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Apple iPod Touch 64GB Lands Without a Camera and Nano Can’t Take Stills – Here’s Why

by Jay Garrett on September 10, 2009

iPod Touch 64GBYup – There’s now a 64GB iPod Touch!

Yay!!

Notice the pic with the free engraving service?

As Mr Schiller said last night :”There’s something for everyone” on the Touch and iPhone, Schiller says, with over 21,000 titles for games and entertainment in the App Store.

He went on to say:

“$199 is a magic price point in the iPod market” so the iPod Touch will be lowered in price to just $199 for the 8GB model. For $299, customers can get a 32GB model, and for just $399 a 64GB model will be added to store shelves. It will be up to 50 per cent faster in “almost everything you do”. “This is what the next generation games will be using”, apparently.

It was all going so well with the Nano 5G getting a video camera but then the unspeakable happened…….

None of the Touch range will be similarly equipped!

Eh?

Steve Jobs who returned to the stage was interviewed by David Pogue of the New York Times after the launch and was posed that very question.

His answer was: “Originally, we weren’t exactly sure how to market the Touch. Was it an iPhone without the phone? Was it a pocket computer? What happened was, what customers told us was, they started to see it as a game machine,’ he said. ‘We started to market it that way, and it just took off. And now what we really see is it’s the lowest-cost way to the App Store, and that’s the big draw. So what we were focused on is just reducing the price to $199. We don’t need to add new stuff. We need to get the price down where everyone can afford it.”

So – Money then.

Apple seem to want to attract folk over to the fruity side with a cheaper gaming challenger to the PSP and DS than to add some extra functionality.

The other way of looking at it would be that Apple want to test the water using the Nano before rolling it out on it’s premium touchscreen player.

Leaving no stone unturned Pogue also asked why the Nano only shoots video.

Apparently that’s a ‘technical’ decision as the sensors you need to record video are extremely thin and as such are able to be squeezed into the slim Nano.

However, the ones with enough resolution for stills, especially with autofocus (like the sensor in the iPhone), are too thick for the Nano right now.

There you go my gadgety faithful.

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Big Screen Kindle on way to UK

by Jay G on May 4, 2009

plasticlogicelectronicreadingdeviceWord is spreading throughout the interweblogosphere stating that Amazon is about to release yet another, larger screened version of the Kindle as early as this week.

Although not currently available in the UK,the New York Times says that the book e-tailer “will introduce a larger version of its Kindle wireless device tailored for displaying newspapers, magazines and perhaps textbooks.”

There’s been no actual comment from Amazon or any of the newspapers included in the supposed deal (including the New York Times and the FT in the UK) – but that small matter hasn’t stopped the NYT reporting that the folk who are willing to talk and are in the know are saying that a new model is on its way pretty soon.

The Financial Times (that pink newspaper) is recorded as saying that they are “looking at this with a great deal of interest,” which also suggests that the device could be coming to the UK, finally.

“The severe double whammy of the recession and the structural shift to the Internet has created an urgency that has rightly focused attention on these devices,” The FT’s CEO told the paper.

The magazine publisher Hearst and Plastic Logic are also rumoured to be working on an e-reader for their magazine collection.

Many commentators believe an electronic device would allow the papers to once again charge for digital content over readily giving it away for free as they are currently forced to do to compete on the internet.

Could this be the breath of fresh air that the papers and magazines need?

Do you think this is a life-line or noose for the journalistic media?

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