Apple’s new iPod line-up, iOS 4.2 and iTunes 10

Just a few minutes ago Steve Jobs has finished his keynote speech where he presented us with a few new things. First and foremost we heard about the new version of the iOS! That’s right, iOS 4.2 is coming out November 2010 and it will come out not only for the iPhone 4 but also for the…. YES, you guessed right! FOR THE iPAD!

Did I get you curious with the new things announced at this Apple event? Well then, keep on reading to get the rest of the story!The iOS 4.2 will bring your normal improvements that come with every release and it will also include this new feature Apple dubbed as “AirPlay”. AirPlay is essentially a way for you to stream any kind of content from your iPhone/iPad into the new Apple TV. So that’s all for the iOS 4.2 – AirPlay and finally an iPad version. This means we’ll finally get multitasking on our iPads. Ace!

Next up were the iPods. Steve claimed Apple had redesigned their whole iPod line-up and so they did! There’s this new iPod shuffle that is smaller and comes in all these neat colours. This is basically just a reiteration of the shuffle design with no screen and a wheel with a few buttons to play, pause and skip tracks. The cheapest version will sport 2Gb of internal memory and it will go for $49. No word if there will be versions with larger memory.

The most amazing revamp they did, however, was with the iPod Nano. They got rid of the wheel below the screen and they’ve made the screen smaller…. and touch capable! The new iPod Nano is now a cute little square with a touch screen. Quite cool! There are two versions of this, one at 8Gb and the other at 16Gb, which cost $149 and $179 respectively.

Finally on the iPod market, Apple has also made the predicted move. They’ve released an iPhone-4-esque version of the iPod Touch. It now comes with a 5 megapixel camera on the back, a front-facing camera and you guessed it right: Facetime capabilities. The new iPod Touch will also support the AirPlay, as will all devices with the new iOS4.2.

Along with the news for today also came the new version of iTunes. The new iTunes 10 will come with a new logo, as according to Steve it wouldn’t make sense to have the CD on it anymore. Considering that the logo had been designed 10 years ago (according to Mr. Jobs) then I’m compelled to agree with him; not that I find the new logo much more attractive, but hey, it’s a matter of taste. The new iTunes also brings a social networking service for music called Ping. Apparently, Ping “is not Facebook, it is not Twitter, it’s a social networking service for music”. I’m still not entirely sold on the idea but the notion seems to be sharing what you’re listening to and what you’ve downloaded. It seems to me this will be Apple’s own last.fm, with direct integration with iOS.

Finally, Uncle Steve introduced the new Apple TV. Their new TV box is much smaller than their previous iteration and it will integrate with the AirPlay present on the iOS. Apparently they got some feedback from their customers and the new service will be more rental-oriented and the prices will go significantly down to compensate for this. With the new service you’ll get newly released films for just $4.99 and TV show episodes for $0.99 – a bargain, I say. Makes me wish I was living in the US…

The new Apple TV service will also support Netflix streaming which means that if you’re a subscriber, you’ll be able to stream contents directly into your television. Still on the streaming front, the new iTunes will also allow people to stream stuff directly into the Apple TV, without much fuss. That’s a neat little feature that’s been around with the XBOX 360 for a while now and Apple has their own version built right into the Apple TV.

The Apple event had to finish on a high note and as such they invited Chris Martin to put on a small show for the audience. Neat!