A new iPod Touch TV spot due to begin airing Sunday night isn't the work of an Apple bigwig or members of the company's ad agency, but rather a teenage student. Meanwhile, Apple has updated Aperture for Leopard and also posted new versions of Backup, Server Admin Tools and GarageBand.
New iPod Touch ad
A new television commercial for the iPod Touch from Apple, scheduled to begin running on Sunday, is being created by the company's longtime agency, TBWA/Chiat/Day. However, the New York Times reports the spot is based heavily on a commercial that 18-year-old English student Nick Haley created on his own one day last month.
Haley took visual elements in his commercial (embedded below) from video clips about the iPod Touch and other new products, then uploaded the finished piece to the popular video file sharing site YouTube. Among those who would later view his work were staff members on the Apple account at TBWA/Chiat/Day.
"I was sitting on the bus and I got this e-mail on my phone,†Haley told the Times. The message said, "We represent Apple and we’ve seen what you have produced and we’d like a chat with you."
Haley was eventually flown to Los Angeles to work on a broadcast-ready version of the ad with creative executives at TBWA/Chiat/Day. It can be seen on football games starting Sunday afternoon and on “Desperate Housewives†and Game 4 of the World Series that same night. It is also to be shown in Europe and Japan.
Aperture 1.5.6 Update
Aperture 1.5.6 Update [130.6MB] addresses issues related to performance, improves overall stability, and supports compatibility with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Other specific issues addressed in this release include:
- Resolves some minor compatibility issues with iPhoto 7.1, which organizes images by Event rather than Roll.
- Addresses issues related to metadata and sort order when sharing previews with iLife Media Browser.
- Improves reliability of queries based on Import Session.
- Addresses reliability when recovering an Aperture Library from a Vault.
This update is recommended for all Aperture users.
Backup 3.1.2
Backup 3.1.2 [6.3] is highly recommended for all users of Backup 3. This update includes reliability improvements and improves compatibility with Leopard and iWork '08.
Server Admin Tools 10.5
Server Admin Tools 10.5 [63.4MB] contains remote administration tools, documentation, and utilities that you can install on a computer other than your server. For more information on how to use the included software, see the Documentation folder included in the distribution. Additional details on this release are provided here.
GarageBand 3.0.5
GarageBand 3.0.5 update [14.4MB] supports compatibility with Mac OS X 10.5.