iPod nano

The new iPod nano is basically a slightly larger iPod shuffle with a touchscreen instead of buttons. It's a got a shuffle-like clip on the back that stayed put on my shirt, not budging during my (not actually) patented Running-Man Test. The colors are lovely; I'm partial to the dark-gray Graphite color as well as the bright Product RED version, both additions to the iPod shuffle color lineup (silver, orange, blue, green, pink). It retails for $149 (8GB) and $179 (16GB), which are the same prices as the last version, even with the substantially different feature set.

The new nano is incredibly light at just 0.74 ounces, but still sports the dock connector, headphone jack, and hard volume buttons on the case. The multitouch screen can be reoriented by turning it with two of your fingers, so you can clip it to your shirt in any orientation. But it lacks an accelerometer so it can't turn the screen right-side-up automatically. The battery is rated for 24 hours of audio playback.

Navigating the screen is a cinch. Each home screen has a 4x4 grid of icons, selections like Now Playing, Genius Mixes, Playlists, Artists, Genres, Podcasts, Radio, Fitness, and so on. You can tap and hold icons to set them a-jiggling and rearrange them, just like on your iPod touch or iPhone's home screens. The Now Playing screen has three panels too: One that shows the artist and title over the album artwork, a second with the Repeat/Shuffle/Genius controls, and a third that shows the lyrics. You can swipe backwards from any screen to see the screen before it, or return to the main home screen by pressing and holding for a second. Piece of cake.

The Fitness options on this new nano include both the built-in pedometer and support for the optional Nike+iPod Sport Kit ($29), which has a receiver that clicks into the nano's dock port and communicates with a sensor that goes in your running shoe. Uploading your run or walk data to Nike's website is a simple matter of docking your nano with iTunes.

The fifth-gen iPod nano, which this replaces, had a 2.2-inch widescreen display for watching videos, as well as a tiny camera on the back that shot HD video. Both are gone in the new sixth-gen iPod nano. No video playback. No camera. Now if you want an iPod that takes photos or plays video, the new iPod touch is your only option. So let's explore that now...

iPod touch

The newest iPod touch (fourth generation) sports the same 3.5-inch Retina display as the iPhone 4, 960x640 at 326 pixels per inch. And it's just as stunning as the iPhone's, with sharp text, great contrast, and impressive brightness. Our iPad's non-Retina display is starting to look downright lame compared to these handhelds. The new touch is slimmer, at just 0.28 inches thick, and its battery provides 40 hours of audio playback or 7 hours of video.

Apple also added not one, but two cameras, a first for an iPod touch. The front VGA camera supports FaceTime calling with other iPod touches, as well as iPhone 4. We demoed this with a rep, but not all our questions were answered yet. (We've of course got calls into Apple and will update when we hear back.) The iPod touch has a FaceTime icon on the home screen, and you use a combination of Apple ID and email address to call another iPod touch, since of course they don't have phone numbers associated with them.

You do need Wi-Fi to use FaceTime, naturally, and the FaceTime app includes a Favorites list, Recent list, and your full Contacts list. When we tested it in the demo room it worked just like on the iPhone 4 (a little blurry, with slight lag, but pretty darn well otherwise), but all the contacts on the demo units were prepopulated favorites with names like iPod Touch User 2, so we didn't get a super-clear picture of how to "find" an iPod touch user to FaceTime with, and we look forward to learning more so we can walk you through it in greater detail.

The second camera, on the back, shoots 720p video (like the iPhone 4's), but it's not the same 5-megapixel still camera that's on the iPhone 4. The iPod touch rear camera's stills are 960x720, which is a mere 0.7 megapixels. The front camera, besides FaceTime, can record VGA-quality stills and video. You can tap your subject on the screen to control the exposure level.

The new iPod touch ships with iOS 4.1 (which should be released as an update "next week," said Steve Jobs), which has Game Center for sending multiplayer invites to your friends, auto-matching with players of your same ability level, and tracking achievements and high scores. It wasn't live on the demo units yet, so we couldn't test its functions, although we did get a peek at the colorful interface.

iOS 4.1 also brings HDR photography to the iDevices, including the iPod touch. HDR brings out more detail in your photos by digitally combining three images shot in quick succession: one at normal exposure, one overexposed and one underexposed. The device will save both the normally exposed and the HDR version of each image to your Camera Roll. We can't wait to play with this in an outdoor setting, not seeing much of an effect in the carefully lit indoor space.

The new fourth-gen iPod touch is available for preorder now, with a 1-week ship time estimate. The 8GB model is $229 (up from $199 in the previous generation), $299 for 32GB (same price as the last model), and $399 for 64GB (also unchanged).

iPod shuffle

The last iPod to receive an update is the wee shuffle, which got its much-missed buttons back, so it no longer relies on VoiceOver controls using buttons on the headphones. Well, you still have buttons on your headphones, and it still supports VoiceOver controls, but you also get the familiar five-button controls (volume up/down, track forward/back, and play/pause) from the older iPod shuffle.

It's got the same clip as on the new iPod nano, which stayed put when I clipped it to my shirt and jumped around like a dork. It comes in five colors: silver, pink, orange, green, and blue. One button on top invokes VoiceOver, and the other is a Shuffle switch. It comes in 2GB capacity only, with a battery life of 15 hours, and it weighs a mere 0.44 ounces. It's $49, and you can preorder today with a ship estimate of one week.

iPod classic

The classic wasn't mentioned at this morning's event, but it's still available in the Apple Store, the same design you know and love for $249 for 160GB of storage. The silvery white and black versions are both still in stock at Apple's online store, marked as ready to ship within 24 hours. We've reached out to Apple to confirm that it isn't being discontinued, and we'll update this when we hear back.

Anything we left out? Ask your questions in the comments and we'll do our very best. Happy New-iPod Day.

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