On Christmas Day Apple’s iTunes music store experienced an unprecedented amount of traffic, so much so that it caused some serious delays for many of its visitors that day.  What was the cause of the mass influx?  Holiday gifts.

The iPod was yet again the must-have gift an everyone’s Christmas list this year.  Lots of people gave them, and lots of people got them.  And with the popularity of gift cards these days, the iTunes gift cards no doubt were given frequently as gifts as well. 

So on Christmas day, after Santa arrived and delivered all the presents (*wink*), everyone rushed to the computers to load up their new iPods and spend their iTunes gift cards.  Traffic to the iTunes site on Christmas day 2006 was a 413% increase over Christmas day 2005, and an 1,222% increase over normal Monday traffic. 

Apple expected a lot of visitors that day, but no one could have guessed just how much they would really get.  Visitors to the site experienced problems such as long delays in downloading music, error messages, or were not able to access the site at all. After the Christmas crowded thinned out, the site was back to normal.

The massive amount of traffic to iTunes on Christmas can only indicate one thing - the iPod was one of the year’s hottest gifts, not at all affected by the launch of Microsoft’s Zune in November.  Even John Scott is giving some Shuffles away as gifts this holiday season - that’s how cool they are.

So, how many of you guys got an iPod for the holidays?  Did anyone give an iPod or iTunes giftcard as a gift?

There were rumours last week that Apple would be ditching the “Mac Guy” from their recent line of commercials, but actor Justin Long (aka the “Mac Guy”) insists that not only are they not letting him go, but he’s actually shooting some new commercials for them this week. 

Umm, who cares?  Personally, I find the commercials silly and actually kind of annoying.  The Mac guy doesn’t look, act, or sound cool, and despite Apple’s claims as to such, having a Mac doesn’t help his cause.  The PC guy is pathetically nerdy to the point of being overly dramatic. 

The whole “Macs are cool” thing is lost on this guy as he’s just not that cool.  Nevertheless, it looks like these commercials are here to stay, at least for a little bit.  Long reports that they are currently shooting a series of the Mac/PC guy commercials for the holiday season.

Christmas comes early for Apple employees: Apple CEO Steve Jobs recently noted that all Apple employees will be receiving the newest second-generation iPod Shuffle. All employees - from management all the way on down to retail staff - will be receiving the Shuffle. It is intended to boost morale and reward the employees.

At the size of a matchbook, the newest iPod Shuffle boasts being the world’s smallest mp3 player. It contains 1GB of storage, which is enough to hold about 240 songs. It also features a built-in clip which consumers can use to clip it on to a pocket. They were officially launched on Friday, November 3rd, and are available online and in retail outlets.

Speculations are also floating about suggesting that the Shuffle will soon be available in an array of different colors, much like the newest iPod Nanos are. It is rumored that these may roll out in January at the MacWorld expo.

Apple has recently filed a new patent, which may give insight into some of their plans for the future.  The first patent patent would allow an iPod to record tunes from thin air, transmit samples of the songs wirelessly to a server that identifies associated media, and enable users to purchase and download them.

It is also believed that Apple may be working on a deal with XM Satellite.  The patent filing also refers to documents covering MacXM, a program that allows Mac OS X to control an XM Satellite Radio device.

Apple and Google are currently rumoured to be working on any number of deals that could greatly benefit both companies. The thing is though, no one is quite sure what the two have up their sleeves.

So far, it is rumoured that Apple and Google are working on an advertising deal. It would likely be a traditional advertising partership much like Google has struck with other high profile online companies. The addition of Apple, and most especially Apple’s iTunes websites, to their roster would me a major boost to the business.

The other possible partnership is that of a video deal. One rumour is that Google will supply video to Apple’s upcoming iTV service.

Many also believe that whatever deal is struck, it could be the beginning of a very long and mutually beneficial collaborative partnership. Both companies share similiar work cultures, and each has several things that the other does not.

In today’s latest product launch, Apple iPod has finally unveiled the long-rumoured, and very much hyped iTunes video download service as well as a number of other product updates. 

The new video download service is packaged with the new iTunes 7 software, which you can now download from their site.  Available upon its initial launch today are over 75 movie titles.  Apple hopes to continue to expand their movie offerings, whereby you can download videos from iTunes on the same day that they are released in stores.

New movies from iTunes will cost $12.99 if you pre-order them or buy them within the first week.  Older movie titles will cost $9.99.

Also introduced at the product launch were a number of updates to existing iPod products.  There are a lot of them, so I’m just going to give you a quick overview:

• 2nd Generation iPod Shuffle now available - its now the world’s smallest mp3 player, has a handy little built-in clip, and has 1GB of storage.  They are $79 and will be shipped in October, but orders can be placed now.
• iPod: the screen is now 60% brighter, and battery life on the bigger version has been extended to 6.5 hours from the previous 4 hours.
• iPod earphones have been redesigned, and will come standard with all iPods (including the Nano and Shuffle).
• Gapless playback now available on new iPods, which allows you to listen to an entire album and have the tracks flow seamlessly into eachother.
• Instant searching and faster scrolling now available.
• iPod games now available from the iTunes store.  Titles include such games as Tetris, Pac-Man, Hold’Em Poker, and more.
• Video battery life is now 75% longer at 6.5 hours.
• Lower prices: the 30GB video iPod is now just $250, and the 80GB model is $350.  That’s $100 off its recently pricing.
• 2nd Generation iPod Nanos have been “completely remastered” and include: an aluminum outer case on 2GB version, thinner than the 1st generation, 40% brighter screen, the 4GB version is available in 5 colors (blue, green, pink, black, white), 24 hour battery life, and lower pricing.  2GB Nano = $149, 4GB Nano = $199, 8GB Nano = $249.
• The new charger for iPods is 40% smaller
• Also available are new lanyard earbuds.
• iTunes 7 now available for download, has lots of updates.
• NFL Network now has season highlights available on iTunes.
• Better video encoding now available at 640X480 resolution (near DVD quality). 4 times better than previous 320×240 resolution.

And lastly, after all of that, Steve Jobs gave all those present a sneak peek into the future of Apple and a new product in development: iTV.  iTV is the code name for a new device that Apple is producing that will allow you to sync your computer or iPod to your tv.  In other words, you can browse through new movies available on iTunes right on your tv, watch the movies, download and watch podcasts, and even listen to your music.  Most importantly, there won’t be loads of wires running about your house to get this all accomplished - a simple wireless network will do it all.  iTV is a code name, so it will likely be called something else upon launch.  The product is projected to be launched in Q1 in 2007.

Now I’m kinda disappointed I ran out and bought a new Nano only just two weeks ago. I still love the thing, but had I known the new ones were coming out I would have probably waited.  My next goal is to get a video iPod, and now it’ll likely happen faster than before now that they’ve lowered the prices.