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Apple introduced another update to iTunes which brings the version numbering to 7.4.2. According to the update it states that it addresses some issues with performance and ring tone making using songs purchased from the iTunes store.

With iTunes 7.4, sync your favorite music and more with the new iPod nano (third generation), iPod classic, and iPod touch, plus create custom ringtones exclusively for iPhone with many of your favorite songs purchased from the iTunes Store. You can now also play purchased videos with closed captioning (when available), easily rate your favorite albums from one to five stars, and watch videos at a larger size inside the iTunes window. iTunes 7.4.2 addresses an issue with creating ringtones using iTunes Plus song purchases and includes bug fixes to improve stability and performance.

Two performance updates for the ipod nano and the ipod classic have also been introduced.  What comes to mind though is this update comes right after a software unlock solution for the iPhone was introduced.  We have to wait and see what people are saying.  The update already broke some ringtone making software.

Source: MacRumors.com

According to Engadget . Apple will be holding a press briefing at their Regent Street Apple store on September 18th. The invite is titled “Mum is no longer the word” . Some say that this might be an invitation for the official release of the 3G iPhone AKA “The European iPhone” !!! Could it Be ?

Ramadan Mubarak to everyone from q8mug.com!

Apparently, a lot of groups out there have managed to unlock the iPhone.  The methods range from cracking it open and shorting wires to simple software updates.  Apple Insider has posted links to several tutorials to unlock the iPhone as well as a link to the unlocking application.  Here is a link to the Apple Insider article.  What does this mean for us? Simple, now you can get an iPhone and use it in Kuwait.  The main question is will Apple release some code to render the device useless if it detects that it is unlocked or will they leave it be?  Remember that Apple makes money from the AT&T contracts as well so it is very reasonable to assume that they would do such a move.  As for the specs of the iPhone so far they are way behind compared to other phones available out there.  What makes it different is the interface.  If you are in a hurry then go ahead and get one but keep in mind that things change fast.  I would recommend that you wait till the European model iPhone comes out since it would have better features.  How long should you wait still remains in question but paying close to KD150 and maybe it works is not really worth it in my opinion.  Thoughts anyone?

To all iPhone customers:

I have received hundreds of emails from iPhone customers who are upset about Apple dropping the price of iPhone by $200 two months after it went on sale. After reading every one of these emails, I have some observations and conclusions.

First, I am sure that we are making the correct decision to lower the price of the 8GB iPhone from $599 to $399, and that now is the right time to do it. iPhone is a breakthrough product, and we have the chance to ‘go for it’ this holiday season. iPhone is so far ahead of the competition, and now it will be affordable by even more customers. It benefits both Apple and every iPhone user to get as many new customers as possible in the iPhone ‘tent’. We strongly believe the $399 price will help us do just that this holiday season.

Second, being in technology for 30+ years I can attest to the fact that the technology road is bumpy. There is always change and improvement, and there is always someone who bought a product before a particular cutoff date and misses the new price or the new operating system or the new whatever. This is life in the technology lane. If you always wait for the next price cut or to buy the new improved model, you’ll never buy any technology product because there is always something better and less expensive on the horizon. The good news is that if you buy products from companies that support them well, like Apple tries to do, you will receive years of useful and satisfying service from them even as newer models are introduced.

Third, even though we are making the right decision to lower the price of iPhone, and even though the technology road is bumpy, 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.

Therefore, we have decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. Details are still being worked out and will be posted on Apple’s website next week. Stay tuned.

We want to do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers. We apologize for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple.

Steve Jobs
Apple CEO

Apple introduced iPod Touch in a media event held yesterday.  The iPod touch is pretty much an iPhone without the phone part.  Features are:

• iPod, so it does music, podcasts, and audio books
• iPod video so you can watch you favorite movies and TV shows
• Photos
• Built-in Wi-Fi
• Safari web browser
• YouTube
• iTunes over Wi-Fi
• Starbucks music
• Multi-Touch User Interface with the pinch and flick finger gestures
• and of course, cover flow.
• 8GB for $299 and 16GB for $399

The iPod touch, in my opinion, is something worth hacking and making better.  We will see what comes out of it in the coming months.  Sadly, it is missing a bluetooth module but someone might be able to hack it to make it accept a GPS and Bluetooth models.  On a side note, Steve was nice enough to lower the prices of the iPhone to $399 for the 8GB model.

Yesterday Apple held an event in which they introduced new music oriented products.  Here is a summary of what was introduced.
iPod shuffle

The shuffle just got some new colors.  The new colors are more metallic brushed and retro.  Prices are still the same as the older ones and they have the same capacities.
iPod nano

The nano got the same colors are the shuffle but it now has a better User Interface (UI) and it plays video too.  It is wider and shorter with the same click wheel and a bigger screen.  The price is $149 for the 4GB model and $199 for the 8GB models.  Apple claims that the battery can play 24 hours of music or 5 hours of video on a full charge.
iPod Classic

The iPod Classic is the iPod video in a different skin.  It still comes in only white, err, silver and black but this time it has better bigger storage.  Two versions, 80GB for $249 and 160GB for $349. 

Photos are from Apple.com

We will be posting a live coverage of the Apple special event that is going to be held at San Francisco’s Moscone Center. Stay tuned for live updates from the event shortly.

Steve Jobs just came on stage to his normal amount of applause. Not too much, not too little.

Jobs: Today, we get to talk about music. We’re going to start with iTunes.

“This last statistic blew my mind: in the US of all the music releases in 2006, 32% were digital-only releases. They weren’t released on a CD. Live concerts, independents. Look how far we’ve come. A THIRD of the music released in this country was digital only.”

“iTunes is clearly leading the way. We’re going to ship a new version of iTunes tonight to support some new products. The biggest new feature: ringtones.”

10:06am - Big applause. “We’re going to do ringtones in our own special way. Of course these are for the iPhone. What we want: rather than let someone else make ringtones, we people to be able to make their own.” Build your own from songs bought in iTunes, 500k participating songs…

10:07am - “Our ringtones are going to cost just $.99 in addition to the song.” Psh! You have to pay a second time to use a purchased song as a ringtone?!

10:08am - “Here’s how it works… when you plug in your iPhone a new column will pop up with bells — that shows how many songs you can make ringtones out of.” Any segment up to 30s long, fade ins/outs. “When you’re ready to buy, push the buy button and for 99c you have a ringtone.” Demo time.

10:12am - “You can assign it as your default ringtone, or to your favorite people when they call… custom ringtone maker built in, over half a million participating songs, sync ‘em right on your iPhone. We’re going to turn this on next week. You’ll need the new version of iTunes we’re going to ship tonight. So that’s the first thing today.” Applause.

“Now let’s talk about the iPod. It’s doing really well. They’re… rather strong.” Teehee. “We’ve sold over 110m to date… and you’ll notice the place where the sales curve is strongest is during the holiday season… today we’re going to refresh or replace EVERY single product in this lineup to get ready for this holiday season.”

10:13am - “Let’s start out easy… iPod shuffle. Refresh for this product. Holiday 2007 we’re going to give it some new colors, when you see these in person you’re going to love them. We also have something called the PRODUCT(RED) nano…”

10:15am - “It’s the most popular music player in history. People just love it. We want to make it better, and customers have told us how we can make it better. Customers want to watch video on their nanos on an even larger, brighter display. We’d like to put Cover Flow in, we think it’s a great way to browse your music library.”

“Games. More storage, and a full metal design. We’re introducing a new nano here today… let me show it to you.” It’s the fatty!

10:16am - “It’s incredibly tiny, this is the new nano, it’s incredibly thin. It’s REALLY nice.” Huge applause. “Let me show you some bigger pictures of it… comes in beautiful colors. So what’s the video like? New nano: larger 2-inch screen, it’s going to look the same as it did on the iPod video, it’s the same QVGA resolution. We’ve achieved this with a screen with the highest pixel density we’ve ever shipped.”

10:17am - “We’ve also got an enhanced UI. It’s going to show you album artwork floating by. When you’re on videos… photos… it will even show you what you’re going to get when going to extras. And we’ve got Cover Flow. Take your thumb, roll it around the wheel, it looks really nice. It’s pretty stunning, all in such a tiny device. We’re really, really happy with this.”

10:18am - “We’re also including 3 games bundled in with the nano. Let me show you one now, it’s called Vortex.” Demo time — it’s basically Arkanoid made circular. “We’ve also done some other games we’re selling on iTunes.”

Demoing EA’s Sudoku game.

10:20am - “Isn’t that incredible? All in a product this big. Video, new UI with Cover Flow, games… let’s take a look at the new iPod nano.” Demo time again, Beatles album artwork in screen. He does this every time!

He’s scrolling in Cover Flow — it looks decent, but a bit choppy and slow. Not super surprising considering the nano doesn’t exactly have a lot of horsepower under the hood. Don’t expect the iPhone Cover Flow experience, people!

10:21am - “It’s that simple to browse your music collection.” Doing video now. “I love Jon Stewart, I hope all of you watch his show. It’s the best place to get the news every day.” Showing the John Hodgman clip on net neutrality, trying to get Hodgman to admit to being a PC. Highlarious.

10:23am - Podcasts now, showing G4’s Freestyle. Now photos… “I can just scroll through these photos here.” iPhone-like motion… oh no, a photo montage to Green Day’s Time of your Life song.

10:24am - “When we went about replacing the most popular music player in the world we took this really seriously. We think we’ve nailed it with the new nano. The battery life is awesome: 24 hours audio, 5 hours video playback.” Applause and cheers.

10:25am - “Let’s talk about storage: a 4GB and an 8GB version. The 4GB version will come in silver, the 8GB will come in all the colors. The 4GB will be priced at just $149. The 8GB version will be just $199.” Applause.

“These new nanos have left our factories, they’ve shipped and will be in our stores by this weekend.”

10:27am - “A little video for everyone, that’s what we set out to do with the new nano. We hope you love it as much as we do… That brings us to the iPod. The iPod… it’s got a… it’s got a funny name. It’s got a funny name. It’s time to give it a name: we’re calling it the iPod Classic because it’s the original iPod.”

10:28am - “We’ve got new iPod Classics: full metal design, even thinner than their predecessors. The new classic is starting at 80GB audio 30 hours, video 6 hours. And we’ve got the whole enhanced UI on the new iPod classic.” Sorry, iPod touch is a no go! Unless it’s a one last thing…

10:29am - We’re going to offer a slightly thicker one as well… and it’s going to have 160GB.” applause. “This BOGGLES the mind! This new 160GB, which is far smaller than the original iPod, puts 40k songs in your pocket. Even better: battery life. 40 hours audio, 7 hours video.”

10:30am - “The 80GB used to sell for 350, now it’s 250.The 160GB is $350.” Applause. “They’re both available today, they’re shipping and be in stores by this weekend. We think you’re gonna love ‘em, and the enclosure is just gorgeous. So let’s take a look at the iPod lineup for this holiday season…” review time.

10:31am - “This is an incredibly iPod lineup for this holiday season.” Applause. But he’s not done. “But… we’re not done yet. Far from it.”

“When we introduced the iPhone in Jan, we said it was the best iPod ever. and iPhone owners agree with us, it’s incredible with its multi-touch interface, it is the best iPod ever. People have been asking us when we’re going to bring this technology to the iPod. The answer is we’re going to do it today. And this is what the product looks like.” It’s a friggin iPhone!

It’s called the iPod Touch.

10:32am - “It’s the same size screen as the iPhone, but it’s even thinner. It’s 8mm thin. Unbelievable. The new iPod touch. It’s one of the 7 wonders of the world.” Laughter.

10:34am - “All on this 8mm device. Let’s look at video… all on this gorgeous 3.5-inch widescreen display. And photos… just like the iPhone this is the best way to share photos on a portable device. Ever. Flick through them, pinch them to make them larger or smaller.”

Demo time!

10:35am - “Let me go ahead and show you the new iPod touch. Again, slide to unlock. Here we are — let’s go into music.” The icons look really strange and sparse on that huge screen. It’s freaking us out!

Steve’s browsing by Cover Flow — note: it has WIFI!


10:38am - “Let’s take a look at photos here… it’s great, let’s go into an album… I can just go like this, flick through these photos. There’s just never been a better way to share photos with friends on the go. It’s sooo nice. Turn it back. Boom.” Icons: calendar, contacts, clock, calc, settings, music, videos, photo…”I showed you the clean side… I was keeping a secret. We’ve built in WiFi to the iPod touch.”

10:39am - 802.11b/g — “Others have done this and it’s failed. We understand why it’s failed, and we know what to do make it successful. Well, what’s the problem with WiFi? Well, part of the problem is getting onto WiFi… you may be fine at home and the office, but anywhere in between can be challenging.”

10:40am - “You may log in but you’ll get a screen. Even walking through Stanford University you get a login page… so you can build in the hardware but you can’t get the network [without the page]. So what do you do about that? We’re going to add an application to the touch: the Safari web browser.”

10:41am - This really is the phone-less iPhone. “But besides being able to log into WiFi, you get an incredible web browser! It is the best web browser on any mobile device, and it’s built in to the iPod touch.”

10:42am - “We’re very, very excited about this. First time EVER on a music player to have a browser built in.” Uh, totally not true: look at Archos. “Why stop there?” YouTube’s on the Touch as well.

10:43am - “Watch millions of free videos streaming over WiFi to the iPod touch. Let me show you these things…” Demo time! The hidden icons are now apparent — the two missing were Safari and YouTube. Still looks a little sparse though!

Looking on the NYT. “We can go over here… boom.” Aw, it was a little boom that time.

10:44am - Steve’s now browsing Facebook. “We’re pretty excited about this.” Applause.

10:44am - Steve’s now browsing Facebook. “We’re pretty excited about this.” Applause.

10:45am - Bookmarked videos… “You get the idea, this gives you a feeling for what Safari and YouTube are like on the new iPod touch. We’ve built WiFi in and we’ve made it USABLE. We’re REALLY excited about this.”

10:46am - Connector on the bottom, but no speakers. “This is a worldwide product, the first touch product Apple’s going to ship outside the US, it’s going to be shipping all around the world.”

“The battery life is fantastic: 22 hours audio, 5 hours video playback. All in something this thin. It’s… it’s… amazing to me. The new iPod touch.”

10:47am - Review time: multi touch, widescreen iPhone display, Cover Flow, Wifi, Safari / YouTube… “We’re going to offer it in two configurations, the first is 8GB, the second is 16GB of storage. Again, how do you fit all this in here?”

10:48am - So, 8GB is $299… the price for the 16GB is $399.” Less applause on the second one. “Both models are available in just a few weeks… they’ll be shipping this month.”

He’s gonna show the iPod touch ad now.

10:49am - Not shabby — and thankfully no more Orba Squara iPhone music. But there is one more thing… if you’ll bear with us for a few more minutes.

10:50am - “You might have noticed there’s an empty spot there on that dock. What could that possibly be for, you might ask? It’s for a new application we’ve written for the iPod touch, it’s called the iTunes WiFi music store.” Huge applause. “FINALLY, some of you are saying. Let’s take a look at what it is.”

Four buttons: featured, top tens, search, downloads… “If you see something you like, tap it, free preview of the song.” “You are now downloading the song… when it’s done you can listen to it on your iPod touch, and it syncs back up to itunes.” Applause.

10:56am - “So, not so bad for the new iTunes WiFi music store.” Applause. “The new music store will be available internationally in every one of those 22 countries Apple operates in. We’re gonna do something else, too: we’re gonna bring it to the iPhone.” Big applause.

10:57am - “It’s going to come later this month with a free iPhone update — everyone with an iPhone is going to get this too. We’re really, really excited about this. There’s even ONE MORE incredible part of this. We’ve been working on this for two years.”

10:58am - “I can’t tell you how much pleasure it brings me… we have a GREAT partnership with Starbucks we’re announcing today. We love Starbucks. It’s an incredible phenomenon in our culture. We want to combine our great iPods and our love of music and their great coffee and their great love of music.”

10:59am - “When you get near a Starbucks a fifth button will come up in the WiFi music store — you may have been in a Starbucks wondering what song is that playing? Now you can buy it with a tap of your finger. And if you just missed it, you can still find it…” Is anyone else underwhelmed by this “feature”?

Demo time. “So they just built a Starbucks back stage.” Laughter. “They’re playing a KT Tunstall song… I can go in here and preview it.”

11:01am - “It will be right on my iPod touch, and sync right back to iTunes when I get home. We’re really, really excited about this partnership. It’s my great pleasure now to welcome Howard Schultz, founder and chairman of Starbucks.” Big applause — but why? Pretty weak, if you ask us.

“Thanks Steve, I was NOT back stage visiting the store, but I was waiting for you.” Har. “Let me provide you a snapshot into the global reach and ubiquity of Starbucks.” Yeah, we get it, Starbucks is like air for their customers.

11:02am - “We open 7 stores every single day.” The room sounds like someone just hit everyone in the gut. Over 14k stores, 50m customers per week, 18 visits per month per customer. Yowza.

11:03am - “Who would have thought that a coffee company could win a Grammy? Let alone 8, when we co-produced with Concord Ray Charles’s last album.”

Ok, Steve’s back on. Big, big applause.

11:10am - “We know a lot of people that are going to be happy with this new combination of coffee and iPods.” Heh. “It’s one of the three apps using WiFi built into the new iPod touch. So let’s look at our lineup for this holiday season: the iPod shuffle in 5 great new colors. The iPod nano. The renewed iPod classic with up to 40k songs in your pocket. The revolutionary iPod touch that you’ve seen here today.”

“We think this is going to set a lot of peoples’ worlds on fire. And I’m going to include the iPhone, because as we’ve said, it’s the best iPod ever.”

11:12am - “But we want to get even more aggressive with this. Take a look at the iPhone. You know, the surveys are in: the customer satisfaction numbers on the iPhone are off the charts. They’re higher from iPhone owners than any Apple product. Ever. They LOVE them. We want to make the iPhone even MORE affordable for even more people.”

“So we’re going to do something about that today. We’re on track to ship our 1mth iPhone this month — to get ready for the holidays here’s what we’re going to do. It’s clear clear customers want the 8GB model — it’s not going to sell for 599 anymore.

“Starting today effective immediately, we’re pricing it at just $399.” HUGE applause.

11:15am - “One of the traditions we have at our music events is to remind ourselves of why we do all this. We all love music too. There’s nothing better to remind us of that than to have a musician come perform for us: a really talented young musician, flew in from across the pond, KT Tunstall. She’s very hot.” Chuckles.

11:22am - Looks like that’s it! We’re out of here!