Apple Releases New iPhone and iPod Touch Models

Today, Apple announced the availability of two new products.  The first is an upgraded iPod touch that has 32 GB of storage space.  The second is a new iPhone that has 16 GB of storage.  Both new models are priced at $499.  The only changes in these devices are the storage capacities, everything else remains the same.  These new products are available now and should be arriving in stores in a few days.  The lower-capacity versions of these products (the 8 and 16 GB iPod Touch and the 8 GB iPhone) do still exist, though they incurred no change in price.

The upgraded capacity of the iPod touch should make some people happy, as it makes the iPod Touch a strong competitor to other portable video players.  Before, with only 16 GB of space, despite being a beautiful device with a very nice screen, the iPod Touch couldn’t hold much content.  But now, with the upgraded 32 GB, the iPod Touch now has more than sufficient storage for movies, music, and more.

The upgraded capacity on the iPhone is nice too, but I’d still like to see new features added, such as 3G and Flash support.  I suspect that an upgraded iPhone with these features will make an appearance later this year, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

One thing that bugged me was the fact that Apple didn’t reduce the price of the lower-capacity iPod Touch models.  $399 for the 16 GB iPod Touch isn’t cheap, and $250 for an 8 GB version isn’t great either.  Similarly priced competitor models exist with more storage (namely the Archos 604 with 30 GB of storage), thus making the iPod Touch a less-attractive buy.

Maybe Apple will reduce the prices of these models, in the same way as their infamous iPhone price cut.  Or maybe they won’t.  We’ll just have to wait and see.

PC Buying Tip #1: Vista

Any new PC you buy these days will almost certainly come with Windows Vista. And that’s a good thing, because despite the constant bashing that Vista receives, its actually pretty good. It runs everyday applications, like Word and Firefox, just fine and does everything that normal people want it to do. It’s fine for most people. The only reason you should opt not to get Vista is if you need a certain application and it doesn’t work with Vista (if it is a modern application, a Vista version will probably come out soon).

Also, you can’t wait forever. Sooner or later you’ll have to switch to Vista. So why not make things easier and just take the plunge now?

However, Vista does have some hefty system requirements, so make sure your PC is adequately prepared. Don’t follow Microsoft’s recommended system requirements – they are too low. In order to run Vista with smooth and effective performance, you will need:

• A modern dual-core processor (almost all PCs sold today have one).
• At least two gigabytes of RAM (this is the area in which many PCs are lacking, make SURE that you have two gigabytes or more, otherwise Vista will run slowly).
• Any modern graphics card with 128 MB of RAM or more (almost all PCs sold today have one).

If your system meets or exceeds the above specifications, then you should be happy running Vista. It’s prettier than XP and it does offer some handy new features. Try it. I’m sure you’ll like it.