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Yesterday Steve Jobs was back on stage at the Apple music event, strutting his stuff and offering the world another bite of his tempting produce.
Of course, as we all know, music lives in almost every Apple device on the market, from the iPhone, to iPods, to iTunes etc, so an Apple music event seemed rather all encompassing.
But let’s start with some facts. Jobs said there were currently 120 million iOS devices out there and 230,000 activations of new iOS devices every day. In terms of apps, he said there are 25,000 iPad apps and in general, 200 apps are been downloaded every second.
Next, Jobs discussed the iOS 4.1 update which will include several bug fixes, HDR photo capturing support, HD video upload via Wi-fi, TV show rental and the Game Center.
The Game Center is a platform for multi-player gaming and social interactions between players just like the Xbox Live. The platform is aimed at strengthening iOS devices’ gaming capabilities, or in other words, Apple is trying to make iOS devices more like gaming consoles.
Steve-o also gave a quick overview of the upcoming 4.2 update, mainly for the iPad device but with the iPhone and iPod supporting some of the new features. The 4.2 is an answer for all those claiming that the iPAD is not a computer, with Apple going to great lengths to add printing abilities, and media streaming.
The main event however was all about the launch of the new iPods, which actually turned out to have nothing to do with music, although, of course the iPods can still play some music.
First up was the iPod Shuffle which went back to its 2nd generation, a bit smaller, with VoiceOver Playlist supported, but that’s all.
“The third generation we took off the buttons…, But people clearly missed the buttons… so what are gonna do?” said Jobs, admitting his firm had *shock, horror* made a mistake. “We are not perfect,” he sniveled.
The iPod Nano’s clickwheel was then promptly killed off, with the new Nano almost the same size as the Shuffle but including a tiny multi-touch screen. As for buttons, there are no buttons. To exit an application, users will have to press and hold, something that doesn’t sound particularly comfortable.
Following the Nano came the announcement everyone was so eagerly waiting for, but which ultimately failed to impress. The new iPod Touch it seems will be just like the iPhone 4 with no cellular antenna. Gee, wow.
The new Touch is also all about gaming, and will aim to take on Sony’s PSP and Nintendo’s 3DS, thanks to the Game Center, the device hardware and of course the app store.
iTunes 10 was also announced , with the main new feature being ‘Ping’, the “Facebook” of iTunes. It even includes the like button. Ping will definitely generate more apps, songs, and content downloads, using its social leverage though.
As more and more electronics firms come out with music players though, increasingly using Android as an OS, Apple has to learn that this was simply not good enough. The firm must fight back, and it has to do so with gaming, UI, camera, social networks, and as for music, well, there is an app for that: It is called the iPod.

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