Having 275 million iPods sold to date would mean most companies could sit back and enjoy their success, but this year Apple redesigned the entire line (minus the iPod Classic). And all of them got a major face lift.
iPod Shuffle
The iPod Shuffle is bringing back a lot of the look of the second generation, such as bringing back the clip and buttons, but it’s smaller than the generation it is taking its cues from. $49 will get you a 2 GB model with a 15 hour battery life.
iPod Nano
As we suspected, the iPod Nano has gone multi-touch and done away with the click wheel design. It has added a clip so you can wear it anywhere you like. Its 46 percent smaller (1.54-inches diagonally to be exact) and 42 percent lighter while adding a FM radio with regional settings for Americas, Asia, Australia, Europe and Japan. The battery life has also been increased to 24 hours. And, yes, it is iOS-based now, but it doesn’t appear you can download apps. You can also rotate the screen by hand, so no accelerometer.
We’re not sure how pictures are going to look on such a small screen, but it has them. $149 for 8 GB, $179 for 16 GB and comes in six colors, one of which is part of PROJECT RED with donations going to the charity.
iPod Touch
The iPod Touch did indeed get thinner, and it added the Retina display with 4 times the pixels, 326 PPI (pixels per inch) and 24-bit color. The chip got updated to the A4 chip, plus a 3-axis gyro is now on board for greater accuracy. A whopping 40 hours of music playback time is what you now get on one charge.
Of course the biggest news is the front and rear cameras are real, and yes there is FaceTime support for talking with iPod Touch and iPhone 4 users. The iPod Touch just got a tad bit closer to being a phone.
Three different sizes are available with the pricing as follows:
- 8 GB – $229
- 32 GB – $299
- 64 GB – $399
iPod Classic
The oldest of the iPods is still listed as available for order on the Apple Store, but despite Mr. Jobs saying the entire line got updated this year, there was nothing said about this one at the event. Total speculation on our part, but if we were to guess, when the current stock sells out, that may be it for this member of the family.
Are you excited for this year’s iPod line up? What are you going to order?
