Microsoft brought it’s not-so-anxiously-awaited Zune HD to market today. With its touchscreen, Wi-Fi capability and high-definition video output, the device is intended as an answer to the iPod touch, though it lacks the application marketplace that helped make Apple’s device so popular. And it’s not going to be getting one anytime soon, either.
Apple has sold some 225 million iPods to date, making it one of the most popular electronic devices ever. And it’s sure to sell even more after the updates the company announced at this morning’s event in San Francisco. Among them: Larger, cheaper iPod touches and nanos with cameras and FM radios.
Leave it to Steve Jobs to upstage his own products. Rumored by some analysts to be a nonevent, Apple’s invitation-only music gathering today is already proving quite eventful. Audience members expecting Apple exec Phil Schiller to quarterback today’s proceedings were given a welcome surprise when CEO Steve Jobs took the stage in his first public appearance since his liver transplant surgery.
Today’s Apple event isn’t even underway yet and already the company is making adjustments to its iPod line. Early this morning, with no fanfare whatsoever, not even a “Back Soon” note on the Apple Store, the company lowered the prices of all its iPods save one–the Shuffle.
Apple may not have yet succumbed to the economic malaise that hangs heavy over consumer tech, but it will soon. According to Goldman Sachs, anyway. This morning Goldman Sachs analyst David Bailey downgraded Apple’s stock to neutral from a buy, claiming the company will suffer when consumers continue to rein in spending next year. Worse, it won’t uncrate a magical new product category at Macworld.
To hear tell from AmTech analyst Shaw Wu, Apple’s “Let’s Rock” media event tomorrow may be a bit less rockin’ than the Mac faithful would like to believe. In a research note to clients Friday, Wu said the event could prove a letdown for anyone hoping to see new hardware beyond a fourth-generation iPod nano and a slimmer second-generation iPod touch.
What an ugly week for Apple. Voice and data reception issues plaguing iPhone 3G, MobileMe still not up to company standards, and now reports of sparking iPod Nanos. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is investigating a possible battery defect in Apple’s older iPod Nano music players after receiving reports of minor fires caused by overheating devices.
As back-to-school days draw closer, it’s becoming more and more difficult to separate fan-site buzz from the speculation of analysts. Feeding grist into the Apple rumor mill today is, you guessed it, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who believes Apple will hold a special event next month to debut some new hardware.
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
12:58 AM: Breakfast: Two schools of fish from Tokyo Bay. Calories: 782,000. How I was feeling when I ate this: confused, irradiated, hating my size.
11:37 AM: Exercise: “Taxi Stomp” (alternating legs, for 30 blocks). Calories burned: 148,900,183.
1983. The Beatles announce their first tour in thirteen years, but likewise announce that Michael Jackson will be going on tour with them as a one gigantic mega-concert event.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
… you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous perverts
Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine meet the kakapo — a fat, flightless and very randy rare parrot.
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