Well, after much speculation, this morning (AU time) Apple announced a swag of new stuff, including:
- the quite ludicrously tiny iPod Nano (I reckon I’d lose it)
- the very expected Motorola ROKR mobile phone, the first to include iTunes (shame it’s a Motorola. I hate Motorolas.)
- a shiny new version of the iTunes software, featuring parental controls (woo hoo, does this mean no more Lenny Kravitz’s What The F%$# are we saying for my kids?), syncing data with Outlook (at smeggin’ last), playlist and shuffle enhancements
- some exclusive content to the iTunes store, which therefore means we CAN’T BUY IT IN AUSTRALIA (grumble)
Okay… I’m officially afraid.
SYNC WITH OUTLOOK?? In heaven’s name… WHY?
For some reason, iPods feature name and address/phone number information, as well as space for appointments and things. I’ve never understood why, given that probably every iPod owner in the universe owns a mobile phone. But now at least you’ll be able to sync these with Outlook (and thence to your phone, since most phones will sync with Outlook).
Imagine, you can have your phone, Outlook and iPod all beep to remind you of an appointment.
I just installed iTunes 5 and the bloody thing decided half (2600+) of my songs needed to be updtated on the pod. Grrrrrrrrrrr.
Hmmm.. It chose to update 796 of my 1826 tracks.