Ramblings of a Programmer

Apple announced today that it is merging its iPod and iPod photo lines today. All future iPods will be white in color and have full color displays. The new iPods will even be able to display album art in color. There will be a 20 gig model going for $299 and a 60 gig model going for $399.

Out of nowhere, Apple also announced the availability of its new iTunes 4.9 software which includes support for podcasting. Podcasters should beware, because bandwidth useage is about to pick up.

Update: The iTunes 4.9 update and a new version of the iPod Updater software is available via Software Update.

Wow! This one caught me off guard. I can certainly expect something like this from a software company that is fighting against the big fish in the pond, but I did not expect something like this in the computer chip market. I wonder if this has anything to do with Apple’s decision to use Intel for their product line going forward?

Read the CNET News.com article for more information.

Eclipse.org released the latest version of the Eclipse development environment at JavaOne yesterday. Much of the excitement regarding Eclipse 3.1 centered on the Rich Client Platform upon which you can build very professional looking applications.

The Rich Client Platform has been greatly enhanced in this version of Eclipse. The system has improved performance, expanded tool support, bettery support for Java Web Start (JNLP), and Visual Editor support.

For more information and a podcast on the launch, check out this story on Between the Lines.