The Sep 9th - 2009, Apple Special Event, iTunes 9 And More

September 9th - 2009, Apple had its special event where they updated the iPod lineup. iTunes 9 is now live and iPhone OS 3.1.1. Continue reading for all details.

iTunes 9

Apple released iTunes 9 today, with some new but not breathtaking features and additions.

iTunes LP adds more content with some selected album purchases such as animated lyrics, liner notes, photos and more. It's like bonus material for your music.

Home Sharing lets you share music, TV shows, movies and more with up to five computers in your home. If your girlfriend have a song you like, grab it! Put it right to your own computer.

The store looks nicer, according to Apple. They have re-designed the store and polished the navigation. A lot of white in there.

Extra material, some movies you buy also provide extra material. Like interviews, trailers photos and so on. Like the extra material you might get when you buy a DVD movie I guess?

Genius Mixes, it will create up to 12 genius playlists with music that works together.

Better syncing, you can rearrange or arrange your iPhone home screen directly from iTunes. Shop applications from your computer and sync it to your phone. More management possibilities.

iPhone OS 3.1

The iPhone software updates to version 3.1.1 to be exact. Some of the new features are Genius recommendations for applications. Seems like a good move, there are probably still many good applications waiting discovery in the app store.

Support for iTunes 9 features like genius mixes, organize apps directly in iTunes. Improved syncing with music, movies, TV shows, podcasts and photos and more.

Oh, and *drumroll* a ringtone store! Claims they have over 30,000 ringtones costing $1.29 per ringtone. Oh well, I like to make my own free iPhone ringtones. I guess someone will find this extremely useful?

All iPhone users can upgrade to this software version.

New iPods

The 120GB iPod Classic is now 160GB. Same price, same old. Good move.

iPod touch upgrades. Price drop, and it seems like it use kind of the same hardware as the iPhone 3GS. Because it supports OpenGL 2.0. The prices are: 8GB = $199, 32GB = $299, 64GB = $399.

Fifth generation iPod nano got some updates too. They slapped a camera on there and a microphone. Screen size increased to 2.2-inch. Built in FM radio and a pedometer for that Nike+ integration. Check the video below from PCMag.com for a quick review.

Quick Summary

New version of iTunes, looks like we still have to wait for the 64-bit version. New iPhone software update. Updates to the iPod lineup. Nothing too fancy, but an alright Apple special event where Steve Jobs is back!