As far as we know, Apple sooo doesn't like it's contract manufacturers leaking news ahead of its own announcements. In fact, the supersecretive techgoonies in Cupertino are notorious for their tight lips.

One then is forced to wonder what the HECK one of its Taiwan-based manufacturers is doing. A report in DigiTimes spilled the beans on the new iPod lineup, due to be announced by Apple on September 5. The story attibutes its info to "sources at Taiwan-based contract manufacturers". Now, this could be a lot of companies but the three makers listed for the iPod video, nano and shuffle are Inventec Appliances, Foxconn and Asustek.

These are all fine, normally upstanding companies that one would think would know how to keep their yaps shut. You can understand that they want to get a little fame and glory from their role as the hands that make the devices. But one can't imagine Apple is too happy about this. I mean, talk about stealing the thunder... and from the guys who are paying the bills, no less!

Not being beholden to anyone, I am happy to relay the details in all their glory. From the way it looks now, I'm certainly gonna think about picking up a new iPod video myself.

Says DigiTimes, by way of its sources: "The new iPod video will also come with a widescreen panel, high storage capacity and Wi-Fi connectivity, the sources indicated. In addition, the new iPod video is expected to be powered by NAND flash, instead of a harddisk drive (HDD)."

iPod video	Widescreen, an operating interface similar to the iPhone, built-in Wi-Fi connectivity	Inventec Appliances (The current iPod video is manufactured by Quanta Computer)
iPod nano	Increased storage capacity, iPhone-like interface, price to remain unchanged	Foxconn
iPod shuffle	Increased storage capacity, price to remain unchanged	Asustek

We shall now see what wrath our Taiwan friends incur from the likes of Mr Jobs and his robust, bloodthirsty legal team. Or, perhaps one of these players will even lose their contract! Who knows?! Let the games begin.

More to come.
-jag

 

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