TECH | It’s Showtime!

It’s Tuesday in America, and that means Apple’s big news day. But I didn’t have to fire up Firefox to get the news, as soon as I turned on my Mac I was asked if I wanted to update my iTunes (so that it would be compatible with movies and games). What I did need Firefox for was to see the new range of iPods…

Apple is the king of the trendy, fashionable (but only for this season), expensive gadgets. I own both a video iPod and an iPod Shuffle. Both have now been replaced with (apparently) better versions.

The iPod Shuffle is now so small, you can just clip it on your lapel, or anywhere you want. Of course you could just forget where you clipped it and put it in the washing machine with your clothes…. I wonder if Steve Jobs thought to make it waterproof?

Don’t get me wrong I think it’s extremely cool, but I’ll be hanging onto my old Shuffle, ‘cause I like the way it hangs around my neck. That, and it cost me $110, and it’s not that old! (It’s still under warranty).

Of course the new 80GB iPod Video would be nice, especially as Apple are now in the movie selling business. But wait, they’re only selling Disney movies. Oh that’s right, because Steve Jobs & Pixar own Disney. But then, as was quotes in Wayne’s World 2, “If you build it, they will come.” As with music, it should only be a matter of time before Apple shows the world that they know how to sell movies online, and then all the other movie companies will join up.

But then Apple doesn’t really care about the world. Well, not the whole world. To Apple, the world consists on America. In New Zealand there still isn’t an iTunes store to buy music. I’ve been tempted to try and set up an Australian account, seeing as everyone thinks we’re apart of Australia, but when I checked out the Aussie iTunes store it was devoid of the obvious: movies. Sure it had the games that can now be bought and downloaded to you new iPod, but no movies.

And this is pretty significant. iPods, like Sony’s PSP are portable, and like the PSP, iPods shouldn’t be constrained by regional zooming on it’s product, especially as most of the movies currently available on iTunes are back catalogue.

So c’mon Steve, make the Aussie iTunes available for Kiwis, and give us some Movies and TV programmes… there’s a whole different world outside of America.

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