RIP Steve Jobs

Due to complications from pancreatic cancer, Steve Jobs passed yesterday, October 5, 2011 at the young age of 56.

I was surprised to be really affected by the news of his death. I wasn’t expecting to be saddened this much. It’s almost as if a long-lost friend had died.

I owned the first two generations of the iPod Nano. I was given these and when I finally was able to afford to buy myself an iPod, I opted to go with the iPod Touch 4G.

And like any geek, I cringe every time somebody calls it the “iTouch”.

I never hesitated buying my iPod Touch. I thought it was cool. I could read books, watch movies and listen to music – everything I like doing. I use my iPod touch every day during work. Music kept me awake whenever I felt sleepy. Or when I didn’t feel like talking at work since having the iPod plugged in your ears basically says “I’m a loner and I don’t want to socialize”.

While I loaded music videos and movies onto my iPod touch, I never really watched them. I felt I’d rather spend the time listening to music. My music library grows everyday and I hope to fill it up with more songs through the years.

Without the genius of Steve Jobs and his team, the world would’ve never experienced the simple pleasure of having portable music. Yes, we had the Walkman back in the day but it was an effort just to lug cassette tapes and/or cds around.

Steve Jobs once said that design “is not just what it looks like and looks like. Design is how it works”. Truly, Steve Jobs was a wonderful designer by integrating sleek looks and functionality in almost all of Apple’s products. His genius and creativity is now evident is present in almost all of latest gadgets. Steve Jobs helped shape our modern world. For this, we are thankful.

Steve Jobs, you will be truly missed.

Apple’s Big Announcement Revealed

Ok. So it turns out my prediction was way off. There are more updates with software and hardware than I thought there would be.

Here are the following changes that we’ll be seeing from Apple:

Update on the iOS4, the operating system that’s currently running on the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. This will be released next week. Apparently, the update will fix the bugs that’s currently plaguing the iPhone 3G. There will be two updates, 4.1 and 4.2. The 4.1 update includes the update stated above plus an introduction to the HDR (high dynamic range) camera. It’s pretty cool since what an HDR camera does is when you take a picture, it’ll capture three versions of the picture. “Three? Why three?”, you ask. One’s in normal exposure, the other is over-exposed while the third one will be under-exposed. The software combines all three into one photo but it’ll still keep the three pictures so you can compare. This will be useful too for the artsy people out there who like to experiment. Users will be also be able to upload their photos over the wi-fi network. Gamers rejoice since the new software allows you to play with other friends on the multi-player games.

iOS 4.2 – This software will be released and ready for download by November 2010. The updates here, Steve Jobs said, will be mostly for iPad users but iPhone and iPod Touch users can download it as well. A pretty good update, I think is that wireless printing is coming. Apparently, Steve Jobs didn’t go into details as to how your printer and your wireless device will be communicating. Other bloggers are speculating that there might be a software that you’ll have to install on either one or both of the devices that you have to enable wireless printing.

iPods – They redesigned all three – the iPod Shuffle, the iPod Nano and the iPod Touch. The iPod Shuffle didn’t have much of a change, except that it’ll be a little smaller than it’s predecessor. The iPod Nano now looks like the iPod Shuffle, except that it doesn’t have the click-wheel and it looks so much better than the Shuffle. Check it out here (if you click on the pictures, it will take you to the Apple website:

 

The Nano is now so small that it’s impossible to watch videos on it. It’s simply a music player with the following dimensions:

Height: 1.48 inches

Width: 1.61 inches

Depth: 0.35 inches (including the clip)

I’m on the bench on this one. I don’t know if I like it or if I don’t like it. Granted that it’s touch screen but…I’m not sure yet.

The iPod Touch brings on major, major updates. The new features include

• Two cameras, one in front and the other at the back
• Retina display, similar to that of the iPhone 4
• HD Video Recording and Editing
• An updated gaming center

The new iPod Touch is the iPhone 4, without the calling capabilities. But it still does not include the FM Radio!! That’s a major downer for me. I was saving up for the iPod Touch and was really looking forward to them putting on an FM Radio feature.

iTunes 10

Nothing new here except for Ping, a social network for music lovers and according to Steve Jobs, it’s Twitter meets iTunes. This will be available for iPhone and iPod Touch users

I think I covered all the updates…

Let me know if I missed anything.

Apple’s Big Announcement

Web’s abuzz about the big announcement coming from Apple on September 1, 2010 US time.

I think it’ll have something to do with the iPod. I’m thinking there will be an upgrade with the iPod Touch. They haven’t made much upgrades on it and the last “tweaking” they did was on the iPod Nano and that was about getting an FM tuner and a video camera on the music player.

I’m really, really hoping that they do a massive upgrade on the iPod Touch. I suggest the following:

• a 5 MP camera for still pictures and video recording
• an FM radio, similar to the iPod Nano

Hmm…What else? They escape me at the moment as I’m being distracted by the show White Collar.

So, let’s wait for Apple’s announcement. It’ll be at 1 PM EST.