That's it?

So, Apple unveiled it's refreshed iPods today at an event titled "it's only rock and roll but we like it". Interestingly enough, the most important announcement was not that of a product, but the reappearance of the irrepressible Mr. Jobs. He's back and slimmer than ever before (almost as slim as a Nano).
On the whole, I'm slightly disappointed with the announcements. Sure, I like the new Nano and the price drop/capacity bump for the iPod Touch. I think iTunes 9 is cool, too.
However, the upgrade to the Touch has left me rather under-whelmed. No camera and still no in-built mic and speakers. The nano has it, but not the touch. Think about it. The touch runs iPhone OS 3.1. The possibilities for apps are endless. The most obvious ones would be proper VOIP and camera integration with flickr, facebook and youtube. There are a few possibilities for why Apple hasn't put a camera and mic/stereo in the touch:
1. Some hardware constraints made it impossible for them to do so.
2. They weren't able to do so in time for this event.
3. Jobs is shitting his pants that people might start buying the Touch instead of the iPhone
Well, I think reason 1 is total BS, so it comes down to the other two. Either way, I do think the touch is already a great device and would benefit from having these features.


Tomorrow is also a big day, though its not likely to attract the same sort of hype. Motorola is expected to announce its first Android handsets. If it does so, it'll be the third major manufacturer to commit to the platform after HTC and Samsung. Android does seem to be gaining ground now, but has a really, really long way to go if it intends to seriously challenge the iPhone. As Jobs mentioned in his keynote, iPhone OS is now on 50 million devices. Android is nowhere even near that. I put it down to a lack of compelling devices, but thats just me.

Have fun.