iGeneration
You just have to love Apple media events. Steve Jobs always manages to show some new gadget that makes every electronic device made in the past year look obsolete. He certainly didn’t disappoint this time around: on September 9th, the CEO of Apple Inc. took the stage in San Francisco to reveal the company’s new line-up of merchandise. Among his announcements were new iPod headphones (featuring a microphone and pause/play/volume/track control), iTunes 8, and, of course… what everyone was waiting for. New iPods. Without further ado, here’s a brief look at the newest generation of everyone’s favourite portable media player family:
The iPod Shuffle – remains unchanged. The shuffle is meant to be bare bones and minimalist – and in keeping with that philosophy, I’m honestly not sure how you can improve on its design. Apparently Apple’s engineers agree – the iPod Shuffle hasn’t been updated at all for this year.
The iPod Classic – is now available with 120GB storage capacity. Not that I’ve ever met anyone who needed to carry 30 000 songs or 150 hours of video in their pocket… But I suppose it’s nice to have the option. It also makes a pretty sweet portable hard drive.
The iPod Nano – is where things start to get interesting. Remember the tall shape of the 1st and 2nd generation Nanos? The 4th generation version returns to its roots. But it isn’t nearly as straight-edged - that would be boring, after all: the new Nano features a curvy, sleek design, and is available in a rainbow of colours. But that’s not all that’s new: the tilt-sensing accelerometer that makes the iPod Touch and iPhone so cool is now featured in the iPod Nano. Turn it on its side and the display turns with you. You can even shake the device to shuffle your music! Oh, and you can use the new headphone mic to record audio, too.
Pretty sweet.
The iPod Touch – more of an iPhone than ever before, the second generation Touch introduces a couple of features that were previously exclusive to Apple’s smartphone. One of the few gripes I have with my 1st gen iPod Touch is the slightly complicated volume control – because it’s accessed through the touch screen, one needs to actually be looking at the display to turn the sound up or down. No need to see what you’re doing any more – just feel around for the new dedicated volume control buttons featured on the side of the device. Another new feature is a built-in speaker - very cool. But new features aren’t all that narrow the gap between iPhone and Touch – the new stainless steel rim on the face of the iPod makes the two devices appear virtually identical.