Dave Burrows – Tech / iPhone Blog – Technical Evangelist

The Apple Special Event was a real eye opener today, read on for a complete summary of everything that was announced today at Apple.

Steve Wozniak was also at the Apple Special Event in the audience and Steve asked his old friend to take a stand whilst everyone applauded.

Apple Stores

• Apple have been opening some great stores lately, recently opened store in Paris.
• Apple also really excited about our 2nd store in China in Shanghai, 40ft high glass cylinder, fanstastic store
• In London we opened another store in Covent Garden (2nd really large store in London), beautiful old building we restored
• Apple now have 300 Apple Retail Stores (Covent Garden, London was the 300th store), now in 10 countries
• Apple opening first Apple store in Spain shortly, that makes 11 countries
• 1 million visitors some days (one to one = 80,000 / week), 50% buying their first Mac

iOS

• iOS powers our mobile devices, revolution in both touch and apps, 120 million iOS devices now shipped!
• 230,000 new activations a day, iOS appstore over 6.5 Billion apps, 200 apps downloaded every second
• Today Apple are releasing iOS 4.1, bugs fixed – Proximity, Bluetooth, iPhone 3G
• Secondly Apple have added HDR photos to iOS 4.1, standard in iOS 4.1.
• Ability to upload HDR videos over WiFi, TV show rentals
• HDR photo taking will take 3x photos on iPhone 4.1 and bracket to provide a higher contrast more realistic photo
• Game Center also built into iOS 4.1, it’s a game center right on the phone with multiplayer games with API’s
• Challenge your friends or have your friends challenge you with iOS 4.1 Game Center
• Today Project Sword announced (action packed RPG) aka Unreal engine but gorgeous 3D world from Epic Games
• The Project Sword RPG from #epicgames looks awesome with really fast FPS rate iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad release autumn
• iOS 4.1 available next week for iPhone and iPod Touch (free download via iTunes)
• Sneak peak at iOS 4.2 release (a little later this year) – all about iPad
• iOS 4.2 bringing everything to iPad, HDR photos, Game Center, multitasking wireless printing, EVERYTHING brought to iPad!
• iOS 4.2 also adding AirPlay to iPad
• AirTunes – streaming music over WiFi to an Airport Express base station to your mobile device.
• Apple changing name from AirTunes to AirPlay – streaming music, photos and videos!
• iPad 4.2 coming out in November – Will be a free update for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. So no iOS 4.1 yet for iPad

iPods

• Apple have sold 275 million iPods sold
• All new design for every single model of iPod!!!
• iPod Shuffle – now comes with buttons and voice over play lists and smaller than 2nd generation
• iPod Shuffle – Small and wearable, easy to use with buttons, speak playlists, Genius mixes, voiceover, 15 hours of music
• iPod Shuffle – Packing small and looks really cute, comes in 5 colours and sells for $49
• New iPod Nano – smaller, removed click wheel and now it’s touch based with multitouch! 46% smaller, 24hrs music playback
• New iPod Nano – has built-in clock, size of your watch face, could be used as a music player watch with an armband
• New iPod Nano – comes in 6x colours, $149 = 8gb, $179 = 16gb available for holiday season
• iPod Touch – 1.5 Billion games and entertainment titles already downloaded to iPod Touch
• New iPod Touch – Thinner still, amazing RETINA display, 4x pixels 326 ppi, 24-bit colour LED backlit, best display
• New iPod Touch – Apple A4 chip included, 3-axis Gyro, iOS 4.1 with Game Center, Facetime (WiFi) with Front facing camera
• New iPod Touch – Rear camera added aswell with HD video recording! 40 hours of music playback!
• New iPod Touch – Pricing – 8gb = $229, 32gb = $299. 64gb = $399, iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano, iPod Touch shipping next week
• New iPod Touch – Pre-order available for iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano and iPod Touch later today
• Steve Jobs showing new video adverts for the new iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano and iPod Touch

iTunes

• iTunes 11.7 Billion songs, 450 Million TV episodes downloaded
• New logo for iTunes 10 (musical note in a blue background in a circle)
• iTunes 10 – New feature – Ping (Social network meets iTunes) – it’s not Facebook, not Twitter, Social Network about music
• iTunes 10 – Ping – follow your favourite artist and what your friends are listening to, all built into iTunes 10
• iTunes 10 – Social Media meets iTunes, basically Twitter for iTunes to find out about the latest songs and artists
• iTunes 10 – Ping (Social Network for iTunes) is open to 160 million iTunes users in 23 countries IMMEDIATELY
• iTunes 10 – no mention of wirelessly syncing iPod, iPhone and iPad yet to iTunes
• iTunes 10 – Ping dubbed the first Social Network all about music by Steve Jobs
• iTunes 10 – Ping (Social Network for Music) is also available on your iPhone and iPod Touch (right in the iTunes store)
• iTunes 10 – Available today for 160 million people in 23 countries, download to start today at apple.com
• iTunes 10 not quite yet available, will be available later today after keynote

Apple TV

• Apple TV 2nd generation is a quarter of the size of the 1st generation Apple TV! Steve holds in palm of his hand, so tiny
• Apple TV – PSU built in, 1x HDMI connector and 1x Ethernet, built-in WiFi 802.11n, really simple, plug in and go
• New Apple TV – About music, TV shows and streaming, all about HD when available, no purchases available, you rent shows
• New Apple TV – No storage problem, you rent them, it streams them over the air, still cheaper than if you bought it
• New Apple TV – You can stream music, photos, videos from your computer to Apple TV
• New Apple TV – Silent, cool and tiny, no storage required. Rent $4.99 First run HD movies when come out on DVD
• New Apple TV – First run HD movies $4.99 but get cheaper over time
• New Apple TV – To rent HD TV Shows, 99 cents for Apple TV, some are commercially free
• New Apple TV – ABC and Fox offering shows for 99 cents for rental on Apple TV
• New Apple TV – Hollywood (Netflix customers) can stream from Netflix library to Apple TV, YouTube support, Flickr
• New Apple TV – No need to sync to iTunes to a PC or Mac, just plug and go
• New Apple TV – To rent a TV show, click the $0.99 button, bang you’re now watching it whilst streaming to Apple TV
• New Apple TV – $99!!!! Available later this month (about 4 weeks, pre-order today)

Steve Jobs also managed to get Chris Martin from Coldplay to play the piano and sing live with various Coldplay songs.  Unfortunately the rest of the band couldn’t make it – Chris said they were just too lazy to attend