Apple Keynote Thoughts

I have been crazy busy lately as you can tell from my lack of posting. But I have been posting a lot over on the My Fitness Challenge site I developed. I have to say I am pumped after watching the Apple keynote today. Highlights and thoughts for me include the following.

• iPod Touch – camera on the Touch is bloody brilliant. Many of you have liked all the cool photo app and things I do on my iPhone 4. Now you can do the same things without a cell contract required for an iPhone. This really is huge. Front and back cameras so you can do Facetime with both the iPhone and other iTouch owners. I love it! You can shoot video and edit just like other do on their IPhone 4. In case you missed it, no AT&T contract. Did I mention that already? I did not hear Steve say anything about GPS on the iTouch so that is the only thing you will miss out on over an iPhone 4. What are you waiting for? Go but one now!
• I won’t buy one but the new Nano is very, very cool. Square, thin, full screen, and clipable. Nice!
• Updates to iTunes are great. The updates have been needed for a while now. But the biggest deal is the new Ping features in iTunes. Social network for music. I am such a music head that this is pretty exciting for me. Even if you don’t buy from the iTunes store you need to use iTunes for Ping! I can follow you and you can follow me. You can find people on Ping. I love this! Facebook and Twitter for music without all the other BS you get with other social media sites. I am really looking forward to Ping in iTunes. There are 160 million iTunes users that will be on Ping if they sign up. Incredible!
• Apple TV. I am on the fence on this one. HD addition is very cool. The fact that Apple has not create just another computer was a great move. It is not a hard drive either. Heck there is not hard drive. Holy crap is it small. A forth of the size of the first generation Apple TV. No power brick is nice, HDMI connection, wifi. You can’t really get much simpler. What I am not sure about is the rental thing. I am a pack rat when it comes to movies and music. Not sure I would buy into the renting idea. 720p HD movies are $4.99. A good thing I guess is movies are available the day then come out on DVD. HD TV Shows are .99 cents. That is not bad and they are commercial free. Not all studios are in on this. ABC and Fox are the only ones doing the .99 cent deal for shows right now. I am sure that will grow. Yes, it comes with Netflix. Nice! YouTube is covered, Flickr if you are a members. Streaming content on a computer is there as well. UI looks nice as well. But the rental thing just bugs me. I don’t see getting one. Plex is just too good running on my Mac Mini. I can see others liking the Apple TV that want a simple solution and don’t mind renting. But I have to say the really cool thing is streaming movies from any iOS device to an Apple TV or seeing photos from an iPhone to an Apple TV. The only thing that makes me think twice about getting one is the price. Only $99. It is almost worth picking one up just to play with and then put in the kids room.

Overall I am pretty impress with everything Apple announced today. The iOS is just turning out so cool. The future looks bright for Apple fans. I can see lots of people being converted in no time at all. Heck Scott may even being thinking twice about Apple now.