Tech Amazing

The new Nano is coming and expect a taller and thinner version. The new Touch is sleeker and cheaper. In other words, Apple’s “Let’s Rock” event went down pretty much as expected—and frankly, it was a bit of a letdown. Tech observers and analysts had warned that today’s iPod-focused Apple event might be something of dud, short of a breathtaking “One More Thing!”-type announcement. Well, this time, there was no big surprise at the end—unless you call a pair of acoustic songs by special guest Jack Johnson a big surprise. Instead, we pretty much got what the rumor mongers said we would: A new, tall-and-thin Nano (similar to the first two Nano models), a cheaper and slightly-tweaked version of the Touch, and a new 120GB Classic. iTunes got updated—yes, with a new song recommendation feature, dubbed Genius—and a new iPhone firmware update (with a slew of fixes) is set to arrive.

But if you were hoping for, say, a new Apple TV, new MacBooks or MacBook Pros, a new touchscreen MacBook, or an iTunes music subscription service—well, sorry Charlie. Didn’t happen. What was notable, however, was that Steve Jobs looked (by all accounts, at least) relatively healthy. A big title card reading “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated” appeared before Jobs bounded on the stage, and Gizmodo reports that the Apple CEO looked “skinny, but energetic.” That should calm any investors spooked by Jobs’ gaunt appearance during June’s iPhone launch, not to mention the obit that accidentally hit the wires a couple of weeks ago.