Whats going on at Apple?
Okay this title is just a head line to grab some
attention! But it is clear that things are changing
at Apple without Steve Jobs at the helm.
So we have had 2 big-ish announcements from Apple
without any real fanfare.
Okay so they weren’t large hardware announcements. Certainly the updates to Mac hardware are just that, updates, nothing really new here (apart from mini display ports maybe).
But as I type this I see that Apple will show a preview of version 3 of the iPhone software on the 17th of this month. Mmmm, that’s more like Apple, announcing announcements! Put this together with the rumor that Apple is now ordering different touch screens from a chinese suppliers. I think the rumor is that these are 10 inch displays. Does this mean that Apple are going in the netbook market?
I was sure that Apple wouldn’t touch this market with a barge pole, but then I thought exactly the same thing about Apple and the mobile phone market, so there you go. This is of course just a rumor.
So back to what I was talking about in this post...which was...?
Oh yes thats it, Apple announcing the new iPod Shuffle. Again no real fanfare, but maybe that is because it is the baby of the iPod range. It seems to me that this is about as small as you can usefully get an iPod. So much so that the controls have to be on the headphone lead. This seems a good idea since it moves the controls within easy reach....but! Of course it means that you are going to be stuck with the standard Apple headphones.
This would no be a problem for me, since I always use the standard headphones, they are the best packaged headphones I’ve come across. I know they are not best headphone’s you can get but I’ve always been happy with them. I guess it will only be a matter of time before third party suppliers come up with an adaptor for other head phones.
One thing that I noticed in the video on the Apple site (apart from the fact they have the lovely Hanna doing the video :} ) which has been since confirmed by the iTunes update, is that the VoiceOver feature just uses pre-recored files which are generated by the syncing machine, not the iPod it’s self. Notice the Windows and Mac get different Voice over voices. I’ve not yet tried the iTunes 8.1 update, I have no real reason to at the moment. I’ll wait till software update brings it across for me.
So yes there are some changes in Apple apparent since Steve Jobs started his leave. What will be interesting to see is if these things change back when Steve Jobs is back behind the helm. I think not somehow, since I believe all of this is part of a plan to ease the Apple faithful from worshiping Steve Jobs, so that when he does retire we will be ready for it.
Okay so they weren’t large hardware announcements. Certainly the updates to Mac hardware are just that, updates, nothing really new here (apart from mini display ports maybe).
But as I type this I see that Apple will show a preview of version 3 of the iPhone software on the 17th of this month. Mmmm, that’s more like Apple, announcing announcements! Put this together with the rumor that Apple is now ordering different touch screens from a chinese suppliers. I think the rumor is that these are 10 inch displays. Does this mean that Apple are going in the netbook market?
I was sure that Apple wouldn’t touch this market with a barge pole, but then I thought exactly the same thing about Apple and the mobile phone market, so there you go. This is of course just a rumor.
So back to what I was talking about in this post...which was...?
Oh yes thats it, Apple announcing the new iPod Shuffle. Again no real fanfare, but maybe that is because it is the baby of the iPod range. It seems to me that this is about as small as you can usefully get an iPod. So much so that the controls have to be on the headphone lead. This seems a good idea since it moves the controls within easy reach....but! Of course it means that you are going to be stuck with the standard Apple headphones.
This would no be a problem for me, since I always use the standard headphones, they are the best packaged headphones I’ve come across. I know they are not best headphone’s you can get but I’ve always been happy with them. I guess it will only be a matter of time before third party suppliers come up with an adaptor for other head phones.
One thing that I noticed in the video on the Apple site (apart from the fact they have the lovely Hanna doing the video :} ) which has been since confirmed by the iTunes update, is that the VoiceOver feature just uses pre-recored files which are generated by the syncing machine, not the iPod it’s self. Notice the Windows and Mac get different Voice over voices. I’ve not yet tried the iTunes 8.1 update, I have no real reason to at the moment. I’ll wait till software update brings it across for me.
So yes there are some changes in Apple apparent since Steve Jobs started his leave. What will be interesting to see is if these things change back when Steve Jobs is back behind the helm. I think not somehow, since I believe all of this is part of a plan to ease the Apple faithful from worshiping Steve Jobs, so that when he does retire we will be ready for it.
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