I’ll be brief; well, maybe… Not many surprises (or any) in the announcements today, but there are a few thoughts/questions/takeaways that I have.
Apple TV
Naturally, as an AV geek I’m always interested in this type of thing. Cool that they’re bringing so much HD (though only 720p) content to the TV via the internet.
The experience looks compartmentalized. Say you’re browsing movies in their nifty interface for the iTunes store. You find something you like and want to watch. Say it’s also in the Netflix (which is “fully” integrated into this device) instant streaming database. You have no idea in this situation that something you’re already paying for is available on the same device with just a series of clicks away. You’ll pay twice and Apple and the movie industry has no motivation to change this.
Something really simple that Apple could do (if other large powers-that-be didn’t have a say) would be to have free TV shows and use their own ad service (available in iOS apps) to insert ads/commercials. Throw-in some user data to target the ads a bit more and advertisers would be ecstatic.
A very cool thing is the ability to push content from mobile devices to the TV (via AirPlay). Very important in tying together the UX for the 3-screens.
iOS
It’s been clear for a while that they’re looking to standardize this OS across device types (hence the renaming). But where was the mention of this on the Apple TV, Nano, and Shuffle? At the very least, the Nano has an interface now that is undeniably iOS-ey, but still not iOS. A large problem for standardizing the OS is in their design language: highly device/screen dependent; however, that’s a rant for another time.
iPod Nano
Other than the iOS thing I already mentioned, the inclusion of Nike+ and a pedometer are surprising to me. I usually don’t care about these tiny devices, but a pedometer? This thing is bridging into other, very different, realms. Imagine a pedometer in an iPhone, that has minimal battery draw and (in the background) uploads data to health management providers in the cloud (e.g. HealthVault and Google Health). That’s cool.
Oh, one more thing: HDR photos = super-awesome.
