• San Jose Mercury News, Thursday, September 2, 2010 10:49 AM

The show at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco is over and Apple's actual autumn products are accurately accounted for, John Boudreau reports: A miniaturized $99 Apple TV that lets people rent movies and TV shows from Apple's iTunes or Netflix; a service that allows users of iPhones, iPads and upgraded iPod Touches to stream content to their TVs; a social network built around music, and a social gaming platform that let gamers play and video chat with friends and strangers on their iPhones or iPod Touches.

There's also a new iPod Touch with features similar to the iPhone 4 -- "iPhone without the [AT&T] contract," Jobs quipped -- including FaceTime video chat, a front-facing camera and a high-definition retina display. There's also a new, smaller iPod Nano with multi-touch, and a new version of iTunes.

"Apple is building an amazing set of assets here and evolving them gradually into what might become an all-encompassing, end-to-end experience combining gaming, social networking, content of all kinds and advertising to monetize it all," says IDC analyst Al Hilwa.

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