WauloK’s BangRocks Blog

Observers have been expecting a significant revamp to Apple’s iPod lineup, especially after the release of the iPhone in all of its touchscreen glory. So when Apple announced today’s special event—as we predicted—with the tagline “The beat goes on,” we knew the time for an iPod refresh had come. We weren’t disappointed, as Apple announced an all-new line-up of iPods from top to bottom, including a new “fat” iPod nano at $149 and $199, a “classic” iPod at $249 and $349, and the much-anticipated iPod touch with WiFi, Safari, and a touchscreen interface—an iPhone without the phone capability and dedicated e-mail client—for $299 and $399. The iPod touch will be able to purchase music directly from the iTunes Store via WiFi. Apple also had a major bit of news with regards to the iPhone, dropping the price for the 8GB model by $200 to $399 and eliminating the 4GB model altogether.

iPod shuffle

At the bottom of the lineup is a new (PRODUCT) Red iPod Shuffle with 1GB of storage for $79.
Apple gives a portion of the purchase price to the Global Fund to fight AIDS in Africa.

iPod nano

The leaked pictures of the “fat” iPod nano have proven to be the real deal, as the new nano sports a 2″ 320×240 LCD and a doubled storage capacity of 4GB and 8GB. The nano now supports video for the first time, and users will be able to browse their libraries using CoverFlow.

iPod classic

For those with truly enormous music and video libraries, the iPod Classic will be available with capacities of up to 160GB. The 80GB model will retail for $249 while the new 160GB model will set you back $349.

iPod touch

Topping off the iPod announcements was a new “iPod touch.” The iPhone’s touchscreen interface is coming to the iPod, and the iPod touch will have the same-sized screen as the iPhone, but will be 8mm thin. It, too, will have what Jobs described as the “revolutionary” multitouch interface of the iPhone.

A touchscreen and a new form factor aren’t the only new features the iPod touch is bringing to the lineup. The iPod touch will be the first iPod to have WiFi support built in and will also come with a version of Safari. Jobs said that it’s the “first time ever” a browser has been built into a digital audio player. The iPod touch will feature support for YouTube, like the iPhone, and users will be able to navigate around the web via the device’s on-screen keyboard.

When iPod touch owners are near a Starbucks (and is it ever possible to be far away from one?), a Starbucks button will appear on the display, which will allow users to buy whatever song happens to be playing there with a single tap of the finger and also the last 10 songs played. The iPod touch will also get free access to the iTunes Store from Starbucks as the result of the partnership announced between Apple and Starbucks.

* Prices are obviously $USD. It would be interesting to see if the Australian Starbucks will provide the same access as in the USA.

Some more information on the website.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 7th, 2007 at 11:44 am and is filed under Computers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.