We’ve just received the prices for the brand new iPod range Steve Jobs introduced at yesterday’s keynote. Nothing too shocking with these prices, although it’s highly recommended that you take these with a pinch of salt — they’re likely to change as we get close to the actual availability as the fine print says that VAT and other duties may vary.

iPod classic 160GB: Rs. 15,200
iPod touch 8GB: Rs. 15,400
iPod touch 16GB: Rs. 19,900
iPod touch 32GB: Rs. 25,900

iPod nano 8GB: Rs. 10,700
iPod nano 16GB: Rs. 12,700

iPod Shuffle: Rs. 3200

We don’t yet have the price for the Apple TV, but considering how useless the device pretty much is in India, I’m not too excited about knowing the price either.

//EDIT: Fixed typo.

iTunes 10 is here, and although there’s no need for a ‘review’ — you’re gonna download and use it anyway — here’s what I think of some of its new features. I will admit beforehand, that I started by writing its title. I don’t usually do such titles, but I really wanted to make it sound good.

The Icon

It’s a don’t-mind or hate it icon. I’ve yet to hear of anyone who absolutely loves the new icon. I don’t hate it. The best part of the Mac iTunes icon, is that you can change it to whatever takes your fancy. Already, we have Javier Ocasio work on a better rounded version, and Mattias Ekstrom who has created a more squarish ‘flurry like’ icon. I’ll be waiting for a few weeks before I change it to something different — if at all.

The Album Art Pop-up

Previously, when you clicked the album artwork panel at the bottom, it merely brought up a window with the artwork in large. If it was an enhanced podcast, you could click on chaptered links, but otherwise it was pretty much useless. With 10, the window springs out, with controls overlayed, much like the new QuickTime X window HUD. If it’s an enhanced podcast, you can even switch chapters.

Looks great on the desktop (though I don’t see geeks moving from apps like Bowtie).

Better Syncing

I love the fact that iTunes now shows you the steps remaining to complete an iOS device sync. So you know how long you have to wait. And you have to wait, now that iTunes 10 features the super slow device backup. Another thing about sync, is the dynamic nature of the capacity info bar. It changes according to what you’ve selected, so you won’t ever have to see the “not enough space” error. You can also click the titles to change between space used in bytes, or display a more ‘human’ value, that is, of number of items.

Is it just me, or does that look scarily similar to the iPhone app Foobi?

The traffic lights

I like the new window action buttons. Rather, I don’t hate it. I’ve never used the traffic lights on the iTunes window (have done so on other windows). As Layton Duncan puts it:

Notice the one button people actually know and use hasn’t moved at all. The red close button is where it always was. So why change it at all, what does this new orientation buy? It simply allows the title bar, which happens to be huge in iTunes, to be shrunk by 20 pixels, without affecting function. Small change, but, in this case, significant gain.

But never you mind! If you hate it, there’s a terminal command that will restore sanity to your iTunes title bar in a jiffy. This one comes to you courtesy Wolfgang Bartelme (@bartelme). Open your Terminal, and paste this in:

defaults write com.apple.iTunes full-window -1

Restart to see the title back back to normal. To return to crazy titlebar, which is how I like it, replace -1 with -0.

Flippy triangles are gone

As far as user interfaces go, Apple has really thrown out the rulebook on this one. It’s their own rulebook, so they have the right to do so, I guess. The flippy triangles that we’ve seen all over the Mac have been replaced by hover-sensitive “Hide” labels, which show up for Playlists, Devices and Genius. You can even double click Playlists or Genius label and it’ll hide/show the list. Again, odd UI, but works to clean up the mess.

The Monochrome

I don’t quite understand the reason for this. It’s not like iTunes has to emphasize visual content. It is, after all, just lines of text that point to sound files. I look at iTunes 9, look at 10, then look back at 9, and I wonder why. And while they’ve gone and desaturated the preferences’ icons as well, the Aqua controls within the preferences are still active.

Then again, iTunes has always been Apple’s playground for experimenting with user interfaces. If you’d like to have a good before and after look at iTunes 10 vs 9 (and previous versions), check out Garrett Murray’s iTunes UI changes page.

Ping

I almost forgot about this one, so you know how insignificant a feature this is for me. iTunes’ browser has never been my favourite. It’s too slow, doesn’t integrate with Safari, and doesn’t have tabs. So to use Ping in iTunes is going to be quite a pain. We’ll see how this develops, but for now I’m not that excited about Ping.

Album in List view

Jobs talked about this feature, probably because there wasn’t much to talk about with iTunes. I personally use the column browser (Cmd + B) to view my lists. This new view doesn’t detract me from it one bit. In fact, I would say it makes the whole view look extremely cluttered if you have a lot of songs that don’t belong to full albums.

…

Do I like iTunes 10? Well, it’s not a bad release, but I’m definitely not excited about this release. It’s not significantly slower than the previous version. It’s got some UI that I’ll probably grow to like. But overall doesn’t do much to change the way I access my media. You’re most welcome to leave your comments.

Sidenote: I hate to say this, but I came up short in staying true that list of ten. I could come up with only 8 things worth talking about. I’m keeping the original title anyway, mostly because I don’t want to write a whole new introductory paragraph.

Introducing Twitter for iPad →

It’s out, and it’s probably the best twitter client for the iPad. Instead of going with the obvious route, Loren Brichter (who’s now part of Twitter) has created a fantastic new user interface introducing some stunning new user interface concepts that will influence a lot of the apps we see today. Thank you Loren, you’ve finally brought Twitter to the iPad, literally. It’s a free universal app, and will soon show up on the App Store.

If you’re too impatient, you can watch this Engadget video review of the app. So good.

The September even is one I’ve never been particularly interested in. I’ve never owned an iPod (other than a Shuffle) and usually can only take away iTunes from the entire event. But this time was different. This time not only did we get a new version of iTunes, new iPods, the much rumoured Apple TV, but we also got it in a live video stream.

I’m shocked that Apple managed to pull it off, save for a few snags here and there. I’m surprised my 256kbps internet connection managed to keep up with it through the entire keynote. But mostly, I’m surprised how indifferent I’m feeling towards the otherwise useful liveblogs which have now gone practically extinct.

As for the event, there are obviously new things we’ll uncover throughout the week, but for initial impressions, here’s what happened.

New iPods

It’s a given that every Fall Event brings in Apple’s “best lineup of iPods for the holiday season”. Nevertheless, we have a few surprises. For one, the buttons are back! It seemed like an ingenious idea to have a buttonless Shuffle, but using it is a different experience altogether. I’m glad they’re back, and it now sort-of looks like the previous generation iPod Shuffle, priced at $49.

The big surprise, though rumoured, was the Nano. It loses its clickwheel, and brings in the multi-touch user interface on a 1.7 inch screen. It sports some sort of embedded operation system (I don’t think it’s iOS), with a weird user interface for that form factor. It’s like iOS, but looks like a well done knock off from the chinese market. The list items are awfully large (they have to be tappable), and controlling the device via touch is going to make it difficult for in-pocket playback control. I’m not sure about the usability on this one, though it does make for a really cool gadget to own. I love the packaging on both the Nano and the Shuffle.

The touch gets the obvious stuff. Retina, HD video recording and FaceTime with front and rear cameras, low quality stills, A4 processor, and a refreshed design which stands even thinner, at a mere 7.2 milimetres thin. Soon we’ll be able to cut things with one of these.

New iTunes

What’s with the new icon? It’s like something you’ll see on DeviantArt, and not in the popular section. Perhaps it will grow on us (it will), and in a way, that’s the only way that they could maintain the brand while getting rid of the CD. iTunes 10 (not X) brings a last.fm killer new social network centered around sharing music, called Ping. It’s got all the follows, the sharing, and you can follow your favourite artists. Everyone already knows I love Coldplay, right?

iTunes 10 also brings in some of the weirdest UI shifts we’ve seen from Apple: the close/minimize/maximize ‘traffic lights’ are not presented vertically. For what reason? It allows them to shave a few pixels off the top (it also loses the name ‘iTunes’), like they tried with Safari 4’s tabs on top. Truth be told, I can’t remember the last time I used those three buttons in iTunes, so it’s probably for the best.

AppleTV

Not iTV. And not iTunes.com. But it’s a much smaller AppleTV (as rumoured), and supports subscriptions (+1), and cheaper (+1), but runs the same old AppleTV user interface built on top of Mac OS X. It’s not the iOS AppleTV people were hoping for.

I can’t speak much for rentals and prices, since we don’t even get those features out here in India. I’ve just used an AppleTV once, and besides its coolness, I don’t have any opinion on the device. It’s cool.

iOS 4.2 for iPad

AirPlay. I like the fact that Apple is working on getting media seamlessly moving across devices. They started it with iTunes bonjour sharing, and now you will be able to stream music from your iPad, onto your AppleTV, wirelessly. This won’t allow you to stream your Mac’s content onto your iPad, like you can with Air Video, but it’s a useful feature nonetheless. Along with AirPlay, Apple announces iOS 4.2 for iPad shipping November 2010. It’s got all the iOS 4.0 stuff (implemented in very much the same way as the iPhone), wireless printing, and a few small enhancements here and there.

Coldplay

This ‘feature’ of the keynote probably won’t get as much play, but I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Chris Martin was going to be the performer. I know Chris isn’t the best live singer, cracking on almost every occasion, but you can imagine what this keynote must have been, for an Apple fan, and an Coldplay nut.

Magical.

So we’re a few away from another Apple event. The invite shows an obvious slant toward music,and unless you’re a fool, you know that Apple refreshes its iPod line every September like clockwork. However, Apple has expanded its line of devices that use iTunes, and the word “iPod” now refers to an application too; the iPod is no longer just a physical device.

So what’ll Apple release today? Who knows. You sure might not. Hell, Steve Jobs could just come onstage in an alcohol-induced rage, wearing a tattered, stained undershirt and just yell at the audience before vomiting on the front row and passing out into a pool of his own bile. Could it happen? Probably not. But why not allow us, the SA staff, make some predictions of our own from which you can choose to agree or disagree? Let’s do that.

Nick:

New iPods! Of course we’ll be seeing new iPods. The iPod touch will get two cameras, FaceTime abilities, a new enclosure, Retina Display and gyroscope. iPod nano will see a new form-factor and storage bump, but not much else will change. Interestingly, I think this may be the year that Apple kills the iPod Classic as well.  They’ll preview iOS 4.1 for iPhone and iPod touch, showing Game Center and new media features, among other fixes. We might see some new features for iTunes, but I feel that next fall is when iTunes in the cloud will arrive.  And of course, what’ll we see for One More Thing? I think (maybe I just hope) that Apple will make iOS 4.1 universal across iPhone and iPad, and Steve will demonstrate some cool new features for iPad (Dashboard? One can only hope).

Preshit:

New iPods. It won’t take a genius to predict this. September has long been Apple’s ‘iPad event’ month. I think we’ll see a new form-factor  for the iPod touch and at-least a front-facing camera — considering how Apple is pushing their FaceTime technology with the television ads. Retina Display will be absolutely added, though I’m not sure about the storage bump. The iPod nano and Shuffle will get minor improvements too. If the Storage on iPod touches is doubled, the Classic is dying.

iOS 4.1 Preview: Apple has been taking its time with Game Center, which I believe will make an appearance tomorrow. Hopefully, we’ll get a preview of 4.1 (or 4.2) as the Unified OS across all devices. But don’t quote me on this.

A new Apple TV or iTV: My gut says it’s happening and the $99 seems to be the new sweet price for it. But being someone who’s never seen or used an Apple TV before, I’m sure I could be wrong about this.

iTunes cloud: Not tomorrow. Not happening.

Milind:

First I’d like to note that Preshit basically gathered all my thoughts during our meeting and wrote them as his own. iPod touch with front facing (but no rear) camera? Done. Retina Display? Obviously. He also stole that line about how if the storage is doubled, the Classic gets killed.

I can see the nano getting a touchscreen with some stripped down ‘iPod only’ features of iOS. No springboard on that one, and definitely no app store. Wifi with a front-facing camera would be sweet. The iTunes cloud isn’t happening. If at all, it’s going to be somewhere around February. This event is going to be all about the iTV. What did I tell you? A shameless copy of the above. If any of my predictions don’t come true, you can rest assured assume that I will have changed it to look like I was completely right.

Any last minute predictions from you?

We will be having a live chat at live.smokingapples.com, while following the keynote livestream, and if that fails, the Engadget and gdgt liveblogs.

“Not the best tool for the job” →

Brett Kelly on using the iPad as a content creation device:

While there are obvious proofs of the concept that the iPad can be used to create things instead of just consuming them, I think we need to take a step back and consider the idea that just because it’s possible to create with the iPad doesn’t necessarily mean that the iPad is the best tool for a given job. When talking about content creation, typically people mean things like writing, shooting and editing photos and video and other visually creative things like drawing or sketching. I won’t argue that the iPad can do most of these things, but I will argue that it doesn’t excel at any of them to the point where it’s a better tool than a “regular computer”. It comes down to the concessions you’re willing to make.

I mostly agree with Brett. There will always be enterprising and talented individuals who will push gadgets to their extreme, but I firmly believe that in its current state, the iPad is not a serious content creation device. Not in the way John Gruber would like you to believe.

I do think Brett isn’t justly valuing the iPad’s form factor though. Brett makes the point that all things equal, the desktop is better for typing than the iPad. But all things are never equal. You would think twice before starting to write something on your notebook — a short note, quickly responding to email, or editing some articles — while waiting at a bus stop. But with the iPad’s form factor, battery life, and instant startup, the keyboard is just two seconds away. Even if you don’t manage to write anything, it still is useful pulling it out of the bag; not even a question if you carry it in your hands. The ability to perform productive tasks without focussed desk-chair environment is what makes the iPad a great companion to your desktop, effectively aiding in content creation. Give the software and hardware some time to mature, and it won’t be soon before the iPad becomes an indispensable part to that same workflow.

We’ve all come across those apps that are so awesome that they simply must be used all the time. As far as looks go, however, some of these awesomely essential apps are in need of quite a bit of polish (read: they’re hideous). However, every once in awhile, there’ll come an app that falls into that category that is consistently gorgeous and a joy to use.

Movies Now HD falls into the latter category.

Simply put, Movies Now HD is the most gorgeous application for finding currently-playing movies in theaters around you (it does more, though; hold tight), and the good looks were the first selling point that convinced me to pick it up.  The icon was designed by The Iconfactory, and the UI itself is totally custom and completely gorgeous. On the iPhone version of the app, the UI is all black, mostly matte, with white highlights and groovy outer glows.  A custom tab bar facilitates navigation, with four tabs—Now, Movies, Theaters, and Profile—housing the information you want.  It’s done a little differently on iPad, thanks to the extra screen real estate: There are still four tabs, but this time it’s Box Office, Upcoming, Theaters, and Tickets.  I’ll start diving into more detail starting with the iPhone version.

When you open the app for the first time, you see the Now tab, showing all the movies playing at the different theaters near your current location. You’re given the option to set a custom location or search by zip code, street, etc, as well as the familiar “locate me” crosshairs. Each film’s entry is full of information, showing the distance to the theater shown, time until the beginning of the next showing, name of the flick, and the ability to purchase tickets directly from the app.  Tap on an entry to see more details, including runtime, a description of the movie, the movie’s poster (some with the ability to play the preview), cast, director, rating, and others. A tab up at the top of this detail view switches between Details and Showtimes, the latter showing nearest theaters (including all of their information) and the corresponding showtimes for the selected movie.  That’s a lot of information, sure, but it’s all presented in a very elegant and attractive way.

The next tab over is Movies. A segmented controller shows Box Office, Upcoming, and a Wish List at the top of the screen. The Box Office view features a list showing Top Box Office, Just Released, and Also Showing films.  Each entry shows the poster, name, genre, and rating along with the ability to dive into the familiar details view. The Upcoming view features Most Anticipated, Other Upcoming, and Releasing This Week sections, once again in a list.  Finally, the Wish List houses anything you’d like to remember to view later.

The Theaters tab shows a list of theaters near your location, with the option to search for theaters in other areas as well.  The list shows name and distance from your location, and a tap shows the address and a list of movies and times for today, tomorrow, and the day after.  You can add individual theaters to a list of favorite theaters, accessible in another segmented controller up top. In addition to the favorites list is a map view, with dropped pins showing theater locations.

Your Profile tab shows the option to log into a MovieTickets.com account (for instant purchases of movies using a stored credit card) as well as the option to manually add a separate credit card if you don’t want your information stored on some sketchy server somewhere.  Also included is the “Tell a Friend” option, allowing you to simply and easily whore out Movies Now to friends using a pre-filled email form.

Did I mention that the iPhone app is gorgeous? Well it is.  The iPad version is even better. It’s all matte, with glowing points of color here and there, like a blue crosshair and gold star, and that ever-present glowing white text.  The options at the top of the screen include quick access to Wish List and location popovers as well as the equivalent of the Profile tab from the iPhone version, and are consistent throughout the app.

The Box Office tab shows a vertically-scrolling list of horizontally-scrolling lists. That is, the entries in each category scroll horizontally, showing their poster, and you scroll down this list to see different categories.  Each entry opens to the detail view as a popover with all that familiar information and gorgeous effects.  The Upcoming tab features more scrolling lists, presented with the same sexy movie posters and popovers for information.

Theaters immediately presents you with a map showing your location and all nearby theaters, which is of course zoomable. The top of this view shows the crosshairs and a popover button to enter a custom location or pick from previously searched locations (which is nice, because for some reason my WiFi occasionally thinks I’m in London), as well as a popover that shows a list of nearby theaters. The Tickets tab just shows your purchase history.

One sort of negative thing I noticed while using this app is that only a very small handful of theaters support purchasing tickets from within the application.  At least around me, there’s only one out of probably 25 locations that allows it.  Now, by no means is this a problem on the sides of the application itself, but it could be potentially frustrating to someone who would want Movies Now HD just to buy tickets.

So what have I taken away from using Movies Now HD? I mean, I’ve told and shown you what it does, Dear Reader, but what exactly should you take away from this review?  Frankly, it’s an amazing piece of software.  If you frequent movie theaters, or even if you only occasionally go out, buy this.  It’s only $1.99, and even if you don’t go out to the movies, this app will show you what’s out there in an absolutely gorgeous UI.

That being said, I feel like this application wasn’t actually deserving of “awesome” status until it was ported to iPad.  While the iPhone version does indeed work well, it’s got quite a few workarounds that are less than ideal.  The iPad’s screen changes everything, and that’s apparent in how well AppSpark (with designer Matthew Scherf) laid out the loads of information needed for this application. Where the iPhone version is good, the iPad version is an absolute joy to use.  The iPhone app is good for mobile use; it’s a utility.  The iPad version is entertainment.  It’s that good.

So go to your local App Store and pick up a copy of Movies Now HD right now.  It’s inexpensive, it’s universal, and it’s a damn slick app.

Road to Plex/Nine →

After announcing that Plex isn’t a dead app, Elan of the Plex team explains what we can expect the first of next month.