On the surface, it would seem Apple's event yesterday is about positioning product updates for the holiday season, but really it is about the implications of integrating iOS vertically though Apple/s various consumer products. This is smart for Apple to do, as it provides many benefits including cheaper development, and leveraging existing technology across many products. What this means is iOS is now providing the technical underpinnings to products like the new nano and Apple TV.
The evidence is this. The nano is clearly using iOS technology that would be absurd to develop just for that form factor, like two finger rotate. Yes, Apple says the nano doesn't run iOS, but I think this is a matter of semantics. Really, what they're saying is there is no A4 there and they want to distance the product from the expectation of running iPhone apps. The included apps obviously are nano-form adaptations of existing iPhone apps. There is obviously a huge amount of technology from existing products that they're leveraging.
The Apple TV lost its storage and became much smaller. I don't think consumers were asking for a smaller set top box. The existing Apple TV was already 1/8th the size of a tivo. The Apple TV is smaller because it is basically iOS hardware. Smaller hardware creates savings across the board for the manufacturer. Leveraging existing technology creates savings across the board for the manufacturer. The hard part is the presentation and spinning this into a benefit to the consumer. "Nobody wants purchases, so uh, no storage! Yeah!"
A lot of people are extrapolating iOS on the Apple TV into the ability to access iPhone apps. This isn't the point. It was never the point and you'll never see it because the iPhone apps rely on a multitouch interface on a display screen. You can't decouple the gesture from the screen. It just doesn't work, at least, it doesn't work well enough for a company like Apple. So stop. Really. It won't happen.
Technically, it is certainly possible to develop new apps or port iPhone apps to the Apple TV that use gestures from the Apple TV remote. I wouldn't hold your breath, though.
I thought the demos were well done and Steve masterfully navigated the presentation with no technical flub ups. He even went charmingly off script a couple times.
Ping is a launch disaster. When digg relaunched recently, you could import your contacts from other social networks. I can't find anyone on ping. I can't even find artists on ping. Nothing is there. It is a party in iTunes and no one is invited. Would it have been so difficult to create artist stubs from iTunes music store data? How do independents claim their pages? You have to have this stuff ready at launch otherwise people will sign up, look around, shrug and leave. Don't launch untested or poorly-conceived social networks or you've doomed yourself to a google buzz/wave fate.
Speaking of digg, I thought the relaunch/redesign was very bold. News aggregator social commenting sites have a tendency to become the community. The technology of the site doesn't matter, and the reason people stick around is because of the familiar friends they have there. In a lot of ways, digg was fark with a dose of slashdot up/down voting. Certain active personalities tend to take up disproportionate space, eventually becoming more important than the site itself. This is not a good long term strategy as evidenced by the long slow decay of something like fark.
Digg's redesign blew all this up, which democratized the site (a good thing) and pissed off a ton of self-important people who invested a lot of time increasing their footprint on the site. Digg isn't about these individuals anymore. Digg has reoriented itself from a monolithic personality site (with associated turf wars and political system gaming) to smaller individually-cultivated networks of people who share similar interests to your own.
Extrapolating this effect in the future could lead to surrounding ourselves with nobody to challenge our beliefs, and a false assumption that your views are more popular than they actually are. This is especially evident politically.
There may be something to be said for a widely shared cultural connection. That used to be television. Cable eroded this effect and the internet is killing it off completely. Say "ancient chinese secret, eh?" to any 40 year old around you. Stupid, but you get my point (if you're of a certain age).
