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Friday, September 3, 2010

Early reviews of iPod touch 4G, Ping, Apple TV and Nano

Apple on Wednesday unveiled Ping as a new music social network that could rival Facebook and Twitter, as well as a version of Apple TV that can stream movies and television shows directly from the internet

Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, used a special press conference at the Yerba Buena Centre in San Francisco to outline Apple’s new approach to music and entertainment services. 
“One of the biggest things we focus on with iTunes is discovery. There are more than 12 million songs to choose from, so how do you find new stuff?,” asked Jobs.

“So we’re launching Ping – it’s a social network that’s all about music. It’s like Facebook and Twitter meets iTunes. You can follow your favourite artists and friends and discover what music they like and are downloading.”

iPod touch 4G

Early reviews praise the range of functions, with Gizmodo describing it as a "killer gadget". The website said: "An iPod touch with a camera. It's a powerful proposition. The fact that it can replace a camera makes it that much more powerful of a gadget, that much more of a threat to everything else—because that means it really can replace everything in a manbag or purse but the phone—iPod, camera, notepad, gaming device, the list goes on.

"And it's everything that's great about the iPhone 4, but without the technological venereal disease that is a two-year AT&T contract. It's approachable, even to people who aren't super tech savvy—they can keep their simple, reliable phone on any carrier and use the iPod touch right along with it. That's a killer gadget." 
A review on Techradar said the device was "essentially an iPhone 4, minus the phone and SMS functions".

"If you have yet to feast your eyes on the iPhone's 3.5-inch, 960 x 640 pixel resolution 'Retina' display, then you have yet to appreciate the vibrancy and quality of the images that are now available on the new iPod touch," it said.

"This is sure to be a massive boon to students and younger users that either don't want (or, more likely, are not financially able) to get tied into long-term mobile contracts, yet still want to use their iPod touch for instant messaging and video calling.

"It is, as we heard more than one punter mumble at today's London showcase, a potential game-changer. Although whether or not it will cannibalise the demand for Apple's iPhone 4 remains to be seen." 
However, Delvin Coldeway at CrunchGear was less impressed by the dual camera, noting: "The specs on Apple’s page note that the new iPod touch only takes still pictures at 960×720. That’s some nonsense. If the sensor can capture 1280×720 video at 30FPS, surely it’s capable of better stills. On the other hand, If the sensor is only capable of 960×720 images and they’re just stretching it to 1280×720, I’m going to have an image quality hissy fit."

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