Apple announced a lot of things today, and I’m happy about all of them.

First, iPods: the Nano now has twice as much storage, is thinner, has a brighter display, up to 24 hours of battery life, and comes in various colors. The “video’ iPods are now 30GB and 80GB, which will come in handy since the iTunes Music Store now sells movies. This wasn’t a surprise to many people as well as the fact that only Disney has signed on for now. The larger iPods have better battery life as well. That extra battery life will come in handy not only for the movies, but also for the games that you can now play. You can purchase the games through iTunes for $4.99. Apple also released iTunes version 7 which is immediately available for download. As is often the case, the new iTunes requires a new version of Quicktime – 7.13. I’ve loaded iTunes 7 and the interface is just slightly different. I’m sure it will grow on me.

These are all things that were pretty much expected from Apple today, but what was unusual for Apple was when they announced that in the first quarter of 2007 they would release the rumored set top box. It is half the size of the Mac Mini and is meant to connect to your TV. They are temporarily calling it the iTV until they can come up with something better.

The next 6 months should get interesting.