iLounge

iPodweek, iLounge’s weekly newsletter recapping the last seven days in iPod, iPhone, iTunes and Apple TV news, articles, reviews, and more, will be sent out later today. In addition to rounding up the week’s top stories, iPodweek also features giveaways and accessory discount offers from various companies. If you haven’t yet signed up to receive iPodweek, there’s still time to register and receive this week’s edition — just use the simple form below to submit your email address.

IMPORTANT: Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Earthlink and others, make sure we don’t end up in your spam box. Please accept emails from iLounge.com. Thank you.

The winners of our B&W Zeppelin + Music Giveaway have just been announced. In the giveaway, two iLounge readers won a Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin iPod speaker system. Congratulations to the winners! Don’t forget to enter our Sonix3 Earphone Giveaway, our Giveaway of the Month for October.

iLounge is pleased to announce the Sonix3 Earphone Giveaway. In our Giveaway of the Month for October, Lenntek and iLounge are giving away 10 Sonix3 Earphones to lucky readers. To enter, simply fill out and submit the form on the giveaway page—the giveaway will end on October 31, 2009 at 11:59PM Pacific Time. Good luck!

This week’s featured photo is from our iPhones Around the World gallery, and shows an iPhone in front of the Torghatten mountain in Norway. To share your photos and to be considered for our Photo of the Week, you simply need to submit your own photo to one of our galleries. So get out there, take some pictures with your iPod or iPhone, and maybe your submission will be our next Photo of the Week!

If you haven’t yet entered our B&W Zeppelin + Music Giveaway, today is your last chance. In our Giveaway of the Month for September, Bowers & Wilkins and iLounge are giving away two Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin iPod speaker systems, and ten full-year memberships to Society of Sound Music. In addition, all entrants will automatically receive a free 3-month trial including an exclusive best-of Society of Sound Music sampler and a single a month for three months. To enter, simply fill out and submit the form on the giveaway page—the giveaway will end tonight at 11:59PM Pacific Time. Good luck!

If you haven’t yet submitted your entry for our B&W Zeppelin + Music Giveaway, there’s still time to do so. In our Giveaway of the Month for September, Bowers & Wilkins and iLounge are giving away two Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin iPod speaker systems, and ten full-year memberships to Society of Sound Music. In addition, all entrants will automatically receive a free 3-month trial including an exclusive best-of Society of Sound Music sampler and a single a month for three months. To enter, simply fill out and submit the form on the giveaway page—the giveaway will end on September 30, 2009 at 11:59PM Pacific Time. Good luck!

iPodweek, iLounge’s weekly newsletter recapping the last seven days in iPod, iPhone, iTunes and Apple TV news, articles, reviews, and more, will be sent out later today. In addition to rounding up the week’s top stories, iPodweek also features giveaways and accessory discount offers from various companies. If you haven’t yet signed up to receive iPodweek, there’s still time to register and receive this week’s edition — just use the simple form below to submit your email address.

IMPORTANT: Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Earthlink and others, make sure we don’t end up in your spam box. Please accept emails from iLounge.com. Thank you.

With over 3,300 votes from iLounge readers, our latest poll—“What’s your reaction to the new 2009 iPods?” has ended. Users could say the new lineup is great and they are planning to purchase at least one new model, that it is good and they are considering a purchase, that it’s okay, but not enough to make a purchase, that it is bad, and Apple needed to do more to make the new models worthwhile, that it’s really bad, and they’re disappointed, or that they have no opinion.

Overall reader opinion of the new iPods was slightly less enthusiastic than last year, with 67% of readers saying the 2009 iPod lineup is at least okay, compared to 80% for last year’s models. 35% said they think the new iPods are okay—nice upgrades, but not enough to make them buy—while 17% said they think the new lineup is good, and are at least considering a purchase. An equal amount—17%—said they think the new lineup is bad, and that Apple needed to do more to make the upgrades worthwhile, while 15% said they find the new lineup to be great, and are planning to purchase at least one, 11% said they think the 2009 iPods are really bad, and are disappointed by the announcements, and 5% said they had no opinion on the new iPods. Thanks for all your votes!

Our new poll focuses on Apple’s new iTunes LP offerings. We’d like to know whether the expanded format is enough to make you purchase more albums from the iTunes Store. Are the new features definitely enough to make you buy, or only if they expand support for the format beyond iTunes itself and over to the Apple TV, or other future large-screened devices? Or are you disinterested in the new features, and are no more likely to purchase than before, or do you buy your music from another download store, or exclusively on physical media? Or perhaps you don’t pay for music at all? Our new poll, “Will iTunes LP make you more likely to purchase albums from the iTunes Store?” lets you answer that question. As always, the iLounge Poll can be found in the left-hand column of the main iLounge.com homepage. Vote today!

This week’s featured photo is from our iPhones Around the World gallery, and shows an iPhone 3G in front of the Ring of Brodgar in Scotland. To share your photos and to be considered for our Photo of the Week, you simply need to submit your own photo to one of our galleries. So get out there, take some pictures with your iPod or iPhone, and maybe your submission will be our next Photo of the Week!

Don’t forget to get your entry in for our B&W Zeppelin + Music Giveaway. In our Giveaway of the Month for September, Bowers & Wilkins and iLounge are giving away two Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin iPod speaker systems, and ten full-year memberships to Society of Sound Music. In addition, all entrants will automatically receive a free 3-month trial including an exclusive best-of Society of Sound Music sampler and a single a month for three months. To enter, simply fill out and submit the form on the giveaway page—the giveaway will end on September 30, 2009 at 11:59PM Pacific Time. Good luck!

This week’s edition of iLounge’s weekly newsletter, iPodweek, will be available later today. iPodweek is a weekly summary of the best iPod news, reviews, and feature articles we’ve published, and it also features giveaways and iPod accessory discount offers from various companies and retailers. There is still plenty of time to sign up for this week’s edition, if you haven’t done so already — just use the simple form below to submit your email address.

IMPORTANT: Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Earthlink and others, make sure we don’t end up in your spam box. Please accept emails from iLounge.com. Thank you.

This week’s featured photo is from our iPhones Around the World gallery, and shows a white iPhone 3G overlooking the sea from the gardens of a house in the Algarve region of Portugal. To share your photos and to be considered for our Photo of the Week, you simply need to submit your own photo to one of our galleries. So get out there, take some pictures with your iPod or iPhone, and maybe your submission will be our next Photo of the Week!

For readers who mightn’t have seen the numerous changes taking place live last week, over the weekend, and today, iLounge has posted full reviews of the “late 2009” iPod lineup. Our review of the fifth-generation iPod nano, the text of which was published on Friday, has been updated with a large collection of new photos, as has our third-generation iPod touch review, which was published over the weekend and is now available in two versions—one solely discussing the new model, and one discussing it in the context of the second-generation model. Finally, both our iPod classic and third-generation iPod shuffle reviews have been updated with new pages and photographs focusing on the new models.

In brief summary, our top pick in the late 2009 iPod family is the $199 iPod touch (iLounge Rating: A-), followed by the fifth-generation iPod nano (iLounge Rating: B+) and late 2009 iPod touch (iLounge Rating: B+), then the late 2009 iPod classic (iLounge Rating: B), with the third-generation iPod shuffle (iLounge Rating: C) bringing up the rear. In case you missed them, here are links to reviews, news and articles related to the new lineup and iTunes 9:

Reviews:

• iPod nano 5G
• iPod touch 3G
• iPod classic
• iPod shuffle 3G

News:

• iTunes 9 causing AirTunes connection problems?
• iPod touch 3G teardown reveals 802.11n chip
• iPod touch 3G speed comparison videos online
• iPod touch 3G unboxing photos posted
• iPod nano 5G ships with 1.0 or 1.0.1 software, update available
• iPod nano 5G color comparison photos, video posted
• Apple posts new TV ads for iPod nano 5G, touch 3G
• Teardown of iPod nano 5G posted online
• iPod classic 160GB changes: new firmware, engraving
• iPod nano 5G unboxing photos posted
• Apple quietly switches iPod nano 5G screens to TFT
• More pictures, videos of iPod nano 5G, iPod touch 3G, new iPod shuffles
• Hands-on with the 2009 iPod Lineup: The Summary
• iPod shuffle 3G gets new colors, 2GB model
• New iPod touches offer increased speed, storage
• iPod nano 5G gains larger screen, video camera, FM radio
• New iPod touches offer increased speed, storage
• Apple boosts iPod classic storage to 160GB
• iPod shuffle 3G gets new colors, 2GB model
• Apple intros iTunes 9 with iTunes LP, app organization, more

Articles:

• Fifteen Things You Didn’t Know About The 2009 iPod shuffle, nano, classic, and touch
• Instant Expert: Secrets & Features of iTunes 9
• Instant Expert: Secrets & Features of iPhone OS 3.1 for iPhone + iPod touch
• Apple’s 2009 iPods + iTunes 9: The Big Picture Wrapup Editorial
• The Colors of the 2009 Third-Generation iPod shuffle, Compared in Photos

If you haven’t yet entered our B&W Zeppelin + Music Giveaway, there’s still time to do so. In our Giveaway of the Month for September, Bowers & Wilkins and iLounge are giving away two Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin iPod speaker systems, and ten full-year memberships to Society of Sound Music. In addition, all entrants will automatically receive a free 3-month trial including an exclusive best-of Society of Sound Music sampler and a single a month for three months. To enter, simply fill out and submit the form on the giveaway page—the giveaway will end on September 30, 2009 at 11:59PM Pacific Time. Good luck!

iPodweek, iLounge’s weekly email newsletter recapping the week in reviews, news, articles, and more, will be sent out to subscribers later today. If you haven’t yet signed up, there’s still time to do so before this week’s edition is sent out. Simply use the form below to submit your email address, and you’ll be added to our mailing list, in addition to making yourself eligible for future newsletter-specific giveaways and deals.

IMPORTANT: Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Earthlink and others, make sure we don’t end up in your spam box. Please accept emails from iLounge.com. Thank you.

With over 3,200 votes from iLounge readers, our latest poll—“Would you buy a oversized iPod touch with a larger screen if it lacked full computer functionality?” has ended. Readers could say they would be interested in either a 10-inch or a 6- or 7-inch version of such a device, that they wouldn’t be interested in such a gadget unless it ran a full-fledged desktop operating system, or that they wouldn’t be interested due its lack of keyboard or some other hardware limitation.

According to the results, nearly half of iLounge readers (47%) are awaiting a tablet running a full-fledged desktop operating system, as they said they would not be interested in such a device running iPhone-like software. Another 19% said they wouldn’t be interested in such a device at all, due to its lack of keyboard or other hardware limitation. Of readers who said they would be interested, opinion was nearly split—17% to 18% overall—amongst those who would be interested in a 10-inch device for media playback and light apps and games, and those who would prefer a 6- or 7-inch device with the same functionality. Thanks for all your votes!

Our new poll concerns Apple’s latest lineup of iPods—we’d like to know what your reaction was to the new iPod nano, classic, touch, and shuffle. Were you pleased enough to plan on purchasing a new model, pleased enough to consider a purchase, or pleased, but not enough to make you buy? Or did you think Apple needed to do more to make the upgrades worthwhile, were downright disappointed by the announcements, or don’t have an opinion either way? Our new poll, “What’s your reaction to the new 2009 iPods?” lets you answer that question. You can find the iLounge Poll in the left-hand column of the main iLounge.com homepage. Vote today!

iLounge editors are now on-site outside the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in preparation for Apple’s Rock and Roll media event. Currently, there is a light crowd of journalists outside the venue, and two tables set up with white MacBooks for media and guest registration, which begins at 9:00. We will be updating this story—and our Flickr photostream—continually until we switch over to our Live Event page several minutes before the event starts at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time.

Update 9:01: iLounge editors have received their media badges for entry into the event, and continue to wait outside as the crowd builds. While waiting, they also spotted Greg Grunberg from the NBC series Heroes; continue reading to see more pictures from outside the event.

Update 9:23: Representatives from both Nike and Pandora have been spotted outside the event.

This week’s featured photo is from our iPods Around the World gallery, and shows an iPod touch in front of the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia, Bulgaria. To share your photos and to be considered for our Photo of the Week, you simply need to submit your own photo to one of our galleries. So get out there, take some pictures with your iPod or iPhone, and maybe your submission will be our next Photo of the Week!

iLounge editors are currently en route to San Francisco to bring you live coverage of Apple’s Rock and Roll media event, which is scheduled to begin tomorrow, September 9, at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time. As with past iLounge live events, the frontpage of iLounge.com will switch over to our leaner Live Event page several minutes before the event starts. Apple is widely expected to announce its fall 2009 iPod lineup during the event, with a new version of iTunes and the launch of The Beatles’ catalog on the iTunes Store also possibilities. We look forward to having you join us for our live coverage.

Updated: iLounge editors are now arriving in San Francisco; continue reading for a larger look at the outside of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater, which has been decorated in preparation for tomorrow’s event.

iPodweek, iLounge’s weekly newsletter recapping the last seven days in iPod, iPhone, iTunes and Apple TV news, articles, reviews, and more, will be sent out later today. In addition to rounding up the week’s top stories, iPodweek also features giveaways and accessory discount offers from various companies. If you haven’t yet signed up to receive iPodweek, there’s still time to register and receive this week’s edition — just use the simple form below to submit your email address.

IMPORTANT: Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Earthlink and others, make sure we don’t end up in your spam box. Please accept emails from iLounge.com. Thank you.