Cheapest iPod

Your graduate has been studying hard and your looking for the right gift to reward their hard work. Why not mark their big day with a brand new iPod.

Goodbye, finals. Hello, fun. Your graduate has been working hard for the last three years why not reward them with something fun to do now that school’s out. The iPod touch has all the entertainment one person can handle. Games, apps, music, movies, TV shows, the web—with so manymore  exciting features, it’s like tons and tons of graduation gifts in one.

A gift as bright as their future. No matter what their next step may be, you can let your graduate take the ultrasleek, brilliantly colored iPod nano along for the ride. Available in 9 radical metalic colours (Black, Silver, Blue, Purple, Green, pink, Red, Yellow and Orange) and 2 sizes (8gb and 16gb) these small iPods make a large statement.

Graduation is no small feat. Neither is this. The new iPod shuffle is the world’s first talking music player. With the press of a button, the incredible VoiceOver feature tells you what song is playing and who’s performing it. And even though it’s just half the size of the previous generation, it offers an impressive 4GB of storage.

Introducing the new iMac. It’s the desktop that has everything. And now there’s even more. - Well that’s Apple’s marketing line.

From any view, the new iMac is impressive. The iMac instantly turns your workspace from a cluttered desktop into a brilliant display podium. The new iMac sets the standard for elegance and power. It packs a complete, high-performance computer into its all-in-one design. With an anodised aluminium frame and glass cover, it’s striking to behold. And these materials are highly recyclable, so iMac is friendlier to the environment.

The 20- and 24-inch glossy wide screen displays make photos and movies come alive with rich colour. For an even better view, you can remove the stand and mount your 24-inch iMac on a wall with the VESA Mount Adapter Kit (sold separately) and see your photos and movies practically float on its big, beautiful screen. And with the stand removed, you save even more space on your desktop.

Viewing Experience - What’s it like to watch a movie on then? Well photos, movies, games and video applications should be a pixel-perfect experience. iMac features a flat-panel LCD screen with 1680-by-1050 resolution (20-inch) or 1920-by-1200 resolution (24-inch), giving you vivid colours and breathtaking high-definition clarity. 

Performance - How will it run when the misses uses it and never shuts anything down, will I get the shout, the computers stalling again? The 2.66GHz, 2.93GHz or 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor will easily cope with every regular use of a computer. Email, 10 firefox windows, large  spreadsheets and presentation software should comfortably be ran along side each other - no probs. On the graphics side - Well every new iMac includes high-performance NVIDIA graphics standard. Now games run smoother, photos load faster and pro applications have even more power. The 20-inch iMac with the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics processor delivers up to 2.3x faster graphics performance.¹The 24-inch iMac gives you even more graphics options. The NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics processor makes viewing web pages and searching through your iPhoto library smoother and more efficient. Or you can choose NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 discrete graphics to take 3D graphics up a notch. For 3D graphics-intensive games or pro applications like Aperture and Motion, the NVIDIA GeForce GT 130 and ATI Radeon HD 4850 processors deliver the fastest graphics performance yet.

Storage - How much sh*t can i store on it? - 20-inch model comes with a 320GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA hard drive5 and the 24-inch model come with a 640GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA hard drive. 320gb by today’s standard is not huge, optional increases and external hard drives available.

Price - How much will cost me?

• 20-inch: 2.66GHz - rrp £949 - Amazon price £949
• 24-inch: 2.66GHz - rrp £1,199 - Amazon price £1,199
• 24-inch: 2.93GHz - rrp £1,499 - Amazon price £1,449 (save £50)
• 24-inch: 3.06GHz - rrp £1,799 - Amazon price £1,799

New 4gb iPod Shuffle

The brand new 4GB iPod shuffle has been launched and is billed as the “The world’s smallest music player” and the “world’s first talking one”. Two things that are likely to make the new iPod shuffle another big seller for Apple.

It’s the smallest iPod ever, yet still holds double of the old shuffle, thats because Apple have moved the controls from iPod shuffle to the earbud cord. This has allowed them to make the new shuffle dramatically smaller. Which should make it also easier to use, with the controls located where you can access them quickly. The new iPod measures in at 45.2 mm (1.8″) tall x 7.8 mm (0.3″) thin to be exact.

The obvious drawback of the new controls located on the headphones wire is that you need to use Apple’s headphones

New VoiceOver Feature
The brand new VoiceOver feature allows the Shuffle user a new tool in their Music listening. With the press of a button, VoiceOver tells you Artist and song of your tracks as the music dips down. It even announces the names of your playlists. And when your battery needs charging, VoiceOver tells you that, too. VoiceOver speaks 14 different languages.

Multiple playlists.
With the new iPod shuffle, you can sync your playlists and always find the perfect mix for your activity or mood. VoiceOver tells you the name of each playlist, so it’s easy to switch between them and find the one you want without looking.

The new iPod Shuffle is released on 21st March  2009 and goes on sale at £59.00, you can pre-order now at amazon

New 4gb iPod Shuffle

Apple has unveiled a new-look version of its popular iPod nano music player. Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, was greeted by cheers as he showed off the iPod nano, which will be available in 8GB and 16GB capacities.

New Apple iPod Nano Design

The new designed nano is the 4th generation of iPod nano and is longer and thinner than its 3rd generation predecessor - it has a curved glass screen, which Apple says makes it ideal for watching videos on. Apple have abandoned the short fat design of third generation nano that was launched just a year ago, thnew look design has dimentions similar to that of the 1st and 2nd generation iPod Nano’s, though they did not feature a video player. The new Nano stands 90.7mm tall and 38.7mm wide and is only 6.2mm thick, with a total wieght of 36.8 grams.

The Screen is a 2-inch (diagonal) liquid crystal display with blue-white LED backlight and delivers 320 by 240 pixel resolution at 204 pixels per inch.

New Apple iPod Nano Colours

The six previous colors of third generation nano (silver, black, green, pink and blue) have been replaced by silver, gunmetal, purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, and pink. Apple markets the new colours as “nano-chromatic” which closely resembles ROYGBIV (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet).

New Apple iPod Nano New Features

Genius - How Apple describe their new feauture called “Genius” which creates a playlist based on the song you are listening to is

Say you’re listening to a song you really like and want to hear other tracks that go great with it. The Genius feature finds the songs in your music library that go great together and makes a Genius playlist for you. It’s like having your own highly intelligent, personal DJ.

how well the feature will work only time will tell.

Shake to Shuffle - Simple new feature that alllows you just to give your new iPod nano a shake and it shuffles to a different song in your music library.

Games - Now you can get in on games made especially for iPod nano and the accelerometer. They respond to the way you move, so they’re immersive, addictive, and a blast. The new 4th generation iPod nano comes with Maze, which lets you work your way through vast mazes by tilting and moving. You can find more games on the iTunes Store.

Find music Faster - It’s even easier to find the song you want to hear. Now you can view your album art in Cover Flow. Or just press and hold the Center button to browse by album or artist. When you find the right song, press the Center button to add it to your on-the-go playlist.

Plus FREE delivery for all Apple iPod Nano’s

Apple Inc. may bid for the rights to a wireless spectrum which will be auctioned by the Federal Communications Commission.

Google and Intel have already expressed interest in the forthcoming 700MHz spectrum auction, the winner of which will obtain some of the last available prime spectrum, ideal for delivering broadband wireless internet access.  Now there is speculation that Apple Inc. may follow suit.

The auction, which the FCC says will take place in January and could raise as much as $15 billion, will determine rights to a 700-megahertz wireless network with faster internet access than cellular or Wi-Fi networks offer.  The FCC’s “open access” provision requires the network operators that win the auction to allow customers to use whatever phone and software they want on about one-third of the spectrum.

Analysts appear to be split on whether Apple would benefit from this move to become a network operator.  Apple has delved into into the phone business with the iPhone.  Yet they have to rely on partners such as AT&T and Starbucks to provide the wireless connections they need to make those phones work.  However for just a few billion dollars, Apple could get into the phone business itself.  They could buy the spectrum they need to offer not just voice service for all those iPhone users, but to build the broadband wireless links they need to offer network-centric computing, communications and entertainment.

If Apple bid and won, it could offer service on its iPhone, which currently runs exclusively on AT&T’s network and requires a two-year contract for $60 per month.  Apple could change the terms or even give free access to a network.

A BusinessWeek article on Monday said Apple CEO Steve Jobs has “studied the implications” of bidding on the spectrum.

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.

With the imminent launch of the iPhone in Britain, Vodaphone are offering their subscribers access to a huge selection of music for only £1.99.

Vodaphone were rumoured to be in the running to become the British operator for Apples iPhone, but lost out to O2, running the risk that hoards of customers would switch to their rival as the new device became available towards the Christmas season.

But Vodaphone, which currently has 14.7 million UK customers, is fighting back.  MusicStation will provide access to more than a million music tracks for a flat £1.99 a week.  It is expected to be available on most Vodafone handsets from November.  Vodafone has deals with all the big record companies as well as several independent labels.  MusicStation will nonly be available to Vodaphone subscribers, which should set the scene for a vicious Christmas battle for mobile music customers.

Although MusicStation does not quite have the resonance in it’s name as Apple does, benefits of the Vodaphone-MusicStation deal for customers should be really great.  For a start, MusicStation is compatible with around 80% of handets which means that most customers will not have to purchase a new phone (at a few hundred pounds that would be paid for an iPhone) in order to use the service.  MusicStation users can download tracks wherever they are, rather than waiting until they are at their computer.  In addition, subscribers can also use more than one handset; they can upgrade to a new model and keep getting access to music they have already downloaded.  Unfortunately, if customers unsubscribe from Vodaphone, they will immediately lose all access to the music they have downloaded from MusicStation.

Vodafone said on Monday it thought its wide range of phones and the easy-to-use nature of the music service would appeal to consumers.

Just 24 hours after cutting the cost of the iPhone by $200, Apple have offered $100 store credit and an apology to those who had bought the device at a higher price.  One consumer has described this as ‘a pay-off for being a sucker’, a statement I would readily agree with.

Everyone knows not to buy a first version of a brand new device; I personally always wait until the chinks have been ironed out of a gadget before buying it.  And Steve Jobs, Apple’s Chief Executive seemed to have about as much sympathy as I do for all the consumers who had bought the device 2 months before at a higher price.  In an interiew with USA Today on September 5th, Jobs simply said:

“Well, this is life in the technology lane.”

However the following day he acknowledged that Apple disappointed some of its customers by cutting the price of the iPhone’s 8-gigabyte model in the US and sounded a little more understanding, when in an open letter to iPhone customers he wrote:

“I have received hundreds of e-mails from iPhone customers who are upset about Apple dropping the price of iPhone by $200 two months after it went on sale…  We need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones with a lower price.  Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these.”

One reason for the sudden price slash could be that consumers bought more than 270,000 iPhones in the first two days of sales after it was released earlier this year on June 29th.  Since then, according to a technology analyst with Gartner Inc, said that Apple has likely sold only has likely sold about 500,000 more.  The lower price should lure more iPhone buyers during the crucial holiday season, a time where consumers love to go wild with the spending and which has always been good for iPod sales.  On Wednesday, Jobs said Apple expects to sell its one millionth iPhone this quarter.

Yesterday Apple announced the first major overhaul of its digital music player, the iPod.  This is the first big change to the range in almost two years.  Steve Jobs, Apples Chief Executive, detailed the iPhone changes and other developments at an invitation-only press conference held in San Francisco yesterday.

The new version of the iPod is dubbed the iPod Touch, which is more similar to Apples iPhone product.  The iPod Touch is available in an 8gb or 16gb model and is slimmer than the iPhone, but does feature a similar multitouch interface.  It also features built in Wi-Fi and the Safari Internet Browser.  It can play YouTube videos just like the iPhone can.  Apple should begin shipping the iPod Touch this month. 

An updated version of the Classic is now thinner than its predecessor and has a full metal design.  A $249 version has 80 gigabytes of storage and 30 hours of audio.  A slightly thicker model features 160 gigabytes of storage (yes, 160 gigs!!) and will be on sale at $349.  The original iPod could hold up to 1,000 songs, but todays new version of the iPod Classic can store 40,000 songs.

The new iPod Nano will feature two memory sizes; a 4gb model and an 8gb model.  It is available in 5 colours: black, red, silver, blue and green.  It has a larger, brighter screen and an interface similar to the iPhone.  They have also included three games in the Nano, including the very popular Sudoku.

Steve Jobs also announced a new venture with Starbucks.  iPod Touch users who visit a Starbucks outlet can download any song playing directly to their music player.  They can also obtain a list of the last 10 songs that the Starbucks store played.  Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said the new service will begin rolling out in early October and will be available in 25 percent of Starbucks WiFi-enabled stores by next Spring.

In addition to the announcement of the new iPod, Apple also cut the cost of the new iPhone by almost $200.  This has rather annoyed not only customers who already own an iPhone (who are complaining that the price reduction came far too soon), but also investors.  Apple shares closed down 5.1% last night.

Apple Inc’s iPhone outsold all smartphones in the United States during July, and equaled the sales of the most popular feature phone, according to market research firm iSuppli.

The iPhone is classified as something between a smartphone and a feature phone.  The device isn’t quite a smartphone because a user can’t load third-party software, and on the other hand, it is more feature rich than the typical feature phone.  Survey revealed that the two iPhone models now on the market outsold all smartphones in July.  This includes the BlackBerry series, the entire Palm portfolio, and any individual Motorola, Nokia, Samsung or other smartphone model from a branded service provider.  In addition, the iPhone’s US sales estimates in July were equal to those of the most popular feature phone; LG’s Chocolate.

But it seems that not all iPhone customers are happy with their new gadget.  At least three lawsuits have been filed against Apple, claiming that the company didn’t do an adequate job of telling buyers that the device’s battery cannot be replaced without incurring more than $100 cost.  Buyers cannot easily remove the battery, so the device has to be sent back to Apple.  There are also claims Apple misled consumers by not adequately explaining the roaming charges attached to using the iPhone outside coverage areas.

However it is expected that by the end of the year Apple will have shipped 4.5 million iPhones.  Compare this number to the few unsatisfied customers, and it is quite obvious that the devices aren’t all that bad.

Apple Inc. shares climbed more than 4% yesterday due to the strong sales of its iPhone’s and iMac computers, as well as anticipation over what is expected to be revamped versions of iPod music players.