If you’ve just woken up from a week or three of particularly deep sleep, then you may have missed the news that Apple’s traditional September iPod event took place yesterday in San Francisco. Luckily for you, sleepy head, SlashGear was on hand with another liveblog and plenty of live photos of Apple’s newest range, so read on for all the details.
Hands-on galleries plus video of the new iPods after the cut
Criticisms of Apple’s approval process for the App Store have been varied and frequent since the iPhone/iPod touch download service first opened its doors, and the latest complaint is in how the Cupertino company has handled keywords. According to developer Mobile1UP, Apple rejected one of their recent games because they had used the search keyword “facebook”. The keyword had been included as the Mobile1UP game is related to another version available on the popular social networking site.
It’s obviously a week for mobile music, as Rhapsody has become the latest media streaming app to land on the iPhone [iTunes link]. Promising to do for US Apple customers what Spotify on iPhone has done in Europe, the new application offers its 8 million tracks over WiFi or mobile; however, unlike Spotify it’s unable to play music when offline, using cached versions of songs.
Like the European service, Rhapsody on iPhone demands a monthly subscription – in this case, Rhapsody To Go, which costs $15 per month. There’s a week’s free trial included when you download the app initially, which is something Spotify foolishly didn’t include, and tracks are streamed in 64kbps quality.
Just in case you weren’t aware: Apple had an event today. And we’ve got you covered, as we bring you all the updated information, tucked away in our little hand basket. What we have here, is an update that’s available right now, and it’s called iPhone OS 3.1. It’s bringing a whole lot of features, most of which are pretty outstanding, and together with iTunes 9, makes Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch even more formidable.
The Genius functionality isn’t brand new anymore, so Apple went ahead and improved it. And by improvement, we mean not just improving, but expanding its functionality. Genius not only does your music choices anymore, but takes in all your application usage as well, and will happily recommend some more for you to go ahead and peruse, and of course, purchase.
Now that Apple’s latest event has come to an end, we can go ahead and collect ourselves, and go over everything we’ve announced. And sure, there are changes to the iPod lines that definitely deserve attention, but we can’t forget about iTunes now can we? After all, it basically started it all, and it’s about time the online giant got a major upgrade. And let’s just say that iTunes 9 fits the bill perfectly, and it is a welcomed addition to the Apple family.
For a moment, things were going so well. Manomio’s Commodore 64 emulator for iPhone and iPod touch had – despite incurring the wrath of Apple’s App Store gatekeepers back in June – managed to sneak through on a second attempt, only to be yanked once again in the early hours.
Video demo after the cut
Spotify have released both their iPhone and Android mobile apps, a little over a week after Apple approved it in late August. Premium subscribers to the streaming music service will now be able to access Spotify’s catalog on their iPhone, iPod touch, or any of the Android devices currently available. The app also supports offline playback, where tracks are cached in the background and thus can be played back even when there is no network connection, particularly useful for iPod touch owners.
Unlike streaming radio, Spotify allows users to search from their database of tracks and put together custom playlists. The desktop version of the service has both ad-supported free and paid “premium” versions (which do not have adverts), but only the latter group will be able to use the mobile client.
Video demos after the cut
Firstly, this should be noted that this application is not running in the background on your iPhone. It’s a server-to-server agreement between AT&T and Loopt, so that you can always have location-based services working, and so people always know where you are. If you’re into that kind of thing, then this is the application for you. We’re sure that most of you out there are already using Loopt, so perhaps this is exactly the update you’ve been waiting for.
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When you find yourself out, going places and doing your day-to-day routines, do you ever find that your battery life on all your tech gadgets just doesn't seem to be cutting it? Maybe you wish you could have gotten an extra hour, thirty minutes, or even a handful of minutes just to get something done and out of the way. It looks like your worries are about to take a step to the wayside. Well, as long as you ride a bike.
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There's a lot happening this month, but we're sure you're keeping good tabs on it all. And there's no chance you forgot about Apple's event coming next week, right? Of course not. But, just in case you weren't excited enough already, get ready to have those socks knocked right off your feet. That's right, it may be coming: MMS.
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