iPod gets touchy, with price cut

Apple announced on Wednesday a complete overhaul of its line of iPod portable music players and a significant cut in the price of its recently released iPhone.

The iPod touch, essentially a phoneless, camera-less version of the iPhone, has the same 3.5-inch screen, multitouch interface and home screen as the smart phone. The iPod touch has the ability to connect to the Internet with 802.11b/g Wi-Fi. The touch comes with Apple's Safari Web browser and has built-in Google and Yahoo search.

The new iPod family

The new iPod comes in two configurations, an 8GB version that costs US$299 and a 16GB model that costs US$399. The battery in each can handle 22 hours of audio playback or 5 hours of video, according to CEO Steve Jobs. Both versions are expected to be available this month globally.

The device runs the same version of Apple's OS X found in the iPhone, said Greg Joswiak, vice president of iPod products for Apple. Also, as with the iPhone, developers will have to settle for building Web applications to run in Safari on the iPod touch, as Apple doesn't plan to open the new device up to application developers just yet.

The iPod touch may pull some customers away from purchasing the iPhone--in that it's cheaper and doesn't require a two-year contract with AT&T--at the cost of being unable to make voice calls, of course. But Apple isn't that worried. "It's better than having to go to a competitor," Joswiak said.

Apple is also revising some of its previous iPods, including the regular iPod, the nano and the shuffle. Apple will offer a 160GB version of the regular iPod (now known as the iPod classic), which is enough storage for 40,000 songs, according to Jobs. It is thinner than the regular iPod and has better battery life, enough to handle 40 hours of audio. That model will go for US$349, and an 80GB version will now be US$249, a price drop of US$100. Those iPods will be available this weekend globally.

Apple is making only minor changes to its iPod shuffle line, which will come in new colors and is available now for the same price as the previous line. A new Product Red shuffle will benefit a program fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

The iPod touch is essentially an iPhone without the phone and camera features.

The iPod nano will now have video capability, though its screen is only 2 inches wide. It comes loaded with new games and Apple's Cover Flow software, which lets users scroll through album covers when searching for music. The nano will come in two configurations, a 4GB version priced at US$149, and an 8GB version that will cost US$199. The nanos will come in the same new colors as the shuffle and are expected to be available in stores this weekend globally, according to Jobs.

The nano overhaul is in line with previous rumors of a shorter, squatter iPod. The new nano, from a volume perspective, is identical to the old one, but it's shorter and wider. That's to accommodate the 2-inch screen, which has a 320 x 240-pixel resolution.

Initial reaction to the new nano, which has been the most popular version among previous iPods, was mixed. Readers posting on CNET News.com griped about the new colors and expressed skepticism about watching videos on the 2-inch screen.

One poster on AppleInsider's forums opined, "I like it, but it kind of reminds me of a cracker. I feel like adding some cheese and taking a nibble".

However, it's not likely that many people will buy the iPod nano with movies or TV shows in mind, when they now have two other options with larger screens and larger capacity.

Jobs also announced news that may irk some early adopters of the iPhone: The price on the 8GB model has dropped to US$399--a savings of US$200--only two months after the product became available in stores.