A Day of Keeping The Doctor Away
Posted by Walt Snider on September 9th, 2009Apple updated its iPod product line pretty significantly today, likely in response to the new & attractive Zune HD. Lots of rumors were floating around the toobs, such as some Beatles collaboration or a tablet PC. Everyone knew it would hit today, but as usual, Apple kept things pretty well under wraps.
Sadly, no tablet PC. Even sadder, no Beatles. Happily, though, the iPod line got a nice refresh!
Here’s the new pricing and specs for the iPod line, all available right now from the Apple Store:
iPod Shuffle:
- Capacities:
- 2gb – $59 USD
- 4gb – $79 USD
- 4gb (stainless steel, polished, aka fingerprint bait) – $99 USD
- Colors added:
- Pink (cute)
- Green (barf)
- Original black and silver still available
The Shuffle is still itty-bitty that you may mistake for a Chicklet, but if you can keep it out of your mouth for a little while and don’t lose the original earbuds (Apple is working with 3rd parties to put new ones on shelves soon), this makes for a great workout companion!
iPod Nano:
- Capacities:
- 8gb – $149 USD
- 16gb – $179 USD
- Features:
- Available in 9 colors
- FM Radio with live pausing (I’m thinking the way TiVo does things?) and tagging
- Voice over (think Shuffle)
- Genius Mix (think iTunes
- VIDEO CAMERA (no still camera though… weird) that records 640×480 but no word on FPS right now
- Mic
- Speaker (perfect for annoying folks on the train and bus!)
- Larger screen is now 2.2″
- Pedometer
What an amazing upgrade to this fantastic device! The pedometer makes me wonder if the Nano will be the newest choice among gym rats, but we’ll see in the coming weeks. The video camera minus a still camera is a little weird, but it’s a good start. I wonder what the FPS is on that and if it’ll take video while playing music, but I doubt it. I love the addition of the speaker, I just hope it’s loud enough to hear nicely in the room… I don’t care so much about bass and such from music, but the volume of podcasts I’m listening to is key… I enjoy working around the house without earbuds in my cranium and listening to my fav shows, but hate having to move my lappy around to follow me. The larger screen helps with the video recording and lets you add some post effects to your creation on the spot! Spiffy!
Overall, I’m quite impressed with this, but I think I’ll wait for the next generation or see what the Zune counters with.
iPod Classic:
- Capacity:
- 160gb – $249 USD
This gets a 40 gig bump in capacity for the same price, which is good, but I think Apple is going to phase this line out soon… it basically serves as a portable hard drive that plays music which is great for creative types, but I think few others get a lot of usage out of it, unless you’re on a long trip!
iPod Touch
- Capacities:
- 8gb – $199 USD ($50 off)
- 32gb – $299 USD (Apple claims a 50% faster speed increase)
- 64gb – $399 USD (Apple claims a 50% faster speed increase)
iTunes 9.0
What’s an iPod revamp without the corresponding software? Gizmodo has a great synopsis of what’s new and the article is worth the read. [Gizmodo]
Final Verdict:
Overall, I think the Nano has the best feature pack right now, but if the Classic is going to remain relevant, they’ll add some features or significantly bump the hard drive up. The Touch doesn’t seem to have gotten much except for a capacity doubling and they’ve lowered the price on the 8gb model no one seemed to buy, just to clear the shelves for the spiffy new 32 and 64gb models.
So was this to distract from the Zune HD? I think so. Will it work? Likely, but there’ll always be a group that wants the Zune. When the next generation comes out and if the Nano’s feature set makes its way on to the Touch, maybe I’ll go that route next gen.
[Sources: MacRumors | Gizmodo]
Tags: 9/9/9, apple, ipod, iPod Classic, iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle, iPod Touch