Monday, August 25,2008 @ 8:55am
iTunes 8 due Sept. 9, first feature leaked?
Apple has a more definite release date in mind for its new iPods and iTunes 8, Digg founder Kevin Rose says in the latest episode of This Week in Tech. Coloring in details left out of his controversial blog entry, Rose alleges early on in the episode that the new devices and their companion jukebox software should be unveiled on September 9th, or just two weeks from now.
The news site creator declines to provide more details of the launch, though Apple in recent years has held special music events in September to refresh most or all of its iPods in advance of the holidays.
Rose also claims to be aware of multiple iTunes 8 features, but names only one out of concern that he might over-promise for the software. While not elaborating, he suggests the jukebox will look at a user's music and make recommendations of its own. To what end is unclear, though the recommendations will most likely tie into the iTunes Store. Apple already makes suggests through its Just For You feature but is dependent both on using previous iTunes purchases as well as by-hand additions of albums the customer owns from outside the store.
Rose also claims to have additional images of the purported fourth-generation iPod nano that he sent temporarily to TWiT show host Leo Laporte but acknowledges the possibility that it may be difficult to authenticate the images, although Laporte doesn't have any immediate reason to dispute the images' legitimacy.