Apple announces an array of upgraded iPods, iTV

In a move to solidify its reigning position in the digital media market, Apple Computer on Tuesday added an array of new products to its iTunes Music Store, of which a device is to take music, movies and photos from PCs to the TV. To add movies to its selection of music and television shows, the company has rolled out a wireless set-top box for the TV called ‘iTV’.

Apple’s iTV allows consumers to play downloaded films on their television sets. It will work with both Windows-based and Mac computers that have iTunes software. "We think it completes the picture here," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said. "Now I could download content from iTunes. I could enjoy it on my computer, my iPod and my big-screen television in the living room."

Nearly half the size of the Mac mini, the iTV will come with Ethernet, 802.11g, USB ports, component video, optical audio, and HDMI ports. It will work with the Apple Remote and sport an interface much like that of Front Row.

The movie service will let music, TV programmes, and movies residing on a computer to play on a TV set in another part of the house with what Jobs describes as instantaneous access. "Apple is in your den now," Steve Jobs says. "Apple is in your living room. Apple is in your car. Apple is in your pocket."

Though, the company did not reveal much about the movie service, but asserts iTV is capable of moving music, movies, and other content from a computer to a television, or another entertainment device. This would be done using wireless technology, probably some variant of wireless fidelity.

Currently, the service is only provided in the United States, where Apple has bagged permission to sell films. But Canadians will hopefully get access to the service next year. The shipment of iTV media transfer box is scheduled for during the first quarter of 2007 and will retail for $299.

At a media event in San Francisco, besides iTV, a product Apple is hoping will bridge the chasm between those movie downloads and the TV set in the living room, Steve Jobs has also introduced upgrades across Apple’s range of iconic iPod music and video players. These upgrades are: a thinner iPod Nano with a 24-hour battery life, a video-capable iPod with a larger 80-gigabyte hard drive and an iPod Shuffle that's smaller and features a belt clip.

According to the company, the flagship video-capable iPod has a brighter, improved screen and now sports hard drive capacities as high as 80 GB in prices ranging from $249 to $349. The smaller and hugely popular iPod Nano grew thinner, and at its high end doubled its capacity from 4 GB to 8 GB. The Nano now sells for $149, $199, or $249 depending on capacity. Apple also revived its old design trick of selling iPods in several colors. And, the iPod shuffle squeezed from the size of a somewhat large USB keychain drive to about the size of a money clip. Storing a gigabyte worth of songs, it will sell for $79.

Jobs said, in the beginning, 75 movies would be available, all of them from Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar, Touchstone Pictures and Miramax, and deals with more studios, including Lions Gate Films, are likely to be announced before long. The Walt Disney Company, of which Jobs is a director and the largest shareholder, was the only prime studio to offer movies available for download.

Apple's iTunes store has proven to be a hit with online customers, when it first introduced in 2003 for commercial music downloads, Apple started with a library of only 200,000 songs. Today it pegged that number at 3.5 million songs and with mass customers who have downloaded more than 1.5 billion songs and 45 million TV programs in the U.S.