After the rapid-fire introduction of not one but two iOS updates and refreshes for the iPod shuffle and iPod nano, Apple CEO Steve Jobs moved on to an update of the iPod touch, now more “beautiful” and even thinner than before.

Adding the same Retina Display of the iPhone 4, the new iPod touch features four times the pixels of the previous model, the same A4 chip, three-axis gyroscope, Game Center with iOS 4.1 and as predicted, a front-facing camera with FaceTime and also a rear-facing camera with 720p HD video recording.

Sporting 40 hours of music playback, the new iPod touch is incredibly even thinner than the previous model, and FaceTime will allow Wi-Fi calls between the iPhone 4 and new iPod touch, meaning you now have double the chances to see and hear from your friends.

“A lot of people called it an iPhone without the phone,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs noted. “It’s also an iPhone without the contract.” That got some laughs from the crowd, but sadly the new model doesn’t come with 3G data as some late rumors had reported.

Jobs also claims that the iPod touch now has 50 percent of the portable game player market share -- better than Sony or Nintendo, both of whom have been slugging away at it far longer than Apple has. With the addition of iOS 4.1’s Game Center, that market share is sure to only increase as you can play against your friends anywhere in the world.

Available next week, the new iPod touch is available in an 8GB model for $229, 32GB model for $299 and 64GB model for $399, with preorders starting online today.

While it wasn’t mentioned at today’s event, the iPod classic has cheated death yet again -- the same 160GB model is still available for $249 for those of you with massive music libraries or a fear of multitouch.

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