Look at dem apples!

I am still just a little kid at heart - getting excited about new things.

In my youth it was the excitement of a new StarWars film coming out. But now it’s new hardware and software that gives me a mental stiffy.

Yesterday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs did another one of his Keynote speeches and announced a whole new set of iPods, software and hardware. I sat on my sofa and streamed the whole thing! Over 1 hours worth!

• The iPod will get a brighter screen, more battery life, some new search features and better quality video.
• The iPod Nano will get larger memory capacity, an aluminium casing - also available in different colors, and all of the same new features that its larger brother has now got.
• The iPod shuffle has been totally redesigned and is now “the smallest MP3 player in the world!” coming in at a tiny 1.6 inches long! It also has it’s own clip to allow it to be attached to your clothing, belt, nipple etc.
• iTunes gets an upgrade to version 7 and features new album art based browsing features, a slight new design and iPod managability sections. You also get free album art downloaded for any CDs you have ripped - as long as you have an iTunes account.
• iTunes will offer movies for sale (US only at the moment). They will be at 640×480 resolution which is apparently “near DVD quality”.

Steve also demo’ed their new upcoming product which, at the moment, is known as “iTV“.

This small box, similar in design to the MacMini will plug into your TV and will allow streaming of audio, video, photos, podcasts and movie trailers wirelessly direct to your screen. It will work with iTunes on PCs and Macs. Almost like having “Front Row” plugged into your TV.

This iTV device is what impressed me most. I have used iTunes to share music between my PC and Macbook and it works perfectly and without any hassles at all. If the iTV can do this for visual and audio content that can be displayed on the TV - then it will be brilliant! I hope that it will also allow streaming content of movies you have imported into iTunes. DivX is pretty cool - but can be difficult to get working on remote devices due to different compression ratios and codecs being used in the creation process. I assume that converting them to H.264, the compression codec used by Quicktime will allow them to work on the iTV too.

The iTV is coming out early next year and looks freakin cool.

I want one already!