Apple Impresses with iPod Stats and New Lineup (iPod Touch As Next Great Gaming Device?)

Today, Apple showed off its new iPod lineup at its "Lets Rock" event in San Francisco. A new iTunes was released today with HD television shows, grid view of albums and genius playlists which put songs together that sound alike into one playlist.

The new iPod Nano replaces the wide design with something a little bit longer in length. It is the thinnest iPod to date. It also has an accelerometer built in for portrait and landscape viewing of the new user interface. New features include genius playlists and a "shake to shuffle" feature (which I think should be a standard feature in all iPods with accelerometers.) The new iPod Nano will be available in nine colors starting at $149 for 8GB and $199 for 16GB.

The new iPod Touch is even thinner and includes volume controls, a built in speaker for "casual listening," genius playlists and a Nike + iPod native app. It seems like Apple is trying to sell the iPod Touch as a gaming device. Spore Origins and Need for Speed from EA were shown as well as Real Soccer 2009 from Gameloft. Steve Jobs the CEO of Apple also called iPod Touch the greatest portable gaming device available. The new iPod Touch known as "The worlds funnest iPod" will be available in three different models. An 8GB for $229, a 16GB for $299 and a 32GB for $399. All of the products mentioned are available now.
The new software features in iPod Touch like genius playlists and Nike + iPod are available in software update 2.1 for first gen iPod Touches which will be free for all iPod Touch 2.0 users. The iPhone will get its 2.1 update on Friday which will fix many problems and bugs and will presumably have the new software features of iPod Touch.

Editor's Note: Just to clarify. When Steve Job's said that the iPod Touch speaker was for "casual listening" , he was actually making a mean joke. :-P

The iPod Touch speaker is the equivalent of the sounds a Game & Watch handheld system would make, to give you an idea.


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