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iTunes 8, New Nanos, iPod Touches, and iPhone Software Update 2.1

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Apple had a Let’s Rock event this week and announced some new products and iTunes 8.
iTunes 8 mainly added a Genius feature which is a revamp of the mini store.  Whats interesting is it can create playlists on the fly by selecting a song and choosing Genius playlist.  It will pull songs from your library that go with that one particular song.  It’s a pretty cool feature for making mixes.

These are the new nanos and the colors they come in.  Very bright colors that can stop traffic in case you are listening to your iPod too loud and stumble into oncoming traffic.
They include a accelerometer like the iPhone and iPod Touch and have games based off it also.
It has a new shake to shuffle feature which is sure to make a few Nanos fly across the living room.

The new iPod Touch with 2.1.1 software.  I have held and tested one of these and it is really thin now.  It has a built in speaker and volume control buttons now.  Something that the first one really should of included.  The speaker isn’t as loud and clear as the iPhone 3G’s but still good enough to hear what’s going on in a general enviroment.
What is also interesting is they include a built in Nike+ sensor that works with a Nike+ shoe insert that can track your running workout.

The new iPhone 2.1 Software Update.  Update includes:

  • Decrease in call set-up failures and dropped calls
  • Significantly better battery life for most users
  • Dramatically reduced time to backup to iTunes
  • Improved email reliability, notably fetching email from POP and Exchange accounts
  • Faster installation of 3rd party applications
  • Fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes for users with lots of third party applications
  • Improved performance in text messaging
  • Faster loading and searching of contacts
  • Improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display
  • Repeat alert up to two additional times for incoming text messages
  • Option to wipe data after ten failed passcode attempts
  • Genius playlist creation

I’m still backing up my phone now and waiting for it to install.  After it is done, I’ll post a update to see if it fixed these issues.

Update:
After using the new iTunes 8.0 for about a week here is what I noticed.
The iPhone syncing and backup is all fixed, no more waiting for the iPhone to backup.
The new visualizer is pretty cool if you have a large screen to enjoy it on.
And last but not least, the new iTunes Genius feature is a great way to make mixes and seems to make the mixes pretty well.
Also BTW, the new iTunes 8.0 has the equalizer on by default.  Mine was set to rock on my MacBook Pro.  You can further adjust the equalizer by clicking Window on the and equalizer on the menu.

Windows Live Writer – New Microsoft Live Suite

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Microsoft recently released a whole new suite of Live services and programs for Windows XP and Windows Vista.  A new MSN Messenger Live, Photo Gallery Live, Windows Mail Live, and Windows Live Writer Suite.  If you use Vista, the new Photo Gallery Live won’t look much different from the existing Windows Vista Photo Gallery, but it has a upload to Flickr option that makes it easy to upload your pictures right from the gallery.
As I write this post, I’m using the new blogging program from Microsoft called Windows Live Writer.  When I first ran it, it asked me if I want to setup a new Blog using Microsoft’s Live Spaces service or if I all ready had a existing blog somewhere else.  I host WordPress on my own web site and not on WordPress so I thought it would be slightly more complicated to setup.
It asked me some information like my Blog URL and my username and password.  Right away it detected what type of blog and started up this neat interface which I am testing out now.  Now I can easily post to my Blog using my PC.  Thanks Microsoft Live.