding the Creative Labs Zen. It worked well and I liked the blue light and the interface. If you have any MP3 larger than 7 minutes long then good luck FF and REW. I have 45 Minute books on tape recorded and if I can't FF past the 7 minute mark then I can't use it. Another thing. Try Rewinding past the beginning of a song and see what it does (not what you'd expect). Personally, I have the Rio Carbon. I do hate the 15 to 20 second start up time; but, it can do all the things I need in a player and the Rio music manager is multi-threaded so you can add and remove songs while files are being copied to the player. I'd love to try the Ipod Nano. I don't like the idea of having all my WMA's duplicated as AAC's though.

763.10.2005 12:22

You don't want the nano. my bro got it and took really good care of it, it was all scratched and looked 5 years old in two days.

774.10.2005 01:29

Quote:
i love linux, and desperately want it, but i don't want to give my games... :( and i'm not gonna run a bunch of emulators, either. i'm stuck with XP until a user-friendly version of linux pops up...something that can use MS proggies/games with relative ease XD
Off topic but...: Then what you need is a Mac my friend. I work with Linux and Solaris for a living and I recently sold my home PC (after finishing Half Life 2 of course) and bought a G5. It's built on BSD Unix, which should satisfy your Linux fetish, it's far more user-friendly than XP and you'd be surprised at just how much software is released for both the PC and the Mac, only for the Mac version to be superior in quality and performance.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 04 Oct 2005 @ 1:31

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