Steve Jobs Conquers the World
 On September 12, 2006, Steve
Jobs, CEO of Apple Computers, Inc., held a press conference to detail some new innovations
related to the iPod, iTunes, and a new product codenamed iTV. (You can watch the man
himself at Apple’s
own site.) Apple’s new developments could have a huge effect on the future of
home audio and video.
Jobs announced three important developments in the iPod
line. First, the Shuffle, which used to look like a pack of chewing gum and holds 1GB of
music, has had a makeover. Now the size of a book of matches, it’s housed in an
aluminum case with an integrated clip and sells for $79 USD. Apple is touting it as the
world’s smallest MP3 player. This alone might put the last nail in the coffin of the
portable CD player. Who wants to carry a CD player -- even one no bigger than a CD case --
when you can clip a Shuffle to your shirt pocket? My guess is that few will mourn the
passing of portable CD players: their headphone outputs are often not very good, few come
with a true line-out to connect to an external headphone amp, and even fewer come with
digital outputs.
Second, the iPod Nano has also been redesigned. It now
comes in colored aluminum cases, and the largest-capacity Nano now has an 8GB hard drive.
I’ve always thought of the Nano, and the Mini before it, as more fashion items than
portable audio players. The Nano doesn’t boast the Shuffle’s ultra-portability,
and lacks some key features of the full-size iPod. But as a fashion item, the Nano appeals
to those who might otherwise pass on a portable music device altogether. And many folks,
once they own an iPod of any stripe, are apt to want accessories like the iHome, which
makes it easier to use an iPod at home. And once they’ve done that, many of those
folks just won’t need any other audio system in their home.
Third, the prices of full iPods have been slashed: a 30GB
model now costs $249; the new 80GB model only $349. (When the iPod premiered in 2001, a
5GB model cost $399.) An 80GB drive can hold a huge music library, but the new iPods can
also play movies, as well as classic videogames such as Pacman and Tetris (the games cost
just under $5 each at the iTunes store). iTunes has been selling TV shows for a while now,
but this is the first time films have been made available -- 75 of them, all from
Disney-related studios. That last should be no surprise: Jobs has been on Disney’s
board of directors since Disney bought Pixar.
I’m not a member of the target audience of this
ability to watch movies via iTunes or on my iPod, but the students at the university where
I teach certainly are. Many wear iPods already, complete with a sophisticated system of
social signals (earbuds in both ears means "leave me alone"; an earbud in one
ear means "talk to me if you have to"). They use them for entertainment but also
for school; my lectures, for example, are recorded, synced with my PowerPoint
presentations, and posted as podcasts. An iPod that can play movies will be integrated
even more deeply into their lifestyles.
The new version of iTunes, v.7, is also likely to inspire
some people to switch to it from whatever music-management system they now use. I was
never happy with the user interface in earlier versions of iTunes, but v.7 has new
graphical interfaces that strike me as more pleasant to use. Most fun is v.7’s
ability to supply album-cover art in a way that mimics flipping through a bin of LPs. To
download album art from iTunes, though, you must set up an account at the iTunes store.
You’re not obligated to buy anything from the store, but once you’ve got an
account, you’re just a click away from downloading all those guilty pleasures you
don’t want to buy full albums to get.
Before he ended his September 12 presentation, Steve Jobs
introduced a product that is not yet available and has not yet been officially named. For
now known as iTV, it’s a set-top box that wirelessly connects your computer to your
television. Slightly smaller than a Mac mini, the iTV features HDMI and component-video
outputs, and analog and optical digital audio outs. Remember those movies you can now
download from iTunes? Now you’ll be able to stream them from your computer to your TV
or projector. You’ll also be able to view your photos and surf the Web on your TV.
The movies will have Dolby Digital soundtracks, so you’ll also be able to feed the
digital signal to your home-theater receiver to get surround sound. Apple admits that the
image quality of these downloaded movies will be less than that of standard-definition DVD
(their words are "near DVD image quality" -- near enough for whom?), but
there’s reason to think that the quality will improve over time. I’m not sure
that everyone purchasing a high-definition TV will want to put up with
"near-DVD" quality, but convenience may win out.
These new developments in hardware and software will likely
help cement the Apple iPod’s role in people’s appreciation of music and, now,
video. For many, the iPod has come to represent the ideal music device. If traditional
manufacturers of audio components want to remain viable, they’ll need to convince
these people that the features they offer are worth the extra money and space that
full-size components require.
One downfall of Apple’s approach is that the audio
files on iTunes are compromised in quality -- they’re not the same as what you get on
a CD. If you’re still going to have to buy CDs to get full sound quality, then it
might make sense to have a standalone CD player in addition to your iPod. One contender
for your hard-earned money is the Original Electronics CD-A8s CD player. Jeff Stockton
reviews it for us this month.
…Eric D. Hetherington
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