Meet the new iPods
The new iPod lineup from little to big.
The smallest of them all, the Shuffle, only received some colour treatment and now comes in four new colours in addition to the original silver tone. There's even a red one so you can show off that you gave money to people in Africa.
Next up on the list is the redone Nano. A shorter, wider, and yet thinner model has been rumoured for ages now and it turns out that it was true. While some may not prefer the new look, it actually looks small enough to fit inside of the watch pocket on your trousers/jeans. Ditching the 2GB version completely, the Nano now only comes in 4GB and 8GB versions priced at £99 and £129 respectively. Both versions come with an ultra high density QVGA screen and will allow you to watch videos and play games like with the 5th gen iPod.
The 6th gen iPod, or iPod classic as it's called now, comes in 80GB and 160GB flavours and will set you back £159 and £229 respectively depending on which version you want. The casing received a slight overhaul so it now sports a thinner, anodized metal case in a matte colour theme of either white or black. A longer battery life is also a key feature to both models.
Finally we come to the "big daddy" of them all, the iPod Touch. Taking some pages from the book of iPhone, the Touch has forgone the clickwheel completely and is now controlled by the 3.5 inch widescreen touch sensitive display. Built in Wi-Fi will allow you to watch YouTube videos and even download iTunes directly from the iTunes store.
Unfortunately, you won't be able to store too many videos on it if you've already got it jam packed full of music, as the Touch only comes in very limited 8GB and 16GB variations due to the use of flash memory instead of a HDD as the storage medium. There's no microphone so you can't install Skype and use it as a cheap iPhone either, despite the resemblance. Pricing for each model is £199 and £269 respectively and should be available around September 28.
Of course if an iPod isn't up your ally, the Zune has recently dropped $50 off of its price tag over in the US and there's always the Creative Zen, Sandisk Sansa or any number of other MP3 players on the market.
Can't wait for the new iPod? Tell us which one you want over in the forums or in the comment section below.
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Discuss in the forums ReplyMight as well buy the iPhone while you're at it since they cut the price drastically :p
Hardware Hackers, get to it! :)
http://www.archos.com/products/gen_5/index.html
Also cheaper, with more features and a better screen? Nobody will hear of them though as everybody else gets piled under the apple marketing steamroller.
<A88>
Actually, I bet that the 'touch' still has all the iphone parts inside and they just need activating :p
nope, apple learned that lesson with the apple TV.
as for me, I think I'll wait a product cycle or two as I still have a perfectly good 5th gen v1 30GB model.
you know what they say about men with small pockets?
Quite true. Both the iRiver Clix2 and Cowon D2 are great little players that will not get the attention that they deserve. I have an iRiver Clix2, and everyone who has seen as has marvelled at the quality of the AMOLED screen which is great for watching movies, soccer, and TV shows. It looks great too and is far better looking than the fatty nano. I didn't want a touchscreen player, otherwise, by all accounts the Cowon D2 is supposed to be great - 50hr playback, SD card slot, 2.5" screen and only slightly larger than the ipod nano.
That they've only got three fingers on each hand?
I think it's for posing with and not much else, imo.
I'll stick with my 60gig ipod video for the moment, although the idea of a 160gig is making me droll rather copiously...
QFT
one thing can fix that though:
Nano = better than the original nano imo, at least now it doesn't look like you can snap it in half
Classic = not my cup of tea - I've got no need for that much storage...I don't need to carry my entire music collection with me (and 160GB?!? WTF?)
Touch = way too big considering the tiny storage size.
Now, if they could squeeze the features of the Touch into the casing of the new Nano, that'd be pretty cool. Not that I'd ever buy an iPod mind you...
That refered more to the software than the hardware. Whilst they did produce a PDA called the Touch, they've released the app for many other devices as well now.
<A88>
You clearly don't have enough music.
I'd love to have 160 gigs, because that's a small fraction of my entire library. I would buy an ipod, if my iriver weren't superior in every way.
I have a shuffle and personally feel it to be far superior to the Zen stone. The controls aren't fiddly for a start, it has a clip on the back, and being made of metal it's highly durable.
I've taken it kite landboarding with me and it's survived a couple of off's with little more than grass stains, and the clip is great for when you are exercising.
Of course if you don't have a need for the clip and durability and ease of use then I'm sure the Zen is great.
I'll stick with my Samsung T9 yahkthx. I'd like to upgrade to the archos that got posted earlier, i've had my eye on those for a while, since they support divx =). As far as size goes, they're the same size roughly as the iPod. That's not a lot of bulk for something that you could comfortably watch on the commute^^
Our feelings are mutual.
those Iriver players do indeed look sexy ..if my Creative player ever goes south on me, I may pick up one of them
http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/5158/ipodgreentr5.jpg
I'm curious as to what Colorware will do with the new ipod classics though.
(The part right before Zune)
im not one to care about video or sound quality, as long as i can see and hear it I am fine. Its probably why i dont mind watching "cam" movies. after 5 mins of seing it badly cropped and cut off, i get into it and dont really notice it.
That's how you spell alley everywhere?
I don't own an mp3 player of any kind but many, the classic and Touch really make me want to own one. Who knows, maybe one of these days...
I have a Dension Ice Link in my car that allows the steering controlls to run the ipod, it works great and I have 30Gb of audio/video on the move. I have yet to find another player to do the same, I will however eat my words as and when someone finds an alternative lol ;)
The iPhone Touch makes me thing they are broken iPhones where they removed the chip to make phone calls and the SIM card reader and sell it to you.
Yeah, I've had to buy a iPod for the car (AMI interface). Now I have to go and bloody sort out the tags on everything, which I didn't bother with before (I was using folders on the iAudio and Squeezebox).
I really hate iTunes on several levels, but I guess I'll get there in the end.
I'm off to have a look. Could also do with a pointer on tag editors and audio convertors. I'm trying out tag and rename for the tagging and I think I used switch or something for the bulk conversion of the ofgg files but I may need to recook it as the tags and filenames were so screwed.
The iphone price isnt going to be subsidized by networks like they do with normal phones...
A fraction of your library?! I want to see proof! :p