Hasta La Gadget!

Apple’s iPod Nano, iPod Touch and iPod Shuffle on Wednesday all received some compelling makeovers that should help Apple stay in the lead in the portable media player market.

The iPod Nano was the most interesting upgrade. It does away with the click wheel seen in previous models and is now more like a belt buckle with a multi touchscreen displaying four mini icons on the main screen — basically, a quarter of the size of an iPhone or iPod Touch. The Nano is now 1.6 inches wide, 1.4 inches tall and just 0.3 inches thick including the belt clip.

One screen on the Nano shows Artists, Playlists, Genius Mixes and Now Playing. Swipe your finger and you get a few more apps: radio, photo, podcasts and settings. There’s no home button, so you have to hold your finger down on the screen to exit an app, which is simple enough. You can also rearrange the icons by holding your finger on an app until it jiggles, then move it to wherever you’d like — just like on the iPhone.

The question remains as to whether or not the iPod Nano is running iOS and if we’ll be able to jailbreak it to run different apps. Apple hasn’t disclosed whether the operating system was iOS, but it sure looks like it. Update: An Apple engineer told Wired magazine editor Mark McClusky that the Nano does not run iOS.

Also noteworthy is that the Nano does not include a camera, even though last year’s model just introduced one. I guess nobody cared about shooting video with the tiny device, which isn’t surprising.

Also nifty on the Nano is the small integrated clip to snap the device on to your pocket or belt buckle. The entire body including the clip is made of aluminum, so it feels nice and sturdy.

Moving on to the iPod Touch, this was a predictable but monster update. It’s about a millimeter thinner than the iPhone 4, even though it’s got most of the same guts. There are the front and rear cameras — the rear for shooting videos and photos, the front for FaceTime video conferencing.

The Touch now has an Apple A4 processor and the high-resolution “retina display.” Grip it in your hand and it feels really smooth and light.

I had a chance to test FaceTime and it felt even faster than FaceTime on the iPhone 4, though this time around Apple might have just had a better Wi-Fi connection.

Overall, the new iPod Touch is the same as the iPhone 4 but now we can’t really say, “It’s an iPhone without a phone,” because the Touch includes a video-conferencing webphone! That’s a major difference and should have an impact on video conferencing in general.

Last, and least important, was an upgrade for the iPod Shuffle. To put it simply, it’s another belt-clip iPod similar to the Nano, only with the traditional click wheel. On the top is an integrated button for VoiceOver, which enables the iPod to dictate the playlist you’re listening to.

The Shuffle is puny — 1.2 inches wide, 1.1 inches tall and 0.3 inches thick. And it’s so lightweight I could barely even feel it in my pocket, which should be ideal for athletes.

Photos: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Update: Corrected an error where I said the previous iPod Nano snapped photos, when actually it only shot video.

Update 2: Fixed a mix-up about the iPod Shuffle’s VoiceOver command. Thanks to the readers who pointed it out.

See Also:

• Hands-on With the New $100 Apple TV
• Apple Takes Aim at Cable With Tiny New Apple TV
• Live Blog: Apple’s iPod, Music Event
• Apple to Live Stream Press Conference — to Apple Customers Only

Apple has just revealed its 6th generation iPod nano, which has been outfitted with just about the boldest redesign the portable media player has experienced yet. Gone is the clickwheel, to be replaced with a touchscreen interface and a shuffle-esque square form factor. It’s now 46 percent smaller and 42 percent lighter. Hard volume buttons on the side and a clip on the back provide the minimal hardware accouterments to that multitouch touchscreen, while the inside provides enough juice for 24 hours of audio playback. Seven total color variants will be up for grabs, including a Product RED option, with prices set at $149 for 8GB of storage or $179 for 16GB and pre-orders being taken today.

P.S. — If you were looking for that awesome camera the nano used to have, stop. It ain’t there anymore. We’ve also noted that there’s no video playback to be found anymore, either.

Continue reading iPod nano redesigned: smaller, lighter, better and costing $149 for 8GB or $179 for 16GB

iPod nano redesigned: smaller, lighter, better and costing $149 for 8GB or $179 for 16GB originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re but a few days away from Apple’s music-related “special event,” and naturally the bloody rumors are being tossed into the water, frothing up into quite a feeding frenzy. Last week came talk of new iPod touch and nano models, and now we have even more cases and accessories that seem to back up the belief that there’s a fourth-generation touch and a sixth-generation nano coming. The nano is rumored to have a 3 x 3cm touchscreen (presumably this one) and room on the bottom for a proper dock connector, ensuring compatibility with the millions of iPod cradles and whatnot out there. The new cases we’re seeing certainly back up that idea, with a dock-sized cut-out along with room for what’s said to be a headphone jack, volume controls, a hold button, and a clip ’round the back. At the moment we know rather less about the new touch, but we can hazard a guess as to what it’ll look like.

[Thanks, Hobbsy101]

Next-generation iPod touch and nano accessories and rumors continue to surface originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Aug 2010 08:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I what has become an annual occurrence, the yearly leaking of new iPod cases has begun. In previous years, these have given us hints about the presence of cameras, whether correct (Nano) or not (iPod Touch). This year, things are more interesting thanks to the whole antenna-gate fiasco, and its subsequent fix via free cases from Apple.

Above we see what are likely to be the cases for a new Nano and Touch. The Touch case has a cut-out for a rear-facing camera, and we’d guess that it will also sport a front-facing camera for FaceTime calling. Notice that although it has a bumper-style colored strip around the edge, the transparent rear is curved just like the current Touch. My guess is a form-factor almost identical to the current one, only with cameras, a Retina display and the game-friendly gyroscope.

The other, smaller case is probably for a touch-screen Nano. What? Yes, I think that the small square screens that have leaked out over the last few months are not for a shuffle but for a tiny Nano. It probably won’t run anything from the App Store, but if the Nano is to get any smaller, the only way to do it is to combine the screen with the controls. The cut-out on the rear is probably for the existing video camera to peek out through.

As ever, all will be confirmed at the Apple Event next Wednesday September 1st, and I can begin my own yearly ritual of buying the new Touch and passing the old one down to the Lady for use as an alarm clock and not much else. This year the lucky thing will have a 32GB, multi-tasking monster to wake her up.

Accessories appearance early exposure iPod touch 4G leaked [SJ.91 via iLounge]

See Also:

• IPod Touch 3G Cases Already On Sale
• How Apple Designed the iPad Out in the Open

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

Poor Apple. The company just can’t catch a break these days. On Wednesday, Apple Japan began offering customers iPod nano replacements, giving in to local government demands to better address an overheating battery issue affecting Apple’s first generation iPod nano players. Then Friday morning (making the English-language press only now) a busy rush-hour commuter train was stopped in Tokyo to investigate a smell. According to a spokesman, “When a member of staff went to investigate inside the train, a passenger came over showing him that the iPod she was listening to had burst apart.” No injuries were reported and the exact iPod model is still unknown. However, we can be certain that the eight minute delay on Japan’s notoriously timely railway system caused many commuters to question their ability to go on.

[Image courtesy of Maruhachi-kotsu]

Overheating iPod delays rush-hour train in Tokyo originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Aug 2010 06:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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