Go ahead and take that second helping of bacon-broasted mashed potatoes and high-fat gravy this Thursday, friends, because even if your tummy gets big and round like a steamed black bean bun, there’s an app for that.

Fitness apps for all!
iPhone fitness apps have come a long way since Nike+iPod. The addition of GPS opened entirely new vistas for running and biking enthusiasts and the iPhone’s video and audio capabilities made it fun to use the iPhone in the gym. Here are a few of my favorites.

PumpOne FitnessBuilder

FitnessBuilder offers [$9.99] 500 little workouts for you and allows you to stick to them by forcing you to record and possibly report them to friends when you’re done. You open the app, select a work out – there are a number of sets for various workouts including shorter sets for busy folks – and then you can record your reps and weight for posterity.

If you’re ripped like me you don’t need all 5,000 of the pictures and videos then you can just use the app to figure out what to do between hits of Muscle Milk. However, if you need some help in the gym this is definitely the way to go. One of my favorites and well worth the investment.

iFitness

iFitness [$1.99] is one of the first workout programs for the
iPhone and includes a method for creating your own workouts as well as a list of ready-made workouts for the lazy.

The app is less visually attractive than FitBuilder but it is considerably cheaper than the PumpOne offering.

Trimble AllSport GPS

Do you like to do all sorts of things? Running? Dancing? Hiking? Hang-gliding? Space walking? The Trimble AllSport GPS [$4.99] has you covered. The app allows you to select multiple activities including hiking, biking, skiing, and even driving. When you start a run it will map your exercise as you go and even allows for basic music control inside the app.

RunKeeper Pro

RunKeeper Pro is one of the first apps to use the iPhone’s GPS capabilities to track your runs. To use it, you start it up and press start. Then you run or bike. That’s it. You can then view your workouts online and share your runs with friends.

The app comes in two versions, Free and Pro [$9.99] and the Pro version includes voice prompts as well as photo and status updates from the road. The Pro version also allows you to set a special iPod playlist for your workout.

My Therapy Exercise

My Therapy Exercise [$19.99] might not be for everyone but it is an interesting addition to the fitness canon. The app includes 170 exercises for folks who may need to take things a bit slower due to injuries or illness. The system allows you to work on your therapy exercises at home and then email a trainer or doctor tour results.

It’s a bit pricey but it’s a very specific tool for a very specific purpose.

Andrés Iniesta is a good footballer. Cesc Fàbregas is a good footballer. Need I say more? Yes, actually, I do for it to make sense here. Nike has some fancy new soccer boot that’s it’s launching aside an interactive digital training tool that you can use on a Web site, or on your iPhone or iPod touch. Very exciting.

The boot is the Nike CRT360 Maestri. Nearest I can tell it’s your standard “fancy” soccer boot, but what concerns us here is the interactive training aspect. Each boot comes with a unique code that you can use to see EXCLUSIVE training tips from Iniesta and Fàbregas, either online or by using your iPhone.. Probably eight of you know who these guys are, but let me assure you: they’re very good. In fact, here’s Iniesta sending Chelsea crashing out of the Champions League last year:

You have to understand the drama of this situation. Barcelona was playing, by a country mile, the best football in all of Europe (of the world, probably), and yet Chelsea were two minutes away from winning the game, and thus the semi-final. So Iniesta receives the ball at the edge of the penalty box and smashes it into the top-right corner of the net. I have never been happier watching a sport as I was that day, and that includes when Barcelona actually won the championship a few weeks later. In this video, you can hear the dejection in the British announcers’ voices. Meanwhile, the Arabic commentator LOSES HIS MIND. “Allah, Allah. Allah, Allah, Allah!” The Italian guys do a fine job, as well. Greatest sport on Earth.

AppleInsider has a document found on Apple’s Website describing the Nike+ features as well as a linking system to add an HRM to the iPod. It seems you can also add a remote.

I’d love an HRM for the nano. Then I can take video of myself huffing and puffing on the lowest setting on the stair climber.

As you can probably tell from the shots, it’s a nearly inch-for-inch match with the last generation. That said, the new colors are absolutely gorgeous. Even in the fairly dim demo room, the colors popped.

We didn’t get to spend very much time with the camera, but the camera quality seemed on par with that of the iPhone and significantly better than what we would have expected.

The FM radio interface was great. While it initially couldn’t pick up a signal, all was well once they sunk a pair of headphones into the jack. The Shuffle uses the headphones as an antenna, and the radio started ticking away.

There are a few things within the FM player that weren’t mentioned during the presentation but that are quite neat. For one, you can scrub back up to 15 minutes. Additionally, you can tag songs that are playing over the radio, reminding you to purchase them next time you drop into iTunes.

We didn’t put the pedometer to the test as we weren’t about to sprint around the packed demo room, but the Nike+/Pedometer interface was in place and jampacked full off gradients. It’s about as flashy as it comes – but it looks great.

Greg Kumparak, live from Apple’s “It’s only rock and roll” event in San Francisco…

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• 11:30 AM: Doug Aamoth CrunchGear’s Greg Kumparak will be live in San Francisco for Apple’s event today. Check back closer to 1:00 PM Eastern, 10:00 AM Pacific for more…
• 11:37 AM: GregKumparak
• 11:38 AM: GregKumparak Good morning, San Francisco! We just arrived, and are camped out in line for our badge.
• 11:38 AM: GregKumparak There are roughly 40 here, so far.
• 11:45 AM: GregKumparak
• 11:45 AM: GregKumparak
• 11:46 AM: GregKumparak Some pair just jumped in front of me in line. Thems fightin’ words around here.
• 11:47 AM: GregKumparak The festivities don’t officially begin for another hour and 20 minutes; we’re just cruising the line for now.
• 11:53 AM: GregKumparak They’ve just opened registration to non-media guests and VIPs. Not recognizing anyone in that line. Certainly no Beatles amongst them.
• 11:54 AM: GregKumparak Speaking of which, some of what we’re expecting today thanks to the rumor mill: Beatles on iTunes, iPod Touches w/ cameras, and possibly Nanos with cameras.
• 11:59 AM: Greg Kumparak They’ve just opened the media line, a bit earlier than we expected. After sitting in traffic all the way up here, the complimentary media coffee is calling our names
• 12:07 PM: Greg Kumparak Aaaand we’re in!
• 12:08 PM: Greg Kumparak
• 12:09 PM: Greg Kumparak Everyone’s casually milling about for now; about 100 have arrived already. Most of the Apple employees are rocking pink shirts the same shade as the “Rock and roll” invite/graphic.
• 12:11 PM: Greg Kumparak Man – we’re used to it being super cold while we’re waiting outside of Apple events; today, it feels like we’re roasting. The sun is beating down in SF today.
• 12:17 PM: Greg Kumparak We just overheard that Tapulous (maker of Tap Tap Revenge) is here; we’d guess that they’ll be showing something during the announcement.
• 12:25 PM: Greg Kumparak The waiting area is starting to fill up. Tons of members of the international press here today.
• 12:35 PM: Greg Kumparak I’ve never seen such a high concentration of iPhones in my life. 8/10, easily. AT&Ts network seems to be standing up to it, so far. Hurray 850mhz network upgrades!
• 12:40 PM: Greg Kumparak We’re all camped out by the door, just waiting to be let in. Shouldnt be too much longer, folks.
• 12:45 PM: Greg Kumparak We’re in the theater, photos coming now
• 12:47 PM: John Biggs
• 12:48 PM: John Biggs Note: It’s Greg’s birthday today. He’s a real champ, liveblogging like this and all. Send him birthday wishes on twitter @gregkumparak
• 12:48 PM: Greg Kumparak
• 12:49 PM: Greg Kumparak We’re in our seats! Green day’s “When I come around” is blasting.
• 12:50 PM: Greg Kumparak Good news: We’re juiced up with a power strip, and our network connectivity seems to be tickin’ away no problem – for now.
• 12:50 PM: danielbru
• 12:54 PM: John Biggs
• 12:54 PM: John Biggs Beatles on Apple!
• 12:54 PM: danielbru
• 12:54 PM: danielbru What do you know, Greg Grunberg is here!
• 12:55 PM: Greg Kumparak (Greg Grunberg = Matt Parkman of Heroes)
• 12:56 PM: Greg Kumparak “Good morning ladies and gentlemen”
• 12:56 PM: Greg Kumparak People are being asked to turn off their phones.
• 12:57 PM: Greg Kumparak The house is completely packed.
• 12:57 PM: Greg Kumparak Music has been faded.
• 12:57 PM: John Biggs iTunes store now offers “LPs” including album art and liner notes.
• 12:57 PM: Greg Kumparak Aaand its back up.
• 12:58 PM: danielbru
• 12:59 PM: Greg Kumparak It’s only Rock and Roll by the Rolling Stones is playing
• 1:01 PM: Greg Kumparak Apple Store is down
• 1:01 PM: Greg Kumparak Itunes 9 just went live.
• 1:01 PM: Greg Kumparak Music’s gone
• 1:01 PM: Greg Kumparak Steve Jobs!
• 1:01 PM: Greg Kumparak Steve Jobs has entered the stage.
• 1:02 PM: Greg Kumparak Standing Ovation for him as he enters.
• 1:02 PM: Greg Kumparak The crowd is going absolutely nuts.
• 1:02 PM: Greg Kumparak The cheering has yet to taper.
• 1:02 PM: Greg Kumparak “Im very happy to be here today with you all”
• 1:02 PM: danielbru
• 1:02 PM: Greg Kumparak “As some of you may know, about 5 months ago, I had a liver transplant”
• 1:03 PM: Greg Kumparak “I now have the liver of a mid-20s person who died in a car crash”
• 1:03 PM: Greg Kumparak “Who was generous enough to donate their organs. I wouldnt be here without their generosity.”
• 1:03 PM: Greg Kumparak “I’d like to take a minute to thank everybody in the apple community for the heart felt support”
• 1:03 PM: Greg Kumparak “I’d especially like to thank Tim Cook and the entire executive team at Apple.”
• 1:04 PM: Greg Kumparak Congratulating them on how they ran the company while he was gone.
• 1:04 PM: Greg Kumparak “I’m vertical, I’m back at apple, and I’m loving every day of it.”
• 1:04 PM: danielbru
• 1:04 PM: Greg Kumparak “Today, we get to talk about music”
• 1:04 PM: Greg Kumparak Phil Schiller and jeff Robbin will both be joining us today
• 1:04 PM: Greg Kumparak Before that, talking about the iphone
• 1:04 PM: Greg Kumparak Ina little over 2 years, 30 million iPhones sold
• 1:05 PM: Greg Kumparak “During the last year, one of the reasons for that is the remarkable app store”
• 1:05 PM: Greg Kumparak Over 75,000 Apps in the app store
• 1:05 PM: Greg Kumparak Over 1.8 billion apps downloaded.
• 1:05 PM: danielbru
• 1:05 PM: Greg Kumparak “And that doesn’t include updates!”
• 1:05 PM: danielbru
• 1:05 PM: Greg Kumparak “If that included updates, the number would be a few times higher than that”
• 1:05 PM: Greg Kumparak Introducing 3.1 today
• 1:06 PM: Greg Kumparak (3.1 OS for iPhone and iPod Touch)
• 1:06 PM: Greg Kumparak One new feature: Apps will be getting Genius.
• 1:06 PM: John Biggs
• 1:06 PM: Greg Kumparak Genius will now make recommendations for new apps based on the apps you already own.
• 1:06 PM: danielbru
• 1:07 PM: Greg Kumparak There’s a new section next to “New” and “Whats Hot” called “Genius”
• 1:07 PM: danielbru
• 1:07 PM: Greg Kumparak It tells you what it recommends, and why they recommend it
• 1:07 PM: danielbru
• 1:07 PM: Greg Kumparak They’re adding ringtones – 30,000 ringtones from 4 labels
• 1:07 PM: Greg Kumparak Ringtones can be bought right from the iPhone, at $1.29 a pop
• 1:08 PM: Greg Kumparak 3.1 is a free download, beginning today.
• 1:08 PM: Greg Kumparak We’re moving on past 3.1 talk, beginning with iTunes
• 1:08 PM: Greg Kumparak itunes is now in 23 countries, with mexico as the latest
• 1:08 PM: Greg Kumparak iTunes is the #1 music retailer in the world.
• 1:08 PM: Greg Kumparak Over 8.5 billion songs have been sold
• 1:09 PM: Greg Kumparak And they’ve recently crossed over 100,000,000 accounts with credit cards
• 1:09 PM: Greg Kumparak which makes iTunes one of the largest stores on the web, in general
• 1:09 PM: Greg Kumparak “Today, we’re introducing iTunes 9″
• 1:09 PM: Greg Kumparak “We’ve cleaned it up quite a bit, making it easier to navigate around”
• 1:09 PM: Greg Kumparak New features of iTunes 9:
• 1:09 PM: Greg Kumparak – Genius mixes
• 1:10 PM: Greg Kumparak So far through genius, 54b songs have been submitted and analyzed
• 1:10 PM: Greg Kumparak “They’ve enabled us to make these genius playlists.. what we’re applying that same technology to now is something we’re calling Genius mixes”
• 1:10 PM: Greg Kumparak “Imagine a Genius DJ that plays endless mixes of songs from your library that go great together”
• 1:11 PM: danielbru
• 1:11 PM: danielbru
• 1:11 PM: danielbru
• 1:11 PM: danielbru
• 1:11 PM: Greg Kumparak “iTunes will make up to 12 of them at a time, and they’ll go on, and on, and on”
• 1:11 PM: danielbru
• 1:11 PM: danielbru
• 1:11 PM: Greg Kumparak “Like a great dj, or a great radio station”
• 1:11 PM: Greg Kumparak Next feature: Improved syncing
• 1:11 PM: Greg Kumparak “When you want to sync to your ipod touch or iphone.. we can make that even better. and we have.”
• 1:12 PM: Greg Kumparak You can selectively sync certain playlists, artists, and genres
• 1:12 PM: Greg Kumparak Or photos from certain albums, events, or just specific faces.
• 1:12 PM: danielbru
• 1:12 PM: danielbru
• 1:12 PM: danielbru
• 1:12 PM: danielbru
• 1:12 PM: Greg Kumparak With movies, you can include the 3 most recent movies – plus your manually selected favorites
• 1:12 PM: Greg Kumparak APP MANAGEMENT!!
• 1:12 PM: Greg Kumparak You can now organize and manage apps on the homescreen
• 1:13 PM: Greg Kumparak It shows all of your apps, and all of the pages alongside as thumbnails
• 1:13 PM: danielbru
• 1:13 PM: Greg Kumparak Seems as if you just drag the icons around, then sync up.
• 1:13 PM: danielbru
• 1:13 PM: Greg Kumparak New feature: “Home Sharing”
• 1:14 PM: Greg Kumparak You can now copy songs from computer to computer, up to 5 times.
• 1:14 PM: danielbru
• 1:14 PM: Greg Kumparak If you see a shared library, you can just drag stuff over to yours.
• 1:14 PM: danielbru
• 1:14 PM: Greg Kumparak You can also select to show only the things that aren’t already IN your library.
• 1:14 PM: Greg Kumparak Itunes store renovation
• 1:14 PM: Greg Kumparak Much cleaner layout – lots and lots of gradients.
• 1:14 PM: Greg Kumparak New iTunes feature: iTunes LP
• 1:15 PM: Greg Kumparak “Some of us here are old enough that we actually bought LPs”
• 1:15 PM: Greg Kumparak This is exactly as rumored
• 1:15 PM: Greg Kumparak Albums will now come with extras
• 1:15 PM: Greg Kumparak “We can deliver amazingly rich content digitally”
• 1:15 PM: Greg Kumparak American Beauty by grateful dead, priced at $11.99,comes with videos, lyrics,
• 1:16 PM: danielbru
• 1:16 PM: danielbru
• 1:16 PM: danielbru
• 1:16 PM: danielbru
• 1:16 PM: danielbru
• 1:16 PM: Greg Kumparak Showing LPs from Bob Dylan, Pearl Jam, Nora Jones, Dave Matthews Band
• 1:16 PM: danielbru
• 1:16 PM: Greg Kumparak “The artists themselves can get involved with creating these things”
• 1:16 PM: Greg Kumparak “These are just a few of the features of iTunes 9″
• 1:16 PM: Greg Kumparak Jeff Robbins is coming on stage to demonstrate iTunes 9.
• 1:17 PM: Greg Kumparak “Im going to begin with one of my favorite features: App organization”
• 1:17 PM: Greg Kumparak He’s connecting his iPod touch. Bloop!
• 1:17 PM: Greg Kumparak “When I click on applications, you can see all of the applications, all of the pages.”
• 1:17 PM: Greg Kumparak “If I want to rearrange, I can just click it and drag it wherever I want it to go”
• 1:18 PM: Greg Kumparak “I can even select more than one at a time, and put those wherever I want”
• 1:18 PM: Greg Kumparak If you select an app on the alphabetical list on the left, it automatically finds which page it’s on.
• 1:18 PM: danielbru
• 1:18 PM: Greg Kumparak You can also search through all of your apps within iTunes
• 1:18 PM: danielbru
• 1:18 PM: danielbru
• 1:18 PM: Greg Kumparak Oh neat – you can also drag entire pages
• 1:18 PM: danielbru
• 1:18 PM: danielbru
• 1:19 PM: danielbru
• 1:19 PM: Greg Kumparak “When you’re done, just click apply – and all of the changes are made”
• 1:19 PM: danielbru
• 1:19 PM: danielbru
• 1:19 PM: danielbru
• 1:19 PM: danielbru
• 1:19 PM: Greg Kumparak “Now I want to show you homesharing. I’ve set my wifes computer up for home sharing, now i’m going to set it up for mine.”
• 1:19 PM: Greg Kumparak It requires a bit of login/account management it seems, so that people cant just hop on to open shares and snag all your schtuff
• 1:20 PM: danielbru
• 1:20 PM: danielbru
• 1:20 PM: danielbru
• 1:20 PM: Greg Kumparak You can have it automatically sync new purchases across computers through Home share.
• 1:20 PM: danielbru
• 1:20 PM: Greg Kumparak “It makes it incredibly easy to manage your content within your home”
• 1:20 PM: danielbru
• 1:21 PM: Greg Kumparak “All of the pages throughout the store have been redesigned in the new style”
• 1:21 PM: Greg Kumparak There’s a new navigation bar at the top, letting you hop to Music/Movies/Tv/App Store from any page
• 1:21 PM: Greg Kumparak No more having to jump back to home!
• 1:21 PM: Greg Kumparak Each category at the top serves as a dropdown
• 1:21 PM: Greg Kumparak within the dropdown are genres for that category.
• 1:22 PM: Greg Kumparak The interface really is quite an improvement. It seems they’ve done away with most of the library-esque lists
• 1:22 PM: danielbru
• 1:22 PM: danielbru
• 1:22 PM: danielbru
• 1:22 PM: Greg Kumparak when you click on an album now, a pop up appears showing all tracks
• 1:22 PM: danielbru
• 1:22 PM: Greg Kumparak You can now share information on albums you’re interested in to facebook from iTunes 9.
• 1:23 PM: Greg Kumparak We’re taking another look at iTunes LPs
• 1:23 PM: Greg Kumparak Specifically, we’re looking at an album by the Doors
• 1:24 PM: danielbru
• 1:24 PM: Greg Kumparak As songs are played, art appears on screen alongside the lyrics
• 1:24 PM: danielbru
• 1:24 PM: danielbru
• 1:24 PM: danielbru
• 1:24 PM: danielbru
• 1:24 PM: Greg Kumparak “If you’re a doors fan, this kind of extra material is simply priceless”
• 1:24 PM: danielbru
• 1:24 PM: danielbru
• 1:24 PM: Greg Kumparak Showing some of the videos included in the LP, recorded ‘exclusively for this LP’
• 1:25 PM: Greg Kumparak “The doors? Thats a RIDICULOUS name. Ohhh, man. You mean like the doors in your mind”
• 1:25 PM: Greg Kumparak Showing another album, this time from Dave matthews band.
• 1:25 PM: Greg Kumparak This LP is drawn by DM himself.
• 1:25 PM: Greg Kumparak with a font based on his handwrite.
• 1:25 PM: Greg Kumparak The LP is actually quite gorgeous; smooth, flowing animations
• 1:26 PM: Greg Kumparak He’s flipping from song to song – each page is custom themed, with lyrics.
• 1:26 PM: Greg Kumparak I was dubious – but this seems really great.
• 1:26 PM: Greg Kumparak “Now I want to show your iTunes extras”
• 1:26 PM: Greg Kumparak Essentially itunes LP for movies
• 1:26 PM: Greg Kumparak iTunes movies can now include DVD/Blu-ray esque extras
• 1:26 PM: Greg Kumparak Showing Wall-E
• 1:27 PM: danielbru
• 1:27 PM: danielbru
• 1:27 PM: danielbru
• 1:27 PM: Greg Kumparak The interface is incredibly rich – looks just like something I’d expect from a physical disc.
• 1:27 PM: danielbru
• 1:27 PM: danielbru
• 1:27 PM: danielbru
• 1:27 PM: Greg Kumparak iTunes 9 demo is now coming to an end.
• 1:27 PM: Greg Kumparak Steve Jobs is back on stage.
• 1:28 PM: Greg Kumparak As we mentioned earlier, iTunes 9 is available now.
• 1:28 PM: Greg Kumparak Now we’re moving on to iPod
• 1:28 PM: Greg Kumparak Phil schiller is taking the stage.
• 1:28 PM: Greg Kumparak “If you haven’t heard, the iPod has been a huge hit”
• 1:28 PM: Greg Kumparak “We’ve now sold over 225 million iPods to date”
• 1:28 PM: Greg Kumparak Making it one of the most successful products, overall, in history.
• 1:28 PM: Greg Kumparak iPod is now at 73.8 percent market share.
• 1:29 PM: Greg Kumparak “The next biggest category is’other’ at 18%”
• 1:29 PM: danielbru
• 1:29 PM: danielbru
• 1:29 PM: Greg Kumparak followed by sandisk at 7.2%, with microsoft at 1.1%
• 1:29 PM: danielbru
• 1:29 PM: danielbru
• 1:29 PM: danielbru
• 1:29 PM: danielbru
• 1:29 PM: Greg Kumparak “Our latest data shows that of all the iPods we sell, over 50% are new customers”
• 1:29 PM: danielbru
• 1:29 PM: Greg Kumparak “We love that new customers are discovering our device”
• 1:29 PM: Greg Kumparak “The fastest growing of the line is the iPod Touch”
• 1:30 PM: Greg Kumparak “I’m really proud to tell you that we’ve sold over 20 million iPod Touches”
• 1:30 PM: Greg Kumparak “Why? Why so quickly? Why so many iPod touches sold?”
• 1:30 PM: Greg Kumparak 3 things set it apart:
• 1:30 PM: Greg Kumparak – “It’s a great iPod. It needs to be.”
• 1:31 PM: Greg Kumparak He’s listing a bunch of reasons. This is a lot more than 3.
• 1:31 PM: Greg Kumparak Video, genius, appstore, etc.
• 1:32 PM: danielbru
• 1:32 PM: Greg Kumparak iPod Touch now does genius mixes as well.
• 1:32 PM: danielbru
• 1:32 PM: danielbru
• 1:32 PM: danielbru
• 1:32 PM: Greg Kumparak Oh, that was all within “Great iPod”
• 1:32 PM: danielbru
• 1:32 PM: danielbru
• 1:32 PM: Greg Kumparak the next reason: “It’s a great pocket computer”
• 1:32 PM: danielbru
• 1:32 PM: danielbru
• 1:32 PM: Greg Kumparak “Safari is the first great mobile browser”
• 1:32 PM: danielbru
• 1:32 PM: danielbru
• 1:32 PM: danielbru
• 1:32 PM: danielbru
• 1:33 PM: danielbru
• 1:33 PM: danielbru
• 1:33 PM: danielbru
• 1:34 PM: Greg Kumparak One other thing: “Its a great portable game player”
• 1:34 PM: Greg Kumparak Quoting business week: “Apple could be on the cusp of claiming the crown as the world’s leading in pocket gaming device|”
• 1:34 PM: Greg Kumparak Comparing it to the DS and PSP: NO multi-touch, expensive games, no app store, and nothing near the iPod
• 1:35 PM: danielbru
• 1:35 PM: Greg Kumparak “When I say expensive, we’re talking $30-40 per title”
• 1:35 PM: danielbru
• 1:35 PM: danielbru
• 1:35 PM: danielbru
• 1:35 PM: danielbru
• 1:35 PM: danielbru
• 1:35 PM: Greg Kumparak “But worse is the buying experience. Going to a store and trying to find one of these hot new titles is not any fun.”
• 1:35 PM: Greg Kumparak “While the App Store has 75,000 titles. Even just in the gaming category alone”
• 1:35 PM: Greg Kumparak There are 607 titles on PSP, 3680 on DS, and 21,178 on iPhone OS
• 1:36 PM: Greg Kumparak Showing a quick presentation of some of the games on the iPod Touch
• 1:37 PM: Greg Kumparak Everything from Doom resurrection to Glyder
• 1:37 PM: Greg Kumparak “Every day we’re seeing new titles to come out – it just blows my mind”
• 1:37 PM: Greg Kumparak They’re going to preview some new stuff.
• 1:37 PM: Greg Kumparak First up is Ben Mattes of Ubisoft.
• 1:38 PM: Greg Kumparak He’ll be talking about Assassins Creed: Discovery.
• 1:38 PM: Greg Kumparak “Apple has created a world class gaming platform. Ubisoft is putting the finishing touches on one of our hottest properties: Assassins Creed 2″
• 1:39 PM: danielbru
• 1:39 PM: danielbru
• 1:39 PM: danielbru
• 1:39 PM: danielbru
• 1:39 PM: Greg Kumparak “Assassins creed is all about.. brutal hand to hand combat. Thanks to the power of these devicces, we can put diversity into the sounds and the animations”
• 1:39 PM: danielbru
• 1:39 PM: danielbru
• 1:39 PM: danielbru
• 1:39 PM: danielbru
• 1:39 PM: danielbru
• 1:39 PM: danielbru
• 1:39 PM: Greg Kumparak Hah – clever; using your photo library, you’ll be able to put your own cartoonified face on wanted posters.
• 1:39 PM: danielbru
• 1:39 PM: danielbru
• 1:39 PM: danielbru
• 1:39 PM: danielbru
• 1:39 PM: danielbru
• 1:39 PM: Greg Kumparak They’ve taken Assassins Creed 2d
• 1:40 PM: danielbru
• 1:40 PM: danielbru
• 1:40 PM: danielbru
• 1:40 PM: danielbru
• 1:40 PM: Greg Kumparak The control stick now only moves left/right, rather than in all axis.
• 1:40 PM: Greg Kumparak As we mentioned earlier: Bart Decrem of Tapulous.
• 1:41 PM: Greg Kumparak Tap Tap Revenge has over 10 million users today
• 1:41 PM: Greg Kumparak Today, they’ll be combining music and racing.
• 1:41 PM: Greg Kumparak Bart Decrem is taking the stage
• 1:41 PM: Greg Kumparak “Good morning – when we launched on the app store a year ago, our crazy dream was to hit 1 million users. we hit that goal in 3 weeks”
• 1:41 PM: Greg Kumparak “Today we’re introducing Riddim Ribbon”
• 1:41 PM: Greg Kumparak “Riddim Ribbon puts you in the roll of the DJ. This is a new type of game – let me set the stage”
• 1:42 PM: Greg Kumparak This version of the game, at least, is theemed around the Black Eyed Peas
• 1:42 PM: Greg Kumparak You keep a ball on a ribbon, which is generated from the beat of the music
• 1:42 PM: Greg Kumparak Visually, it’s quite similar to Audiosurf
• 1:43 PM: Greg Kumparak The player fell from the stage. Bart: “Andrew, get us back in the groove”
• 1:43 PM: Greg Kumparak Ball flies back onto the ribbon, Bart dances to the beat as the ball picks up speed.
• 1:43 PM: Greg Kumparak “Thank you – and rock on.”
• 1:43 PM: Greg Kumparak Next up: Mark Hickey of Gameloft.
• 1:44 PM: Greg Kumparak “Gameloft today has almost 20,000,000 downloads, making them one of the biggest developers in the appstore”
• 1:44 PM: Greg Kumparak “Today, we’re going to give you a preview of our new first person shooter, Nova”
• 1:44 PM: danielbru
• 1:44 PM: danielbru
• 1:44 PM: danielbru
• 1:44 PM: danielbru
• 1:44 PM: danielbru
• 1:44 PM: Greg Kumparak “In nova, you play a space marine” (Space marine FPS! Never seen that before.)
• 1:44 PM: danielbru
• 1:44 PM: danielbru
• 1:44 PM: danielbru
• 1:45 PM: danielbru
• 1:45 PM: danielbru
• 1:45 PM: danielbru
• 1:45 PM: danielbru
• 1:45 PM: danielbru
• 1:45 PM: Greg Kumparak Showing the character navigating the environment, which looks very Halo-esque.
• 1:45 PM: danielbru
• 1:45 PM: danielbru
• 1:45 PM: danielbru
• 1:45 PM: Greg Kumparak Character pulls out a sniper rifle
• 1:45 PM: danielbru
• 1:45 PM: Greg Kumparak First shot: Miss!
• 1:45 PM: danielbru
• 1:45 PM: Greg Kumparak Second shot: Headshot!
• 1:45 PM: danielbru
• 1:45 PM: danielbru
• 1:45 PM: danielbru
• 1:45 PM: Greg Kumparak iPod controls built in to the game, allowing you to rock out while you cap some aliens.
• 1:46 PM: Greg Kumparak Shipping “a little later this year”
• 1:46 PM: Greg Kumparak Schiller reenters the stage.
• 1:46 PM: danielbru
• 1:46 PM: danielbru
• 1:46 PM: danielbru
• 1:46 PM: danielbru
• 1:46 PM: Greg Kumparak “That sort of stuff used to go through my personal computer on my desk. now it’s on my iPod touch, in my pocket”
• 1:46 PM: danielbru
• 1:46 PM: danielbru
• 1:46 PM: Greg Kumparak Travis Boatman of EA is taking the stage
• 1:47 PM: Greg Kumparak Today they’ll be talking about one of the worlds biggest franchises
• 1:47 PM: Greg Kumparak Madden NFL 2010
• 1:47 PM: Greg Kumparak “We have all 32 teams, and all of the players you’d expect”
• 1:47 PM: Greg Kumparak Showing a game between the 49ers and the Steelers.
• 1:47 PM: danielbru
• 1:48 PM: danielbru
• 1:48 PM: danielbru
• 1:48 PM: danielbru
• 1:48 PM: Greg Kumparak Kickoffs are aimed by dragging around, while strength is determined by swiping up and down.
• 1:48 PM: Greg Kumparak Defensive plays are selected by swiping through your selection.
• 1:48 PM: Greg Kumparak Rather than requiring a button to select your player, you simply tap.
• 1:49 PM: Greg Kumparak HAH, a rich Madden quote: “Usually the team with the least mistakes out there will win the game”
• 1:49 PM: danielbru
• 1:49 PM: Greg Kumparak Whoa – you can draw your own plays on screen.
• 1:49 PM: danielbru
• 1:49 PM: danielbru
• 1:49 PM: danielbru
• 1:49 PM: danielbru
• 1:49 PM: danielbru
• 1:49 PM: Greg Kumparak Tap the receivers as they run to select who to throw to
• 1:49 PM: danielbru
• 1:49 PM: danielbru
• 1:49 PM: danielbru
• 1:49 PM: danielbru
• 1:49 PM: Greg Kumparak Madden NFL 10 is now available in the App Store.
• 1:51 PM: Greg Kumparak Phil Schiller is recapping the App Store’s strengths, talking about how the iPod Touch is the cheapest gateway to it.
• 1:51 PM: danielbru
• 1:51 PM: danielbru
• 1:51 PM: danielbru
• 1:51 PM: danielbru
• 1:51 PM: danielbru
• 1:51 PM: danielbru
• 1:51 PM: danielbru
• 1:51 PM: danielbru
• 1:51 PM: Greg Kumparak “We learned something very important a few years back.”
• 1:51 PM: Greg Kumparak Essentially, $199 is a magic spot.
• 1:52 PM: Greg Kumparak When they dropped from $249 to $199, sales of the past iPod models almost doubled.
• 1:52 PM: Greg Kumparak The iPod touch is now $199 at the base.
• 1:52 PM: Greg Kumparak 8 gb for 199
• 1:52 PM: Greg Kumparak 32 gb for $299
• 1:52 PM: Greg Kumparak and 64GB for $399!
• 1:52 PM: danielbru
• 1:52 PM: danielbru
• 1:52 PM: danielbru
• 1:52 PM: danielbru
• 1:52 PM: Greg Kumparak “Theres something extra about the 64GB ipod touch. Its 50 %faster”
• 1:53 PM: Greg Kumparak They’ve also added OpenGL|ES to the 64GB iPod Touch.
• 1:53 PM: Greg Kumparak “The really important thing, though, is the power of that price”
• 1:53 PM: Greg Kumparak They’re showing the new ad for the iPod touch
• 1:54 PM: Greg Kumparak “Next, the iPod classic”
• 1:54 PM: Greg Kumparak “The iPod classic is for those users who have a huge music library”
• 1:54 PM: Greg Kumparak Todays model is 120gb for $249
• 1:54 PM: Greg Kumparak And its being replaced with a 160GB for $249.
• 1:54 PM: danielbru
• 1:54 PM: danielbru
• 1:54 PM: danielbru
• 1:55 PM: danielbru
• 1:55 PM: danielbru
• 1:55 PM: Greg Kumparak Now we’re onto the ipod Shuffle
• 1:55 PM: danielbru
• 1:55 PM: danielbru
• 1:55 PM: Greg Kumparak “It’s the easiest to use ipod in the world”
• 1:55 PM: danielbru
• 1:55 PM: danielbru
• 1:55 PM: danielbru
• 1:55 PM: danielbru
• 1:55 PM: danielbru
• 1:55 PM: Greg Kumparak “It’s so easy, the customers have asked us to expand the range of headphones”
• 1:55 PM: danielbru
• 1:55 PM: Greg Kumparak So… they partnered with headphone makers to make special iPod Shuffle headphones
• 1:55 PM: Greg Kumparak And they’re making an adapter which allows any headphones to be used.
• 1:56 PM: danielbru
• 1:56 PM: danielbru
• 1:56 PM: danielbru
• 1:56 PM: danielbru
• 1:56 PM: danielbru
• 1:56 PM: Greg Kumparak Holding the main button on the shuffle remote now reads back the name of the currently playing song
• 1:56 PM: danielbru
• 1:56 PM: danielbru
• 1:56 PM: danielbru
• 1:56 PM: danielbru
• 1:56 PM: danielbru
• 1:57 PM: Greg Kumparak this also allows you to play playlists – just hold the button, and you can switch from playlist to playlist.
• 1:57 PM: Greg Kumparak “Today, we’re bringing out all new colors of the shuffle”
• 1:57 PM: Greg Kumparak Black, silver, pink, green,and bluue
• 1:57 PM: Greg Kumparak New price: $59 for 2Gb
• 1:57 PM: Greg Kumparak $79 for 4GB
• 1:57 PM: Greg Kumparak New model:
• 1:57 PM: danielbru
• 1:57 PM: Greg Kumparak “Special edition”
  Stainless steel iPod shuffle
• 1:57 PM: Greg Kumparak $99 for the 4Gb model
• 1:58 PM: Greg Kumparak To recap: 5 new colors, 2 and 4GB models, plus a stainless steel $99 model
• 1:58 PM: Greg Kumparak “One more thing….”
• 1:58 PM: Greg Kumparak Video camera.
• 1:58 PM: Greg Kumparak Rumors, confirmed!
• 1:58 PM: Greg Kumparak “We’ve seen videos explode in the last few years.”
• 1:58 PM: Greg Kumparak “No where more so than Youtube. A billion streams per day – all coming from us users”
• 1:58 PM: Greg Kumparak They’re showing the Flip Mino
• 1:59 PM: Greg Kumparak which goes for 4GB at $149
• 1:59 PM: danielbru
• 1:59 PM: danielbru
• 1:59 PM: Greg Kumparak “This market is exploding. we wanted in on this”
• 1:59 PM: danielbru
• 1:59 PM: danielbru
• 1:59 PM: danielbru
• 1:59 PM: Greg Kumparak We’re going to start off at 8 GB
• 1:59 PM: danielbru
• 1:59 PM: danielbru
• 1:59 PM: Greg Kumparak and lower the price.. to free.
• 1:59 PM: danielbru
• 1:59 PM: Greg Kumparak “We’re going to build a camera right into the iPod Nano.”
• 1:59 PM: Greg Kumparak iPod Nano will now have a video camera, microphone, and speaker built in.
• 2:00 PM: Greg Kumparak “And yet, we’ve still retained its incredibly small size”
• 2:00 PM: danielbru
• 2:00 PM: danielbru
• 2:00 PM: Greg Kumparak 10.9 cu in for the flip mini; 1.1 cu for the iPod Nano
• 2:00 PM: danielbru
• 2:00 PM: danielbru
• 2:00 PM: danielbru
• 2:00 PM: danielbru
• 2:00 PM: danielbru
• 2:00 PM: Greg Kumparak Showing a video quality demonstration – even on the projector, it looks pretty great.
• 2:01 PM: Greg Kumparak “You can also sync it back to your computer – “My videos” folder on a PC, or iMovie on a Mac”
• 2:01 PM: Greg Kumparak “We’ve sold over 100 million iPod Nanos”
• 2:01 PM: danielbru
• 2:01 PM: danielbru
• 2:01 PM: Greg Kumparak “It’s by far the most popular music player in the world”
• 2:01 PM: danielbru
• 2:02 PM: Greg Kumparak iPod nano is now getting coverflow
• 2:02 PM: danielbru
• 2:02 PM: Greg Kumparak and voice over support a la the shuffle
• 2:02 PM: Greg Kumparak It’s also getting Genius Mix
• 2:02 PM: Greg Kumparak FM radio!
• 2:02 PM: Greg Kumparak The iPod Nano now has an FM Radio
• 2:02 PM: danielbru
• 2:02 PM: Greg Kumparak along with a voice recorder and a pedometer.
• 2:02 PM: danielbru
• 2:02 PM: danielbru
• 2:02 PM: danielbru
• 2:02 PM: danielbru
• 2:03 PM: Greg Kumparak The pedometer can tie into Nike+.
• 2:03 PM: Greg Kumparak Recap:Video cam, Voice over, FM radio, Pedometer
• 2:03 PM: danielbru
• 2:03 PM: danielbru
• 2:03 PM: danielbru
• 2:03 PM: Greg Kumparak “We’ve finally figured out how to do AWESOME colors on the iPod Nano”
• 2:03 PM: danielbru
• 2:03 PM: danielbru
• 2:03 PM: Greg Kumparak Red, Pink, Orange, silver, Black, Purple, Blue, Green,Yellow, Orange
• 2:04 PM: Greg Kumparak 16gb for $179. 8 GBfor $149
• 2:04 PM: Greg Kumparak Now they’re showing the ad for the iPod Nanos.
• 2:04 PM: Greg Kumparak Showing off the new colors, matching them to their user’s outfit color.
• 2:04 PM: Greg Kumparak Primarily playing on the video recording
• 2:05 PM: Greg Kumparak Great spot – plays on their classic dancer commercials ,except now you can actually see the people rather than silhouettes
• 2:05 PM: Greg Kumparak All of the nanos use Arsenic free glass, are BFR and Mercury free
• 2:05 PM: Greg Kumparak PVC free, and highly recyclable.
• 2:06 PM: Greg Kumparak The lights have dimmed
• 2:06 PM: Greg Kumparak “Thats what we wanted to show you ..but”
• 2:06 PM: Greg Kumparak “We love music. We never want to forget that..”
• 2:06 PM: Greg Kumparak “Theres no better way to remind us all, then by having a live performance”
• 2:06 PM: Greg Kumparak Norah Jones is entering the stage.
• 2:06 PM: Greg Kumparak They just rolled out her entire stage set in a matter of 20 seconds. Crazy good roadies.
• 2:07 PM: Greg Kumparak “Please join me in giving a warm welcome to Norah Jones”
• 2:07 PM: Greg Kumparak While they’re setting up: Something interesting to note is that they didn’t mention cameras on the iPod Touches.
• 2:08 PM: Greg Kumparak Norah Jones “I think this is the earliest I’ve ever played.. but thats okay”
• 2:08 PM: danielbru
• 2:08 PM: danielbru
• 2:08 PM: danielbru
• 2:08 PM: danielbru
• 2:09 PM: Greg Kumparak She’s singing “Come away with me”, from her new album – and sounds kind of incredible doing it.
• 2:10 PM: danielbru
• 2:10 PM: danielbru
• 2:10 PM: danielbru
• 2:10 PM: danielbru
• 2:10 PM: danielbru
• 2:10 PM: danielbru
• 2:10 PM: Greg Kumparak It’s official: Norah Jones can sing better live than most people can sing with massive amounts of post-processing.
• 2:10 PM: danielbru
• 2:10 PM: danielbru
• 2:10 PM: danielbru
• 2:10 PM: danielbru
• 2:10 PM: danielbru
• 2:10 PM: danielbru
• 2:10 PM: danielbru
• 2:11 PM: danielbru
• 2:11 PM: Greg Kumparak “Thanks to Steve Jobs for having us – we’re really happy for him to be doing well”
• 2:11 PM: Greg Kumparak “We’re gonna do a song from my new album – we havent really played this one very much. It’s called young blood”
• 2:13 PM: danielbru
• 2:13 PM: Greg Kumparak We’ll have a hands on with all of the new devices in just a few minutes on CrunchGear.
• 2:13 PM: danielbru
• 2:13 PM: danielbru
• 2:13 PM: danielbru
• 2:13 PM: danielbru
• 2:14 PM: Greg Kumparak Nothing too surprising this time around, save perhaps a few of the features that snuck into the Nano.
• 2:15 PM: Greg Kumparak Jobs is back on stage..
• 2:15 PM: Greg Kumparak Shaking Norah’s hand, her and her band leave the stage.
• 2:15 PM: Greg Kumparak “Well that’s what we have for you today. Thank you for coming – we’ll see you soon”
• 2:15 PM: Greg Kumparak Lights are back up , the audience is leaving. Check back for our hands ons soon!’

A recent patent filing—well, recent in the sense that is was just published, but was actually filed last year—shows some sort of exercise progress meter + iPod contraption. It’s sort of like the Nike+ deal, yes.

The handy drawing pretty much describes what Apple is going for. You’ve got a treadmill, you plug in your iPod (or whatever deice), and then any and all data is recorded onto said iPod. That way you can keep track of how far you’ve run, how many calories you’ve burned, etc.

Something to keep in mind is that companies file patents all the time, and they don’t necessarily turn into actual products. So Apple could have filed this patent one year ago, then sometime last March said, “Ah, screw it. We’re not making that.”

I’ve been rounding up a lot of ultralights – I wouldn’t call this a netbook – and this looks to be one of the purdiest of the bunch. The 5101 will cost about $449 and runs an Atom processor. It has a 10-inch screen and full keyboard.

Look for more of these “ultralights” to pop up this year. Notebook manufacturers have realized that selling a tiny laptop for $5 and a few bottle caps was not a very good strategy and so they’re rethinking this whole “netbook” moniker. You’ll see ultralights – smaller notebooks with more powerful hardware – and MIDs like the iPod Touch or whatever Nokia is planning.

HP Blends Functionality, Durability and Style with New HP Mini PC

PALO ALTO, Calif., June 24, 2009 – HP today unveiled its top-of-the-line Mini PC for on-the-go professionals who demand a stylish, yet durable fully functional companion PC.

The HP Mini 5101 features a sturdy, lightweight anodized aluminum display enclosure with a black, brushed finish. Complementing the aluminum is the use of magnesium alloy in the lower case of the Mini frame. Soft-touch paint on the base and palm rest further advance the PC’s look and feel. This combination of materials, an industry first in the netbook category, not only delivers an eye-catching design, but also improves durability.

Furthering the stylish look of the HP Mini 5101 is a newly designed, spill-resistant keyboard that is 95 percent of a full-size QWERTY keyboard. It features a visually open and spacious keyboard design with keys raised from the surface. HP DuraKeys, a clear coating over the keys, makes the keyboard 50 times more resistant to visible wear than keyboards without it.(1) In addition, the mouse buttons are located in the traditional space below the touchpad, making for a familiar user experience.

“HP Mini PCs have no equal when it comes to industrial design, use of innovative materials and overall feature sets,” said Ted Clark, senior vice president and general manager, Notebook Global Business Unit, Personal Systems Group, HP. “The HP Mini 5101 is truly a work of art, a sophisticated companion PC crafted for the trend-savvy mobile professional who needs functionally, durability and style.”

Starting at 2.6 pounds,(2) the fully functional and durable HP Mini 5101 is an ideal companion PC for the on-the-go professional. It features a large 10.1-inch diagonal LED display available in either WSVGA or high-definition (HD)(3) resolutions. Customers can also choose either the four-cell battery for lighter weight or six-cell battery for longer battery life. When configured with the optional six-cell battery, the HP Mini 5101 delivers up to eight hours of battery runtime.(4)

Mobile professionals can stay ultra-productive with the HP Mini 5101 PC’s small, low-power Intel® Atom processor, which enables the unit to run cooler, use less power and improve battery life. A fast-performing 7,200 RPM hard drive comes standard with the unit. Alternatively, an optional Solid State Drive (SSD) is available in either 80 or 128 gigabytes.

An optional, integrated Gobi-powered HP Mobile Broadband module allows users to conveniently access the Internet, corporate intranet, email and other critical information around the world.(5) Other wireless technologies include integrated Wi-Fi Certified WLAN(6) and optional Bluetooth® 2.0. An integrated 2-megapixel webcam allows for easy still-image capture, web-conferencing or video-enhanced instant messaging(7) with no additional hardware.

HP QuickSync software, planned to be available as a web download in September, allows quick synchronization of the HP Mini with notebooks or desktops so users can avoid maintaining multiple documents, media files and email. Information also can sync to portable storage devices.

The versatility of the HP Mini 5101 can change how students learn and is the practical answer to providing each student continuous access to a PC in one-to-one computing. Its suite of wireless, (6) multimedia and security capabilities allows students to learn wherever they have Wi-Fi access – from the classroom, to the library, to their homes.

The HP Mini 5101 is built to last, featuring HP 3D DriveGuard, which offers a three-axis digital accelerometer chip that sends a signal to shut down the hard drive upon sudden movement or shock. The HP Panel Protection System includes a scratch-resistant acrylic LCD cover and magnesium hinge bracket for added durability in demanding environments.

The HP Mini 5101 has been engineered for reduced impact on the environment by eliminating or reducing substances of concern, using fewer resources and reducing energy consumption. Configurations of the HP Mini 5101 are ENERGY STAR qualified and are identified as HP Mini 5101 ENERGY STAR on HP websites and on www.energystar.gov. In addition the Mini 5101 is EPEAT Gold registered in the United States.(7)

New accessories designed for use with the HP Mini include a USB 2.0 port replicator that adds a variety of audio, networking and USB ports to allow greater productivity. A lightweight, functional messenger bag designed specifically for the HP Mini or a neoprene slip case offer added protection for professionals while on the go. Other accessories available for the HP Mini include a USB 2.0 docking station, external optical drive and USB-powered external speakers.

More information on HP Mini 5101 product specifications, images and other HP mobility solutions is available in an online press kit at www.hp.com/personal.

Pricing and availability
The HP Mini 5101 starts at $449(8) and is expected to be available in late July.

via Giz

• 9:51 AM: John Biggs
• 9:51 AM: John Biggs
• 9:57 AM: John Biggs Out in the line. The Apple guy who just walked by was counting folks and passed us at 476 or so.
• 10:06 AM: John Biggs So we’ve got live video of the line. If you have anything you want to know specifically, other than the obvious WHERE IS MY IFONE! Tweet @johnbiggs and I’ll try to respond.
• 10:17 AM: John Biggs
• 10:18 AM: John Biggs
• 10:18 AM: John Biggs Waiting for press registration
• 10:20 AM: John Biggs @johnbiggs What device are you recording the live feed on? Answer: Ustream on an iPhone
• 10:34 AM: John Biggs Hopefully you’re watching greg ask people what they think of the pre
• 10:34 AM: MDM Looking forward to CrunchGear’s coverage. Can’t wait for iPhone 3.0 update.
• 10:34 AM: Giovanni It is possible to see the conference in streaming on my Iphone?
• 10:34 AM: Dan Should I have audio?
• 10:34 AM: Daddy-O The Ustream app on the iPhone is only a viewer. How do you get the app that sends video to Ustream?
• 10:35 AM: John Biggs Re video question. We can’t stream video. Verboten
• 10:36 AM: John Biggs Dasorryddyo it’s an unlocked iPhone.
• 10:52 AM: John Biggs Sorry. Testing email. Still sitting on the floor waiting.
• 10:52 AM: John Biggs How is the stream?
• 10:53 AM: DannyD Ustream is great, but it is just so choppy. I´m from Germany and the stream is interrupted about every other second… is it my Connection or the iPhone`s that is “crap”
• 10:53 AM: Kirill Just wanted to say thanks for doing this guys.
• 10:53 AM: Ross Will you be streaming live inside?
• 11:00 AM: John Biggs No, Ross
• 11:20 AM: John Biggs hopefully the stream is better
• 11:21 AM: Rick Woot! girls in bikinis rock
• 11:21 AM: Juan Snyman The keynote begins in about 2 hours and 40 minutes, right? Why are you guys there so early. :o
• 11:22 AM: John Biggs No idea re live stream and we are this early for you guys
• 11:36 AM: John Biggs
• 11:36 AM: John Biggs
• 11:36 AM: John Biggs There is the new QuickTime Logo.
• 11:37 AM: John Biggs
• 11:38 AM: John Biggs
• 11:38 AM: John Biggs the old logo
• 11:38 AM: John Biggs
• 11:38 AM: John Biggs new one
• 11:40 AM: mapplemike Can’t wait to see what they say at WWDC. Apple employees are the biggest junkies of them all.
• 11:40 AM: bgertzfield According to the weirdo walking the WWDC line, I am male number 776. The nice lady behind me is female number 43!
• 11:40 AM: John Biggs Hey guys – we’re outside the keynote room right now w/ folks from Phonescoop, Laptop, Engadget; everyone’s here. Sorry the live feed went down, not a whole lot we can do about that.
• 11:41 AM: John Biggs Vincent Nguyen just took a horrible picture of me, as I thought it was video. Thanks, Vincent.
• 11:42 AM: Monik (etiole.com) why has the video gone off air?
• 11:42 AM: John Biggs Limited WiFi, No 3G. Simply not enough bandwidth. Plus – they’ll eat our face if we stream inside.
• 11:48 AM: John Biggs We’ve got power! Power is rare here. It’s like soil in waterworld.
• 11:49 AM: John Biggs We’re about 90% sure there’s no power inside. There *does* seem to be WiFi – which is incredible. Great chance that the WiFi will die as soon as we get inside, be it by apple’s doing or the weight of a million geeks all trying their damnedest to liveblog
• 11:51 AM: John Biggs
• 11:51 AM: John Biggs I wish John Biggs would hold my laptop for me while I typed:-(
• 11:52 AM: John Biggs Apple store is down. Everybody panic!
• 11:54 AM: John Biggs We’re still in line. The mood is generally light, everyone’s drinkin’ the Odwallas and eatin’ the scones Apple provided. If you need something to do, go prep your bingo cards: www.crunchgear.com
• 11:56 AM: Greg Kumparak The past 10 liveblog snippets have all been a lie. I didnt realize I was logged in as Biggs.
• 11:59 AM: Greg Kumparak Surprisingly, the room doesn’t smell too bad yet. It is a big room, though.
• 12:00 PM: Greg Kumparak
• 12:00 PM: Greg Kumparak There are probably around 150 media folk waiting outside the keynote room. There’s no obvious line. There never is, really. It’s just a big pile of madness.
• 12:01 PM: Greg Kumparak If you missed it in the earlier live broadcast, the first line dwellers had been here since 3 am.
• 12:02 PM: @michaelowens The first person in line got there at 5:30p the night before, actually.
• 12:02 PM: Greg Kumparak Yeesh. Missed’em. Way to go, 5:30pm trooper. Hope you enjoy the show.
• 12:04 PM: @iAppTime So will you be recording the keynote live on the Ustream?
• 12:05 PM: Greg Kumparak Unfortunately not; Apple nixed that from the start, and reiterated that it was disallowed when we were getting our badges.
• 12:13 PM: Greg Kumparak Looks like broadcast guys get to go in first, then the rest of media, then general WWDC goers.
• 12:13 PM: Dip Greg are people out there betting on Steve Jobs making an appearance?
• 12:14 PM: Greg Kumparak Lots of debates about that, as is to be expected.
• 12:15 PM: Greg Kumparak It seems like at least 50% of the people here are sick. Awesome.
• 12:16 PM: Jim No video but live blog will continue right?
• 12:17 PM: Greg Kumparak Absolutely – as long as we can keep a connection up, we’ll keep updating the feed.
• 12:17 PM: Greg Kumparak Besides the new looking Quicktime logo, we’re not noticing anything too surprising on the banners.
• 12:18 PM: Greg Kumparak Mentions of 64 bit stuff alongside snow leopard, an OpenOCL logo
• 12:20 PM: Dip Wonder how many people out there in Moscone are carrying the “pre”? Do you see any among those who are near you?
• 12:20 PM: Greg Kumparak Its only media around us, so it’s a Pre/iPhone bananza.
• 12:24 PM: Greg Kumparak If you’re wondering, it’s starting to smell horrible.
• 12:25 PM: Greg Kumparak Everyone’s starting to get cranky.
• 12:27 PM: Greg Kumparak
• 12:27 PM: Greg Kumparak That logo to the lower left of “Mac” – we’re not familiar with it. Anyone ever seen it?
• 12:27 PM: Greg Kumparak It reads “GCD”, and looks like a stoplight.
• 12:28 PM: Ender is it the new OSX Grand Central?
• 12:28 PM: Tim “Getting Crap Done”… must be an Apple implementation of the GTD.
• 12:29 PM: Capt Crunch What happens when a bunch of Apple fanboys get cranky?
• 12:29 PM: Greg Kumparak They start using windows mobile
• 12:31 PM: JP Macrumors says the logo is for multithreading”Threading has left the station.
  Grand Central Dispatch”
• 12:32 PM: Greg Kumparak Seems like half the people here have iPhones; then blackberry, then pre/android handsets throughout.
• 12:33 PM: Greg Kumparak There are a good number of those special Google I/O HTC Magics
• 12:33 PM: Greg Kumparak Line is moving! We’re heading in!
• 12:36 PM: Greg Kumparak we’re in. still milling toward our seat
• 12:38 PM: Greg Kumparak We’ve been seated. We’re stage left. pics coming in now.
• 12:39 PM: Greg Kumparak
• 12:39 PM: Greg Kumparak
• 12:40 PM: Greg Kumparak Funky house music is blaring
• 12:40 PM: Matt Psst… that’s stage right :)
• 12:41 PM: Greg Kumparak Nonsense – this is an Apple event. Anything is possible. Its a wonderful land of imagination!
• 12:42 PM: Greg Kumparak Male to female ratio is about 50:1 at last count.
• 12:42 PM: Satish ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG!
• 12:43 PM: Greg Kumparak Man, you guys are missing out on the funkiest house music on the planet. I’m considering bailing on this whole live blogging nonsense and starting an impromptu rave in the back.
• 12:45 PM: Greg Kumparak
• 12:46 PM: Freiteez shazam the song so we can see what it is
• 12:46 PM: Greg Kumparak We tried; alas, the murmur is a bit too intense.
• 12:49 PM: MG Howdy
• 12:49 PM: Greg Kumparak MG Hammer, ladies and gentlemen.
• 12:51 PM: Greg Kumparak We’re just gettin’ ourselves prepped, folks – main show starts in 9 minutes.
• 12:52 PM: Greg Kumparak Shazam continues to fail to identify the lovely beats. That’s too bad, really – it’s decent stuff.
• 12:53 PM: Greg Kumparak No john mayer yet. It’s funky bass beats all the way down, folks.
• 12:53 PM: Greg Kumparak
• 12:53 PM: MG And no Coldplay yet
• 12:53 PM: Greg Kumparak Sideways journalists using their laptops.
• 12:54 PM: MG Nice Greg, crotch shot?
• 12:54 PM: Greg Kumparak @MG: That’s all Biggs’ doing.
• 12:56 PM: Greg Kumparak “Good morning ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to the WWDC 2009 conference!”
• 12:57 PM: Greg Kumparak “At this time, as a courtesy to speakers on stage and fellow attendees, please turn off all cell phones and paging devices”
• 12:57 PM: Greg Kumparak Turn off your paging devices, people. Also, stop carrying pagers.
• 12:57 PM: MG @greg that was one of the best parts of The Hangover
• 12:58 PM: TD765 are they playing Dave Matthews Band
• 12:58 PM: Satish Thanks for ruining the movie guys.
• 12:58 PM: Greg Kumparak Music update: The Submarines – You, Me & The Bourgeoisie
• 12:59 PM: Greg Kumparak Spoiler: The Hangover features guys drinking alcoholic beverages
• 1:00 PM: Greg Kumparak It’s now time for the show to begin. No sign of anyone on stage yet.
• 1:00 PM: Greg Kumparak Lights are down
• 1:00 PM: Greg Kumparak The audience goes bonkers.
• 1:01 PM: Greg Kumparak The music.. continues.
• 1:01 PM: Greg Kumparak Song’s over – it’s time!c
• 1:01 PM: Greg Kumparak New PC/Mac ad.
• 1:01 PM: Greg Kumparak Hodgeman: “Welcome to WWDC!”
• 1:01 PM: Greg Kumparak “I wanted to be the first to wish you a week.. with..some innovation, but not too much”
• 1:01 PM: Greg Kumparak Doing another take:
• 1:02 PM: Greg Kumparak “Okay, hear me out: You’ve sold millions of iPhone apps. isnt that enough? Slow it down”
• 1:02 PM: Greg Kumparak Another take:
• 1:02 PM: Greg Kumparak “*raspberries sound*”
• 1:02 PM: Greg Kumparak “Hello, I’m a mac. What PC is trying to say: Have a great conference”
• 1:02 PM: Greg Kumparak Audience, again, goes bonkers
• 1:02 PM: Greg Kumparak Phil Schiller is on stage
• 1:03 PM: Greg Kumparak “Welcome to the 2009 WWDC. We have an amazing week planned for you. It’s incredible, for all of you — i mean all of you”
• 1:03 PM: Greg Kumparak “Can’t you feel the love in this room?”
• 1:03 PM: Greg Kumparak In 2007, OS X users were at 25 million .
• 1:04 PM: Greg Kumparak In 2009, it’s at 75 million.
• 1:04 PM: Greg Kumparak It took 7 years to get to 25
• 1:04 PM: Greg Kumparak but only 2 to triple it.
• 1:04 PM: Greg Kumparak “We will continue to give you technologies so you can build the best applications”
• 1:05 PM: Greg Kumparak Talking about the unibody macbook line
• 1:06 PM: Greg Kumparak “It let us create a laptop thats sturdier, packed with features, and amazingly thin”
• 1:06 PM: Greg Kumparak Recapping the roll out of unibody to the MB/MBP lines.
• 1:06 PM: Greg Kumparak “Even though we have a huge lead over anybodyelse in the laptop business, we dont want to stop”
• 1:06 PM: Greg Kumparak Brand new 15-inch MBP
• 1:06 PM: Greg Kumparak Just introduced.
• 1:06 PM: Greg Kumparak Built on Unibody
• 1:06 PM: Greg Kumparak Built-in Battery
• 1:06 PM: Greg Kumparak Up to 7 hours of battery life
• 1:07 PM: John Biggs
• 1:07 PM: Greg Kumparak (2 hours more than before)
• 1:07 PM: Greg Kumparak More environmentally friendly.
• 1:07 PM: Greg Kumparak Old batteries would get about 300 recharges before they started to wear down
• 1:07 PM: Greg Kumparak The new ones get 1,000 full recharge cycles
• 1:07 PM: Greg Kumparak Generally, that’s 5 years of life.
• 1:07 PM: John Biggs
• 1:07 PM: Greg Kumparak “Most customers will never need to change the battery in their laptop”, as it’ll last longer than their MBP’s specs will.
• 1:08 PM: John Biggs
• 1:08 PM: Greg Kumparak The new 15″ is just as thin and just as light as the old one.
• 1:08 PM: Greg Kumparak “Nicest display we’ve ever put in a notebook”
• 1:08 PM: John Biggs
• 1:08 PM: Greg Kumparak Something different: New port
• 1:08 PM: Greg Kumparak No express card slot
• 1:08 PM: Greg Kumparak SD Card slot!
• 1:08 PM: Greg Kumparak They’ve replaced the expresscard slot with SD.
• 1:09 PM: Greg Kumparak “Most of our customers use digital cameras – of course, you can plug it in. But customers like the convenience of popping in a card”, goes on to say SD is standard now.
• 1:09 PM: Greg Kumparak Fastest notebook Apple has ever made
• 1:09 PM: Greg Kumparak Up to 3.06 ghz dual core, 6 MB L2 Cache
• 1:09 PM: Greg Kumparak Up to 8 Gigs up 1066 Mhz DDR3
• 1:09 PM: Greg Kumparak Up to 500GB on a spinning disc
• 1:09 PM: Greg Kumparak or 256 GB on a Solid state drive
• 1:10 PM: Greg Kumparak $1699
• 1:10 PM: Greg Kumparak Starting price of the new 15″ MBP: $1699.
• 1:10 PM: John Biggs
• 1:10 PM: Greg Kumparak $1699 with 2.53 ghz, 4gb of ram, 250gb drive, 9400m, sd slot
• 1:10 PM: Greg Kumparak $1999 = 2.6 ghz 4gb DDR3 320gb hdd, 9400m + 9600m GT, SD slot
• 1:11 PM: Greg Kumparak $2299 – 2.8 Ghz, 4gb DDR3, 500gb HDD, 9400m + 9600m GT, SD card slot
• 1:11 PM: Greg Kumparak They’re also updating the 17″
  Goes up to 2.8 ghz
• 1:11 PM: Greg Kumparak 4GB DDR
• 1:11 PM: Greg Kumparak 500Gb drive
• 1:11 PM: Greg Kumparak 9400m/9600M GT
• 1:11 PM: Greg Kumparak $2499 ($300 price drop)
• 1:11 PM: Greg Kumparak Shipping today.
• 1:11 PM: Greg Kumparak Both the 15″ and the revised 17″
• 1:12 PM: Greg Kumparak They’re now talking about the 13″ macbook
• 1:12 PM: Greg Kumparak Revised model
• 1:12 PM: Greg Kumparak 7 hours of battery life (2 hours more than before)
• 1:12 PM: Greg Kumparak Built in battery
• 1:12 PM: John Biggs
• 1:12 PM: Greg Kumparak Same “Incredible, new, vivid color display”
• 1:12 PM: Greg Kumparak Same SD card slot
• 1:12 PM: Greg Kumparak The macbook didn’t have an expresscard slot before, so it was a bit of a squeeze
• 1:13 PM: Greg Kumparak “What other things could we add to just make it a Macbook Pro?”
• 1:13 PM: Greg Kumparak Up to 8GB of ram.
• 1:13 PM: Greg Kumparak Backlit keyboard!
• 1:13 PM: Greg Kumparak And a firewire 800 port!
• 1:13 PM: Greg Kumparak 13″ Macbook is now a Macbook Pro.
• 1:13 PM: Greg Kumparak $1199.
• 1:14 PM: Greg Kumparak The new 13″ Macbook (now a Pro model) will be $1199.
• 1:14 PM: Greg Kumparak Base model is $1199, 2.25 ghz 2GB DDR3, 9400m Graphics, 160GB hdd, Sd card slot
• 1:14 PM: Greg Kumparak $1499: 2.53 ghz, 4 gigs of ddr3, 9400m, sd card slot
• 1:14 PM: Greg Kumparak Available today.
• 1:15 PM: John Biggs
• 1:15 PM: John Biggs
• 1:15 PM: Greg Kumparak They’re also updating the Macbook Air
• 1:15 PM: Greg Kumparak 1.86 ghz for $1499
• 1:15 PM: Greg Kumparak $300 price drop
• 1:16 PM: Greg Kumparak Higher end MB Air: 2.13 ghz with a 128GB solid state drive, $1799
• 1:16 PM: Greg Kumparak (Thats a $700 price drop)
• 1:16 PM: Greg Kumparak Every Macbook, Macbook Pro, and Air meets energy star requirement V5 – which isn’t even standard till summer.
• 1:16 PM: Greg Kumparak “The world’s greenest lineup of notebooks”
• 1:17 PM: John Biggs
• 1:17 PM: Greg Kumparak They’re moving on to OS X
• 1:17 PM: John Biggs
• 1:17 PM: Greg Kumparak Someone else entered the stage; I missed the name, but I believe it was Bertrand Sertlet
  
• 1:17 PM: Greg Kumparak Discussing OS X’s merits.
• 1:18 PM: Greg Kumparak How great it is, how great reviews have been.
• 1:18 PM: Greg Kumparak Says “What a contrast”, with Windows Vista logo on the screen.
• 1:18 PM: Greg Kumparak “Even with Windows 7, you have all the same technologies: DLLs, the registry, disk defragging. Users should never have to know about that.”
• 1:18 PM: Greg Kumparak Just made a jab at UAC hassles in Windows Vista/7
• 1:19 PM: Greg Kumparak “Our challenge was to build a better Leopard”
• 1:19 PM: John Biggs
• 1:20 PM: John Biggs
• 1:20 PM: Greg Kumparak Brief mention of Exchange support in Snow Leopard.
• 1:20 PM: John Biggs
• 1:20 PM: John Biggs
• 1:20 PM: Greg Kumparak “We love the way the finder is in Leopard – so we didn’t change a thing. At least, not the user interface”
• 1:20 PM: Greg Kumparak Finder has been rewritten in Cocoa:
• 1:20 PM: Greg Kumparak Listing differences quickly
• 1:20 PM: Greg Kumparak Faster icon drawing
  Faster trash emptying
• 1:20 PM: Greg Kumparak New disc eject manager
• 1:21 PM: Greg Kumparak “My desktop now has a little too much clutter. We’ve had expose.. so we built expose into the dock”
• 1:21 PM: Greg Kumparak (Meh)
• 1:21 PM: Greg Kumparak The installation process has been sped up by 45%.
• 1:22 PM: Greg Kumparak Updating to Snow Leopard will actually save you 6GB of space, thanks to compression technologies
• 1:22 PM: Greg Kumparak They’re discussing text selection in PDFs; it’s now handled much more logically.
• 1:23 PM: Greg Kumparak People clap, because people are strange.
• 1:23 PM: Greg Kumparak Mail has been sped up across the board
• 1:23 PM: John Biggs
• 1:23 PM: Greg Kumparak Now on to discussing Safari
• 1:24 PM: Greg Kumparak Final version of Safari 4 will ship today for Leopard, Tiger, and Windows XP/Vista
• 1:24 PM: Greg Kumparak Benchmarking Safari’s javascript
• 1:24 PM: Greg Kumparak Safari 4 Javascript is around 8x faster than IE 8’s
• 1:24 PM: Greg Kumparak 100/100 on the Acid3 test
• 1:24 PM: Greg Kumparak Showing IE8’s score: 21/100
• 1:25 PM: Greg Kumparak “Crash resistance”
• 1:25 PM: Greg Kumparak “The #1 reason for crashes is actually plugins” If your plugin crashes in Safari 4, it’s no problem
• 1:25 PM: John Biggs
• 1:25 PM: Greg Kumparak they’ve seperated plugins into a seperate process
• 1:25 PM: John Biggs
• 1:26 PM: John Biggs
• 1:26 PM: Greg Kumparak If a plugin fails, it’ll just load the “Plugin not found” graphic and keep ticking.
• 1:26 PM: Greg Kumparak New version of Quicktime
• 1:26 PM: Greg Kumparak “Quicktime X”
• 1:26 PM: Greg Kumparak Modern Foundation
• 1:26 PM: Greg Kumparak Hardware acceleration
  Color Sync
• 1:26 PM: Greg Kumparak HTTP Streaming
• 1:26 PM: Greg Kumparak New UI for Quicktime
• 1:27 PM: Greg Kumparak Looks very similar to the preview window.
• 1:27 PM: Greg Kumparak If you pull the mouse away, the border and all play controls fade away
• 1:27 PM: Greg Kumparak so it’s purely video, floating along.
• 1:27 PM: Greg Kumparak Craig Federighi is on stage, VP of Mac OS Engineering.
• 1:27 PM: John Biggs
• 1:27 PM: John Biggs
• 1:27 PM: Greg Kumparak That’s the new, new quicktime Logo.
• 1:28 PM: Greg Kumparak Talking about stacks:
  Stacks have scrolling support, and you can jump into folders directly within stacks
• 1:28 PM: Greg Kumparak Thumbnail sizes can now be magnified on the fly in finder.
• 1:28 PM: Greg Kumparak You can page through PDFs right on the thumbnail
• 1:28 PM: Greg Kumparak You can preview videos right within the thumbnail
• 1:29 PM: Greg Kumparak Thumbnail view just became usable, hurray!
• 1:29 PM: Greg Kumparak Back on to discussing Dock Expose
• 1:29 PM: Greg Kumparak Wow, that’s actually really nifty
• 1:29 PM: Greg Kumparak If you click and hold any application icon on your dock
• 1:29 PM: Greg Kumparak it’ll expose just those windows
• 1:30 PM: Greg Kumparak For example, click and hold safari icon: BAM. All your safari windows, expose’d.
• 1:30 PM: John Biggs
• 1:30 PM: Greg Kumparak That includes drag and drop support; you can drag a movie file to the mail icon, and all of your mail windows will line up, allowing you to drag directly to the right one.
• 1:30 PM: Greg Kumparak Demonstrating Safari 4’s speed.
• 1:31 PM: Greg Kumparak It does indeed seem incredibly fast.
• 1:32 PM: Greg Kumparak Demonstrating coverflow view of History, with spotlight search.
• 1:32 PM: Greg Kumparak Demonstrating QuickTime X again.
• 1:33 PM: Greg Kumparak Once again showing that the border, titlebar, and controls fade away when the mouse is pulled away.
• 1:33 PM: Greg Kumparak You can now trim/share videos directly within QuickTime.
• 1:33 PM: Greg Kumparak You can scrub smoothly to find the begin/end point, hit the trim button , then share to iTunes/MobileMe/YouTube.
• 1:34 PM: Greg Kumparak Bertrand is back on stage.
• 1:34 PM: Greg Kumparak Discussing the new technologies available to macs.
• 1:35 PM: Greg Kumparak Recapping RAM enhancements, Intel CPU enhancements, the new GPUs
• 1:35 PM: Greg Kumparak “To take advantage of this, you need the right software”
• 1:35 PM: Greg Kumparak “First – 64 bit. Take advantage of lots and lots of memory. in 32 bit, it has an inherent limit of 4gb. in 64 bit, you’re limited to 16 billion gigabytes.”
• 1:36 PM: Greg Kumparak Discussing how they’re moving more and more towards 64 bit; all major Apple applications are 64 bit in snow leopard.
• 1:36 PM: John Biggs I made the ScribbleLive window longer. Feel free to refresh.
• 1:37 PM: Greg Kumparak Discussing how to take advantage of multi CPU cores and threading.
• 1:37 PM: Greg Kumparak “Grand Central Dispatch”
• 1:37 PM: John Biggs
• 1:37 PM: Greg Kumparak “Its built in support for multicore, across all of Snow Leopard”
• 1:37 PM: Greg Kumparak Language Extension, Multicore engine, object oriented frame work, new system-wide APIs, new Tools (to tune your program)
• 1:37 PM: John Biggs
• 1:38 PM: Greg Kumparak Every time he says “Threads”, I think he’s saying “Freds”
• 1:38 PM: Greg Kumparak Discussing OpenCL support.
• 1:38 PM: John Biggs
• 1:39 PM: Greg Kumparak “We want to move beyond [OpenGL].”
• 1:39 PM: Greg Kumparak “For that, we’ve built OpenCL”
• 1:39 PM: Greg Kumparak Open CL Features: Hardware Abstraction, C-based language, Automatic optimization, Numerical Accuracy.
• 1:39 PM: Greg Kumparak (That last one meaning it can be used for scientific computing)
• 1:40 PM: Greg Kumparak Partners: Samsung, Nvidia, EA, Texas Instruments, Nokia, Qualcomm, Intel, QNX, Freescale, many more.
• 1:40 PM: Greg Kumparak Recapping the 3 major technologies in Snow Leopard: 64-bit across the board, Grand Central Dispatch, OpenCL
• 1:40 PM: Greg Kumparak Moving on to business users – Exchange support coming up
• 1:41 PM: Greg Kumparak “We’ve decided to build exchange support in snow leopard into Mail, iCal, and address book”
• 1:41 PM: Greg Kumparak “You fill in your email address and password – and you’re set, across all 3 apps”
• 1:41 PM: Greg Kumparak They’re about to demo Exchange.
• 1:42 PM: John Biggs Autodiscovery of Exchange servers.
• 1:42 PM: John Biggs Exchange sync is seamless.
• 1:43 PM: John Biggs Spotlight searches Exchange data and you can QuickLook MS Office files right in emails – whether or not you have MS Office installed.
• 1:43 PM: John Biggs Good move towards business users. Invitations work in iCal and in Email. See everything in context.
• 1:44 PM: John Biggs Schedule meetings by dragging contacts into calendar
• 1:44 PM: John Biggs Room availability info now works.
• 1:44 PM: John Biggs Checks for available meeting times in certain rooms.
• 1:44 PM: John Biggs Automatic rescheduling if the meeting room is being used.
• 1:45 PM: John Biggs This is aimed straight at business users.
• 1:46 PM: John Biggs All intel Macs can run Snow Leopard.
• 1:46 PM: John Biggs Snow Leopard costs $29 for Leopard users.
• 1:47 PM: John Biggs Family pack for $49
• 1:47 PM: John Biggs Available this September
• 1:47 PM: John Biggs Today they have a near final Dev Preview
• 1:47 PM: John Biggs
• 1:47 PM: John Biggs
• 1:48 PM: John Biggs
• 1:48 PM: Greg Kumparak iPhone time!
• 1:48 PM: John Biggs iPhone time
• 1:48 PM: Greg Kumparak Over 1,000,000 downloads of the SDK
• 1:48 PM: Greg Kumparak There are now over 50,000 apps in the App Store.
• 1:49 PM: Greg Kumparak “We have already sold over 40 million iPhones and iPod Touches”
• 1:49 PM: Greg Kumparak Discussing the April 23rd/1 billion downloads landmark.
• 1:49 PM: Greg Kumparak “Thank you to our customers – but especially, thank you to the developers”
• 1:50 PM: Greg Kumparak Showing an iPhone developer video
• 1:50 PM: Greg Kumparak Opens up to a major city; looks like Tokyo.
  Shibuya, I believe
• 1:50 PM: Greg Kumparak Panning through multiple developers, telling tales of their experiences with the iPhone.
• 1:51 PM: John Biggs Dizzy Bee guy travels and makes games
• 1:51 PM: John Biggs
• 1:52 PM: John Biggs
• 1:52 PM: Greg Kumparak Still more experiences; MLB.com guy telling of seeing a ton of people download their MLB.com app right as an Apple commercial featuring it airs
• 1:53 PM: Greg Kumparak (It’s still the video, by the way)
• 1:53 PM: John Biggs
• 1:55 PM: Greg Kumparak Video’s over.
• 1:55 PM: John Biggs Owe the amazing years to Developers
• 1:55 PM: John Biggs iPhone OS 3.0
• 1:55 PM: Greg Kumparak Over 100 new features in iPhone os 3.0
• 1:55 PM: Greg Kumparak Recapping Cut/Copy/Paste
• 1:56 PM: Greg Kumparak Cut, copy, paste: Works across apps, undo support, developer APIs – still mostly a recap.
• 1:56 PM: Greg Kumparak Now recapping Landscape support in first-party apps
• 1:57 PM: Greg Kumparak Recapping MMS
• 1:57 PM: John Biggs
• 1:57 PM: Greg Kumparak Support for sending Photos, contacts, audio files, etc over the cell network
• 1:57 PM: John Biggs
• 1:58 PM: Greg Kumparak 24 carriers will support iphone MMS at launch
• 1:58 PM: Greg Kumparak Recapping search now: Search throughout contacts, calendars, notes, email, etc
• 1:58 PM: Greg Kumparak “The great part about searching your email:” not just local messages, but messages that are back on your mail server.
• 1:58 PM: Greg Kumparak Spotlight page recap: One page, searches across the phone.
• 1:59 PM: Greg Kumparak Confirms movie rentals/purchases from the phone.
• 1:59 PM: Greg Kumparak You can also purchase tv shows/audio books/etc on the go.
• 1:59 PM: Greg Kumparak “And because we care deeply about education: Support for iTunes U, right on the phone”
• 2:00 PM: Greg Kumparak Parental Controls:
• 2:00 PM: John Biggs
• 2:00 PM: Greg Kumparak In addition to controls we already support, such as youtube/safari support, we’ve added other items:
• 2:00 PM: Greg Kumparak You can now filter by movie/tv-show content via parental controls.
• 2:00 PM: Greg Kumparak You can now limit app usage by age ratings.
• 2:00 PM: Greg Kumparak Tethering:
• 2:01 PM: Greg Kumparak Tethering works w/ Mac/PC, USB or Bluetooth
• 2:01 PM: Greg Kumparak “It is a seamless experience – once it’s on, there’s no need for tethering software on your computer”
• 2:01 PM: John Biggs
• 2:01 PM: Greg Kumparak “Like MMS, it requires carrier support. 22 carriers at launch. Telefonica, TIM, Rogers, more”
• 2:02 PM: John Biggs
• 2:02 PM: Greg Kumparak Aaaand no mention of AT&T.
• 2:02 PM: Greg Kumparak Audience groans.
• 2:02 PM: John Biggs
• 2:02 PM: John Biggs
• 2:02 PM: John Biggs
• 2:02 PM: Greg Kumparak Safari Mobile: Javascript is now 3x faster
• 2:02 PM: John Biggs
• 2:02 PM: Greg Kumparak Support for HTTP streaming audio/video
• 2:03 PM: Greg Kumparak It automatically picks the proper quality based off your connection
• 2:03 PM: Greg Kumparak And works through firewalls, as it’s HTTP>
• 2:03 PM: Greg Kumparak Discussing password autofill
• 2:03 PM: Greg Kumparak Safari can now autofill forms for you based on what’s in your contacts.
• 2:04 PM: Greg Kumparak Safari 4 recap: Performance upgrades, HTTP streaming, Auto fill, hTML 5.
• 2:04 PM: John Biggs
• 2:04 PM: John Biggs
• 2:04 PM: Greg Kumparak New language support is OS 3.0:
• 2:04 PM: Greg Kumparak Hebrew, Arabic, Greek
• 2:04 PM: Greg Kumparak Korean, and Thai
• 2:04 PM: Greg Kumparak “We now support more than 30 languages”
• 2:05 PM: John Biggs
• 2:05 PM: Greg Kumparak Discussing find my iPhone feature
• 2:05 PM: Greg Kumparak “If you’ve ever lost or misplaced your phone, it can be tramatic”
• 2:05 PM: Greg Kumparak Hah!
• 2:05 PM: Greg Kumparak Rolling to a video
• 2:05 PM: Greg Kumparak It’s the 30 rock crew!
• 2:06 PM: Greg Kumparak Liz Lemon has lost a phone w/ her nudie pics
• 2:07 PM: John Biggs FindMyIphone: MobileMe Service
• 2:07 PM: John Biggs Lose your iphone, it’ll show you on a map where it is.
• 2:07 PM: John Biggs Send your phone a message via landline
• 2:07 PM: John Biggs Alert sound plays whether phone is on silent or not
• 2:08 PM: John Biggs Send remote wipe command if it’s lost or stolen
• 2:09 PM: John Biggs In app purchase. Financial transactions within the app.
• 2:09 PM: John Biggs Renew magazine subscriptions. Sell additional game packs in games.
• 2:09 PM: John Biggs Free apps remain free. No bait and switch.
• 2:09 PM: John Biggs
• 2:09 PM: John Biggs Peer-to-peer game connectivity.
• 2:10 PM: John Biggs
• 2:10 PM: John Biggs No pairing needed
• 2:10 PM: John Biggs Accessories – Opening up hardware accessory devs
• 2:11 PM: John Biggs Software apps that talk right to accessories. 1-touch-blood glucose monitor.
• 2:11 PM: John Biggs Maps
• 2:11 PM: John Biggs Embed google maps right into your applications
• 2:12 PM: John Biggs Custom map apps
• 2:12 PM: John Biggs Turn by turn direction applications
• 2:12 PM: John Biggs Push notifications
• 2:12 PM: John Biggs Generic push notification service.
• 2:13 PM: John Biggs push numeric badges, messages, and alert sounds
• 2:13 PM: John Biggs Some devs are coming up who have already used iPhone 3.0
• 2:13 PM: John Biggs GameLoft’s Mark Hickey is coming up
• 2:14 PM: John Biggs Asphalt 5
• 2:14 PM: John Biggs Gameloft
• 2:14 PM: John Biggs Buggati, BMW, Audi cars
• 2:14 PM: John Biggs Play iPod music inside games.
• 2:15 PM: John Biggs New controls and graphics. Console quality games.
• 2:16 PM: John Biggs In game voice chat. Content packs – racetracks and cars
• 2:16 PM: John Biggs
• 2:17 PM: John Biggs Medical community flocking to iPhone
• 2:17 PM: John Biggs
• 2:18 PM: John Biggs
• 2:18 PM: John Biggs
• 2:18 PM: John Biggs See patient’s vital signs on an app
• 2:18 PM: John Biggs Real-time data straight out of iPhone
• 2:18 PM: John Biggs
• 2:18 PM: John Biggs
• 2:19 PM: John Biggs
• 2:19 PM: John Biggs Airstrip critical care is getting FDA approval shortly.
• 2:20 PM: John Biggs
• 2:20 PM: John Biggs ScrollMotion is now on stage
• 2:21 PM: John Biggs They’ve partnered with a ton of magazine and book publishers
• 2:21 PM: John Biggs They’re now demonstrating the “In App Bookshelf” and the “Iceberg Store”
• 2:21 PM: John Biggs in which you can purchase books right within the App.
• 2:22 PM: John Biggs For Students: Copy/Paste right from a book, allowing you to email quotes directly
• 2:22 PM: John Biggs along w/ the bibliographic info.
• 2:22 PM: John Biggs Text books coming to the app store via Iceberg reader.
• 2:22 PM: John Biggs Now on stage: TomTom
• 2:24 PM: John Biggs Demonstrating TomTom turn-by-turn nav
• 2:25 PM: John Biggs Showing off a TomTom branded iPhone holder
• 2:25 PM: John Biggs “Thanks to the accessory framework, we can enhance your GPS signal”
• 2:25 PM: John Biggs Plus a built in speaker/mic for the sake of handsfree
• 2:25 PM: John Biggs “And yes, we’ll play your music over the car stereo”
• 2:27 PM: john
• 2:28 PM: John Biggs Demonstrating Star Defense
• 2:28 PM: John Biggs Next up: NGMoco
• 2:28 PM: John Biggs
• 2:29 PM: John Biggs PASCO teaching tools
• 2:31 PM: John Biggs spark application.
• 2:31 PM: John Biggs PASCO science experiments for kids – sensors that connect to iPhone
• 2:33 PM: John Biggs Do science anytime anywhere.
• 2:33 PM: John Biggs Demonstrated – but failed – on a pressure measurement.
• 2:33 PM: John Biggs ZipCar
• 2:34 PM: john
• 2:35 PM: John Biggs ZipCar icon instantly finds and reserves a zipcar
• 2:35 PM: John Biggs Sorry this is so boring, guys.
• 2:36 PM: John Biggs You reserve cars right on the iPhone, add cars to favorites. You can then press the horn icon on the iPhone and the zipcar will beep at you.
• 2:36 PM: John Biggs Once you come up to the car you tap unlock to unlock it.
• 2:37 PM: John Biggs Shows available zipcars nearby
• 2:37 PM: John Biggs YAY. Final demo. Line 6 and Planet Waves
• 2:37 PM: John Biggs Control your guitar and your amp from your iPhone
• 2:37 PM: John Biggs Bringing out a guitar
• 2:38 PM: John Biggs No mention of Flash
• 2:38 PM: John Biggs MIDI Mobilizer
• 2:38 PM: John Biggs Directly connect and iPhone to a Line 6 amp and guitar
• 2:39 PM: John Biggs Kind of like automatic pedals
• 2:39 PM: John Biggs Adjust parameters on the fly – gain, etc.
• 2:39 PM: John Biggs Acoustic twelve string
• 2:40 PM: John Biggs VariX guitar – move pick-ups and body style from the screen.
• 2:40 PM: John Biggs Change tuning virtually.
  
• 2:40 PM: John Biggs Rig Remote software. Veta amp has guitar models built-in. You tap a button to select the sound model.
• 2:40 PM: greg Wuhoh. This demo failed too. These folks aren’t having too much luck
• 2:41 PM: John Biggs Looks like we’re hitting the end of demos
• 2:42 PM: John Biggs End of iPhone OS 3.0
• 2:42 PM: John Biggs Free for iPhone customers – original and iPhone 3G
• 2:42 PM: John Biggs $9.95 for iPod touch customers
• 2:42 PM: John Biggs Available June 17 worldwide
• 2:43 PM: John Biggs Devs get GM seed for iPhone 3.0
• 2:43 PM: John Biggs Calls of action: go to iTunes Connect and assign a parental control age rating for your app. Download the 3.0 seed. Submit an update.
• 2:44 PM: John Biggs Phil Schiller back up on stage.
• 2:44 PM: John Biggs iPhone 3G is a hit
• 2:44 PM: John Biggs Phone that changed phones forever. Changes who people thing about phones.
• 2:46 PM: John Biggs Nokia Ovi store, Palm, all have no apps.
• 2:46 PM: John Biggs iPhone 3GS!!!!
• 2:46 PM: John Biggs iPhone 3Gs SPEED
• 2:46 PM: John Biggs s stands for Speed
• 2:46 PM: John Biggs Same great design
• 2:47 PM: John Biggs Really fast iPhone
• 2:47 PM: John Biggs 2.4 x faster to play games
• 2:47 PM: John Biggs 3.6x faster
• 2:48 PM: John Biggs 3x faster javascript
• 2:48 PM: John Biggs OPEN GL|ES 2.0
• 2:48 PM: John Biggs 7.2 Mbps HSDPA
• 2:48 PM: john
• 2:48 PM: greg Roughly 2x faster over all
• 2:48 PM: John Biggs Brand new camera
• 2:49 PM: John Biggs 3 megapixel autofocus camera
• 2:49 PM: john
• 2:50 PM: John Biggs Tap to focus. Tap on items to focus on stuff. Tap on house – focus on house. Tap on flower – focus on flower.
• 2:50 PM: John Biggs Images coming
• 2:50 PM: John Biggs Auto macro
• 2:50 PM: John Biggs Also captures video
• 2:51 PM: John Biggs Still or Movie
• 2:52 PM: John Biggs edit video with a tap of your finger. share from iPhone – send MMS, send email, send YouTube, MobileMe
• 2:53 PM: John Biggs Most popular video camera
• 2:53 PM: greg 30 FPS VGA, auto lighting, auto focus,
• 2:54 PM: John Biggs dial friends and family with voice
• 2:56 PM: John Biggs Hold down home button
• 2:57 PM: John Biggs “Play songs by the killers.”
• 2:57 PM: John Biggs Genius playlist control
• 2:57 PM: John Biggs Built in digital compass
• 2:57 PM: John Biggs some guy just screamed
• 2:57 PM: John Biggs compass app
• 2:57 PM: John Biggs Built in Nike+ support
• 2:57 PM: John Biggs Hardware encryption on the data
• 2:57 PM: greg The wwdc network just melted. Compass confirmed. map auto orients.
  Nike plus support.
• 2:57 PM: greg Hardware encryption: when you wipe, it’s instant.

  Sent from my iPhone

• 2:57 PM: john
• 2:58 PM: John Biggs Instant wipe with encryption
• 2:58 PM: John Biggs Improved battery life
• 2:58 PM: John Biggs 9 hours internet surfing 30 hours of music listening
• 2:58 PM: John Biggs Greenest iPhone yet
• 2:58 PM: greg

  Sent from my iPhone

• 2:58 PM: John Biggs No images for now, guys. Our network is getting saturated.
• 2:59 PM: John Biggs iPhone 3G – price
• 2:59 PM: John Biggs $199
• 2:59 PM: John Biggs 16GB version
• 2:59 PM: John Biggs $299 for 32GB version
• 2:59 PM: John Biggs AT&T prices – new and qualifying customers
• 3:00 PM: John Biggs Black and white
• 3:00 PM: John Biggs WE WANT TO REACH EVEN MORE CUSTOMERS
• 3:00 PM: John Biggs Keep iPhone 3G at $99
• 3:00 PM: John Biggs WHOMP
• 3:00 PM: John Biggs High end smartphone for $99
• 3:01 PM: John Biggs Starts today. New iPhone 3G on sale today for $99 (8GB)
• 3:01 PM: John Biggs iPhone 3GS available June 19
• 3:01 PM: John Biggs US canada france germany switzerland
• 3:01 PM: John Biggs July 09 roll out rest of world
• 3:01 PM: John Biggs 80 countries
• 3:02 PM: John Biggs showing new ad
• 3:03 PM: John Biggs WWDC BINGO WIN
• 3:04 PM: John Biggs 11 minutes of battery life
• 3:04 PM: John Biggs left on my MacBook Pro
• 3:04 PM: John Biggs Thanking all the teams
• 3:04 PM: John Biggs June 19 should be in UK, Dave
• 3:04 PM: Dave Bondy Why no 3GS in the UK on June 19! What game are Apple / O2 playing?
• 3:05 PM: John Biggs I just didn’t get to type it
• 3:05 PM: John Biggs NO ONE MORE THING
• 3:05 PM: John Biggs :(
• 3:05 PM: John Biggs ok, guys. thanks for tuning in.
• 3:05 PM: John Biggs No Jobs

WWDC 2009 is next week but don’t let that stop you from opining on the majesty of the upcoming iPhone 3G II Jr. ++. We know for a fact that you’ll have background tasks running in 3.0 and we’ve confirmed the luminous Apple logo (!!) but did you know you’ll be able to record videos, use Nike+iPod services, and download movies? What a treat!

The big image shows just about everything the world currently knows about this thing so feast your eyes and prepare for the most important day of the year – iPhone day.

Oh, look, it’s the Scratch Deck: The controller for the Scratch DJ game
Japanese toilet paper “Drop” is the scariest toilet paper you’ve ever seen
Video Review: Bleep Labs Thingamagoop
Hacking your Nike+iPod to open your door
WowWee Hoverpod looks like a shoe, will not cut off small fingers

This Sparkfun project by Nate creates a keyless entry fob for a Mazda using a Nike+iPod kit, allowing you to leave your car keys at home. Using a serial board you can read the input and output bits of the footpod and grab signals and decode them.

He then used an Arduino Pro Mini connected to the lock and unlock wires in the car. Now all he has to do is walk up to the vehicle and it unlocks automatically.

While testing I found the range of the transmitter (the footpod) was really pretty impressive at 50+ feet. This was cool, but I didn’t want my car to be unlocking/lock while walking around my house or office. To cut down on the reception, I sabotaged the antenna. I could have hacked into the footpod, but then it wouldn’t have fit so nice in my pocket. Instead, I completely wrapped the receiver with a few layers of aluminum foil. This cut the reception down to 20-25ft. Jeesh! What do I have to do to kill the power on these things? These devices are designed and built very well!

RunKeeper is a fairly unique product. It uses the iPhone’s G.P.S. to trace your tracks through the city. I tried it in San Francisco with varying results but it’s definitely a step up from Nike+iPod’s pedometer estimation techniques, which have ultimately failed me many times.

Nike+iPod uses the motion of your feet – or foot – to estimate the distance traveled. While this is fine for a two mile jaunt around the park, this became amazingly frustrating during my longer runs. Either it read to low, giving me false hope, or read too high and made me cry. This G.P.S. system, however, gives an accurate reading of your pace and distance and then plots your trip on Google Maps once you get home.

I talked with the creator of RunKeeper, Jason Jacobs, and he explained that he is working on updating the software to offer more mapping functions during the run as well as a compass. Watches like the Garmin ForeRunner can track your distance and pace and even get you home in a pinch and to add this functionality to the iPhone would be quite nice.

Sadly the G.P.S. inside the iPhone was fairly imprecise during some of my runs, resulting in readings of 60 minute miles. However, these were taken during runs in SFO, leading me to believe that folks in wider open cities might be better served.

RunKeeper costs $9.99 and is available from the iPhone App Store. It only works with the iPhone 3G.

Doing some digging, AppleInsider found this patent filing dealing with the next generation of Nike+iPod. The beefed up exercise program would be able to provider users more accurate and more detailed information. For example, it would take into account the user’s age, weight and gender in order to provide a more thorough fitness snapshot.

The new system would also tell users when certain garments of closing have reached their sell-by date. “These shoes are too old to provide you the appropriate amount of support.” That type of thing.

There’d be additional odds and ends, including a GPS chip. This chip, along with being used for proper exercise info, would also help display ads. “Hey, you’re 300 meters away from a Starbucks. Wanna go?” Tremendous.

Of course, this being a patent filing, it’s possible that none of these features will ever see the light of day.

I picked up five 32GB iPod Touches yesterday at the Apple store – we gave away some at TC50 and our benefactor Michael Arrington wanted two – and I can confirm that the Touch is worth looking into if you’re hunting for all the power of the iPhone without all the “cancer,” “dropped calls,” and “service charges.” Not that cellphones give you cancer, but there’s always a possibility.

After working with it briefly at the event on Tuesday I wasn’t convinced that the Nano 4G was an interesting update but was feeling lots of love to the new Touch. Now that I have it and have been using it for a day or so I’m pleased to report my initial impressions were correct.

The Nike+ iPod application is great – it’s just what I expected and it works seamlessly with the little Nike puck. Most of the applications work except for the G.P.S. based ones. The built-in map “fake” G.P.S. is abysmal though – it thought I was Boston last night when I was clearly in San Francisco.

The device is also extremely thin – thinner than the 1G model – and nice and responsive. Sadly, it’s a horrible fingerprint magnet. I expect to rub off the chrome very shortly. If you have a Classic or a Nano and want something to watch movies on and, to a degree, exercise with, you can’t go wrong with this. If you bought a 1G model, however, ignore this and enjoy what you have. The 3G should be a long shortly and you can upgrade then.

The first “gadget” we’ve seen at TC50 is the FitBit, a wireless 3D pedometer and diet monitoring system that will cost $99 and connect online to upload activity levels and food intake. The device clips to almost any piece of clothing and is almost invisible. When you pass by the wireless base station the FitBit transmits all of its collected data and transmits it to the website where it is processed. You can also add food eaten and other data and it also tracks sleeping patterns.

The founder already lost 15 pounds using an early version of the device simply by becoming mindful of his activity and calories burned. The product is similar to the Nike+iPod gear available now but the wireless sync is the real draw in this case. It’s a fascinating product and definitely a compelling little widget that could a lot of us a lot of good. Knocking off 15 pounds on my orotund Polish-Hungarian frame would be nice.

The second generation of the iPod Touch reminds me a lot of a video game franchise like EA Sports’ John Madden Football. Every year there’s a new version out and every year the new version is basically the version from the year before with a couple of minor changes. Don’t get me wrong, I think my first-generation iPod Touch is one of the most impressive gadgets I’ve purchased in quite some time, but I see very little reason to buy the new version.

If you’re looking to get an iPod Touch, go ahead and buy the new one. But if you already have the first generation, read on to see if it’s worth it for you to upgrade.

Here’s a comparison chart for the two iPod Touch devices:

Press Materials:

Here’s the press release for the first iPod Touch. It mentions the revolutionary 3.5-inch multi-touch display, wireless networking, long battery life, small form factor, built-in accelerometer, and low starting price.

Here’s the press release for the new iPod Touch. It mentions the revolutionary 3.5-inch multi-touch display, wireless networking, long battery life, small form factor, built-in accelerometer, and low starting price.

It also mentions Nike + iPod support, a built-in speaker, and compatibility with the new iTunes 8 Genius feature. Oh, and it says the new iPod Touch is smaller and lighter than the old one. Smaller, no, unless you count the new curves. Lighter, yes – by a paltry .15 ounces. These things, along with longer battery life, seem to be the only notable new features. Let’s look a little closer at each one now.

Nike + iPod

If you own an iPod Touch and can imagine running with it, then maybe you’d like this feature. I run a little and I own an iPod Touch. I’d never, ever, ever go running with it, though. The thought of rubbing my fat, greasy, sweaty fingers all over the face of the device in order to change tracks doesn’t appeal to me at all. I have a hard enough time keeping the screen clean as it is. Multi-touch + sweat = no thanks.

Built-in Speaker

I concede that this is a nice addition, for sure. People complained about the first generation not having a built-in speaker and Apple added one. Nice work. Whether you’d actually use this feature or not is another story. I might, but it’s not important enough for me to go out and replace my current iPod Touch.

iTunes 8 Genius Compatibility

I really find it hard to believe that this is something that couldn’t be added to a first generation Touch via a software update or as a hack. As it stands, though, I spend most of my day trying to avoid what other people think is good music. All I’d need is for Big Girls Don’t Cry by Fergie to magically end up on my iPod before I bite down on the screen until sparks shoot out.

UPDATE: Just plugged my first-gen Touch into iTunes 8 and there’s a new version 2.1 software update that adds Genius playlist creation to my device. So that’s not a noteworthy feature for the new iPod Touch after all.

Longer Battery Life

Good, great, grand. Although the major difference is in audio longevity, not video longevity. You get just one extra hour of video but you go from 22 to 36 hours for audio. I’ve never really thought that the Touch’s battery life was all that short to begin with, though. Recharging time, too, now takes longer. From 1.5 up to 2 hours for a quick charge and from 3 up to 4 hours for a full charge. The extra battery life is nice but, still, it’s no reason to rush out and replace the first generation.

In Conclusion

If you really, really want that Nike + iPod integration, slightly longer battery life, and the built-in speaker, then maybe it’s time to put your first-gen Touch on eBay. Also, if you’re new to the iPod Touch, then by all means get the new one. Current Touch owners have very little reason to trade up, though.

But Wait!

If this new headset with built-in microphone — which Apple claims is compatible with the second generation iPod Touch – is able to work some VOIP magic, things might get mighty interesting. It’s supposedly for voice memos and recording but if there’s an easy way to use VOIP services, preferably allowed by Apple without having to hack the device, it’d make upgrading a bit more enticing. Especially for people who want a device like the iPhone but don’t want to shell out $70+ per month to AT&T.

I was never a Touch man. I loved the iPhone but the Touch never drove me to drink in quite the same way. I am pleased, however, to report that I’m getting me a 32GB Touch as soon as the Apple Store opens tomorrow. Why? A few reasons.

First and foremost I love the Nike+ iPod integration. This is absolutely the best thing they could have done, especially for runners. The 2G touch is quite thin and would work well as a small waist- or arm-banded device for workouts and not having to have a tiny little dongle hanging off the end is excellent. Apple will also be selling the little Nike+ pucks separately now.

Secondly, the Apps are becoming quite compelling, especially for gaming. This is Apple’s second chance at gaming. The DS is doing extremely well and the PSP is, well, sucking wind. This is a great opportunity for Apple to enter the casual handheld gaming market as a winner, not an also ran. Some of the other Apps are hit or miss, but it’s nice to have choice.

Finally, the pricing is very agreeable. $229 is a nice point to start and $399 for 32GB of flash memory isn’t great but it’s not outrageous. As a movie device, this thing will be second to only the iPhone.

Maybe I’m being irrational: I have the Classic, I have an old 3G iPod, I have a two nanos – a fat and a long one. But fit, finish, and software are excellent on this one. I did notice a lot of smudging on the back during the hands-on but that’s to be expected. Generally, however, this is a major improvement design and feature wise over the 1G Touch.

There you go kiddies. Apple has opened its floodgates for the masses. The new 120GB iPod classic, NIKE+ iPod Touch and 8GB Nano are shipping today, with the 16GB Nano’s shipping early next week and $79, two-way headphones shipping next month.

iPod Touch is going up-scale with an iPhone shape, stainless steel backing and built-in NIKE+. Plus, Apple threw in a speaker and auto genius playlist, essentially making a radio station like experience. Other than that, the 3.5-inch screen, 802.11 b/g and App Store are going to remain the same. The ‘deets about the NIKE+ app is a little sketchy this early on, but at least with built in hardware, there is no need for a receiver. Expect 36 hours of music or 6 hours of video out of the new battery too. The new Touch comes with upgrade two-way headphones with the 8GB going for $229, 16GB for $299, and the 32GB for $399. The new model is available today.