Today's Apple Announcements
Normally I don't pay too much attention to Apple's press events; I've never been a Mac user (there goes my geek cred). I do have an older 40gb iPod, however, and I've been thinking about getting a Nano. I've also been thinking about digital media. With that in mind, I paid attention to the announcements today. First things first, I've ordered an 8gb Nano. I'm not thrilled with the iPod-mini looks of the new Nano, but that wasn't enough to deter me from ordering. I also upgraded my copy of iTunes to the new version. What was interesting to me is that Apple insists on an iTunes account if you want to take advantage of the new album art feature. This is very smart. It's a good way for Apple to increase iTunes accounts, which benefits Apple in several ways.
I was also interested in the iTv announcement. I recently cancelled my Netflix account because I never watched the DVDs. A set of DVDs I had added to my queue months before would sit around for a couple of months until I felt guilty and returned them (causing another set to be delivered, which would then sit unwatched, etc). People want instant gratification, and that's a problem with Netflix. If the iTv device works as promised, I'll be one of the first in line to buy one. With one caveat; Apple needs a rental option. One other thought I had was that if and when iTv (or something like it) becomes popular, expect to see video podcasts to expand and become much more mainstream. And that could be very interesting.