Jobs Unveils iOS Update, $99 Apple TV, New iPods, Social iTunes

Apple CEO Steve Jobs detailed a slew of new releases today that bring more features, lower price points and more interconnectivity between all of the company's wildly popular mobile devices, along with a redesigned Apple TV device for streaming movies, TV shows and user-generated content.

Most of the rumors about Apple's plans for today's news event were basically on target, but Jobs decided to begin with an announcement that Apple's much-anticipated iOS 4.1 release for the iPhone will be available for free on iTunes and from its Web site beginning next week.

The revamped offering promises to resolve a nagging issue with the iPhone 4's proximity sensor -- which deactivates the touchscreen while in use as a phone -- as well as Bluetooth connectivity problems and performance issues customers have complained about with the older iPhone 3G. He did not indicate whether the update would also address the persistent and perhaps overblown complaints about the so-called "death grip" lost-signal issue, which Apple in July sought to mitigate by offering free plastic "bumpers" to new buyers.

"A lot of bugs have been fixed," Jobs said today. "All the bugs we get emails on."

The upgraded mobile operating system will initially be available for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and will include the ability to upload high-definition video over Wi-Fi as well as a new High Dynamic Range (HDR) photo application that will save three different copies of a photograph that, when combined, produce a much sharper image. It will also include GameCenter, a social network that allows for multiplayer gaming on the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Job said that iOS 4.2, due out in November, will be all about the iPad, bringing many of the handy file-organization features that iPhone fans have come to love, along with wireless printing capabilities and what Apple calls AirPlay, a feature that gives users the ability to stream audio, video and photos over Wi-Fi to all your Apple devices.

This upgrade will also be available for free to iPhone and iPod Touch owners.

"We couldn't be happier about the progress of iOS," Jobs said, adding that the company is recording more than 230,000 activations of new iOS devices each day.

Apple TV Reborn and Recast

Perhaps most widely speculated was an Apple refresh -- or a wholesale redesign -- of its Apple TV device, which enables users to download content from iTunes and other sources and display it on their TVs.

The $229 product never really took off following its debut in 2006, and in more recent years, Jobs shrugged it off as little more than a "hobby" for Apple.

"We've sold a lot of them, but it's never been a huge hit," he said today.

Now, however, Apple is taking another stab at the market. The new Apple TV device is a much smaller version of the original that fits into the palm of a hand and sells for $99.

Gone is the original Apple TV's built-in hard drive, which enabled users to store their purchased video content on the unit. Instead, Jobs said, the device focuses on what users are really seeking in marrying the Internet with their televisions: streamed content, including movie rentals.

"They want lower prices for content," Jobs said. "They don't want to manage storage. They don't want a computer on their TV."

Specifically, the device now lets users rent movies and commercial-free TV shows, with films becoming available the same day and date they're released on DVD. Apple said HD movies will be priced at $4.99 a pop and TV shows at $0.99 apiece. For now, only Fox and ABC are making their content available, but Jobs predicted that "others will soon see the light."

It also can stream music, photos and videos from users' PCs and Macs, as well as services including YouTube, Netflix, Flickr and Apple's MobileMe. Additionally, the unit can stream content to other Apple devices like the iPhone or iPad.

"This is a hard one for people in the computer industry to understand," Jobs said. "But it's easy for consumers to understand."

Apple TV, which will be available within a month, comes with a built-in power supply, HDMI and Ethernet ports and an 801.22n Wi-Fi connection. It includes an aluminum remote to surf for content as well as stream the rented movies and shows to other household devices.

While Jobs is clearly motivated to take on this latest "hobby" market and formidable competitors are already gearing up for battle, some analysts aren't convinced Apple TV is going to revolutionize the industry the way its iPods, iPad and iPhones have for theirs.

"On the whole, this new Apple TV device doesn't change the dynamics of what's happening in the market," Paul Verna, a senior analyst at New York-based eMarketer, told InternetNews.com. "I think it moves things in the right direction but it's still a hardware solution that costs money and it doesn't necessarily give you the kind of value you can get with other options."

Verna said the $99 price could still be a deal-killer for consumers who have already forked over large sums for Internet-connected TVs or have become comfortable with Hulu and Netflix as streaming options for TV and movies.

"The most significant part of the announcement was the day and date availability with movies," Verna said. "Apple is leveling the playing field a bit but there are still a lot of questions about [consumers embracing] a hardware-based solution and rental model."

"I think it moves things in the right direction in terms of price and simplicity," he added. "But it's not necessarily a big game-changer."

New iPods and Ping, iTunes's Social Network for Music

Moving on to music, Apple today also rolled out new versions of all three of its music devices and announced the release of iTunes 10 (complete with a new logo) that includes Ping, a social network for music enthusiasts and those who like to share, review and exchange information about artists, tours and other music-related events.

Jobs said iTunes 10 is "more simple and elegant" than previous iterations and described Ping as "Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes."

"Follow your artists and friends to discover the music they're talking about, listening to and downloading," he said. Users can quickly see the recent music-buying and commenting activity of the friends and artists they follow and, Jobs said, Ping offers a privacy control feature "that anyone could use."

iTunes, which will soon eclipse the 12 billion-songs-downloaded mark, is the "No. 1 online media store in the world," according to Jobs and has sold more than 450 million TV episodes, 100 million movies, 5 million books and counts more than 160 million customer accounts.

As for the iPods themselves, of which Apple claims to have sold more than 275 million, the new iPod Shuffle incorporates the buttons and VoiceOver song-announcement features of the previous two generations, can store and deliver 15 hours of music and comes in five different colors. It will retail for $49.

The refreshed iPod Nano is now multitouch (goodbye clickwheel!) and 46 percent smaller and 42 percent lighter than the previous version. It includes volume buttons, VoiceOver, an FM radio, a pedometer and works in 29 languages. The 8GB Nano will retail for $149.

The iPod Touch, which Jobs claims outsells Nintendo and Sony's portable game players combined, has garnered more than 1.5 billion game and entertainment title downloads since its launch.

The new iPod Touch is much thinner and features a retina display, just like the one found on the iPhone 4. It's LED-backlit, offers four times the pixels of the previous version, runs on an Apple A4 processor also found in the iPad and iPhone 4 and comes loaded with a three-axis gyroscope, iOS 4.1 with GameCenter and a front-facing camera with FaceTime videoconferencing. It boasts 40 hours of music playback, and lets users share and edit videos.

Available next week, though Apple is already accepting pre-orders, the iPod Touch costs $229 for the 8GB model, $299 for 32GB and $399 for the big-boy 64GB version.

Larry Barrett is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.