Apple Offers Few Surprises: Apple TV With 99-Cent Rentals and iPod
By Chris Weiss
Apple’s big press conference went down earlier today, and it ran like a line by line rumor confirmation. For the most part. As was expected, Apple launched a revamped version of Apple TV with some expanded content. Evolutionary rather than revolutionary, the new Apple TV set-top box is 80 percent smaller than the original, carries a lighter price of $99 and offers expanded viewing thanks to $0.99 rental shows from Fox and ABC, movie rentals and streaming from Netflix and iTunes podcasts.
iPod Overhaul:
The new iPod Touch adds front and rear cameras, FaceTime, the Retina Display from the iPhone 4, and a thinner profile to the Touch’s bag of tricks. As expected, the iPod Nano has slimmed down significantly and now features a tiny, square touchscreen bound to infuriate those with fat fingers. The touchscreen does not support apps, and the Nano loses the camera introduced on the last refresh. The new iPad Nano is square and just a little larger than its smaller sibling the iPod Shuffle, which also gets redesigned into a square profile with the return of physical buttons that were eliminated on the third-generation Shuffle. The Shuffle bears a close resemblance to the second-generation model but is even smaller.[via Ars Technica and NY Times ]
