Apple's Steve Jobs marches on, as the most innovative industrialist of our time

New at Apple: Smaller iPods, Bigger Ideas – by David Pogue (from NY Times)

APPLE, these days, is an innovation factory. The company releases so many products, so often, you get the idea that everyone there just runs around yelling ideas. If this is Thursday, there must be a new iPod.

But this summer, the company was unusually quiet. Apple watchers online concluded that something really, really big must be in the works. A wide-screen iPod! An iPhone! A hovercar!

At a media event in San Francisco on Tuesday, Apple finally spilled the beans. It hadn’t been working on one big thing, but on four medium-size developments that lay the groundwork for some ambitious bigger ones down the road.

New iPods

The iPod family already makes up 75 percent of all music player sales. So where does Apple take them from there? Pretty much the only way they can go: smaller, cheaper and tougher, with better batteries and greater capacity. The least expensive iPod, the Shuffle (the one without a screen), is now a one-inch aluminum square, barely large enough to contain its quarter-size control dial. There’s no room for a U.S.B. jack, so the Shuffle comes with an even tinier recharging-synching dock that connects to your computer.

The entire back is a spring-loaded clip, suitable for attaching to your clothing or backpack strap. Even the spring is smooth and satisfying, with precisely the right amount of grip — a typical touch from the company that patented the electronics-as-jewelry culture. The Shuffle arrives next month for $80 (one gigabyte, which holds about 240 songs).

The iPod Nano has been refined, too. The original model was shiny and gorgeous. But its high-gloss surface was so delicate, pocket lint could scratch it.

That won’t be a problem with the new Nano. Its body is now wrapped in high-luster, textured aluminum, like the old iPod Mini . It’s even a hair smaller and lighter than the old Nano (3.5 by 1.6 by 0.3 inches), and comes in a choice of five colors: silver, blue, pink, green or black. Prices range from $150 (2 gigabytes, silver only) to $250 (8 gigabytes, black only). The battery now plays music for at least 24 hours, which ought to cover your morning jog.

The Nano looks, feels and sounds fantastic, and it’s a huge relief not to have to worry about nicking its precious skin anymore. Note, however, that the Nano’s new streamlined packaging is too small for a CD with the iTunes software; you’re supposed to download your own copy from Apple’s Web site.

The “big” iPod, the one containing a hard drive and capable of playing videos, got a smaller upgrade. It comes in two models, for $250 or $350 (30 or 80 gigabytes), which is $50 off the previous models (30 and 60 gigabytes). You can crank the screen 60 percent brighter than before. And Apple now sells nine slick iPod video games for $5 each (Pac-Man lives!).

The big iPod’s battery can play music for 20 hours, or, more significantly, play video for 6.5 hours. That’s enough juice to play three movies, all the way across the country on a plane. You’d be hard-pressed to find another video or DVD player or laptop that can manage that, at least without add-on batteries.

On all of the iPods, Apple has done away with those easy-to-lose foam-rubber earbud mittens. Now the earbuds are ringed with rubber, which is supposed to form a better seal with your ear. Most people will find that the new earbuds sound better as a result. (Audiophiles will continue to sniff disdainfully.)

ITunes 7

In giving an extreme makeover to iTunes, its free music and video jukebox software for Mac or Windows, Apple began by plucking off a few long-standing thorns. The screen layout is far less busy now. New headings divide the list of music sources into three chunks: Library, Store and Playlists.

Another annoyance gone: now iTunes (and the iPod) can play back live recordings seamlessly, without software-induced gaps between the “tracks.” Fans of classical music, opera and Pink Floyd, this one’s for you.

The new iTunes can also, for the first time, import music from the iPod, at least under one circumstance. Suppose you’ve bought a couple of songs while on the road. How do you get them from your laptop onto your main machine at home?

The iPod can now act as an intelligent go-between. When you connect it to Computer B, iTunes offers to import the store-bought songs that originally came from Computer A (though not the rest of its collection). Very nice.

Other goodies include a download start/stop window, automatic downloading of album cover art for songs that you haven’t bought online, and a browsing view that lets you flip through 3-D CD covers as though they’re in a music store bin. Once Apple address the bugs that are being reported online, this program will truly rock.

Movie Store

The third unveiling was no surprise to Apple rumor fans: the iTunes Store (no longer the iTunes Music Store) has begun selling full-length Hollywood movies.

Of course, CinemaNow, Movielink and, as of last week, Amazon.com are already in that business. But, presumably because of the movie studios’ insane, self-defeating restrictions, shopping at those stores is generally a nightmare. The selection is terrible: only 1,100 movies at Movielink, for example (compared with 60,000 rental DVD’s from Netflix ) ). The pricing is random and nonsensical; many Amazon movies on DVD actually cost less than the downloadable versions. And the rules are complicated and inconsistent; some movies you can own, while others must be “rented” and played within 24 hours.

The movie-download business, in short, is a frustrating mess — precisely where the music-download business was in 2003 when Apple came along and showed the world how it should be done.

Once again, Apple’s service is far simpler, better-looking and more consistent than its rivals’. Movies are incredibly easy to find, browse, preview, download and play back on your computer or iPod. Each movie consumes about one or two gigabytes and takes 60 to 90 minutes to download, although you can begin watching after only about three minutes. The movies even come with embedded chapter markers, just as on a DVD; you can skip to the next scene by pressing the iPod’s >> button.

The resolution is 640 by 480, precisely the same as that on a standard-definition TV. Most movies come in wide-screen format, however, so you lose some of those 480 vertical pixels to black letterbox bars. Even so, the movies look spectacular on the iPod’s squarish screen, where you can opt for letterbox or full-screen presentation. (The fabled wide-screen iPod has not yet appeared.)

Playback on a TV (for example, when connected to the computer or the iPod’s optional video dock) is exactly what Apple says it is: near, but not quite, DVD quality.

But even Apple’s store offers only 75 movies, all from Disney and its divisions. And the pricing isn’t as simple as it is for songs or TV shows: old movies cost $10, new movies cost $13 for the first week after their release but then go up to $15. Furthermore, Apple’s definition of “new release” can be quirky; “The Incredibles,” released on DVD nearly 18 months ago, still goes for $13.

Much, therefore, depends on Apple’s ability to persuade other movie companies to join. Of course, its successful TV-show store also began with only a small Disney selection; Apple predicts that the movie experiment will likewise blossom in coming months.

Still, you’re entitled to ask: Who, exactly, is interested in movie downloads at all? Compared with DVD’s, movie downloads offer limited selection, very little savings, no DVD extras and no surround sound. The files are huge, the quality isn’t even up to DVD standards, and you can’t play your movies on a friend’s TV or a DVD player in the car.

Above all, how many families gather ’round the computer on movie night?

Coming Attractions

Apple’s fourth announcement this week addresses that last problem. It’s a $300 box, called the iTV for now and scheduled for release early next year. It’s designed to connect to your TV (with HDMI or component jacks) and play — without wires — all of the movies, videos, photos and music that sit on your Mac or PC elsewhere in the house.

There are advantages to downloading your movies, like immediacy and convenience. It’s nice, too, that your movies play in several places at once (on up to five computers and unlimited iPods), which isn’t possible with a DVD. Over all, though, it may take quite awhile for movie downloads — even Apple’s — to go mainstream.

Apple’s digital music system is another story. You can resent Apple all you want, you can call its admirers fanboys, and you can gripe that songs from iTunes don’t work on any pocket player except the iPod.

What you can’t do, however, is find a better online music store, or a free jukebox program as powerful and clean as iTunes. And you certainly won’t find a music player that beats the new iPods in polish, capacity or even price. They come dazzlingly close to perfection.

(E-mail: Pogue@nytimes.com)