Amazon.com has released its list of top-selling items on their site and Apple takes the top spot in three areas – MP3 players, Notebooks and Desktops! The mp3 player category was a foregone conclusion with iPod being so ever popular everywhere.
Two MacBooks dominate the notebook category, which isn’t that surprising either because they run Windows seamlessly or have the best price-to-performance ratio of any Macs ever built.
The hat trick came in the desktop category for Apple on Amazon where the iMac dominates the first and second spots. Let’s keep n mind that Amazon.com is just one of the retailers that sell Apple products and so the total sales everywhere will be at a different scale altogether.
Time to take stock and give the top honors for the top gadget of 2006. No surprises again for the Apple iPod which managed dual accolades. The iPod’s 30GB fifth generation video iPod was the most frequently purchased electronics gift in 2006, while the black-colored model was also awarded the title of the “most wished-for gift” — appearing most often on the Wish Lists of Amazon customers in 2006.
Apple also said traffic to the company’s iTunes website on Christmas Day was up 413 percent when compared to last Christmas, as surfers wielding new iPods flocked to the web to download iTunes. All that traffic brought the site to its knees early this week, tossing out error messages to some while others were able to download music without incident.
I have already written a bit on this comparison before, but that was before the launch of the iPod Video. Now that it is finally out it is much easier to compare the specs between the two to see how they match up.
Video Content
With Sony’s PSP you have a growing collection of UMD movies to purchase, which gives you a great option for portable movie watching. In contrast, with the video iPod you are able to download over 2,000 music videos along with select TV shows at the cost of just $1.99.
Apple didn’t announce new PowerMacs or Powerbooks as many people expected, but they did come out with a new iMac. The new 20″ is thinner than the original 17″ used to be, which makes it pretty thin for an all-in-one desktop. It includes a built-in iSight camera with even better specs than previous versions.
Software-wise they have introduced Front Row which allows you to experience all the media on your computer with the use of a new six button remote. Don’t know how useful this is if it’s supposed to be used across the room. Possibly just gearing up toward the Home Theater PC that everyone expects from Apple.
Well it happened to very little surprise, but Apple has officially announced the iPod with Video. It’s the same height and width as the current 4th gen iPods, but just a tad bit thinner which makes sense considering the shrinking density of mini-harddrives. The screen has a 320×240 pixel resolution, 2.5-inches in size and 260k color display. The new iPod offers over 20 hours of battery life and supports playback of H.264 and MPEG4 formats at 30fps.
It will come out in two versions: 30GB and 60GB. Prices are $299 for the 30GB and $399 for the 60GB version which holds 150 hours of video. They are planning to ship both in one week (*cough*).
All too often am I asked by my friends which iPod they should get and it’s never an easy question to answer. Might as well ask me what laptop they should get…wait they do that as well. In any case I am glad I can now send them over to this Playlist article on finding the perfect iPod.
It’s good in that it gets straight to the point of what each iPod is useful for. I have a regular iPod (4th gen), an iPod mini and an iPod shuffle and I find uses for all of them, but definitely don’t expect everyone to take the same approaches that I have taken.
Screw those fancy navigation systems found in cars today. Use your iPod to view saved map directions because you know that’s what iPods are for.
Yahoo Maps and the popular iPod Photo portable MP3 player are used together to bring you an exciting online service called iPod-iWay. What is iPod-iWay? iPod-iWay is a powerful step-by-step directions saving tool that will export online driving directions from results by Yahoo Maps and import them into your iPod Photo. It’s an easy solution for getting Yahoo Map directions saved and displayed onto any iPod Photo or Nano, and without the need of additional software!
For the longest time I wondered why you never really saw anyone walking around with an iPod in Tampa. When I spoke in San Francisco it seemed like every other person had an iPod, but of course every other person was walking around the city. In Tampa you don’t walk, you drive to your destination no matter how close it is and this made me realize that people probably just used their iPods in their cars. I know I do.
PCMag has found 6 ways to connect your iPod to your car stereo and it amazes that there are even six options.
image via Engadget
So let’s ignore the fact that Apple hasn’t officially announced a video iPod and possibly never will and focus on what will happen if they do decide to go that route. Sony’s PSP was supposed to be the portable media player that took over the world. You never hear about it’s staggering sales or how PSP movies are flying off the shelves, all you seem to hear about on the web is it’s ability to be hacked and customized.
GadgetMadness.com has a nice list of the top 10 things you should know before diving head first into technolust or reasons you might not want to get the iPod Nano. Well not really because #1-#6 are all good things including my favorite:
My Nano was handed to me in a retail bag specifically designed for it, like the one in the photo above. People will stare jealously as you walk through the mall with a huge grin on your face.