What was I saying yesterday about being sick of all the music/Christmas blogging? Sigh…
This however is something well worth paying attention to. It’s not very often that Apple give things away for free, so when they do it’s essential that between us we squeeze as much as possible from them.
From the 26th of December until the 6th of January you will be able to download one free song every day from the iTunes store.
There are two ways of registering for this; 1) Sign up your email address via the 12 Days of Christmas website or 2) Downloading the iPhone app. I’ve tried both and advise the latter, especially if you’re a fan of Kylie, they seem to be offering a free EP on the iPhone app exclusively.
The website doesn’t say if there is a limited number of subscriptions, so get involved now. You can find out everything you need to know about this offer by clicking here.
Just a quick post for those of you who missed yesterday’s Apple news because you live in a cave on the moon or somewhere beneath the ocean – here are the most exciting bits from the keynote;
1) iPod Shuffle – not much new to say here. They have returned to the clip design which I approve of. The voice over feature might be useful; this will say the name of the song, album or playlist to you so you know roughly where in your playlist you are. This has been a genuine problem with previous shuffles. £39 for 2gb is excellent value for money.
2) iPod Touch – consistently the most underwhelming of the iPod range. This new version has made a move inline with the iPhone 4, as was probably to be expected. HD video recording, front facing camera allowing for ‘FaceTime’ blah blah blah. It’s not that I don’t think this is a great product, I do, it’s just that the entry level 8gb model is £189. For that price you could just get an iPhone 4 and have the same product as your mobile phone.
3) Apple TV – you’ve got to give it to Steve Jobs, the guy is persistent. After years of trying to make Apple TV work they are still grinding away. Here is the latest redesign/revamp of the service. I really want this to work and think that the Movie rental feature will be key to its success. Call me a capitalist if you will, but a way to monetize the online video market is something the media has been in desperate need of for years. I will be buying it, I suggest you do the same.
4) iPod Nano - this 6th generation of the iPod Nano has taken my first place award as the best announcement of last night. A brilliant multi-touch screen on a device that clips to your jacket is inspired. If I didn’t already own an iPhone 4 this would be the iPod for me. At £129 for the basic 8gb I think that these will sell quicker than any of the other new announcements. Watch the video below for full details.
The Audio Can has a single mini-jack input to accommodate portable music sources, and several cans can be daisy-chained together for the ultimate in surround technology. Imagine the shopping cart theater! Presently only available form ebay for around $44, you can order the Audio Can with a fashionable gray, yellow, or green label. Why not collect all three?
The Audio Can from designer Dean Brown is not a headphone; it’s an actual can that used to house normal things like cat food. Brown was apparently inspired by the old can and string telephone (a device long known for its excellent fidelity) and he decided to replace the beans with a 9V battery powered amplifier and a top-firing speaker.
Classics, Nanos, Shuffles, Touches – Apple have made so many different shapes of iPod that you need adaptors for practically every accessory you can buy. Apple likes things to look sleek and neat, so having fiddly bits of plastic to swap over for each of the many iPods they would like you to buy (you couldn’t possibly take your 60GB classic jogging with you!) is not acceptable, and so for all the neat freaks and must-have-it Apple fans, they’re developing a universal dock to accommodate all different shapes and sizes. They’ve filed a patent for, as they phrase it:
A dock for supporting a plurality of differently-shaped electronic devices, the dock comprising: a housing; a connector coupled to the housing; and a compressible support layer positioned at least partially about the connector, wherein at least a portion of the compressible support layer compresses to the shape of at least a portion of an electronic device that is attached to the connector.
featuring:
A method for supporting a plurality of differently-shaped electronic devices in a dock that includes a compressible support layer positioned at least partially about a connector, the method comprising:attaching an electronic device to the connector of the dock; compressing at least a first portion of the compressible support layer with at least a portion of the bottom of the electronic device when the electronic device is attached to the connector; and supporting at least a portion of a side of the electronic device with at least a second portion of the compressible support layer when the electronic device is attached to the connector.
Which translates to a standard iPod connector in the middle of a squashy or springy surround, which you compress part of by pushing your iPod into, the uncompressed part supporting the sides of the device, perhaps a bit like one of those pin-art pads that were fashionable around when the Lawnmower Man came out. I’m a little unclear as to why you’d need one, my iPod sits on my hat on top of my computer, but then I use a PC and have been known to eat cereal at my desk – hardly the action of a stylish Mac user. Perhaps it makes your music sound better.
Last.fm is to takeover four HD radio stations off CBS in the US including, New York, LA, Chicago and San Francisco. All stations will have the same play-list, which will be determined by the outcome of the weekly charts according to the last.fm website, to feature a mix of music aggregated and influenced by the service’s user-generated weekly charts. Twinned with performances and interviews from its new New York studios. The new station will also be accessable through the website,as well as the already established CBS radio. Which is good news for fans across the pond as the new HD radio stations will only be accessible to HD radio receivers in the new areas: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco.
The broadcast will begin on October 5th, and as well as being able to find it through the named sites it will be available through the relevant related apps through iPhone, iPod Touch and some Blackberries.
Amazon has just launched their Mp3 Music store in the UK. The store can be found at http://mp3.amazon.co.uk. The simple-to-use digital music store offering over 3 million DRM-free (Digital Rights Management) songs which will work on any MP3 player including the iPod™- with top-selling albums from just £3 and individual songs from 59p.
Amazon Mp3 UK has all four major labels signed up, SonyBMG, Universal Music, EMI Music and Warner Music – and leading independents such as Cooking Vinyl, Harmonia Mundi, Beggars Banquet, The Orchard, Concord and IODA.
What was I saying yesterday about being sick of all the music/Christmas blogging? Sigh…
