Over an unwatchable choppy video stream, Steve Jobs just announced Apple’s new video-streaming device at a keynote speech in Cupertino — the upcoming version of the Apple TV set-top box will cost $99 and enable you to wirelessly stream rented movies ($4.99 a pop) and TV shows ($0.99) in HD (720p, anyway) from iTunes or your computer. It’ll lack a hard drive, though, so you can’t actually purchase and keep anything. Also announced: iTunes 10, which will have a Twitter–ish, Facebook–esque social-networking component, called Ping, allowing you to “follow†musicians and friends for music recommendations. Additionally, iTunes is getting an exciting new desktop icon that does away with the CD, since nobody uses those things anymore.
Oh, and have you purchased an iPod recently? You probably won’t want to hear this …
Jobs also announced updates for Apple’s entire fleet of MP3 players, including a microscopic new iPod Shuffle ($49); a tiny, multi-touch iPod Nano ($149 or $179, depending on hard-drive size); and an iPod Touch that’s just like the new iPhone 4, minus the phone part ($229 to $399). If you like to carry more than 64 gigabytes of music on your person, though (as we do), you’re crap out of luck, since the iPod Classic seems to have been totally phased out.
All the Cool New Stuff From Apple Today [Gizmodo]