In a jam-packed event full of new product details, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled new versions of all three iPod devices on Wednesday, introduced operating-system updates, and demonstrated a new social-media network designed to encourage more downloading from iTunes. He also unveiled a leaner version of Apple’s less-popular Apple TV set-top box.
Apple’s Ping is “Facebook and Twitter meets iTunes,” said Jobs as he demonstrated a feature of the 10th version of Apple’s online music store. The network allows users to “follow” friends as well as artists, just like Twitter, and exchange updates and playlists with them.
iOS Updates
Apple streamed the event at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco, Calif., live (with a slight delay) via its web site, but the stream was available only to those using iPads, the latest iPods and iPhones, or Mac computers running the most recent Mac OS X Snow Leopard operating system.
Jobs announced that Apple has sold 120 million devices that run the Apple portable operating system, now called iOS. “We couldn’t be happier about the progress of iOS,” said Jobs, in a shot across the bow to Google’s fast-spreading Android OS. “There are 230,000 new activations per day.”
The newest version, 4.01, will be available next week and will fix a glitch in the iPhone 4 involving the proximity sensor (but not the much-maligned antenna that can encounter signal problems from a user’s touch).
The next iOS version, 4.2, which is intended to make the iPad’s applications run more like those of the iPhone, is just around the corner in November. That update will also include a feature called AirPlay that allows users to send media to other devices via Wi-Fi. Jobs said Apple customers are downloading 200 apps every second.
iPods ‘Gone Wild’
But the stars of Wednesday’s show were the new iPods. Boasting that the company…