New iPods, iTunes 8

Moments ago, at Apple’s ‘Let’s Rock’ event, Steve Jobs lifted the curtain on iTunes 8 and some snazzy new iPods, just in time for the upcoming holiday season.

The nano is ‘tall’ again, but it’s curved.. even on the top. It now sports an accelerometer (more on that in a sec). VERY colorful. New headphones include a micro controller to skip tracks and a microphone for voice recording. Prices are lower.. with more storage. 8GB model is $149, and a new 16GB comes in at $199

The accelerometer works like it does on the iPhone and takes advantage of the nano’s new (old?) dimensions. Turn the nano on its side and you see the familiar cover flow interface to browse music. This is also how you watch video. And here’s a nifty trick.. want to shuffle your music/playlist? Just shake the nano to ‘mix it up’. Love that.

Taking aim at Sony’s PSP?

Next up.. iPod Touch. The new design is curved like that of the iPhone 3G and has a stainless back (ooh, shiny!). Integrated volume controls. It’s thinner than the iPhone. ‘Genius’ playist creation (more about this later). They also focused a lot on mobile gaming during the event.. looks like they’re going after Sony’s PSP. Models are 8GB, 16GB and 32GB.. $229, $299 and $399 respectively.

The iPod Classic remained untouched for this event. You may wonder why they still have a Classic. One word.. (hard disk) storage. You’re not going to find a solid state iPod with 80GB or 160GB. When companies are producing solid state memory at those capacities (and competitively priced), i think you may see the ‘Classic’ go by the wayside.

Real Genius.

iTunes got a full point update to v.8 and features a new browsing mode (grid). Cover flow is still there, but grid is better for viewing a whole lot of content at once. The new ‘Genius’ feature is essentially the evolution of smart playlists. It does what services like Pandora and Last.fm have been working on for a while now. Genius analyzes your music and finds/suggests similar songs from your library, or from the iTunes Store. You need to upload information about your library to the iTunes Store to participate. This is all opt-in and anonymous, of course.

Also new to the iTunes Store, HD television shows.. not just movies. TV shows in HD are $2.99, $1.99 for standard def (as before). iTunes 8 is free and available today.. check software update or try downloading directly from Apple’s site.

BBEdit Reaches Version 9

Bare Bones Edit, affectionately known as BBEdit, has now arrived at version 9. The release notes are pretty long, as you might expect for a full point release. More about key features in a minute..

BBEdit has long been one of those products that make it a joy to build sites on a Mac. While I consider myself a fan, competing applications like Panic Software’s CODA have been quickly closing in on BBEdit, even exceeding it in areas like auto-completion, overall interface and price ($79 vs. $129). That said, Bare Bones Software has an extensive history and huge installed base.. a base who has practically grown up with the product. This full point update will go a long way toward keeping them happy.

Notable improvements:

• Improved multi-file grouping into ‘Projects’
• Better auto-completion and syntax coloring, to speed development
• You can now work with/edit the search results without opening up another window
• Application preferences and ‘Application Support’ folder can be synced over .Mac/MobileMe
• New Scratchpad allowing quick edits and batch copy/paste prior to inserting code into your document
• Improved autosave (every minute)
• VM Ware ‘Fusion’ users can now preview pages in Windows versions of Firefox, Opera, Safari and IE

Upgrading to BBEdit 9 from any prior commercial version is $30. If you bought BBEdit after Jan 1, 2008 your upgrade looks like it will be free.

Things & Things Touch

Cultured Code, who is already off to a great start with their GTD desktop application Things, has released their highly anticipated iPhone version.

You can use either of these apps on their own, but if you have a Mac and an iPhone, your life is about to get a lot simpler.. or at least more organized.

In either Things app, you can add individual tasks, combine those into multi-step projects, tag items with keywords and set due dates. Tasks uncompleted by their due date are automatically rolled into your ‘today’ list, so they don’t simply get lost. There’s also a hot-key preference, so you can quickly call up the ‘new task’ window from anywhere on your Mac and commit something to your to-do list.

The interface (for for both apps) is minimal, but quick and efficient and helps you get information in/out with a minimum of fuss. And with the latest update, this all now syncs via wi-fi (no ‘push’ though.. yet).

Panic releases CODA 1.5

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