New iPod WIDESCREEN 160GB TOUCH WIFI INTERNET and APPS

LIVE from todays Apple Event from the Moscone West expo center. Please click your browser's Refresh button for the latest update. Steve Jobs took the stage at San Francisco's Moscone West expo center promptly at 10:00 AM this morning, to thunderous applause from the crowd.

"Today we're here to talk about music," Jobs said.

"We've distributed 600 million copies of iTunes so far, and customers hve bought and downloaded over 3 billion songs from iTunes. iTunes is the number one online music store in every single one of the 22 countries it operates in," he explained. "We started with just 200,000 songs and we have over 6 million songs in every single one of those stores."

Above photos of iPod touch and iPod classic

iPod news

Jobs said that Apple has sold 110 million iPods to date. "The place when the sales curve is strongest is the holiday season," said Jobs. "We're approaching the holiday 2007 season and we want to get ready."

"Today we're going to refresh or replace every product in the lineup," said Jobs.

The iPod shuffle is being updated with "some really nice new colors," said Jobs. Apple is also adding a Product(red) shuffle model, with proceeds going to help fight diseases in Africa.

"Now let's move on to something more substantial: The iPod nano," said Jobs.

The iPod nano is the most popular music player in history, said Jobs. People love it, he added, but Apple wnated to make it better based on customer feedback. New features of the redesigned iPod nano include the ability to watch video on a larger, brighter display. The new iPod nano also features Cover Flow, the ability to scroll through album artwork visually. What's more, the new nano also has games support, more storage features and a full metal design.

The redesigned iPod nano comes in five colors -- red, black, silver, blue and green. "It's incredibly tiny, it's incredibly thin," said Jobs.

The iPod nano now features a 2.0-inch display that features the same resolution as the previous-generation full-sized iPod: 320 x 240 pixels. "We've achieved this with a screen with the highest pixel density we've ever shipped: 204 ppi," explained Jobs. "And the screen is just gorgeous. We you see it you're going to really love it."

The user interface has been enhanced on the iPod nano -- the left side has the traditional iPod menu, and on the right, a preview of what you're selecting. Jobs also indicated that the new iPod nano ships with three games -- Vortex and Sudoku were both named specifically.

Jobs demonstrated the iPod nano playing video by watching an episode of The Daily Show featuring John Hodgman, the actor who appears as the PC in Apple's "Mac and PC" television ads.

Jobs said the new iPod nano provides 24 hours of audio and five hours of video playback on a single battery charge.

The redesigned iPod nano comes in two versions -- a 4GB version in silver, for $149, and 8GB version in colors, for $199.

"These new nanos have left our factories already. They shipped today, they're on planes, they should be in stores by this weekend," said Jobs. "'A little video for everyone'" is our new line.

The 'classic' iPod

"Now the iPod's got a funny name," mused Jobs. "It's just called 'the iPod' because it was the first one. We though, 'It's time to give it a name.' We're going to call it the iPod classic."

The new iPod still features a click wheen, and it's now in a full metal design in silver and black. The low-end iPod classic (at 80GB) is now thinner than the 30GB thin model that preceded it. Jobs claims the new iPod gets 30 hours of audio playback and five hours of video plaback on a single charge.

Like the iPod nano, the new iPod classic features an enhanced user interface.

Apple is also offering a model that features 160GB of storage.

"This boggles the mind," said Jobs for emphasis. "The first iPod put 1000 songs in your pocket. This new iPod puts 40,000 songs in your pocket. It's amazing."

The new 80GB model costs $249, while the 160GB model costs $349, with availability beginning today.

The iPod Touch

"You know, when we introduced the iPhone in January, we said it was the best iPod ever. And iPhone owners agree with us. It's incredible, with its multitouch UI, its incredible album artwork and video, it is the best iPod ever," said Jobs. "And people have been wondering, when are we going to bring this tech to the iPod? The answer is, we're going to do it today, and this is what the product looks like."

Jobs revealed a new iPod model that looks exactly like the iPhone, but without the ear speaker slit. It's the same size as the iPhone, but 8mm thinner, according to Jobs, who said, "We think it's one of the Seven Wonders of the World."

The iPod Touch sports a 3.5-inch widescreen display, and along its bottom run music, video and photo icons. "Just like the iPhone, this is the best way to share photos on a portable device ever," said Jobs proudly.

The iPod Touch's button-driven interface also showed icons for a calculator, contacts, clock, calendar and settings icons. What's more, the new device has Wi-Fi -- the iPod Touch is the first iPod to feature wireless networking capabilities, with support for 802.11 b and g networks.

"Others have done this and have failed," said Jobs, referring to wireless networking -- and perhaps making a casual swipe at Microsoft's 'iPod killer,' the Zune. "We think we know why it's failed. What's the problem with adding Wi-Fi? Part is getting on Wi-Fi itself."

"When you're at home, you might need a password. When you're in the office, you might have a password," said Jobs. "But everywhere in between can be challenging. You go to any hotel, and to log in, they throw up a Web page. Portable devices don't know how to deal with Web pages. You go to an airport, you'll see a Web page. Even walking through Stanford University, to use their wi-fi, you have to log into a Web page."

The solution, said Jobs, was to add Safari to the iPod touch.

"So you can view all those Web pages, zoom in, log into any wi-fi network pretty much. But beside that, you get an incredible Web browser ... the best Web browser on any mobile platform," said Jobs. YouTube is also supported.

The iPod touch's battery lasts for 22 hours of audio playback and five hours of video playback per charge, according to Apple.

The iPod touch is a worldwide product launch, said Jobs. It's the first touch product Apple has shipped outside the Uited States, and it's been localized into many languages.

LIVE from todays Apple Event from the Moscone West expo center. Please click your browser's Refresh button for the latest update. Steve Jobs took the stage at San Francisco's Moscone West expo center promptly at 10:00 AM this morning, to thunderous applause from the crowd.

"Today we're here to talk about music," Jobs said.

"We've distributed 600 million copies of iTunes so far, and customers hve bought and downloaded over 3 billion songs from iTunes. iTunes is the number one online music store in every single one of the 22 countries it operates in," he explained. "We started with just 200,000 songs and we have over 6 million songs in every single one of those stores."

Above photos of iPod touch and iPod classic

iPod news

Jobs said that Apple has sold 110 million iPods to date. "The place when the sales curve is strongest is the holiday season," said Jobs. "We're approaching the holiday 2007 season and we want to get ready."

"Today we're going to refresh or replace every product in the lineup," said Jobs.

The iPod shuffle is being updated with "some really nice new colors," said Jobs. Apple is also adding a Product(red) shuffle model, with proceeds going to help fight diseases in Africa.

"Now let's move on to something more substantial: The iPod nano," said Jobs.

The iPod nano is the most popular music player in history, said Jobs. People love it, he added, but Apple wnated to make it better based on customer feedback. New features of the redesigned iPod nano include the ability to watch video on a larger, brighter display. The new iPod nano also features Cover Flow, the ability to scroll through album artwork visually. What's more, the new nano also has games support, more storage features and a full metal design.

The redesigned iPod nano comes in five colors -- red, black, silver, blue and green. "It's incredibly tiny, it's incredibly thin," said Jobs.

The iPod nano now features a 2.0-inch display that features the same resolution as the previous-generation full-sized iPod: 320 x 240 pixels. "We've achieved this with a screen with the highest pixel density we've ever shipped: 204 ppi," explained Jobs. "And the screen is just gorgeous. We you see it you're going to really love it."

The user interface has been enhanced on the iPod nano -- the left side has the traditional iPod menu, and on the right, a preview of what you're selecting. Jobs also indicated that the new iPod nano ships with three games -- Vortex and Sudoku were both named specifically.

Jobs demonstrated the iPod nano playing video by watching an episode of The Daily Show featuring John Hodgman, the actor who appears as the PC in Apple's "Mac and PC" television ads.

Jobs said the new iPod nano provides 24 hours of audio and five hours of video playback on a single battery charge.

The redesigned iPod nano comes in two versions -- a 4GB version in silver, for $149, and 8GB version in colors, for $199.

"These new nanos have left our factories already. They shipped today, they're on planes, they should be in stores by this weekend," said Jobs. "'A little video for everyone'" is our new line.

The 'classic' iPod

"Now the iPod's got a funny name," mused Jobs. "It's just called 'the iPod' because it was the first one. We though, 'It's time to give it a name.' We're going to call it the iPod classic."

The new iPod still features a click wheen, and it's now in a full metal design in silver and black. The low-end iPod classic (at 80GB) is now thinner than the 30GB thin model that preceded it. Jobs claims the new iPod gets 30 hours of audio playback and five hours of video plaback on a single charge.

Like the iPod nano, the new iPod classic features an enhanced user interface.

Apple is also offering a model that features 160GB of storage.

"This boggles the mind," said Jobs for emphasis. "The first iPod put 1000 songs in your pocket. This new iPod puts 40,000 songs in your pocket. It's amazing."

The new 80GB model costs $249, while the 160GB model costs $349, with availability beginning today.

The iPod Touch

"You know, when we introduced the iPhone in January, we said it was the best iPod ever. And iPhone owners agree with us. It's incredible, with its multitouch UI, its incredible album artwork and video, it is the best iPod ever," said Jobs. "And people have been wondering, when are we going to bring this tech to the iPod? The answer is, we're going to do it today, and this is what the product looks like."

Jobs revealed a new iPod model that looks exactly like the iPhone, but without the ear speaker slit. It's the same size as the iPhone, but 8mm thinner, according to Jobs, who said, "We think it's one of the Seven Wonders of the World."

The iPod Touch sports a 3.5-inch widescreen display, and along its bottom run music, video and photo icons. "Just like the iPhone, this is the best way to share photos on a portable device ever," said Jobs proudly.

The iPod Touch's button-driven interface also showed icons for a calculator, contacts, clock, calendar and settings icons. What's more, the new device has Wi-Fi -- the iPod Touch is the first iPod to feature wireless networking capabilities, with support for 802.11 b and g networks.

"Others have done this and have failed," said Jobs, referring to wireless networking -- and perhaps making a casual swipe at Microsoft's 'iPod killer,' the Zune. "We think we know why it's failed. What's the problem with adding Wi-Fi? Part is getting on Wi-Fi itself."

"When you're at home, you might need a password. When you're in the office, you might have a password," said Jobs. "But everywhere in between can be challenging. You go to any hotel, and to log in, they throw up a Web page. Portable devices don't know how to deal with Web pages. You go to an airport, you'll see a Web page. Even walking through Stanford University, to use their wi-fi, you have to log into a Web page."

The solution, said Jobs, was to add Safari to the iPod touch.

"So you can view all those Web pages, zoom in, log into any wi-fi network pretty much. But beside that, you get an incredible Web browser ... the best Web browser on any mobile platform," said Jobs. YouTube is also supported.

The iPod touch's battery lasts for 22 hours of audio playback and five hours of video playback per charge, according to Apple.

The iPod touch is a worldwide product launch, said Jobs. It's the first touch product Apple has shipped outside the Uited States, and it's been localized into many languages.

After reading this post, i think i will get an iPod Touch

Just for the wireless capability and the internet browser.

The iPod touch is so going to get skype access added to it in the form of a 3rd party app or hack.

The Touch has great potential when it comes to third party hacks, and is only limited by Apple's design.

IMs could be added, the ability to download files could be added, and the ability to run third-party applications and programs are all theoretically possible (assuming that the Touch doesn't have these abilities already!).

I'm not sure whether it can cut-and-paste though...

Sam mentioned this, however, in the iPhone discussion:

"There's no memory-card slot, no chat program, no voice dialing. You can't install new programs from anyone but Apple; other companies can create only iPhone-tailored mini-programs on the Web. The browser can't handle Java or Flash, which deprives you of millions of Web videos. "

Will these problems exist with the iPod Touch? I assume that both devices have similar browsers, although the Touch probably has a far more basic operating system.

EDIT
------

I've done some more research on the emerging hack sites and blog sites.

I've found that the iPod Touch runs the same Mac OS X version as the iPhone, and is, therefore, fully capable of running the same applications. However, not all the applications that have been found on the iPhone (such as Mail) are found on the iPod Touch.

In fact, the iPod Touch is turning out to be a slimmed down, but equally powerful, iPhone. In short, we can expect to see many hacks that enable the iPhone's features on the Touch.

http://www.ipodtouchhacks.com/ is already discussing potential hacks, and is combining a short wishlist.

If what I've found out is correct, the iPod Touch is an iPhone with no microphone and no ability to connect to a phone network. On the plus side, it's physically smaller, has a larger capacity, is cheaper and isn't tied to a single telecommunications provider.