Podgasm

Today was Apple's heavily-hyped "Showtime" presentation, Steve Jobs's latest new products announcement. Only a couple hours after the presentation, the story is all over the web, and the details are still a bit contradictory from site to site. The highlights:

• There are a handful of incremental improvements to the full-sized iPod: Brighter screens, longer-lasting batteries, a $50 price drop, and a boost to 80GB in the higher-capacity model. I'm still not clear on whether these are considered a new generation of iPods. Nothing I'd go out of my way to upgrade, but if I had actually bought a new iPod a couple of weeks ago (instead of scraping in just under the 6-month warranty for a free replacement), I'd be kicking myself.
• The new 2nd generation iPod Nano is the love child of the 1G Nano and the Mini: all the features of the first-gen Nano in an even smaller form factor, with the colored aluminum body construction of the beloved Mini. Dare I hope that the true next-gen iPod might have a similar body?
• The Shuffle has gone aluminum as well, moving from the outsized memory stick form factor to a tiny clip-on rectangle only slightly larger than the control circle. The half-gig model is out, leaving only the full-gigabyte model at the same price. Looks like it now needs its own itty-bitty dock instead of plugging in directly to USB. Still, this is very tempting as a secondary player.
• If I'm reading this right, iTunes 7 will alow you to synchronize your library across multiple authorized computers using your iPod. I'll definitely be downloading that as soon as I get home to find out. It looks as though the new version will feature a number of UI improvements as well, possibly including the kind of album-centric view that I miss from my MusicMatch days.
• The iTunes Music Store will now offer new types of content: Games as well as the much-heralded feature lenth movies. I can't see getting more than a couple of movies for sheer novelty value, but a couple of puzzle games to carry with might be nice. Here's hoping Zuma will be a nice fit for the Click Wheel.
• The most unexpected announcement appears to be the iTV, a wireless set-top box expected next year, for playing iTunes content on your TV. Meh. Maybe once I hear more about it, it'll have some appeal for me.