Predictions for Apple’s invitation-only special media event, to be held tomorrow, September 9, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco at 10am PDT/1pmEDT, “are varied, though most everyone agrees that Apple will reveal its long-expected new iPod line with cameras, alleged last-minute technical issues notwithstanding,” Sam Oliver reports for AppleInsider. “In a brief preview, Forbes speculated Apple would bring a ‘mundane’ yet ‘important’ fix for iPhone and iPod touch users: a new-and-improved App Store. ‘Now that that App Store is filled with 65,000 applications, the next step will be to make all those applications easier to find,’ the report said.”
“Developer Marco Arment, creator of Instapaper and Tumblr, believes the event will feature a number of relatively minor changes to the iPod lineup,” Oliver reports. “He has predicted that Apple will discontinue the iPod classic and unveil a number of new iPod touch models, with price and capacity ranging from $149/8GB to $349/64GB.”
“TechCrunch’s MG Siegler speculated that iTunes will inevitably be a cloud-based service. Citing the huge size of HD video offerings, the report suggests that Apple’s media service could allow users to stream, rather than download. In this vision, Apple would allow users to purchase and delete locally saved content, and retain the ability to download it again in the future if the user wanted to access it on the go, via an iPod or iPhone,” Oliver reports.
Full article here.
Cloud..
thats the ticket..
thats what the new NC data center is for
Yep, I agree with the article (pretty much).
Apple’s iPod Touch giveaway for students ends today, is this any surprise?
That iTunes will be a cloud-based service is exactly the Video Locker concept that Cringely (Mark Stephens) wrote about in December 2005. Pretty sure MDN linked to it.
They are going to announce availability of my mothers underwear.
Okay, so they’re planning to increase capacities so you can store more data, but they’re replacing it with the cloud so you won’t store anything locally?
Wow.
I’m still a little foggy on this “cloud” concept.
My Guess a Special edition iPod touch – The 30 years of Bananarama Special edition.
anyone can make a guess doesn’t mean the guess is correct.
Cloud:
You “buy” a movie from the iTunes store (currently, you don’t actually own it, you’ve only bought a license to store and play it on some computers you own), but, whatever, the bits, and the DRM, are stored on your hard drive.
If the bits are stored on a server, then when you “buy” or rent a movie, you’ve paid for the right to stream it to your computer. The bits never go on your hard drive.
The advantage for the movie studios is its far harder to make pirated copies if the bits never reside on your computer. Savvy?
So access to content is what’s crippled Apple TV sales. Give the studios what they want on the piracy front, and now iTunes can get the content it needs to compete against NetFlicks.
The new tablet is supposed to be basically a portable media player. So with a cloud-based archive of movies, watch whatever you want, whenever you want to watch it. Kids will go nuts for it.
Buh bye Netflicks, Blockbuster, etc.
Cloud is the buzzword for all the hsoting companies that intend to make lots of money from it and non-technical bloggers who want something to write about. But iPod owners have shown they want to own their content and clouds are basically another subscription based service that has totally failed in the marketplace. Not to mention people seem to forgot that alot of content is not purchased from on an online service but added by the user from CD’s etc.
This is great news for hackers…instead of having to hack thousands of individual computers..they only have to hack one cloud.
just my $0.02
I personally HATE the idea of cloud computing. Whether it is media, applications, or entire operating systems (as some have speculated), there are holes in this concept big enough to drive a cargo ship through.
Internet connection speeds vary greatly, as does connection stability. I do not like the idea of not being able to access product that I have paid for should I be experiencing an outage – which does happen – or that I will experience a slow loading or choppy stream if server traffic is high.
It is not a solution – just a new set of problems.
This totally makes sense with Apple’s server farm in North Carolina. I can’t wait for Apple TV to become what it is capable of.
“You “buy” a movie from the iTunes store (currently, you don’t actually own it, you’ve only bought a license to store and play it on some computers you own), but, whatever, the bits, and the DRM, are stored on your hard drive.
“
This is why I continue to say physical media is not dead. I can’t keep someone from rescinding the rights to play a remotely stored movie nor can I resell that digital copy when I’m tired of watching it.
I’ll take my CD’s DVD’s and Blurays thankyouverymuch
The $149 would probably be the current model, just reduced in price – and eventually closed out.
Anything with a camera would probably start at $199 or the current $229.
Until the “cloud” is truly cheap AND omnipresent, I don’t see it as a big option. AT&T;and Verizon are doing everything they can to keep the “cloud” from becoming cheap. I mean, come on, they’re still charging extree for text messages.
The beauty of the iPod is that I have my content anywhere I want and DON’T have to be on some network.
“I’m still a little foggy on this ‘cloud’ concept.”
That’s because you’re roadkill on the information superhighway.
(Yes, both are old jokes).
The biggest advantage of a cloud based iTunes Store will be speed. After a first download, which could take a little longer the ususal, you will navigate search and sort your items in the same speed as with your computer stored itunes content and this will be a huge benefit.
If your data is in the ‘cloud,’ then you will lose access to it whenever you run into a local network problem or your ISP has a hiccup, or the cloud server is goes down or is successfully hacked or attacked.
Plus, consider the inefficiencies of repeatedly streaming a multi-GB movie rather than downloading it once and being able to play it whenever you want. Recent experience with the Kindle also demonstrates how little control you would have over your ‘purchased’ content, and that’s after it was already downloads to a local platform.
I also suspect that if cloud computing actually gains a strong foothold, the next step would be for ISPs to charge by the MB and drop the flat rate. That would not necessarily be a bad thing, but it would happen for the wrong reason – to squeeze more money out of consumers.
Worst of all, some of these cloud servers would be running Windows. That may be fine for a major company or the U.S. military, but I wouldn’t trust my data to a Windows server
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I don’t know about many people, but when I fly on airplanes I like to be able to watch movies. If I don’t have the “bits” on my iPod/Phone or laptop b/c they’re in the cloud (this could go for movies or music) what’s the point?
The cloud makes more sense for an Apple TV (fixed location) device.
Umm gee Siegler seems to be unaware that bandwidth costs money. iTunes margins are slim as is, downloading a HD movie more than once would eliminate them altogether. For itunes to operate that way it would have to be a subscription based service with monthly fees. This is not going to happen!
@jbird, @ Bubbles
I think you’re right. Not only does cloud allow streaming of large content, it may sidestep a lot of rights issues with Hollywood as it is not solely downloadable content.
It’s streaming content that you own – the best of both worlds.
KingMel,
I would be surprised, even shocked, if Apple’s NC data centre (supposedly the home to the new iTunes cloud) hosted a single Windows server. Some non-Mac UNIXes, perhaps; Microsoft? Not bloody likely.
It is interesting how in all these comments, nobody seems to be reacting to the (very likely) possibility of a (well-deserved) retirement of the iPod Classic. Previously, there would be at least someone complaining about the lack of storage on the Touch. Could 64GB be the threshold for these people?
Amazingly coincidental that tomorrow is also the Beatles launch- despite all the denials of Beatles on iTunes.
Streaming for big files? Bandwidth is a bigger bottleneck than storage space. This makes no sense for Apple or the consumer.