September 12, 2012 – At the special event where Apple launched the iPhone 5, the world’s most popular music players also received a refresh. The new iPod touch is the thinnest iPod touch ever with a 4-inch Retina display, and for the first time, a 5-MP iSight camera, Apple’s A5 chip, Siri and iOS 6. The iPod nano is completely redesigned and comes in seven awesome new colours.
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Apple has sold over 350 million units of iPods, making it the most popular music players in the world.
Touch my 4-incher
The new iPod touch exudes sexiness with its ultra thin and ultra-light anodised aluminium body weighing in at just 88 grams. Wow. It is the thinnest iPod touch ever made, and houses the brilliant 4-inch Retina display found on the iPhone.
Apple up-the-ante in terms of processor performance, packing the powerful dual-core A5 chip, delivering up to 2x CPU power and 7x faster graphics than the previous 4th gen iPod touch.
All this while maintaining the incredible 40 hour battery life for music playback, and 8 hours of video playback.
For the first time ever, colourful people in the world, the iPod touch is available in five vibrant colours. Hurray for consumer choice. What’s your colour?
Also for the first time ever, the iPod touch is integrated with a 5 megapixel iSight camera with autofocus with support for 1080p video recording. The bangs and whistles that go with it – video image stabilisation, face detection, LED flash and the new impressive panorama found on the iPhone 5.
It may not be the biggest camera on a mobile device, but Apple is pushing the iPod touch’s photographic prowess, even bundling a colour-matche touch loop – a clever, convenient wrist strap while you camwhore or play games.
While the inclusion of iOS 6 was a given, Siri was a pleasant surprise. Siri now supports more languages, and easy access to information. Note, however, you will need to be connected to a WiFi hotspot.
Having iOS 6 means built-in Facebook integration where you can actually post directly from Siri. There is Shared Photo Streams via iCloud, which Apple demonstrated during the keynote. Other familiar features like iMessage, FaceTime, Mail and Game Center (something you’d be using a lot, I suspect) are loaded.
Say nano to the thinnest iPod ever
The all-new, reinvented iPod nano is the thinnest iPod ever, an amazing 5mm. It also has the biggest display ever built into an iPod nano. The 2.5-inch multi-touch display makes navigating easier, and like the iPod touch, iPhone and iPad, it features a physical home button.
The new iPod nano is quite a departure from the old, in terms of design and specifications. Convenient buttons helps make volume and play controls easy. It comes also with Bluetooth to connect to Bluetooth-enabled headphones, speakers and cars.
The iPod nano offers incredibly long 30 hours of battery life. Built-in fitness features like the pedometer and support for Nike+ is a welcome feature for running enthusiasts. Don’t forget it also includes a FM tuner.
You may notice the unusual round button UI with the iPod nano. It is believed to be a derivative of iOS. Not too sure why Apple moved away from the look and feel of the current iOS UI/UX with other iOS devices.
The new iPod nano comes in seven new colours with matching wallpapers.
The iPod touch has now access to over 700,000 apps with the App Store, and instant access to a catalog of 26 million songs, 190,000 TV episodes, 45,000 movies and 1.5 million books via the iTunes Store.
The iPod touch and iPod nano uses the new all-digital Lightning connector, like the iPhone 5. The Lightning-to-30-pin Adapter is available as a $29 (RM100) option to help you connect to legacy 30-pin accessories. Comes with the brand new redesigned Apple EarPod headphones.
What We Think
The iPod touch was a show-stealer. While the iPhone 5 launched with mixed reactions, with some underwhelmed quarters, the new iPod touch pushes the converged device envelope further, adding much more enhanced features, performance and excitement to the already successful device. This should power its monopoly in the PMP space for months and years to come. The iPod nano is clearly re-imagined, but we feel could be a hit-and-miss. While specs and features are impressive for its class and price point, we feel the design (and the UI) aren’t particularly enticing. We’ll just have to see how this pans out in terms of sales numbers in the coming months.
Top job by the Apple team for bringing the iPod family to the next level though.
Pricing & Availability
Pre-orders for the new iPod touch in pink, yellow, blue, white & silver, black & slate begin September 14 through the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com) for a suggested price of $299 (US) for the 32GB model and $399 for the 64GB model. The new iPod touch will be available in October through the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. The fourth generation iPod touch is available in black and white for $199 (US) in a 16GB model and $249 (US) in a 32GB model through the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. iPod touch requires a Mac with a USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 port, Mac OS X v10.6.8 or later and iTunes 10.7 or later; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows 7, Windows Vista or Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 3) or later and iTunes 10.7 or later. An Apple ID is required for some iPod touch features. iOS 6 will also be available as a free software update for iPod touch (fourth generation) customers allowing them to experience the amazing new features including Facebook-enabled apps like Photos; Shared Photo Streams via iCloud; and Passbook®, the simplest way to get all your passes in one place.
iPod nano will be available in October in pink, yellow, blue, green, purple, silver and slate for a suggested price of $149 (US) in a 16GB model through the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. iPod shuffle® is available today in pink, yellow, blue, green, purple, silver and slate for a suggested price of $49 (US) in a 2GB model through the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. iPod shuffle requires a Mac® with a USB 2.0, Mac OS® X v10.6.8 or later and iTunes® 10.7 or later; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows 7, Vista or Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 3) or later and iTunes 10.7 or later. iPod nano requires a Mac with a USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 port, Mac OS X v10.6.8 or later and iTunes 10.7 or later; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows 7, Vista or Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 3) or later and iTunes 10.7 or later.
(PRODUCT) RED models of iPod shuffle, iPod nano and iPod touch are available through the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com) and Apple’s retail stores.
