One of the things that I hate to admit (but most people who know me already know) is that I kind of like my iPod.  I've covered previously the number of iPods I have in my possession.  As part of my collection (or is it obsession, not sure…), I've also done my fair share of shopping in Apple's iTunes store for music.  Until recently, all of the music purchases a person made from iTunes was locked to their iTunes account so no one could pirate the music.  The digital right management (DRM) on the music files wouldn't allow anyone but you to play the music.  Apple announced in January that all the music on iTunes would now be DRM free and that existing customers could unlock their music – for a small fee.

Well I just took a peek at my music collection because I got a friendly little note from Apple about how I could easily upgrade my entire music collection with one simple click… and $268.54 (including tax).  I have apparently over the years collected almost 1200 songs via the iTunes store.  Now the trick is how do I explain to Holly that the countertop fund may take a minor set back because of a small upgrade fee for OUR iTunes library. 

I'm not worried… I know she'll understand. 

January is known for cold weather (at least for us in the midwest) and starting the New Year. But January also brings us one little shiny event to get us through the seemingly never ending winter – MacWorld Expo.  This is the annual event that bubbles with anticipation of new product announcements from my ever favorite gadget company – Apple.  This year the biggest news is not what Apple is going to demo at the expo, but who is not going to be at the expo.  As I've mentioned before, Steve Jobs is not going to give the keynote this year.  This, along with the anticipated announcements, will make Apple stock a possible easy buy come Tuesday afternoon. 

Regardless, my Tuesday lunch will be spent scanning expo updates on what was actually announced by Apple.  I'll post with the best of the best Tuesday night. 

choose your blue screen by ~1984orwell on deviantART

Apple is hosting another one of their famous product announcement events tomorrow at 10am PST/12pm CST.  Rumors have been floating around on what Steve and Co. will be revealing to the masses tomorrow in regards to product updates.  Apple has typically had a release around this time of year for product updates in anticipation of the Christmas shopping season.  Possible announcements include:

- New design for the iPod Nano (as previously mentioned)
- Across the board iPod price reductions
- A new 2.1 software on iPod Touch & iPhone
- iTunes 8.0

How convenient that I have a conference in the Twin Cities on Wednesday near the Mall of America.  Honetly, I really do.

Apple is at it again, updating their shiny little gadets and making them even shinier.  Rumors have been floating around of a new iPod line up just in time to go back to school.  I know I’m not going back to school, but Sam is starting preschool this year (lots of drama from the Mommy dept), so maybe Dad will have to pick one up for him.  Just in case.  The latest rumor round up is this:

Possible updates from Apple in September:
- Revamp of entire iPod line.
- Small cosmetic changes to Touch (possible GPS too).
- Nano to see significant redesign (see pic below).
- iPods to see fairly large price drops to distance itself from the $199 iPhone.
- iPod touch 2.1 software (iPhone to get update very soon after).
- iTunes 8.0 ("it’s a big update w/new features").
- All of this coming in the next 2-3 weeks Sept 9.

Shown below is a picture that most pundits have said to appear to be a valid (or at least credible) picture of what the new iPod Nano will look like, based on current sources from within Apple.  The screen have a high gloss front (glass or plastic is not known), similar to what Apple has had on other versions of their portable media player.  The display will now sport a wide screen aspect ratio, just like the iPhone and iPod Touch. 

I had a chance to go to the Apple Store at the Mall of America today (thanks again Jen for loaning me your car, it was a blast).  Tony and I got to the store and found a parking space right at the front entrance by the store.  This alone is a minor miracle for a Saturday morning at the MOA.  We stroll into the store and find a guard at the entrance of the store mirrored to a happy faced Apple employee and what appears to be about half the city of Bloomington – the store was packed!  We wandered around a little bit and finally managed to get our hands on an actual 3G iPhone. 

First impressions are that the revision is a nice change, but again, not enough for me to get one.  However, I would suggest this this version to anyone who does not currently have an iPhone and is looking to get one.  The unit felt nice in your hand (as good as a demo unit tethered to the desk can) and actually felt a little lighter than my current iPhone.  The most notable difference was the number of bars my phone had compared to the 3G iPhone (3 on mine/5 on 3G). 

The next thing Tony and I noticed was just about everyone in the store was there only for an iPhone.  I bet I saw one computer being sold for every 10-12 iPhones.  The line for activation was 4 rows wide and about 10-12 deep in the store.  This didn’t count for the 30+ people we saw waiting outside the store as an overflow.  Apple may have struggled again with the roll out, but they still hit a grand slam when it comes to actually getting gadgets out the door and into the consumers hands. 

UPDATE: The pic above shows the availability of 3G iPhones for the state of MN.  It sure looks like Minnesota loves the iPhone.