Along with the beginning of another school year comes Apple's announcement of a new lineup of iPods. This year's announcements run the gamut, ranging from small tweaks on existing models to all-new releases.
The changes start with the iPod shuffle, which has been repainted in some ho-hum, pastel colors -- lilac, light blue and mint green -- along with the original silver hue and a new (PRODUCT) RED Special Edition iPod, the proceeds of which help fight AIDS in Africa. There is nothing else to report, no price drops or added storage.
On the other hand, the new nano receives a major overhaul of its design and form. Gone is the tall, thin candy bar styling of the old generation. The new iPod nano can best be described as squat. The new all-metal shell is even thinner than the old model, but lacks elegance. It makes up for this by boasting a larger color display capable of showing videos. The new screen allows for a new menu system that uses cover art and icons to supplement the menu text. It is now possible to browse your music using Cover Flow, although the result is not as flashy or impressive as on an iPhone. The new nano costs $149 for a 4GB model, available in silver only, and $199 for an 8GB, which comes in the same colors as the shuffle plus black.
The original iPod has now been dubbed the "iPod classic" for no real reason except to keep the marketing folks on their toes. It also gains the new all-metal body and enhanced user interface of the nano. The biggest news here is the added value. An 80GB version now costs only $249, while $349 will buy an archive-sized 160GB hard drive.
The biggest announcement Apple recently made was the iPod touch, aka the phone-less iPhone, as I like to think of it. The touch keeps many of the iPhone's features like the design, multi-touch screen and Wi-Fi, while taking away the phone features as well as some requisite girth. Keeping the Wi-Fi makes the iPod touch an infinitely more useful device. It allows you to read blitzes, check Facebook, watch YouTube, read the news and more. The inclusion of a real browser even lets you get onto Dartmouth's wireless portal.
Apple has not passed up an opportunity to feed you more music from the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store. Now you can download music straight to your iPod. Between the multimedia features and the Wi-Fi, the iPod touch, in many cases, obviates the need to bring along a laptop at all. The 8GB iPod touch is available for $299 and a 16GB model can be yours for $399.
The release of the iPod touch coincided with a $200 price drop on the 8GB iPhone; the 4GB model has been quietly put to pasture. The announcement of the newly $399 iPhone caused quite an uproar among early adopters, and Apple in turn decided to offer a $100 store credit to all who bought the iPhone before the price drop, a nice token gesture that still doesn't quite cover the gash in the wallet.
Every year, iPods seem to get smaller, cheaper, and more ambitious. But this year, the addition of Wi-Fi adds worlds of possibility and promise to an already golden formula.
