Of course, even the miniest of mini camcorders cannot be crammed into the shell of an existing shuffle, so Xiangyun Industry Co did the sensible thing and sacrificed the music player to focus on transforming the device into a spy camera. Features include a 1.3 megapixel sensor with VGA resolution and the ability to capture 1,280 x 960 still photos. Not bad for $15-$30, but you are going to need to outfit an entire spy ring if you want to get your hands on one. Orders are only taken in bulk with a 100 unit minimum. [Global Sources via Red Ferret]

7:12 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Man it's early. About 3 hours left to go. More expect more updates from now until then, as usual.

7:20 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Schiller NEEDS to do today's presentation with the I am T-Pain app.

7:53 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Sitting on public transportation is a lot like sitting on the toilet. Reading makes the time go by faster, but eventually you're going to get hit in the face with the smell of urine. If you're lucky it'll just be the smell.

7:57 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
What does everyone think about the Palm Pixi? I like it. Even if it's slightly less powerful than the Pre, the size and the better keyboard make up for the losses, somewhat.

8:01 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
If Apple's inevitable tablet has ebook reading functionality I will personally shake the hand of everyone who worked on that team. Having to switch back and forth between reading a book on the kindle and reading a website on a laptop makes me feel like I'm getting a workout, sure, but if I wanted to exercise I wouldn't have thrown out all those 24 hour fitness fliers.

8:09 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Oh and I probably wouldn't personally shake their hands–I'd send an intern to do it. Gotta watch out for that piggy flu.

8:14 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
I'm wondering what "rock" songs will be playing before the event starts today, seeing as it's a "rock" theme. Rock Lobster? Schoolhouse Rock? Rachmaninoff?

8:18 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
I think sitting down on a train while someone is standing right in front of you is one of the few times where you can stare intently into a person's crotch without other people hassling you about it.

8:18 AM ON Sep 9 2009
B. Lam:

8:20 AM ON Sep 9 2009
B. Lam:
OH HELLO! Good morning. Dan Nosowitz, Apple liveblog virgin, and I are at the Yerba Buena center downtown. Nothing starts for 1 hour and 40 minutes but we thought we'd get here early.

8:21 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Nice of you to qualify that last statement with "Apple liveblog."

8:22 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Dan Nosowitz:
There's someone pointing a video camera at me right now. Little does he know I'm just catching up on last night's celebrity gossip.

8:23 AM ON Sep 9 2009
B. Lam:
Just waiting for Jason to get here. Wonder how traffic is coming from the east bay…probably bad, as usual.

8:30 AM ON Sep 9 2009
B. Lam:
Everyone's talking about iPods but I think it makes sense to see new iTunes today, too. I mean, that's no revelation but I did notice when reviewing snow leopard that iTunes was not rewritten in 64-bits. One of the few apps still native to os x in 32 bits.

8:33 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Dan Nosowitz:
Everyone thinks Apple's going to add a camera onto the Nano and Touch but, especially for the Nano, I think it's kind of a dumb idea. Maybe it's just me but I don't need another crappy camera in my life.

8:40 AM ON Sep 9 2009
B. Lam:
Hey Guys, turning off the live blog poll for for now. I'll let you know when its back on, so you can vote on the news. You can do it by clicking on the love/hate buttons, as many times as you want–it'll count each vote and chart it with the rest of the votes from other readers–or hit H or L keys while focused on the flash widget. But that's later. Oh, also, I forgot what the event is called "Only Rock and Roll", not Let's Rock. I get these damn events confused now.

8:41 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Dan Nosowitz:
I'd love to see a major iTunes refresh. Maybe we could finally get a "play next" function, like Winamp's had since about the last Ice Age.

8:49 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Dan Nosowitz:
On Apple event mornings I like to try to guess which indie band Apple's going to feature. My bet/hope for today: Discovery. You know, just indie enough to be hip but not so much they'll be scary to old folks.

8:50 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
There's a crew of 20 old people with swords around the corner.

8:53 AM ON Sep 9 2009
B. Lam:

its cold but sunny. The crowd is dressed in suits, generally.

8:54 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Dan Nosowitz:
Brian and I are liveblogging in sunglasses, because 1) we're cool rebels and 2) the sun hurts our frail blogger eyes.

8:58 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
That treadmill shelf for laptops really works. I walked three blocks and was not winded.

9:01 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Someone asked me if there are going to be any surprises. I think it's going to be Grey's Anatomy in space. (The seven of you who got that joke are high fiving yourselves now.)

9:02 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Dan Nosowitz:
My press pass says "9.09.09″ but if I look down at it it looks like "06.06.6," THE MARK OF THE BEAST. What are you trying to tell me, Apple?

9:13 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
The usual people are here–analysts, media and other people who I don't recognize. Bald count stands at about 8.

9:13 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Dan Nosowitz:

9:15 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Dan Nosowitz:
Catering update: Apple's spread of fruits and breads is totally pedestrian. Does this have an implication for the event to come? Discuss. At length.

9:16 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Wilson Rothman:

9:17 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
40 minutes left. Greg Grunberg is here, and I hope I spelled his name right. Nice guy, and looks exactly like he does on TV. It's like the makeup department said "meh" and moved on.

9:20 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Dan Nosowitz:
Every time I see the tagline "It's Only Rock and Roll" I start humming Billy Joel's "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me." Please tell me I'm not the only one.

9:20 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
I don't know why, but someone is eating a banana and it is hilarious to me.

9:22 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
There is a 13-year-old boy here. I hope for his sale he doesn't do like I did when I was 13 and get inappropriate erections.

9:22 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Wilson Rothman:

9:26 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Think about the person in your life that doesn't have an iPod already. Think about the last time he or she offered to pay for dinner. YOU CAN'T CAN YOU?!

9:27 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Wilson Rothman:

9:30 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Oh and if you want to follow us on Twitter, our names are on the masthead on the main Gizmodo.com page. And mine is @diskopo .

9:32 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Dan Nosowitz:
I want to display my Zune in a prominent place so everyone knows my commitment to objective journalism (and to buying shit on Woot).

9:34 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Wilson Rothman:

9:35 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
What are your 3 predictions for announcements today? Mine are iPods, iPods and more iPods. But also a new version of iTunes that forces your musical tastes upon Twitter and facebook.

9:40 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Wilson Rothman:

9:47 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Wilson Rothman:

9:48 AM ON Sep 9 2009
B. Lam:

9:49 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
We're inside. People are scrambling for seats, and I'm hungry.

9:50 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Dan Nosowitz:
First three songs: Aerosmith's "Walk This Way," The Who's "Baba O'Reilly" and Green Day's "When I Come Around." Didn't Apple used to be cool?

9:51 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Thanks to the guys at Hypermac for their awesome external batteries. Saves us a lot of battery switching/worrying.

9:53 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Eight minutes left. Put your phones on vibrate and tell your coworkers you're going to be in a meeting.

9:54 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Eric Schmidt is here, despite having been kicked off the Apple board. It's like attending your old high school's prom after you were expelled for vandalism and sent to the other high school under the bridge.

9:55 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Definitely "rock" songs playing today. No Coldplay or John Mayer. The rift between Mayer and Apple has never been bigger. Please, someone just apologize already.

9:56 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Dan Nosowitz:
I guess they're doing different decades with the music, since Hendrix is playing now. Super boring stuff though. If Steve wants to borrow my Zune I can show him some good tunes.

9:57 AM ON Sep 9 2009
B. Lam:
Hey, I'm having some image difficulty, but we'll be back in a minute, before things start.

9:58 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Nevermind, that was just a bad transition. Another song's up now.

10:00 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
The Stones are playing.

10:01 AM ON Sep 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:01 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
The lights are dimming, and something is happening soon. Get ready.

10:02 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Steve Jobs is on stage and is getting a standing ovation.

10:02 AM ON Sep 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:02 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Applause, applause, sustained applause.

10:03 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
"I'm very happy to be here with you all. As some of you might know, I had a liver transplant." He said he now has the liver of a 20 year old who died in a car crash, and he thanks him for his generosity.

10:03 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Steve also wants to thank everyone in the Apple community for the "heartfelt support", and thank Tim Cook and all the other execs at Apple.

10:04 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Steve's voice seems a little bit softer than we remember, a little bit of a hoarse whisper, but all in all he seems able-bodied (if still skinny).

10:05 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
He's going to have Phil Schiller join him for part of the presentation. In 2+ years, Apple's sold 30 million iPhones.

10:05 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
"One of the reasons for that is the remarkable app store." They have more than 75,000 apps, and users have downloaded 1.8 billion apps. That does not include updates (obviously).

10:06 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
"Today we have something new for iPhone and iPod Touch owners." It's iPhone 3.1.

10:06 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Now, Genius makes application suggestions based on the apps you own in order–just like Genius for iTunes music.

10:09 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
The second thing is ringtones to the iTunes store. They have 30,000 ringtones from the majors, and will be $1.29.

10:09 AM ON Sep 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:09 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
iTunes is the number one music retailer in the world. They've sold 8.5 billion songs, and there are 100 million accounts in iTunes. This leads up to iTunes 9.

10:10 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Something else new: Genius mixes–Genius applied to another area. 54 billion songs submitted and analyzed since the Genius feature launched.

10:10 AM ON Sep 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:11 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Genius mixes is a Genius DJ playing songs from your library that it thinks will go well together. iTunes will make 12 by default, and all you have to do is click on one and it'll start playing indefinitely.

10:12 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Also new: improved syncing. So when you sync now you can sync these playlists, but you can now also select genres or artists directly from the Music sync tab.

10:12 AM ON Sep 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:12 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
This applies to Photos as well, selecting Events, people as well as albums that you've already set up.

10:13 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Or movies, syncing the most recent movies or something, and always having one movie.

10:13 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
What's even better is better app syncing for the iPhone, allowing you to manage pages and app locations on iTunes directly.

10:13 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
New "home sharing" in iTunes lets you copy songs, movies and TV shows among the 5 authorized computers in your house.

10:13 AM ON Sep 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:14 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Now you can drag songs from other libraries into YOUR library and it will copy it.

10:15 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Also, a redesigned iTunes store that's better looking (but not all that different from what you've seen before). It's "cleaner", says Steve, but it doesn't seem like a huge jump.

10:15 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Lastly, iTunes LP.

10:16 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
For iTunes LP, it'll include videos, liner notes, credits and other customized content that you used to get when you bought LPs in the past, except now it's digital.

10:16 AM ON Sep 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:17 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
And now, Jeff Robin comes up for a demo of iTunes 9.

10:18 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
First he's going to show App Organization (the rearranging of your apps on iTunes). Click on Applications and you'll get all the apps and pages. You can click and drag apps from one page to another, or deselect apps from the left hand side and not sync them. You can also drag multiple items at once.

10:18 AM ON Sep 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:18 AM ON Sep 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:23 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
First he's going to show App Organization (the rearranging of your apps on iTunes). Click on Applications and you'll get all the apps and pages. You can click and drag apps from one page to another, or deselect apps from the left hand side and not sync them. You can also drag multiple items at once.

10:23 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Double-clicking an app on the left-hand side will take you directly to the page that it's on. There's search (type in the name and it'll show the app), and page rearranging, meaning you can move whole pages up or down the queue.

10:23 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Next, home sharing. You can view other people's libraries, as you can now, and just select and drag songs to your library. It'll disappear from the list of other people's libraries if you select to only show "items not in my library."

He's demoing the iTunes store now, and all pages have been redesigned to match the new style. There are also quick-view popups for albums, allowing you to see the entire album from wherever you are, instead of having to go into the album page.

Oh and Facebook/Twitter sharing: you can now click on content and share links directly to them from the store.

10:24 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
As for iTunes LP, you can flip through photos and individual songs, which displays lyrics directly in iTunes for you to Karaoke along with.

10:26 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
There can also be custom interviews (in video) that comes with the iTunes LP purchases.

10:26 AM ON Sep 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:26 AM ON Sep 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:26 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
There are iTunes Extras for movies as well, giving you extra features (think DVD extras) but more interactive. And different.

10:27 AM ON Sep 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:27 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
iTunes demo over. Steve Jobs is coming back on stage.

10:27 AM ON Sep 9 2009
Jason Chen:
iTunes 9 is available today.

10:28 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Now, the iPod. Phil Schiller is coming up and taking over.

10:28 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:28 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Apple's sold 225 million iPods to date.

10:28 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
I think our server troubles are over? Let's hope!

10:29 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
As for Marketshare, iPod's got 73.8%, Sandisk has 7.2%, and Microsoft has around 1%. The rest is "other".

10:29 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:29 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
The fastest growing iPod is the iPod Touch.

10:30 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:30 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Apple's sold 20 million iPod touches. Add that to the iPhone number and you'll get a big number of devices that can run your apps.

10:30 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:
Hey, we disabled the poll. Looks like you guys really liked clicking on it. Caused some problems with the servers.

10:31 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Phil is going over the talking points of the iPod Touch; the same things you already know. It runs apps, playing music and watching video.

10:32 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:32 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
You can also use Genius Mixes (the feature introduced in iTunes 9) on the iPod Touch, with the songs you've already loaded onto there.

10:33 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:33 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Phil, the consummate salesman, is going through the features of the iPod Touch as if it hasn't been available for 2 years now.

10:33 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:34 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
"Not everybody's computer fits in your pocket", Phil says, as he points to a photo of a dude shoving a Dell laptop into his ass pocket.

10:35 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:35 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Phil is comparing games on the PSP to the DS, saying they have no multitouch and that they're expensive. You even have to GO TO A STORE TO BUY A GAME. Nobody ever says Phil doesn't have the balls to say things like this on stage with a straight face.

10:36 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:36 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:36 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Here's an image of the comparison between the amount of iPhone games vs. the amount of PSP and DS games. Misleading graph if anything, seeing as the amount of games doesn't indicate that they are all GOOD games.

10:37 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:37 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
And now a montage of games from various iPod Touch Action Titles.

10:38 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Phil's inviting up Ubisoft to demo Assassin's Creed. It's NOT Jade Raymond, unfortunately.

10:39 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Assassin's Creed 2 is being demoed now. It's a sidescrolling game, and has some pretty decent graphics.

10:39 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:39 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
You can even put your face into the wanted posters with the camera. Does this mean that the iPod Touch is getting a camera??

10:39 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:40 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Ubisoft is releasing this app on the same day as the Assassin's Creed game for consoles.

10:40 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Ubisoft is releasing this app on the same day as the Assassin's Creed game for consoles.

10:40 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:41 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Their latest game mixes music and racing.

10:41 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Next up, Tapulous, which makes Tap Tap Revenge.

10:42 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:43 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Riddim Ribbon is their latest game, making you a "DJ". You're "racing" down a track by tilting the phone, and you can choose different remixes of the current song you're on. You can flick the phone up to jump and add custom sounds. The guy playing the game is really into it.

10:43 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
After you're done playing the game you'll have made your own "mix" of the song, which you can share.

10:43 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:44 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Next is Gameloft. They're shipping 35 gaming titles in the App Store right now, with 20 million downloads.

10:44 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:44 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Nova, a first person shooter, puts you into the shoes of a space marine. SPACE MARINE, how come nobody's come up with this before?

10:45 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
The HUD looks a lot like Halo, and it feels quite a bit like Halo.

10:45 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:45 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:45 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
You use the left side of the screen for the analog stick, and the right side to shoot. Plus the middle for changing weapons.

10:46 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
There will be multiplayer over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

10:46 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Last is EA.

10:47 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:47 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Here's a game that's been around "for over 20 years." It's Madden, which has been announced already, and looks like PlayStation 1 graphics.

10:48 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:48 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:49 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
The analog stick controls motion, just like the normal Madden, and John Madden gives super obvious advice, again, just like the normal Madden.

10:49 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
"Usually the team that makes the least mistakes will win the game," declares Madden.

10:49 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Need For Speed Shift, Command and Conquer and NBA Live are also coming to the App Store.

10:50 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Phil says the iPod Touch is the "most affordable gateway to the App Store," which is true.

10:51 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Phil says "$199 is a magic price point in the iPod market." So, they're lowering the iPod Touch price to $199 for the 8GB version.

10:52 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
The 32GB will be $299 and 64GB will be $399.

10:52 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:52 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Also, the $299 and $399 versions of the iPod Touch will be 50% faster, and run OpenGL ES 2.0–the same as the iPhone 3GS.

10:53 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:53 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
So, the 8GB version is running the older processor and the 32 and 64GB are running the newer one.

10:54 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
There's an iPod Touch ad showing off multiplayer by having multiple people play at the same time, showing off interactions.

10:54 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:54 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Next up is the iPod Classic. Today, there's a 120GB version for $249. They're going to raise the size to 160GB for the same $249.

10:54 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B.Lam:

10:54 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Then, the iPod Shuffle.

10:55 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:55 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:55 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Customers wanted to "expand" the range of headphones that work for the iPod Shuffle, which include Beats by Dre.

10:56 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:57 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:57 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
What's new? New colors that's what. Black, silver, pink, green and blue. A lower price of $59 for 2GB, in addition to the $79 at 4GB.

10:57 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
All these ship today.

10:57 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
There's also a $99 special 4GB model made of polished steel. Special Edition.

10:57 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
And here's Steve again.

10:57 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:58 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
One more thing…

10:58 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
A video camera?

10:58 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:58 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
My guess is a camera on the iPod Touch. But we'll see in a second.

10:59 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:59 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
He's comparing a Flip at $149 with 4GB of memory. "So what are we gonna do?" They're going to use an 8GB model, and it will be "free". Yep, it's going to be on the iPod Nano. There's a camera and a microphone.

10:59 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

10:59 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
There will be a speaker as well, for playback.

11:00 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

11:00 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

11:01 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
"So how good is it?" Steve shows a demo video shot with the Nano.

11:01 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
He's making us watch the same lame video twice.

11:01 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

11:02 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

11:02 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Apple's sold 100 million iPod nanos to make it the "most popular music player in the world." They're adding voiceover, a genius mix feature, and FM radio.

11:03 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Also, a pedometer and a voice recorder. You can sync the pedometer directly to Nike+ as well, to keep track of your steps.

11:03 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam

11:03 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

11:03 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
And, new colors. "We've finally figured out how to do colors that are unimaginably beautiful. They're polished anodized aluminum."

11:03 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
There are two models. 8GB for $149 and 16GB for $179. They're available today.

11:04 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

11:04 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Here's an ad for it.

11:04 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
We're turning off live refresh, so you'll have to click refresh to get new updates. Please, refresh!

11:05 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

11:05 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

11:05 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Now the obligatory Environmental Checklist. Arsenic, BFR, Mercury, PVC-free.

11:06 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
That's not it, Steve has some more to say.

11:06 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
"Like you, we love music. There's no better way to remind us all than to have a live performance. We are really lucky today that Norah Jones is joining us." Norah Jones yay!

11:06 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

11:07 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Norah Jones is coming up on stage, and she looks Norah Jonesey. Very nice.

11:07 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

11:08 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

11:08 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Not only is she a great singer, she was good in the Wong Kar Wai movie as well. The movie itself wasn't all that fantastic, but SHE was good in it.

11:09 AM ON SEP 9 2009
B. Lam:

11:10 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
My knee hurts like a mofo from sitting so long. I am officially an old man.

11:11 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Here's a new song that they're going to release this November.

11:13 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Here's a new song that they're going to release this November.

11:14 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
So to recap, no real new "designs" in any of the iPods, but there are some lower prices and new features. No camera for the iPod Touch, but there is one for the Nano.

11:14 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Steve Jobs is coming back on stage to thank Norah Jones.

11:15 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
I feel like he's gonna say "Goodnight everybody, stay tuned for Craig Ferguson."

11:16 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Steve thanks everyone for coming, and Brian, Dan and I thank you all for reading!

11:16 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
You guys really loved pushing that button so much that it crashed our machines, so we'll make sure to put more button-handling in there for next time. October, maybe? There's always the tablet.

11:17 AM ON SEP 9 2009
Jason Chen:
Time to get some hands-on with the new iPods. See you all soon on the main Gizmodo page. BYE!

The TapStick is a case that moves the awkward headphone-based controls onto the front of the gadget where they belong, which in turn frees up the headphone jack to use any pair of 'phones you choose, not just the ones Apple packages in. In effect, while these features make the shuffle easier to use, they also remove everything that separates it from previous-gen shuffles.

The TapStick also costs $29, nearly half the price of the $79 shuffle itself, and for that combined $110 you've got yourself a player with no screen, incredibly basic controls, the worst sound quality in the iPod family, and you've lost the slick look of the uncased shuffle. You could double your memory and get a far more feature-packed player in the 8GB iPod nano for only $40 more! This might just be a lipstick-on-a-pig situation. [CNET]

Sure it's not perfect and it lacks the finesse of Apple's designs—and I shiver thinking about the software this thing packs—but look at it. There are MacBooks in there. And iPod nanos and even part of the old iPod shuffle in that internal ring—not the one Heather tried to swallow.

HiPhone Nano N3+
2.8" TouchScreen Tri-band Flip Phone w/ Dual Standby, Shake Control, Camera - HiPhone Nano N3+

• Clamshell iPod Nano design
• 2.8-inch (3.0-inch) touchscreen QVGA + stylus
• Triband GSM, GPRS
• Dual SIM with dual stand-by
• TouchWiz control
• Shake control
• Magical Voice
• Bluetooth
• Video and music support
• FM tuner
• 1.3 megapixel camera
• TF card slot (1GB TF comes with the phone)
• 2800mAh battery

This clone of hardware from an alternative Earth can be yours for $190. [China Grabber via PMP Today]

As you'd expect, not all that well. However, we'd give the Kindle 2 an enthusiastic one-clap for its moments of natural-sounding cadence. The Shuffle, on the other hand, was streamlined-mediocre. [DVICE]

It could happen on a deserted island, or it could happen on a particularly long wait in the subway. Either way, it's only a matter of time before, in a moment of extreme hunger, you eye your MP3 player for snacking. As your teeth penetrate the tasteless silicon shell, you'll find the aluminum center to be ever so harder on tooth enamel than nougat—a point to which your dentist will concur.

Plus you'll still be hungry. [SwitchEasy]

Main Processing Chip (Samsung)
$5.98

4GB Flash Memory (Samsung)
$6

Lithium Ion Battery (Smallest iSuppli had ever seen)
$1.20

Various Capacitors and Resistors (Smallest iSupply had ever seen, a grain of salt a pop)
Less than a penny each

The prices of the headphones, body and case were unspecified, but apparently those components make up the other half of the shuffle's component cost to Apple. And with the build price at just 28% of the sale price, the shuffle should be Apple's most profitable iPod ever, even if iSuppli's report doesn't account for expenses like R&D. [BusinessWeek and image]

Apple forums are lit up with complaints about how iTunes 8.1 smacks around the older iPod shuffles: It dupes existing files on the iPod, it copies podcasts out-of-order, doesn't remove deleted podcasts, and won't play when connected to the computer are what's documented (and seconded and thirded) by one user. It seems to have issues with Smart playlists too.

Right now the only solution seems to be downgrading back to iTunes 8.0 until there's a fix. Oh, and isn't that photo Charlie found the best? [Apple Forums via Gadget Lab, Image: bfshadow/Flickr]

We teamed up with our friends over at UCBComedy.com to create this, our first original comedic video. It was written by myself and Mark Wilson, directed by Will Hines, edited by Nate Dern, and stars me.

Let us know what you think! Unless you don't like it, in which case keep your opinions to your damn self. We're sensitive. [UCBComedy]

Any model in the pictured spectrum can be yours for $129, or a $50 premium over the stock iPod shuffle. But there are other options as well, such as copper, rose gold and platinum, that can push the price up to $200.

Of course, Apple will probably get around to releasing the shuffle in a wide array of colors. But you know the drill—they generally wait until you've already bought one. [Computer Choppers via technabob]

iLounge was apparently first mention the presence of a possible authentication scheme, and Boing Boing Gadgets was the first to find some kind of chip inside the headphones—whether or not it was an authentication chip was unknown.

V-Moda, one of the manufacturers who announced shuffle-compatible headphones last week, just confirmed to us that yes, an "authentication chip IS required to enable to volume control functionality with the new shuffle (as well as the latest gen of iPod and MacBooks)." The difference here is that iPods and MacBooks worked with headphones that didn't have the authentication chip. The shuffle does not. Update: This statement was retracted by V-Moda. See bottom of post for details.

V-Moda also says that they've collaborated with Apple for the past few months developing the technology. It seems safe to conclude two things. One, manufacturers who want their headphones to work with the shuffle need to work with Apple in order to get access to the tech inside the authentication chip. Two, only people who Apple "like" are going to get this tech and make compatible headphones—but it's likely that Apple likes almost anybody with the money to pay for licensing.

Whatever the consequences, it does look like Apple is going down the path of locking down headphones, hoping to crunch out another revenue stream from all the manufacturers offering ways of getting sound from your iPod to your ears, whether it be through earbuds or through car adapters.

Image courtesy Boing Boing Gadgets

Update: Another source, plus the original contact at V-Moda, are telling me something different about the chip. V-Moda is retracting their original statement and saying "it is NOT an authentication nor a DRM chip", which I am trying to get clarification on now. The other source says it's supposedly closer to a proprietary control chip that houses the new control scheme, and is an "additional component for the 'made for iPod' program". Again, the phrase "authentication chip" was their language, which they are retracting now. Further updates to come.

Update 2: Joel @ BBG says he spoke to Apple, and they denied the fact that there's any encryption or authentication in the chip. What's also interesting is that another tipster says the chip is relatively easy to clone (a fact Apple strangely corroborates), meaning the reason why the manufacturers are licensing and using Apple's version is most likely to get to market as fast as possible to beat their competitors. And, because they like the fact that they have a made for iPod certification.

Update 3: Spoke to someone else at V-Moda, and they assured me that it was not an authentication chip, but a control chip as part of the "made for iPod" program that they receive from Apple. They've also got no plans to go and duplicate the functionality without the "made for iPod" label, as is probably the case with all other major manufacturers.

Ditching the dock cord, the Shu-Lip mates directly to the headphone jack on one end for immediate USB insertion. Adding yet another accesory to the the already ridiculously accesory-prone new $80 Shuffle. [Product Page via iLounge]

Removing all buttons—or to clarify, moving them to the headset—shrinks down the size of the new iPod Shuffle dramatically, but it also creates control problems when running, snowboarding or doing anything other than sitting.

Design
This new iPod shuffle is about half the volume of the previous iPod shuffle. HALF. By moving all the controls from the face onto the headphone cable, Apple was able to reduce the width and thickness to almost 50%, even if the length grew slightly. This wasn't totally sensible: Although the headphones do offer a comprehensive control scheme, the button position on the headphone cord becomes really difficult to use unless you're sitting still. It also limits your choice of headphones to the ones Apple gives you, or new shuffle-specific ones made by other manufacturers.

But there's one point where this shuffle beats the hell out of the previous shuffle, and that's the audio feedback interface. Apple calls this UI, which speaks to you, VoiceOver. It's a set of text-to-speech files transparently associated to each track on your iPod that will speak the title and artist of your current song. Hold the button down long enough, and the voice will cycle through all your playlists, one by one, reading the names. Hit it again to jump directly to that playlist.

The player itself is also fine, even if the blank, monolithic face takes a while to get used to (and stop reaching for when you want to change tracks). Yes, it only comes in black and silver, instead of the whimsical shuffle/nano palette we're used to.

Its front and back are made of aluminum. And just like the nano (and the previous generation shuffle), the edges are a little too sharp. The clip is made out of stainless steel, like the back of the iPod touch and older generation nanos, so it attracts fingerprints and gets scratched up incredibly easily. The front, luckily, does not have this problem.

The package comes with headphones and a three-inch USB connector. Apple's tendency to remove stuff from the iPod package continues with the removal of the free dock; which is a shame, since you'll instead be leaving this strewn about your desk, and because it's so damn tiny, you'll have probably have a hard time finding it again.

Syncing and Playback
The entire iTunes sync screen is improved. There's now support for podcasts and playlist syncing. Yeah, you don't have to use autofill or manually drag tracks and playlists over one by one, because you can now jump between playlists using the VoiceOver feedback system.

These voices, which are generated and synced on the fly when you choose playlists, sound pretty great, assuming you have Mac OS X Leopard. Those who do will get to take advantage of "Alex", the newer text-to-speech voice shipped in the OS. If you're on Windows, or if you ever want to use the 13 languages other than English, you'll default to the VoiceOverKit downloadable pack that comes with iTunes 8.1. Even the supposedly lousier TTS agent works decently enough, because these are your songs and you should be able to at least guesstimate what artist/track it is. But Alex prounounces stuff like "Yeah Yeah Yeahs" and "Jamiroquai" correctly, whereas the other one (a lady's voice) doesn't.

Voice data is fairly small, with 400MB worth of songs only taking up about 20MB of voice track data. That's going to be about 175MB of voice data if you fill up all 3.5GB of usable space.

I tested actual Chinese and Japanese track names and artist names and they all came out sounding correct, if a bit robotic. You can override language selections by song or globally if you want all your music to be read back to you in the English voice—for example, if you have a bunch of classical music labeled in Italian. But if you have a mix and match song, with a Japanese title and an English artist name, the iPod will pronounce everything using the Japanese voice, including the English portion. Which is funny if you're an ass (like me) that gets a chuckle from non-native English speaker accents.

The 255-character limit to song and artist fields still applies, so you can't shove lyrics or eBooks in there and expect your iPod to read them back to you. And blank data in both fields results in complete silence; it doesn't say "untitled track" unless the track name is actually "untitled track."

It does say other things, however, including its battery status, if you flick the hold switch off and on again. This chart displays the possible blinks and audible alerts.

As for the shuffle's sound quality, since the shuffle only works with the included headphones and not any other regular set of headphones, we ran a couple playback tests as best we could. The frequency response, using a specially-encoded frequency sweep MP3, was decent but not phenomenal. The start of the sweep was at 16Hz, and we couldn't hear anything until half a second later when it got above 50Hz. It definitely peaked well under 20KHz (probably close to 16KHzish), but some of that could be due to my own high frequency hearing loss. And, because these headphones are quite lousy. When I compared frequency response to the old shuffle and to the nano with the same earphones, they were all about equal.

Max volume definitely was louder on this shuffle than the 2G version. It wasn't quite as loud as the latest iPod nano, but it was damn close. Again, since we could only use the default headphones to test, there wasn't any real difference in audio quality, even with high-quality 320kbps MP3s.

We're also going to check whether or not the 10-hour battery life claim is accurate, but Apple themselves claim that it's down from 12 hours in the previous generation.

Usage
Because the shuffle's now only half as wide as the old one, the clip is only about half as strong. There's less surface area, and it's no longer jagged—it's just two bits of metal on top of each other. There's still quite a bit of strength in it, but you'll be able to yank it off from your jeans using just the headphone cable, so it could mean trouble.

Since one of the major uses of the shuffle is for exercise, we had to take it on a 30-minute run, testing usability in active conditions. Although the clip is fine, the controls are pretty crappy. The stock headphones suck because the controls are up on the right hand cord, up near the ear. You pause, forward, rewind and seek by hitting the middle button in various ways. This is fine when you're sitting, but when you're running, it's really hard to hold your arm still up in that awkward position to change tracks. And when you're really tired, your arms start flailing and it's very, very difficult to not yank the earbud out of your ear when you're changing songs.

Here's the solution. Apple should move the controls down to where the two earbud cords split. It's much more convenient down there, plus lefties wouldn't have to suck it up and use their right hand. This major problem might get fixed by one of the major headphone manufacturers releasing their own compatible pairs. I'd pay $100 for a good pair that doesn't have the controls placed in a lousy place, or maybe even has larger controls on the cable.

I don't have a pair of snowboarding gloves, but I do have a pair of regular gloves, and when using the shuffle with them on, it's hard to feel where the groove of the play/pause button stops and the volume +/- buttons start. It would be much worse for even thicker gloves that offer zero tactile feedback. But on the bright side, the body itself is at least as water-resistant as the old shuffle. Probably even more so, since there are fewer cracks and openings for water to leak into.

So where's this all headed? If Apple wasn't so absolutely married to the fact that physical controls need to be in a trademark click-wheel shape, they could have easily spread out the five play/next/prev/vol. up/vol. down buttons along the smooth face of the shuffle. But they didn't.

There's also a limit to how much smaller the shuffle can go. I wouldn't expect such a dramatic decrease next time around. In fact, I predict a re-emergence of the wheel, so that the entire player is thinner, but squarish with only the wheel on the front. After all, the previous generation's wheel wasn't even a real wheel anyway because you couldn't actually scroll with it by thumbing around in a circle. Apple seems to enjoy alternating between different design shapes in their iPod nano (2G nano was thin, 3G nano was fat, 4G nano was thin) line, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that they're going to do this with the shuffle as well.

If you need something like this for exercise, or if you just hate the fact that there are no buttons on this one, buy the last-gen shuffle before they're all gone, or wait till next year when Apple changes its mind. To tell the truth, this new shuffle is just okay. We don't know what kind of a statement they were trying to make with it, but suffice it to say, the message wasn't received. [Apple]

VoiceOver text-to-speech feedback is neat, and improves usability dramatically

New 4GB storage means more songs for about the same price

Half the size of the previous generation shuffle

Default headphones have the controls placed in an awkward position on the cord

Battery life has decreased from 12 hours to 10

It's very difficult to work the in-line controls while running or wearing thick gloves

You can only use proprietary headphones, or buy one of the as-of-yet unreleased adapters

This teardown is a little different than most, mainly because of just how simple this device is; once it was cracked open, there was one screw to worry about. The pictures tell the story here, so check out the gallery below or the whole gruesome ordeal at [iFixit—Thanks, Jivesh!]

The accent, that of a robot that actually dislikes you, like it does all fleshbags, is not all that different. Both of the voices are synthesized from your computer, too, as we realized in this patent.

If micronization trickles up like this voice application has trickled down, I suppose one day the phones and computers will be shuffle sized, too. Like in Zoolander.

As you can see in this flowchart, the trick happens in your computer. Apple patented the process a while back, and it's going to implement the mechanism in the next revision of iTunes. iTunes 8.1 will use the text-to-speech capabilities of your computer to generate sound bites, embedding the name of the artist and the song in every tune.

This explains why the voices are different depending on the platform you sync your iPod shuffle with: iTunes 8.1 uses the text-to-speech engines available on each operating system with different settings. The only thing that the iPod does is playback those sound bites when you click on the central button, located in the headphones cable (sadly.) [9 to 5]