New iPod is like iPhone without the cellphone

Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs on Wednesday unveiled a new version of the company's popular iPod media player that's based on the iPhone, featuring wireless Internet access and a Web browser but not cell phone capability.

Dubbed iPod Touch, the 8-millimeter-thick device and can store photos, music, videos and other digital data. It features the same 3.5-inch (7.6-centimeter), touch-screen display as the iPhone, on which light finger touches allow the user to scroll through menus and use two fingers to resize pictures.

The iPod Touch also has built-in wireless Internet access and the Safari Web browser, including Google and Yahoo search engines and easy access to YouTube videos. The iPhone, which runs on the AT&T cellular network, also includes Wi-Fi.

An 8-gigabyte version will cost $299 (€220). A 16-gigabyte version will cost $399 (€294). It will be shipped worldwide starting later this month.

"It's one of the seven wonders of the world, it's just incredible," Jobs told employees and journalists gathered at a special media event near downtown San Francisco.

Jobs also unveiled other new iPod models, including an iPod Nano with a 2.5-inch (6.3-centimeter) video monitor for watching movies and playing built-in games. The current version has a 2-inch (5-centimeter) screen but does not play videos.

"It's incredibly tiny. It's incredibly thin," Jobs said of the new Nano, which features a 320-by-240-pixel screen with 24 hours of audio playback. "We think it's really, really beautiful."

The new Nano, which will be in stores starting this weekend, will come in a 4-gigabyte version for $149 (€110), and an 8-gigabyte version for $199 (€146).

Apple also announced it will be selling ring tones for the iPhone for 99 cents, plus the 99-cent cost of the song. Ring tones from more than 500,000 songs available on iTunes will go on sale next week.

Source : Internation Herald Tribune

Apple expected to launch new iPods

Entertainment giant Apple is expected to announce the launch of the sixth generation of iPod later today.

The company has not revealed the nature of the announcement its chief executive Steve Jobs will make, but analysts are widely predicting that he will unveil a new version of Apple's popular music player at a San Francisco media event.

Some commentators believe that the company will announce the launch of iPod with the ability to buy and download music wirelessly.

It is also rumoured that an anticipated new model of the iPod might, for the first time, include a digital radio component.

One analyst said that the expected new iPod was likely to include technology already used in Apple's new iPhone, which was launched in the US in June.

Speaking on BBC Radio Five Live this morning, Luke Peters from technology magazine T3 speculated about the nature of the announcement Apple would make.

"All rumours suggest it's going to be a sixth generation iPod and it's going to use the same sort of touch screen technology that we've seen in the recent iPhone launch, so you'll be able to navigate everything using your finger rather than some buttons," he said.

Mr Peters added that speculation suggested that Apple was also planning to use new wireless technology to allow consumers to download songs directly from its online music store, iTunes.

Such technology would mean that music lovers could buy tracks from iTunes and put them straight onto their iPod, rather than having to download them onto a computer first, he explained.

Apple's anticipated announcement comes after the company announced the launch of a video download service for UK consumers last month.

Individual episodes of top US TV shows, such as Ugly Betty, are now available for consumers to purchase from iTunes for £1.89 each.

Source : InTheNew