Today, Apple released details on many new products. Here’s a brief rundown on what we know so far, and what it may or may not mean to blind or visually impaired users.

• iTunes Movie Rentals — Apple released a new version of iTunes today with support for movie rentals. Movies will begin showing up in DVD quality, complete with 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound. No word yet on whether this update provides any accessibility improvements, but we’ll let you know as soon as we do.
• New AppleTV — AppleTV got a major overhaul. It no longer requires a computer to stream content, and you can buy or rent media from the iTunes store directly from the set-top box. No word on whether the AppleTV is accessible, though we are still optimistic that it may be in a future version, given that it is running a version of Mac OS X, and certainly has the horse power for speech output.
• iPhone Update — The iPhone got a huge number of improvements, and we heard once again that the SDK for developers should be available at the end of February. Once the SDK is available, third-party developers may be able to work on access solutions for blind or visually impaired users, and we are still hopeful that Apple may be working on this as well.
• MacBook Air — The MacBook Air is a new addition to the APple line of notebook computers. It provides far more power than notetakers and other portable assistive devices at a substantially cheaper price tag. The device is 0.76 inches at it’s thickest point, and an astonishing 0.16 inches at it’s thinnest. It includes WiFi, BlueTooth, USB, and much more. Since it is running Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, it includes VoiceOver, and thereby is in a great position to compete with other ultra-portable products from companies like Freedom Scientific.

As more information is available on accessibility features or issues with these products, we’ll keep you up to date.