Inside the all new iPod

The spotlight's back on iPods. In a hotly-awaited and speculated announcement the company refreshed its popular iPod line-up. The revamped iPod nano and Touch come with a host of new features and changes in the appearance.

While the company termed the new nano, “thinnest-ever,” the new iPod Touch is called “the funnest iPod ever."

The company also pleases fans on the pricing front. Along with feature additions, the new iPods also boast of reduced pricing. Here's a look into the new line-up.

Sleek seems to be the buzzword at Apple, after thinnest laptop, Apple has removed `flab' from iPod nano. In a revamp of its iPod line-up, the company launched what it termed as ‘thinnest’ ever iPod nano.

The fourth-generation nano is oval shaped at the edges, giving it a sleeker and slimmer look, unlike the previous compact design.

Measuring 3.6 x 1.5 x 0.24 inches, the new nano weighs 36.8 grams, vis-a-vis present model's 2.75 x 2.06 x 0.26 inches in dimensions.

The player has a 2 inch (diagonal) LCD display with blue-white LED backlight and 320 x 240 pixel resolution. Users can now view content in both portrait and landscape modes.

iPod Touch too has gone sleeker in design. It now sports a rounded chromed-steel back that wraps around the sides a la the 3G iPhone. Measuring 4.3 x 2.4 x 0.33 inches, the second-generation iPod Touch weighs 115 grams (5 grams less than previous model). The player has a 3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen multi-touch display with 480 x 320-pixel resolution at 163 pixels per inch.

There were strong speculations that Apple will increase the memory capacity of iPod Touch to 64GB. But, Apple has disappointed with no memory upgrade to the iPod Touch. Apple will continue to sell Touch in 8GB, 16GB and 32GB models.

The Apple's best selling iPod nano will come in two model versions: 8GB and 16GB. The third-generation nano comes with a memory capacity of 4GB and 8GB model.

Apple claims that the new 16GB model can store up to 4,000 songs in 128-Kbps AAC format3, up to 14,000 iPod-viewable photos, and up to 16 hours of video content.

The new nano comes with a "shake to shuffle" feature that changes songs as the user shakes the player. Another addition is the built-in accelerometer which flips the screen orientation, a feature already available in iPhone. Users can now view photos and video in both horizontal and landscape mode.

As speculated, Apple has retained the wheel-based control for navigation. The new nano will come with a 3.5mm headphone jack and USB cable connector placed at the bottom. The hold button is on the top panel of the player.

The new categorisation feature lets users create a playlist based on one song, matching it with similar choices from their music library. Apple claims that the new nano will provide up to 24 hours of audio and 4 hours of video on a single charge.

The second-generation iPod Touch too comes with a slew of new features. These include support for on-device Genius playlist creation, Microsoft Exchange Push email, multi-language keyboard, dictionary support, MobileMe, multiple calendar management, contacts search and a scientific calculator.

Popularly termed iPhone cousin, iPod Touch now has a volume rocker switch on the sides for making quick volume adjustments without touching the screen. There's also a built-in speaker added. Apple claims the new iPod Touch will support up to 36 hours of music and 6 hours of video.

The company has also bundled Nike+ hardware and software in iPod Touch, which would allow users to sync iPod Touch via iTunes and transfer their exercise data to nikeplus.com. This will help them can track their workouts.

The new nano will now come in nine colours, with many of them in flashy tinge. The colours include bright yellow, hot pink, deep indigo, silver and basic black models.

Presently, iPod nano comes in silver, turquoise, mint green, black, red and pink colurs. iPod Touch has not got any new colur variants.

The only addition is the chromed-steel colour back that wraps around the sides as well, just like the 3G iPhone.

Apple has delighted fans with a major price cuts in most models. The thinnest iPod nano will sell at $149 for 8GB memory and $199 for 16 GB version. Incidentally, the current third-generation iPod nano sells for $149 for 4GB version and $199 for an 8GB model.

The biggest surprise is the iPod Touch pricing. The 8GB version of the iPod Touch will sell for $229 (down from $299), 16GB for $299 (down from $399), and 32GB for $399 (down from $499)

Termed `the funnest iPod ever' by CEO steve Jobs, Apple wants users to look at Touch as a portable gaming device. iPod Touch's huge screen isn't just for Coverflow or video viewing anymore, the company visualises it for games and apps.

With support for multi-touch, accelerometer, real-time 3D graphics and 3D positional sound, Apple claims that the iPod Touch is `the best portable device for playing games.'

The new iPod range also boosts Apple’s Green goals. Adding another first, the new iPod nano is the cleanest iPod ever.

Terming it highly recyclable, the new nano is mercury free, toxic free, PVC free and uses arsenic-free glass. It uses recyclable aluminum.

Here's again where speculations went slightly awry. Most blog sites had speculated that Apple will completely take iPod Classic off the shelf. However, Apple has retained iPod Classic.

Though it has reduced the iPod classic line to just one model-- a 120GB model which will sell for $249. Previously, the classic line came in two versions: 80GB ($249) and 160GB ($349).

The iPod revamp may have enthused the users, however, it has so far failed to click with the markets. The investors were less than energised by the product announcements which were largely expected. This sent Apple's shares down by $4.96, or 3.1 percent, to $152.96 in afternoon trading.

The stock had been off just over $40, or a little over 20 per cent in the year-to-date, but has weathered the sell-off in stocks tied to the US credit crunch far better than most other shares, including many technology names.

By contrast, Google Inc is off almost 40 per cent this year. Rival Research in Motion Ltd, maker of the Blackberry smartphones has gone down by 9 per cent in 2008 on Nasdaq. In a succinct verdict, Shaun Collins, an analyst with CCS Insight said, "Interesting, but underwhelming."