Has the iPod Touch met its match? Video
Has the iPod Touch met its match? Video Transcript
[Music] ^M00:00:07
>> Mr. Tong: What's up. I'm Brian Tong and welcome to the Apple Byte. All the good and bad inside the world of Apple is right here so let's get to the stories. Now the biggest news this week is really what the competition is doing. We all know about the iPod refresh but what about the Zune HD? Yeah. I know this is mostly an Apple show, but I'm pretty impressed with Microsoft's latest gadget. So instead of all the Apple lovers turning a cold shoulder up your mind a little and take a peek at some of it's unique features with Donald Bell.
>> Mr. Bell: Why would somebody buy a Zune HD over an iPod Touch? I think the most noticeable advantage of the Zune HD is its screen quality. Microsoft really stepped things up here by putting a gorgeous 3.3 inch wide-screen formatted OLED screen that knocks the snot out of the Touch. If I was stuck on a plane and I wanted to watch a movie, I would choose the Zune HD in a heartbeat. Plus Microsoft is now offering low-cost movie rentals for the Zune HD. The second advantage the Zune has over the Touch is a radio tuner that supports both HD broadcasts and standard FM radio. If you like to idea of listening to your favorite radio broadcast, no iPod is going to offer as many stations and as high a quality as the Zune HD. Plus if you hear a song you, like you have the option to tag the song and download it later which is pretty cool. The last feature the Zune HD can really brag about is subscription music integration. If you buy a Zune and really love hearing new music, you can sign up for a Zune Pass subscription that allows you to download and synch all the music you want for $15 a month. Included in the plan are 10 free MP3 purchases a month which are yours to keep even if you cancel the subscription plus you get unlimited song and album streams from any computer when you log on to zune.net. The long story short the Zune subscription service is one of the better values out there and no other device does a better job of integrating the streaming and downloading of subscription tracks than the Zune HD.
>> Mr. Tong: Donald, back to back episodes on the Apple Byte, dude, maybe next week it will be you up here instead of me. Now for the Zune HD I'm not going to throw it or do anything violent to it it's really a great device and it proves that Microsoft can win over my heart. But the lack of any Apps Store which Microsoft says is not coming to the Zune and it's incompatibility with Macs are the biggest deal breakers though for now it's like a pretty hot chick that I won't ask out yet. Now Apple announced knew products last week and guess what the rumor mill is hard at work once again. According to Tech Trader Daily research firm Wedge Parters is predicting the release of new iMacs and MacBooks in the next several weeks. This is a little curious with no rumblings at all about any major upgrades. The iMac is getting close towards its life cycle of about 8 months and if you're looking at an iMac I would just wait and see. But the MacBook the entry-level White MacBook that thing was just updated about three months ago. There is no way they are trying to reinvent that product. And as for latest tablet rumor we're not going to even talk about that because we might as well start throwing darts on a calendar like these analists are. Now Apple TV fans have been dying for something to happen to the shiny box but we know that's not happening any time soon. Sony cut their PS3 by a hundred bucks and sales have exploded. But I'm not so sure we'll be seeing the same consumer reaction here. All right. Let's check out this week's App of the Week. The App of the week is Shake It Photo. It's 99 cents but this thing is well worth it. So what you have to do is take a picture and then when you want to keep it a classic Polaroid style photo appears with that classic sound. And if you want the image to appear what do you do? ^M00:03:45 [Music] ^M00:03:56
>> Mr. Tong: Shake it, Oh, yeah. Shake it. You know those guys at CNET TV really now how to get down. All right let's check out some quick bytes. The iPhone OS3.1 has been jail broken by a iPhone dev team but there's a catch. Currently it only works on older iPhone and iPod Touches so if you own an iPhone 3GS or second or third generation iPod Touch you are out of luck. And if you are complaining about touch screen keyboard on your iPhone check out this product called the iTwinge from Mobile Mechtronics. It's the first physical keyboard that I have seen. Sure it adds some bulk. Okay. It adds a ton but for you girls or guys with really long fingernails this could be the answer. It's $29.99 and the they say they'll be shipping in mid-November. That's going to do it for this week's show. Keep sending your e-mails to the AppleByte@cnet.com. I'm Brian Tong. Thanks for watching and come back next time for another Byte of the Apple. ^M00:04:54
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