Apple’s September media event kicked off this morning with announcing their new flagship stores that opened recently in Paris, Shanghai and London, which brings the total number of Apple retail locations worldwide to over 300 stores in 10 different countries.

The annual September event typically focuses on Apple’s iPods, and today’s reveal followed the trend as Apple CEO Steve Jobs revealed a completely new line of iPods (though no mention of the iPod classic).

In addition, in line with recent rumors and speculation, and in typical “one more thing” fashion, Jobs revealed the newly revised Apple TV.

New versions of iOS and iTunes were announced as well. Here’s the breakdown:

New iPods

iPod Shuffle: Smaller, square-ish, wearable (w/ clip) design. Features: Buttons, VoiceOver, playlists, & genius mixes. Available in 5 different colors (2GB for $49).

iPod Nano: Smaller, square multi-touch screen, wearable (w/ clip) design. Features: Voice-over, FM radio, Nike+, 24 hours of battery life. No camera or video camera this time around. Available in 4 colors + graphite and Product: RED versions (8GB for $149, 16GB for $179).

iPod Touch: Thinner, lighter, and faster. Features: Retina Display, iOS 4.1, FaceTime (Front facing VGA camera), Rear HD camera, and Apple A4 chip (8GB for $229, 32GB $299, 64GB for $399).

All new iPod models available NEXT WEEK.

New Apple TV

According to Jobs, the last generation of Apple TV was “not a big hit”. They’re hoping to turn things around with the next generation of Apple TV, which will be “small, cool, and tiny”. By tiny, he sure means it. The new Apple TV will be 1/4 of the size of the previous model (you can hold it in the palm of your hand). Its compact, matte black enclosure resembles a square hockey puck.

The streaming-focused device (no internal storage) features 1 HDMI and 1 Ethernet port, optical audio, and USB plugs around back, as well as 802.11n Wi-Fi.

HDTV movie rentals from ABC and FOX will be available at 99 cents, while first run HD movies will be $4.99.

Other available services include Netflix, YouTube, Flickr, and MobileMe. You can also stream all your content from you computer wirelessly or from your iPad via iOS 4.2’s new AirPlay feature.

Apple TV will be available in 4 weeks at $99.

New Software

A number of new software updates were announced, including iOS 4.1, a look into the upcoming iOS 4.2, as well as a new version of iTunes.

iOS 4.1/4.2

iOS 4.1 will be available for your iPhone and new iPod touch next week via iTunes. It includes bug fixes for the proximity sensor & bluetooth, and features HDR photos, HD Video wi-fi upload, TV show rentals, and the previously announced Game Center.

iOS 4.2: It was expected that Apple would announce their plans for the deployment of iOS 4 for the iPad during this morning’s event, and they kept us waiting right until the end. iOS 4.2 will include everything from the new 4.1 but designed for your iPad, including wireless printing, plus the newly featured AirPlay.

The iOS 4.2 software update will be available for your iPad, as well as your iPhone and iPod touch in November.

iTunes 10

iTunes 10 features a brand new logo (ditching the CD to reflect the industry’s move to the digital revolution) and a new social music network, called PING (think Facebook + Twitter meets iTunes). You can follow your favorite artists & friends, post thoughts/opinions, and follow concert listings.

iTunes 10 is available for download today.

Commodity external drives can be had for nearly as little as a bare hard disk these days, and if you like so many are satisfied with a flimsy (probably ugly) enclosure, clunky power supply, and USB interface only, the damage is less than a bill. I for one am not. For portability, convenience and speed, Macally’s 2.5″ SATA FW400/USB enclosure is my optimum choice, and i basically never leave home without. (I have three.)

At work, it is my iTunes library. I originally bought an iPod classic when the 160 GB model came out, but I was never satisfied with its performance when playing through iTunes, and in any case I outgrew it’s capacity almost immediately. I ditched the iPod and in its stead, popped a 500 GB in one of these Macally enclosures, and cloned my mp3s to it, iTunes library included. (A year later, when the drive in my MacBook Pro choked, I swapped in the 500 GB, and got a 640 GB for my enclosure.)

My work computer doesn’t even have an iTunes folder – the whole thing
is stored on my drive, with a symlink in my home folder. The drive powers off the FireWire bus, so all I have to do is plug into a single cable on my iMac, and I’m rolling!

In life outside of work, where IT departments are sparse, otherwise unsuspecting computer nerds (me) fill in the gaps for the needy. This is where my little drive enclosure truly shines. I partitioned the disk into one big main volume, and a few smaller volumes, which I cloned a bootable Leopard system, and install DVD images to. Now if I (or a desperate friend) have system or drive issues, all I need is a FireWire cable, and I can boot the machine from the portable drive for diagnostic and repair. Brilliant!

Technical Specs
• Dynamic Speaker Driver: 40 mm

• Cable Length: 1.6 M (63 inches)

• Impedance: 32ohms

• Sensitivity: 116 dB – 3 dB

• Frequency response: 20 Hz to 20 KHz

• Plug: 3.5 mm

The EarPollution CS40 comfort series headphones are designed for those looking for a light-weight, long-wearing, on-ear style headphone that delivers a great sounding, balanced output at a conservative price point.

Style
The CS40 headphone features a two-toned band with black rubber on the top, while the sides are one of 5 eye-catching, high gloss colors. The band slides easily to accommodate different size heads, but stays put when moving around (or at least when bobbing your head to a good groove).

The inside of the rubber-cupped earpieces is dressed up with a dot of color matching the band. All of the color varieties feature a radiation-warning symbol on the outside of the earpiece.

Build & Function
We’ve decided around the Dr. Bott office that these headphones are what we imagine wearing “clouds” would feel like. Many on-ear style press too tightly on your ear, creating the need to take frequent breaks (especially for spectacle wearing listeners like myself). Not so, here. The ultra-soft padding allows for longer listening sessions…you may actually forget you’re wearing these headphones. They provide a small buffer between yourself and mild background noise (traffic, for example) but still allow you to hear louder, more direct noises (beneficial if you need to be somewhat audibly aware of your surroundings).

If you’re not looking for complete noise-isolation, and if you’re not too overly concerned that your friends, family, or co-workers may hear a little bit of your music (if listening at high volumes), these will suit your needs just fine.

The wires are made of a durable, rubber-coated material, which stayed conveniently out of my way, due to the fact that they are positioned to lay across the back, rather than front of the listener. Like many headphones these days, the earpieces fold up inside the headband for portability. Unfortunately, there is no included bag, so unless you want to tote your CS40s in their original clamshell packaging, you’re going to need to protect them via other means.

Sound
Okay, this is why we’re all here. Overall, the EarPollution CS40s are some of the best $40 headphones I’ve ever listened to. They reproduced a good number of musical nuances that I look for in my “headphone test mix”. Let it be know, however, that these are not true audiophile quality headphones. As we all know, to get truly hi-fi cans, you need to be ready to shell out a lot more money than most of us spend on monthly car payments.

Therefore, if your taste for great sound is slightly bigger than your pocketbook, the CS40s are for you. Unlike many other consumer headphones currently offered on the market, the CS40’s sound is well balanced with an accurate bass response (read: not boosted). If you gravitate toward headphones that feature something that sounds like “X-bass” or “double bass boost” you can stop reading now. I did notice that in order to get the most clarity out of these headphones, I needed to apply a slight treble boost to the EQ. Out of the box, the high frequencies are missing just a bit of sparkle. If you’re looking for an accurate, balanced soundscape, the CS40’s surely won’t disappoint.

Conclusion
The CS40s are a good choice for an everyday, on-ear style headphone for any music lover who wants a dynamic, quality sounding delivery of their tunes without breaking the bank. These really are a surprisingly good sounding headphone for the price.

Pros
- Accurate, punchy bass
- Comfortable ear padding
- Solid but lightweight construction with a rugged cord

Cons
- Highs leave a little to be desired. This can be compensated for by customizing the EQ or using the treble enhance in your iPod equalizer.

Nothing adds the perfect touch to your already stylish iPad like a case that accentuates the Apple logo. The iFrogz Soft Gloss case not only does just that, but it does it without spoiling the sleek look and feel of the iPad. The embossed spiral design is on the inside of the case, keeping the outside slick and comfortable.

The Soft Gloss Case strikes a perfect balance of minimalist size with scratch and impact protection. The case is made of soft jelly jelly material (TPU), and your iPad will still slide effortlessly into a bag or backpack. Access to all ports and buttons is not compromised while the case is on, so you may very well never take it off.

Available in clear, blue, and pink!

The bag itself, that is. I’ve tried about every other bag we carry, including a number of the low-profile, laptop-only styles, and have ultimately decided that a spacious and versatile bag is preferable for my purposes. I carry my portable hard drive, bluetooth mouse, power supply, and, among still other sundry items, one of every possible cable I might need in the course of my life.

To these ends, I have settled on the Stylis II XF from Brenthaven. XF stands for X-Ray Friendly, which refers to a TSA-spec design for sending a laptop through the x-ray machine without taking it out of your bag. The bag zips in half, butterflies open, and you lay it flat to be x-rayed. Admittedly, I initially viewed this feature as superfluous, but it has proven quite handy, especially on business traveling. When your schedule is tight, every little step to get through airport security quickly counts. Plus, the TSA employees give a knowing and appreciative nod. (Tertiary hint: wear slip-on loafers, leave your Fryes at home. How do people still get this wrong?)

I would be remiss to omit that the bag is impeccably constructed, with double-stitching throughout, leather-wrapped grips, and foam-reinforced laptop compartment. It is my happy companion on visits to backup/restore my friends’ Macs, and if they aren’t impressed that I travel with an eSATA adapter (they aren’t), I’m impressed with myself. (This is also where all the cords come in useful).

And when I’m away from the office and away from non-office work, I’ll pop my computer and a couple of magazines into the bag (oh yeah, there’s a magazine pocket) and head down the block to my local Pub for a bit of light news-reading. Nice!

In addition to the unveiling of other Mac models, Apple introduced a new 27″ LED Cinema Display this week.

Oddly enough, it uses the same display as the upgraded 27″ iMac with a 2560 by 1440 resolution. The 24 pound widescreen boasts a 49 watt speaker system, built-in iSight, and in-pane switching technology that gives you a stunning picture from almost and angle. The display is clearly aimed at consumers with portable computers, as a MacBook Pro is seen paired with the 27″ ACD in nearly every photo. There is also much speculation that a 21.5″ cinema display model will be released, to match the screen of the new 21.5″ iMac.

It’s important to note that at the same time the 27″ display was announced, Apple officially discontinued the 24″ and 30″ models. Mac users appear to have mixed feelings about the limitation of display options. Many feel that by focusing on consumers, Apple is no longer tailoring to the professionals. Nonetheless, Apple’s display will cost one to four hundred dollars less than competing models made by Dell or NEC, and is sure to take a bite out of their market share.

Check out Apple’s press release for more information.

Due to ship in September.

Apple announced a new Mac Pro this morning that features up to 12 CPU cores. Translation: up to a 50 percent performance improvement over its predecessor.

The new Mac Pro features a pair of either quad-core or six-core Intel Xeon processors, with up to a 12MB L3 cache and speeds ranging from 2.66 GHz to 3.33 GHz.

The base configurations and their respective prices and specs are below:

$2499: 1x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core / 3GB RAM / 1 TB HD

$3499: 2x 2.4 GHz Quad-Core / 6 GB RAM / 1 TB HD

Despite offering the above configurations, Apple puts a great emphasis on the customize-to-order options, so that each customer can configure their machine to suit their own particular needs. “The new Mac Pro is the most powerful and configurable Mac we’ve ever made,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “With up to 12 cores, the new Mac Pro outperforms our previous top-of-the-line system by up to 50 percent.”

Start configuring today, or at least soon. The new Mac Pros will be available in August.

Alongside of the Mac Pro, apple upgraded its consumer desktop line further today by unveiling iMacs which, while looking the same as their predecessor from the outside in size and design, have upgraded to a brand new processor architecture, as well as a shift to discrete graphics, provided by ATI.

Previously, the lower end iMac models used Intel Core 2 Due chips; now, all of the iMacs feature a variety of Core i3, i5, and i7 chips. And according to Apple’s David Moody, the newly integrated Nvidia GeForce 9400M means you can look forward your graphics performing three times faster than the previous integrated graphics.

A breakdown of each model and its respective price, processor architecture, and graphics chip are below:

$1199 / 21.5″ / 3.06GHz Core i3 / 4GB / 500MB / ATI Radeon HD 4670

$1499 / 21.5″ / 3.20GHz Core i3 / 4GB / 1TB / ATI Radeon HD 5670

$1699 27″ / 3.20GHz Core i3 / 4GB / 1TB / ATI Radeon HD 5670

$1999 27″ / 2.8GHz Quad-Core Core i5 / 4GB / 1TB / ATI Radeon HD 5750

All models come with one FireWire 800 port, four USB 2.0 ports, and AirPort Extreme 802.11n Wi-Fi, the standard slot-loading 8x SuperDrive, and a 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet connector. A new SDXC card slot can now support memory cards ranging from 64GB to 2TB in capacity.

And as always, there’s an iSight camera embedded in the top of the bezel, so you can Skype with all of your contacts right out of the box.

As with the company’s portable line, Apple touts the environmental characteristics of its desktop line. “Building environmentally sound products is important to us as a company,” said Moody. The iMacs are free of toxic chemicals like mercury, PVC, and BFRs, and thanks to the LED-backlit displays—the iMacs also are free of arsenic. With these design features, along with the use of highly recyclable materials such as aluminum and glass, the new iMacs have earned EPEAT Gold ratings for their environmental friendliness, says Apple, and also meet the EPA’s Energy Star 5.0 qualification.

In addition to the keyboard and Magic Mouse that ship with every iMac, customers can now also opt to add Apple’s multitouch Bluetooth Magic Trackpad as a customize-to-order option.

All models are shipping as of today from the Apple Store.

Alongside both of its new desktop computers, Apple unveiled its long-rumored Magic Trackpad: a wireless, Bluetooth powered multitouch input device designed for your Mac desktop. Utilizing the same Multi-Touch technology featured on the MacBook Pro, the Magic Trackpad supports the familiar variety of swipes and gestures for interactive navigation, including scrolling, rotating, zooming, and more with two fingers, along with three-finger swiping back and forth between web pages, and four-finger Exposé triggers.

“We recognize that the majority of our Mac users these days use the trackpad, because the majority of our users are notebook users,” said Apple vice president of worldwide Mac hardware marketing David Moody. “Our notebook users really love the MacBook trackpad.”

According to Apple’s website, the device has been designed to sit at the same level of incline as Apple’s Wireless Keyboard, “so you can go from trackpad to keyboard in one seamless motion”.

Apple says that the new Magic Trackpad is “nearly 80 percent larger than the built-in trackpad on the MacBook Pro,” and suggests that you could use the Magic Trackpad as a standalone mouse replacement, or alongside of your existing mouse as well.

Similarly to the wireless keyboard and Magic Mouse, the Magic Trackpad runs on two AA batteries, and with the recent introduction of the $29 Apple Battery Charger, it seems that the company is encouraging a thorough move toward embracing the Apple-advertised “cable-free, uncluttered workspace”.

The Magic Trackpad costs $69 and is available and shipping as of today. It requires a Bluetooth-enabled Mac, Mac OS X 10.6.4 or later, and a Magic Trackpad software update.

Apple held an iPhone 4 press conference last Friday morning, July 16th, at Apple Town Hall in California to address the “antennagate” issue that has been so publicized in the media since the phone’s release. Here’s a quick recap of what happened:

The conference opened with a YouTube video, titled “the iPhone 4 antenna song”, the chorus stating “if you don’t want an iPhone 4 don’t buy it, if you bought one and you don’t like it, bring it back”.

An amusing intro to tame the undoubtedly serious tone surrounding the media-hyped “design flaw” of Apple’s new flagship product. The overall theme of the morning can be summarized in Jobs opening statement: “We love our users…we want to make all of our users happy. If you don’t know that about Apple, you don’t know Apple. We love making our users happy”.

Jobs detailed the facts about smartphone reception issues for a number of popular smartphones on the market, from Blackberries to HTCs. “Phones aren’t perfect” Jobs said. He went on to show that all of the recent additions to the smartphone market can be similarly affected when held in the “death grip”. Regardless of these issues for the iPhone, or any other device, the iPhone 4 has been consistently and across the board reviewed as the #1 smartphone, both from critics and in customer satisfaction.

AppleCare data suggests that out of the current 3 million iPhone 4 customers, only 0.55% of users called in about reception issues, versus the 6% with the 3GS. However, Jobs went on to say that “it’s hard to escape the conclusion that there is a problem, but that problem is affecting a very small number of users. I get emails saying the phone works perfectly, and they can’t understand what this is all about. So we think it’s affecting a small batch, but it has to do with inherent problems in smartphones. But we want all of our users to be happy.”

Therefore, Apple is providing a number of solutions to current iPhone 4 purchased through September 30th:

- The already updated iOS 4.0.1 which fixes the way the signal bars report and other bugs
- A free case for every iPhone 4 (apply on Apple Website starting late next week)
- A refund if you bought a bumper
- A full refund for the iPhone for (returned undamaged iPhone 4 within 30 days of purchase)

Jobs went on to announce the white iPhone, which starts shipping at the end of the month. As well, the iPhone will be shipping to 17 more countries on July 30th.

In conclusion Jobs stated: “We do this because we love our users, and if we screw up, we pick ourselves up and we try harder. And when we succeed, they reward us by staying our users. We take this really personally. Maybe we should have a wall of PR people keeping us away from this stuff, but we don’t, we take it really personally. So we’ve worked the last 22 days on this trying to solve the problem. And we think we’ve gotten to the heart of the problem.”

For the first time ever, Apple has openly encouraged iPhone users to use a case for their iPhone. This provides customers with just one more reason to add to the long list of benefits in using a case for their iPhone 4. Although Apple is providing free bumpers to their current customers, it is likely that these customers will be looking for alternative cases immediately or in the very near future. This event provides an open door to a large number of customers who were uninterested in using a case for their iPhone in the past.  Additionally, the large number of customers who will purchase an iPhone 4 after the “free case window” (after September 30th) will also have one more good reason to purchase a case or bumper for their new phone. This gives resellers a great opportunity to leverage the benefits of utilizing a case with the iPhone 4 to a whole new base of users.