MacRumors

IDG World Expo has announced that registration for Macworld San Francisco 2009 (MWSF) has opened for attendees.

Macworld San Francisco is an annual Apple-focused expo taking place between January 5th-9th, 2009 and at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA. Early/discounted registration is available until December 1st.

While no announcements have been made, Steve Jobs traditionally gives the opening Keynote address which will likely take place on the morning of Tuesday, January 6th. MacRumors will be at the expo to provide keynote and ongoing coverage of the event.

At the last Macworld expo, Apple introduced the MacBook Air, iTunes Movie Rentals, iPod Touch Software Update and iPhone Software Update and SDK announcement, and Time Capsule. We'd previously heard that Apple is preparing for Cinema Display updates at this year's Macworld. Other hints have suggested that this year's MWSF will be a more Mac-focused event.

iFixit has posted disassembly photographs of the iPod Nano and iPod Touch. These disassembly photos are common after new products are released and provide readers an interesting view of the internals of the latest Apple products.

Occasionally, however, there's also an interesting find. In this case, iFixit has found that the iPod Touch actually contains an unadvertised Broadcom BCM4325 Bluetooth chip. Apple has not made any mention of Bluetooth support in the new iPod Touch.

What Apple did announce was that it had added Nike+ wireless support in the iPod Touch. According to Apple's FAQ, the Nike+ system uses a "proprietary low-power 2.4 GHz radio protocol" which is specifically said not to be Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.

Bluetooth, however, appears to use the same frequency. We're uncertain if a Bluetooth chip can emulate the Nike+ protocol or if there is a separate unidentified Nike+ receiver in the iPod Touch. Regardless, this will certainly trigger speculation about adding Nike+ support in current iPhones and additional uses of the Bluetooth chip in the iPod Touch (such as Bluetooth headsets).

iFixit also let us know that the iPod Touch's headphone jack has five wires coming out of it, while the old iPod Touch only had four. This suggests that the external microphone support is likely true.

Update: The Bluetooth chip is likely being used for the Nike+ support.

Apple's "Let's Rock" media event yesterday refreshed their entire iPod line. When asked about the lack of Mac news in an interview, Jobs pointed out it was a music focused event. Many readers, however, are anxiously awaiting the new notebook revisions that have been rumored.

DaringFireball now claims that Apple will be releasing new notebooks on October 14th according to sources "familiar with Apple's hardware plans." This timeframe fits into recent expectations of a more staggered release, and recent hints to resellers that notebook refreshes would have to wait until October.

While both the MacBook and MacBook Pro are overdue for revisions, the MacBook Air has also been rumored to see imminent updates. Besides new versions of the MacBook Air's custom Intel processor, Apple now has access to upgraded miniature hard drives for use in the slim laptop.

The new 120GB iPod Classic shares the same single-platter hard drive form factor that is also used in the MacBook Air. Prior to the availability of the 120GB part, the MacBook Air had been limited to a maximum hard drive size of 80GB. The MacBook Air should now be able to accommodate the higher 120GB hard drive size.

Apple introduced the new iPod Touch yesterday which contained a couple of minor hardware tweaks over the previous model. Most notably, this included a built-in speaker and volume control buttons which were both absent on the 1st generation iPod Touch.

One item we failed to report, however, was that Apple appears to have also added external microphone support (with an accessory) into the iPod Touch as well. Apple introduced two new earphones accessories yesterday: Apple Earphones with Remote and Mic and In-Ear Headphones with Remote and Mic.

The microphone feature of the headsets was advertised as allowing you to record voice memos on the new iPod Nano, but Apple's product page indicates that the Mic also works with the iPod Classic as well as the new iPod Touch:

The remote and mic are supported only by iPod nano (4th generation), iPod classic (120GB), and iPod touch (2nd generation). Audio is supported by all iPod models.

Adding convenient microphone support into the iPod Touch opens up the possibility of Voice Over IP (VOIP) applications such as Skype which would allow you to make telephone calls from your iPod Touch over Wi-Fi networks. Apple has said that they would not restrict Wi-Fi VOIP applications as long as they did not run over the iPhone's cellular networks.

The microphones portion of the headsets will not work with the 1st generation iPod Touch. The new headset's audio and skip/next button reportedly work on the iPhone, but the volume controls do not.

There remains the possibility that this is a misprint on Apple's website and the iPod Touch does not support the microphone portion of the headset.

Apple's iPod Touch 2.1 firmware appears to be consistently available now. While the iPod Touch 2.1 firmware seemed to be available shortly after yesterday's keynote, many users had some difficulty in installing the update early on. The official list of changes include:

- Genius playlist creation
- dramatically reduced time to backup to iTunes
- improved email reliability, notable fetching email from POP and Exchange accounts
- faster installation of 3rd party applications
- fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes if you have lots of 3rd party applications
- faster loading and searching of contacts
- other bug fixes

Forum users have been compiling a list of other changes they have found. Some of these are said to include:

- Faster App updates and installation
- When viewing songs it says Artist And Album underneath the Song title.
- Podcast has more descriptive information
- Can now selectively mute certain sound effects (new mail, key taps)
- More responsive
- Much faster backups

The iPod Touch 2.1 firmware is available for free via iTunes for existing 2.0 customers. iPod Touch owners still running 1.0 software can purchase the software for $9.95.

Apple also announced the 2.1 firmware will be released for the iPhone this Friday. The features are generally expected to be the same for the iPhone update. Nike+ support, however, is notably absent for the first generation iPod Touch and iPhone users due to the lack of proper hardware support at this time.

A few times a year, MacRumors partners with MacUpdate to promote their Mac application bundle deal. Their latest bundle delivers up to 10 Mac applications for $49.99 (a $621.65 value if all purchased separately) including:

- HookUp ($20.00) - access, stream and download iTunes libraries in remote networks.
- Alarm Clock Pro ($19.95) - programmable "alarm clock" that can trigger SMS, email, audio, video, and more
- Periscope ($39.95) - use your iSight to monitor a room for motion, send images remotely
- Devon Agent ($49.95) - improve search results
- Mellel ($49.00)- word processor aimed at writers, scholars, technical writing and multilingual word processing.
- Norrkross Movie ($59.00) - edit video in multiple layered tracks, use a green screen
- Bookends ($99.00) - bibliography/reference and information management system
- MacJournal ($34.95) - create a personal journal to record your thoughts and ideas
- Contactizer Pro ($119.90) - contact management system
- LightZone ($129.95) - photo editing software with "smart" visual edits, batch functionality

This bundle sale is almost over and expires on Wednesday night (September 10th) Friday night (September 12th). All applications have been "unlocked" so all purchasers of the bundle will receive all 10 applications for the $49.99 price.

MacRumors is a promotional partner with MacUpdate. Bundle sales through these links benefit MacRumors financially, and provide a way for readers to directly support this site.

Update: Due to technical difficulties, the sale has been extended 48 hours.

Apple has posted a QuickTime stream for today's "Let's Rock" media event.

Please see our previous news stories for full coverage of the announcements:

- Odds and Ends: New Shuffles, In-Ear Headphones, First Impressions, and More
- 2nd Generation iPod Touch: 2.1 Firmware, Speaker, Thinner
- iPhone 2.1 Firmware Coming on Friday: Bug Fixes, Connectivity and Battery Life
- 4th Generation iPod Nano: Accelerometer, Genius, Colors, Taller
- iTunes 8: HD TV Shows, Grid View, Genius Playlists, NBC

Update: Downloadable podcast now available: iTunes Link

As with all Apple events, there's a lot of information to process on the new releases. We ask readers try to consolidate general discussion about the announcements in the appropriate news stories: New iPod Nanos and Classic, New iPod Touch, iPhone 2.1 Firmware Coming Friday, iTunes 8.

We've also consolidated a few additional notes of interest from today's announcements:

Software Updates

- iTunes 8 is available for download, including the new Visualizer which is an improved version of Magnetosphere. Atlchris has posted a video of the new visualizer. [Discuss here]
- Quicktime, Front Row updates available in Mac OS X Software Update to support iTunes 8.

iPod Touch

- iPod Touch impression: Engadget: "the speaker doesn't sound like complete trash despite not even having any speaker holes, and the thing is crazy thin."
- iPod Touch impression: Gizmodo: "most noticeable thing about the second-gen iPod touch is just how thin it feels in your hand."
- The pay version of the iPod 2.1 firmware is available for those who still have iPods with version 1.x firmware. If youve already upgraded to the iPhone 2.0 Software Update for iPod touch, the 2.1 update is free.
- The Free 2.0->2.1 upgrade for iPod Touch owners is starting to appear, but users have been unsuccessful in downloading the new update.
- Apple has posted a new guided tour video for the new iPod Touch and shows off the Genius Playlist feature. (via TUAW)

iPod Nano

- iPod Nano impression: Gizmodo: fast and responsive, click-wheel less "grippy", responsive accelerometer, feels small, click-wheel orientation remains same when nano is turned.
- iPod Nano comparison photos showing its size next to the old iPods.
- YouTube video and screenshots from iLounge showing off the new Nano interface.

Other

- The new iPods are not eligible for the Back to School promotion which ends on September 15th.
- iPod Shuffles have been refreshed with new colors, but the same storage capacities.
- Apple also introduced new $79 in-ear headphones

General questions and other discussion can be directed to our dedicated forums: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPod and iTunes, and App Store.

Alongside the other announcements, Apple announced that the iPhone 2.1 firmware will be released this Friday as a free update. The much anticipated version upgrade will address many of the issues that have been plaguing iPhone users. Changes include:

- Significantly better battery life
- Fewer call drops
- Bug fixes
- Faster backups to iTunes
- No App crashes

The iPhone 2.1 firmware will presumably support the same Genius playlist features described in the new iPod Touches. (Nike+iPod support will be unlikely without a hardware add-on since it uses specialized hardware to communicate with the transmitter.)

No mention of background push notifications were made, however, which were originally planned for a September release.

As expected, Apple revealed iTunes 8 today during their "Let's Rock" media event. iTunes 8 offers a number of new features including:

- Support for High Definition TV shows
- $1.99 for Standard Definition episodes
- $2.99 for High Definition episodes
- Genius playlists: automatically find similar songs in your collection
- Available today

Apple also announced that NBC has returned to iTunes, so popular shows such as Heroes and The Office will be available.

iTunes is available at http://www.apple.com/itunes/. Clicking on the download link will download iTunes 8 (though it's still labeled as iTunes 7.7). iTunes 8 requires QuickTime 7.5.5 which was also released today.

Update: The new visualizer is available as "iTunes Visualizer".