Apple News Galore ...

Apple came out with several announcements today, most of which were completely underwhelming, not to mention counter-productive.

First was a new “HP” iPod, this time for Harry Potter. Besides an obvious dig at their former relationship with Hewlett Packard, this was done in conjunction with the immediate availability of the entire Harry Potterseries of audiobooks through iTunes. The cost for the six installments? Well, let’s just say that you could buy the new iPod nano for the same price.

Speaking of the nano, it’s everything Kevin Rose said it would be. What it is not is at all innovative, besides being very thin. (Turn it on it's side to get a slightly wider screen, and that might be something.) As I suspected, it’s replacing the iPod mini, which is the only place that it makes sense. What doesn’t make sense is the limit of 4GB of storage.

The ROKR was announced too, and a collective “meh” was heard ‘round the Internet. What’s really sad is that because of the limited storage (Engadget confirms a ridiculously low 100-song limit, irrespective of the amount of storage space you have), the nano becomes a more cost-effective option, since you get more songs, the slick look, and you can keep your existing phone and rate plan. If the nano doesn’t kill the ROKR completely, then Sony’s Walkman W800 will finish the job, by virtue of the superior brand and upgradeable storage. How unfortunate for Motorola.

iTunes 5 (and QuickTime 7) are out as well. iTunes has a new look, and QT7 has H.264 support (that’s high-def video).

Probably the biggest news was a stealth announcement (or possibly a mistake), which my friend Mike found … Apple is dropping the 20GB iPod Photo and replacing it with the missing-in-action 30GB model. I hope they’re sticking with the same slim form-factor as the 20GB.