Apple is hosting a special press event in San Francisco tomorrow with the tagline “It’s Showtime”. Press has been segmented into those invited and those not invited. For some reason I have not been able to bribe, demand or beg my way in, but the CrunchGear guys will be there blogging live.
We already know that Apple is almost certainly going to announce a new movie download service tomorrow. But there is evidence that there may be a few other big surprises as well. And one of them may very well be a new, larger screen video iPod to go with the movie download service.
First, Apple announced new 24″ iMacs and upgrades to the Mac Mini line last week, clearing the deck for bigger and better news at the event this week.
Second, people have noticed that Apple did not advertise iPods in this weekend’s newspaper circulars, something they regularly do.
Third, a highly suspect picture of what might or might not be the new iPod is circulating on blogs. The picture was supposedly taken at the venue for the press event. It may or may not be real. And even if it is real it may be something other than a new iPod.
I choose to be optimistic and assume that a new iPod is coming along with a first class movie download site that will give Mac users a legal way to download movies to their computers. Movielink, Amazon unbox, Vongo and CinemaNow all require a Windows based machine and absolutely prohibit burning DVDs (actually, Cinemanow is testing a burn to DVD feature). I’ll use the new movie download service either way, but I will be first in line at the Apple store if they do release a new iPod.
More rumors: iPhone is finally coming and discussion of a Mini with a tv tuner.
Keep an eye on CrunchGear tomorrow starting at 10:00 AM PST.
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Are they going to be announcing their EggBook, too? (c.f. http://blog.simpy.com/blojsom/.....cBook.html ). Just scrambled them for breakfast.
I hope they do. I sent my old one back recently under warranty and will be able to get a new one. I’m very interested in seeing Apple’s service for movies and whether they would do a Movies Store for Indies also (something such as what they’ve done for podcasting).
Talking about movies, I’ve heard many bad things going on with Amazon’s service. tsk, tsk….
Its amazing how much one good press event/release will get the blogosphere abuzz.
I read an article about the blogspohere and press releases/confences and its amazing how fast your message spreads on the Net
Article can be read here http://webiztoday.com/wordpress/?p=14
CinemaNow currently offers the ability to download and burn (in addition to rentals) to DVD for set-top playback. It’s not a test, it is live. Movielink has similar functionality in development for release this year.
Depending upon how large Apple’s movie library is and how they encode the films (their current 320×240 with stereo is not sufficient) I may be in the market for a Mac Mini this week. I don’t need a “dedicated” portable - anything I carry must perform multiple functions. My 6700 is a phone, organizer, and video player… it’s also a crappy camera.
Mike, I hope you didn’t get an invite not because the “nastygram” you got from Apple: http://www.crunchnotes.com/?p=268
Anyhow, feel free to rant on ThingSucks.com
I think you’re confusing Movielink with Cinemanow. Movielink is still testing and Cinemanow has offered the option to burn for at least a month or two.
Not particularly enthused with the video iPod, even if it does have a bit of a bigger, and wider, screen with touch screen capabilities.
Do people really want to watch movies and TV shows on such a small device? It takes away from the whole experience, especially for movies.
Dont forget there have been rumours for quite a while about the apple phone.
Perhaps there even is a rumour about free mac-books :-/ ?
Apple needs to figure out HDTV if they plan on making inroads into the home entertainment market in the longer run.
I really think it’s going to be the launch of FrontRow application for Windows PCs, likely with a cheap wireless device to stream to TVs. This is needed if they are going to do the movie store.
I also thing that in the next generation you’ll see iPod taking over the new FrontRow interface, kinda like what MS did with MCE and the Portable Media Centers.
also, http://www.iphone.org. click my name for it.
whois shows registered by apple…
just looks like an apple frontpage for now.
amazon unbox allows DVD burning, but it can only be played back on that computer, so useless anyway i guess
Too bad my Ipod isn’t still on warranty. If it was I could pray for it to break or something so I could upgrade. I am not interested in a movie downloading service though. It seems a little silly when you could buy an actual dvd for about the same price.
This is going to happen. Tomorrow.
http://www.macworld.com/news/2.....lsrc=mwrss
See this quote from back in April.
“Another shareholder requested that the company make “the ultimate media center,” a personal video recorder that could record television programs and share media on his computer. We hear you loud and clear,” Jobs responded.”
Everyone here seems to have overlooked the obvioius, and necessary, enhancement: bigger capacity flash daps. I think a 6GB nano is in the offing. Everyone offers 4GB now, thanks, in part, to Apple. Time to raise the bar and I bet they will!
Apple files patent for “multi-functional hand-held
Chances of success?
Michael Locker MD
The video iPod should be able to at least compete with the Archos AV500 in terms of features.
Unfortunately, knowing Apple, the video iPod will be slick and easy to use, but lack key features like video recording (because Apple wants folks to use the Video/Movie/TV store instead).
Let’s hope the prices on the movies are more reasonable than Amazon’s Unboxing.
The iPod is a p.o.s. music player. After 5 generations still no gapless playback nor decent equalizer.
Do all you folks really spend that much time in front of a tv/watching movies?
Since people seem to get excited about Apple products, I think what Apple should really come out with is a treadmill…
Is Steve Jobs going to disrupt another market? Run the Disruption ScoreCard to decide:
http://www.ondisruption.com/my.....obs_d.html
tomorrow brings the release of the highly anticipated and wildly secretive imed suite from apple…after failing to penetrate the market for productivity apps, the firm has turned an eye toward the medical market with previously unimagined offerings - using their new imed api’s, developers are going to demo the ‘icolostomy’ in which you crap into a bag that plays your favorites streamed through a new airport device (also coming)…ilimbs are prosthetics with special adapters for ipods, very cool idea…and ibirth is actually an update for iworks that includes a small lapa-style cam that allows for real time streaming and broadcast of a vaginal birth over the internet while capturing sounds from within the cavity…these are really exciting times at apple!
Why is techcrunch linking to different sites to drive traffic elsewhere? Why don’t they post images directly here?
I predict it’s gonna be an iPod that’s DOUBLE the physical size of the current one. Why? Cuz nobody would expect it, that’s why! Huzzah!
I like what these Crunch Gear guys are doing, but why does the Search function suck so bad? Kudos to them for making a real blog in, like, 2 hours or whatever. Nice!
I’m running iTunes right now, and the store is closed for updating — “It’s Showtime. The iTunes Store is being updated.” Screenshot here.