Apple. You’re sick of reading ’bout all the products, rumours and hype in all of the blogs, but I thought I ought to let you know that I plan on putting my money where my mouth is and pre-ordering an iPod Touch (iPhone without the phone) tomorrow for their September 28th ship date. I’m disapointed that whilst US dwellers can pick up a 16GB (higher end) model for just the equivelant of £200, or $399, whilst in the UK I’m forced to pay £269, or over $540!

It looks like the iPhone, does what the iPhone does, will probably gain 3rd party support for Maps, XXX, XXX and all the other nifty ‘iPhone *cough* exclusive *cough* applications’ within a couple months, but without the ‘phone’ side of things. Running on the exact same core architecture as the iPhone, the iPod Touch rocks in the same ways. No need for *another* drill. I grabbed some TechZi-exclusive keynote conference photos for you guys. Sorry I couldn’t post this live, etc… No lappie. Pen & pad.

Preface

- Jobs walks in to enthusiastic applause.
- I’m wondering when the world (we bloggers, ya’ know) will get tired of being flown out to 50 press events a month in the name of all things Apple.
- Over 600,000,000 copies of iTunes out there.
- Over 3 BILLION songs downloaded (don’t ask for that in figures - I’m stupid).
- iTunes is No.1 music store for all 21 countries it operates in. (Jobs forgot to stick New Zeland on the flag board!)
- Started with just 200,000 songs - now up to 6,000,000 in EACH store!
- iTunes is behind Wal-Mart & Best Buy in the war for US music sales domination.
- Digital Music Revolution IS happening
- Carry over 550 music & televesion shows
- Sold over 95,000 shows to date.
- Have over 125,000 podcasts.
- Over 25,000 are video podcasts.
- In the US in 2006, 32% of music releases were digital ONLY.

iTunes Anouncement

- New iTunes to launch tonight to support new products to be announced shortly (w00t!)
- Newest feature of store to be ringtones (wild cheering).
- Apple to do own ringtones in ‘own special way’. Made by the PEOPLE.
- To be high-quality, competitive ringtones.
- Ringtones to cost $0.99 + cost of song.
- Half a million songs to choose from.
- Steve jazzing to oldie song on-stage.
- Assigns ringtone to poor ol’ wife.
- Steve likes ‘Everybody Dance Now!’
- Dang. Greenday too!
- Has a special NBC ringtone.
- Admittedly, this man has bad taste. Makes nasty songs look good though!

The iPod

- iPod doing ‘really well’. Shows sales stats.
- Shows current iPod. Grabbing snap - see above.
- Steve looking uncharacteristically nervous. Worried that the phatty is about to make an entrance!
- Product RED iPod Shuffle announced.
- Moving onto something ‘more substantial’. Oh cow.
- Nano is most popular music player in history apparently. Wow.
- Listened to customer feedback. Top of list is…
- Video. Display. Cover flow. Games. Storage. Full metal design. (see pic)
- NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! The phatty it is!
- Jobs is holding up. Nobody can see. Everyone can cheer!
- Ah. Better. Live video feed hits screen behind. Better view.
- Super-thin. Five colours. Black. Red. Nasty pastel purple. Blue. Green.
- Red Nano is Product RED. Phew.
- Nano has 2-inch 320×240 screen. Impressive! 204ppi - WOW!
- New user interface. So much to say.

I’d love to carry on with my notes (and if you’re interested - comment and say so), but I’ve gotta dash off to bed now. I’m completely outta it. The touch is coming, though… (Couldn’t beat engadget/gizmodo on speed, eh?) Enjoy the TechZI exclusive photo snaps and detailed commentary though in the meantime.

I’m really busy at the moment and won’t be able to respond to comments on TechZi for a few days. Not sure what’s happening to the posting schedule - get subscribed and keep it that way. Don’t hit the eluding button or you’ll miss out on the hilariously juicy stuff.