We DID however get the internals right. A new A4 processor powers the device, and (sadly) the playback is limited to 720p HD. There’s also 802.1 N wi-fi built in, and streaming video, pictures and movies from your computer is possible, and the coming-soon AirPlay, will allow streaming content from your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, as well. The UI styling hasn’t changed much, except for the (welcome) inclusion of some Rotten Tomatoes scoring data.

So. Smaller, more powerful, and more connected. Not too exciting. The big change in this new Apple TV, is not actually in the box, it’s in the use. Now, we’re not sure how this will play out on the RS of A, but Apple is now offering $0.99 movie rentals from ABC and Fox, and has joined up with NetFlix, to deliver first-run movies, for $4.99, on the same day that they’re released. That’s news we can’t wait to hear in South Africa.

iPod Shuffle: The new Shuffle returns to the square form factor of the pre-previous model, and thankfully loses the silly, instantly breakable ear-bud mounted controls, getting a real click-wheel in their place. Of course, there’s a handy clip for athletic wearability… The tiniest body is machined from a single piece of aluminium, and comes in silver, blue, green, orange, or pink. Other new features include playlists, the increasingly improving and popular Genius mixes, and a discrete Voiceover button. The capacity is 2GB and the device will last 15 hours on a single charge.

iPod nano: Apple’s obsession with touch, is slowly but relentlessly spreading down their line of products. The new iPod nano is the latest to be annointed with a display featuring Multi-touch technology. The device form-factor changes completely, from previous nano’s. And. Lo and behold, there’s a clip! That, together with the size change, makes this another easily-wearable iPod. There are 8GB and 16GB models, and the battery life is 24 hours. Display rotation makes for super-easy handling, and Nike+ love and the built-in pedometer, ensure this one’ll be loved by the jogging set.

iPod Touch: The biggest of the iPods has inherited a slew of features from it’s sibling, the iPhone, but at the same time, the locked-in-step same-case-design trend, has fallen away. The remarkable 960×480 pixel resolution Retina display, front and rear cameras for FaceTime, and HD (720p) video recording and editing? All in. iOS 4.1 brings with it Game Center, and the device loves it. BTW? The “Project Sword” demo by Mike Capps from Epic games at the Apple event yesterday, was a excellent peek at what to expect from gaming on the new Touch.

Priority Mail splits your inbox into three areas, for unread mail that you WANT to read, mail messages that you don’t care about, and read items that you don’t want to forget about. And it does it, smartly, learning from your usage, when you promote/demote messages manually, that aren’t grouped to your liking. This means that it’ll get better, the more you use it. And by better, Google means: “Like YOU want it.”

From the Gmail Blog:
“In a way, Priority Inbox is like your personal assistant, helping you focus on the messages that matter without requiring you to set up complex rules.”

This looks excellent. Can’t wait for it to roll out, over OUR GMail accounts….

But. Samsung appears to be taking the feedback to heart, and in a planned event on 2nd September, one day after Apple’s event, and a day before the IFA trade show in Berlin, Germany, will demonstrate it’s Galaxy Tab, a 7-inch tablet computer, powered by an in-house Samsung-developed processor, and fueled by Google’s Android 2.2 operating system.

We know that NetBook sales in Europe have taken a big drop, and it seems like Samsung is heading down the tablet PC trail to try to pick up the slack. Sources claim the company is expected to ship 100,000 tablet PCs per month initially.

Speaking before the show, Chris Lewis, vice president, Interactive Entertainment Business for Microsoft Europe said:
“We are bringing the Kinect experience to Europe for the first time at Gamescom 2010, because this is the biggest show in the region and we’re committed to investing in Europe and the critical role it plays in Xbox’s global success.”

We took a look at how the Kinect technology is put together in a previous post, as well as Sony’s Playstation Move, in a related post. The big thing that came out of that excitement, was that Nintendo has a HUGE lead and Microsoft and Sony are playing catch-up. We see Microsoft taking the approach of delivering a plethora of titles on launch day to give gamers a rich choice, as well as driving the Windows Phone 7 platform, with the first wave of Xbox LIVE games launching on Windows Phone 7, ready for the Xmas rush.

Seems that Apple wanted to test the light, strong, rigid material, but ran foul of their own stringent “two-supplier” rules, which protects their supply lines against a single supplier going down and crippling production. Problem is, no-one else makes this stuff. Oops. So it was decided to test on a non-essential part. The SIM-tray ejector pin. Imagine the co-inventor of the metal alloy, Atakan Peker’s surprise when he opened his iPhone 3G and found the ejector pin: “That’s my metal,” he said. “I recognized it immediately. Take it from an expert, that’s Liquidmetal.”

Guess we’ll just have to wait a little longer for the iPhone “Terminator” edition …

How “lowest priced”? R1399 retail. Killer.

The phone is the Vodafone 845, which is a branded version of the Huawei “Joy” handset. It has very acceptable specs for an entry-level smart-phone. The 845 features Android 2.1/Eclair and supports GPRS/EDGE as well as 3G/HSDPA, and has Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi b/g, a digital compass and an accelerometer. The 2.8″, 262k colour, touch display supports the unusual QVGA resolution (320×240), and the camera is a 3.2 megapixel device.

Mark Taylor, of Vodacom SA, says: “Yet again we’ve been able to leverage the power of Vodafone to bring something unimaginable just a few years ago. This kind of functionality and design has never been available before at anything near this price. Android is a stunning platform which has become a favourite amongst developers worldwide and means that owners can never get bored with their VF845.”

At the price-point target of $35, the Indian government plans to have one million of the devices in Indian colleges and universities by 2011, says Indian Human Resource Development minister, Kapil Sibal. And, in an attempt to win over the (understandably) skeptical Western tech-press, they’ve been showing the device on TV, frequently. The effort has “the potential to lower the prices of tablets globally,” TechRadar claims. Of course, Microsoft and Google are both salivating at the prospect, and maneuvering to have their respective OS software powering the device, but given the price point, I can’t see where even Microsoft could find space for a license fee. Android, anyone?

Even finding costs for the spare parts required to build this thing, beggars belief. Seriously? S-u-b-s-i-d-y. That’s the only way this is going to fly. “it’s just an exercise in awkward PR and bloody-mindedness that absolutely won’t change global tablet pricing.”. Agreed.

Big HUGE news in this release is the inclusion of Touch. Used on a touch-screen device, your Firefox web-browser will now respond to many touch gestures, including pinch, rotate etc. Booyah!

From the marketing change list on the Mozilla blog:
“Multi-touch: Firefox 4 Beta now has multi-touch support for Windows 7, to enable people to
interact with Web content with their hands naturally. Developers can use multi-touch capabilities to leverage touch-enabled devices and provide people with an intuitive and fun browsing experience. For more details, see the blog posts by Paul Rouget and Felipe Gomes.”

There’s a very cool demo video on YouTube, showing some of the the Touch features.

Apparently, the next beta will also be released in the coming weeks. That’s a blistering pace of development from the Mozilla team!

Incredible Connection is having a insane, cut-price gaming sale, at many of it’s stores! Hundreds of titles have had their prices slashed. And when we say “slashed” we mean TO THE BONE. We’re talking R99.95 and R149.95 price points. If you’re quick, you can save up R350 on Nintendo DS, Wii, PlayStation, PlayStation2 and PC titles, and as much as R500 on XBox and PlayStation3 titles!

And. There’s hardware on sale as well. Pick up a Wii bundle with Sports pack, remote, nunchuck, Super Mario Galaxy, Wii Sports Resort and Wii Sport, for only R3995.95 and you’ll get a free DS Lite! And, the price of DS Lite’s are cut as well, at R1199.95. That’s a saving of R200.

Click on the thumbs below to download the PDF flyers with more information:

Of course, stocks are limited, and not all stores have ALL titles, so stop reading this NOW and get down to one of the following Incredible Connection stores:
Alberton,Canal Walk, Eastgate, East Rand Retail, Gateway, Menlyn, Polokwane, Sandton, The Glen, and Woodmead. Go!