You know the little Skittle-like controls on every window Mac OS X? The red, yellow and green ones? They are lined up vertically in the top left corner of iTunes 10, instead of horizontally like on all the other windows. Weird to break with such an important foundation. I wonder if it's a sign of things to come. There are a lot of other new icons and conventions in iTunes, too. I was surprised to see that the UI of Mac OS X itself didn't follow iTunes 9 more closely with the Snow Leopard release; maybe the next Mac OS X will follow this iTunes.

That was quite a set of announcements! I was only able to watch part of it live, but I caught up on what I missed from the various sites who were liveblogging the event.

iOS Updates

Man, there was some good stuff in there. I'm using my iPad like crazy, so I was really excited to hear that early omissions like printing are going in. There was an interesting line where I swear Steve Jobs mentioned that the HDR functionality was going to be in the iPad too. Does that mean there's going to be a new product update with a camera? I really couldn't care less about a camera going into the iPad, but I know that a lot of people who are on the fence about the iPad point to the lack of camera as a reason. To be honest, I was surprised it was released without one in the first place.

I can't wait to get iOS quick app switching, threaded email and unified inbox on the iPad, so I was disappointed that it's not coming until November. Gah!

AirPlay sounds great, and I can imagine that the interaction from the iPad could be really cool. What a great way to share photos this could turn out to be!

iPods

I use my iPhone as my iPod, so these announcements, while very cool, weren't of much overall interest to me. I thought the new Nano looks really cool, although I can't imagine that tiny touchscreen being very useful. That said, is the Nano now an iOS device? There was no mention of targeting it for 3rd party apps. The new iPod Touch looks amazing. I was a bit surprised at how thin it is without all the phone stuff in there. Very nice.

Whither the iPod Classic? No new update doesn't necessarily mean it's dead, but I wonder. It seems out-of-place with the rest of the lineup now. Update 12:37 PM:Engadget says it'll still be offered.

iTunes

I'm surprised they didn't rename iTunes along with changing its logo. Let's face it: it hasn't been only about music in a long time, and in some senses it's not even the majority of its focus now. Still, it does have strong brand recognition, I guess.

The other changes look interesting, and the new Ping social network seems like it might be cool--we'll have to see. Most of my friends don't necessarily have tastes in music that I'd be interested in following, but the same is not true with movies and television. We'll see if it works for other parts of iTunes than music. I'd say the social aspects of video formats is one of the more interesting things about Boxee and I'd like to see that kind of thing on iTunes, especially on the Apple TV. Speaking of that....

Apple TV

I was disappointed here. I was hoping for a more radical redesign of the software. The new hardware looks good, although I'm out of HDMI ports, and use component for my Apple TV. Still, that's a nice form factor. But the software looks almost the same, but with Netflix, the new rentals ($0.99 == nice!), and AirPlay. I really hope existing Apple TV's can get those new features too, because the changes aren't really anything to run out and buy a new box for, even the nice $99 price point. Update 12:37 PM:Engadget says existing Apple TVs are out of luck. Also, I wonder if the new rentals have the same awful restrictions where you have only 24 hours to complete watching something you've rented. Bummer if so.

Only ABC and FOX? Wow, that's a bummer. Hopefully the other content providers are still available the old way via the Apple TV.

Is it only me and Val, or does every couple reach for their iPads as soon as a dispute of fact rears its head?

For instance, if I comment on an actor's age while watching TV and Val thinks that person's age is different than my guess, I dive for the iPad. Before you know it, we're on IMDB or Wikipedia verifying who is closest, usually with an "AHA!" and a not-so-subtle reading of the relevant source. (We used to use the iPhone, but the iPad is even better for this purpose.) I think this might be the iPad's single greatest use--it should probably be a commercial.

Oh, my. I have the original Zeiss 35mm f/2 and like it a lot. I'd love an f/1.4. This one has to go on the wish list. I wonder if Nikon is going to reintroduce the Nikkor 35mm f/1.4 anytime soon. It's been rumored for awhile.

Check out this very cool HTML5-based presentation, "The Wilderness Downtown". Fun, creative stuff.

It's really good to see the fun-to-drive economy car class heating up. The new 2011 Mazda2 looks like a good entry in the class, which has already seen a good new competitior enter the ring in the form of the new Ford Fiesta.

Bloomberg is reporting that "iTV" (for lack of a better name) will feature a Netflix streaming app. Man, I really hope that's true. Now that there's a Netflix app for the iPhone and iPad, there's no reason to think there couldn't be one for iTV, assuming the rumors of the iTV are true. I guess licensing restrictions are the main reason it wouldn't happen.

I have several Netflix-capable devices, and all of them have some minor drawback (XBox 360 is too loud; TiVo is too clunky; PS3 requires a disc), so I hope this solution ends up being really solid.

Fun show; great episode. If you're a fan of Esquire Magazine or the like, you'll dig it.

I drive by a rather scenic area used to board and walk horses every day. I frequently see a photo-worthy scene there, but I've never stopped before. I've had several excuses, even when I've had my camera with me: I'm running home for dinner and don't have time; there's no good place to pull the car over; I'll come back tomorrow. I finally pulled over when I saw the sun setting behind the horses and there was no traffic on the road and made this picture. I only had my relatively new 50mm f/1.4 G lens with me, so that's what I used. I like the vignetting, so I didn't bother to crop in. Perhaps the wider scene is more subtle than cropping in on the horses anyway.

This is the first image I've shot in bright light at a small aperture, and it brought several dust spots on my sensor into focus, so I had to do some spotting; I need to clean the sensor. Don was giving me crap about my carefree lens-changing technique when I saw him a couple weeks back, so here's a shout out to him that he was right that my sensor is dirty.

Here's a good tip on creating nearly auto-updating albums for your iPad from Lightroom 3 using LR3's new Publish Services. I have something similar set up to sync with the AppleTV, for use as its screensaver. Good stuff.

I've recently become enamored of This American Life. It's available in several forms, but I've been listening to the podcast version on iTunes. The shows have individual themes, and there are usually multiple segments/acts that relate to that theme. In particular, I've enjoyed "NUMMI", "Inside Job" and "Social Contract".

Some episodes seem to be free, for a limited time after they are originally made available, and others cost $0.99--a perfectly reasonably price for a high-quality piece of entertainment, in my opinion. However, you can also buy an iPhone app for $2.99, and that app provides access to the episodes you'd normally pay for individually.

The app has some nice features: it can stream audio, download it for later consumption and can let you listen live to the broadcast. However, it's a good example of how each content producer creating their own app is a bad idea. Let's face it: an independent content producer is unlikely to reproduce the audio player functionality built into the iPod well. For instance, the TAL app doesn't remember where you are if you pause the audio, leave the app and return later. That's a big deal, but it's not the only thing that the iPod app does that the TAL app doesn't, and you're likely to miss those things as much.

Even if the TAL app eventually does replicate all that functionality and manages to keep up with the inevitable changes and enhancement to the iPod app, the bottom line is that I still have to go to yet another app just to see if there's a new TAL to listen to, when I really want to have it appear in my podcast listing when it's available and downloaded. This isn't the same paradigm as magazines, where I can see how they want to have so much control over the flow of the reading experience that each magazine might need its own app; I want to listen to TAL the same way I listen to all the other podcasts on my iPhone and I want the same tools uniformly.

I guess I'll keep up on the latest episodes in podcast fashion and use the TAL app to listen to back episodes as necessary, but it sure would be nice if I could pay my $2.99 and have the episodes appear in the iPod app when I want them.

The pre-Photokina releases are in full swing, and there are two Canon announcements that I think are interesting. The first is the Canon EF 8-15mm f/4L Fisheye USM lens. What a wonderful, eclectic idea! If this were for Nikon, I'd seriously consider it.

The next, the PowerShot S95 is an interation of the S90 that debuted last year. The size of this camera makes it intensely appealing, especially given that its image quality is essentially the same as the G-series cameras. Something to keep an eye on.

Then again, the Micro Four-Thirds camp got a boost with the announcement that Voitgländer is developing lenses for that platform, which is awesome. They're leading off with a Voitgländer 25mm f/0.95. Nice! I'm not particularly interested in that lens, but I'm happy to hear that they'll be producing others.

Exciting stuff!

The Sacramento Bee is running a good photo essay comparing New Orleans five years ago to now. Val, Ainsley and I visited the Katrina-hit areas a year-and-a-half ago and were stunned that there was still as much destruction evident so long after the storm.

I completely agree. It's not purely looks, but the tactile feel of some of them too. If I'm paying $500 for a 50mm lens, I'd like for it to feel like a highly precise tool. That's not to say that I'm unhappy with the pictures I make with the 50mm f/1.4 G, but it doesn't give me the same pleasure to hold and use as, say, the Zeiss equivalent.

Real or not, this video is pretty awesome.