Apple Launches New iPods

At Apple’s special media event yesterday, Apple announced the immediate availability of entirely refreshed family of iPod devices. The new generation of iPod nano received the biggest upgrade, which includes a new video camera, FM radio tuner with live pausing (think Hub Station) and iTunes tagging capability. My 4th generation iPod Nano has become feature-obsolete.

What’s also interesting with the new iPod nano is that the physical form factor hasn’t actually changed. It does look different though, because it has a polished anodized aluminum casing (the old one is matt), and it has a slightly larger 2.2″ screen (up from 2″). Of course, there’s also the video camera at the back.

The new video camera shoots in 640×480 resolution up to 30 frames per second with AAC audio. It will do special effects too. But it’s really a video-only camera. Yes, this camera will not take still shots. It seems counter-intuitive since everyone has come to expect that if a camera can take video, it will take stills too.

There’s more to the iPod nano: Voice Over, Genius Mix, built-in speaker and microphone, and a pedometer. Yeah, my iPod nano 4G is beginning to look like a Shuffle.

The iPod Touch improvements are lesser in comparison with the nano’s. The 8GB model sees its price cut. The 16GB and 32GB models have been upgraded to 32GB and 64GB, are said to be 50″ faster, and will run OpenGL ES 2.0.

The iPod Classic sees its 120GB capacity upped to 160GB.

The iPod Shuffle sees a bunch of changes. First off it’s now available in a bunch of colours, pink, blue and green. It’s not as many as the iPod nano. The iPod shuffle is also available in a polished stainless steel special edition only from the Apple Online Store.

The new iPod nano is an interesting upgrade. My 4th generation iPod nano, ironically, has become more valuable for people who cannot have a video camera. Yes, people like NSFs and NSmen who cannot bring video cameras into camp. So I’m thinking my feature-obsolete iPod nano isn’t too bad after all.