Apple today introduced the second generation iPod touch featuring an thin contoured metal design, a 3.5-inch widescreen glass display, 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi wireless networking, integrated volume control buttons, a built-in speaker for casual listening, a built-in accelerometer and other advanced sensors, and Apple’s revolutionary Multi-Touch user interface. iPod touch, now available for just $229 for the 8GB model, is perfect for playing music, movies and games, with millions of songs, thousands of Hollywood movies and hundreds of games available on the iTunes Store.
“iPod touch is the funnest iPod we’ve ever created,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in the press release. “Users can listen to millions of songs, watch thousands of Hollywood movies and now, thanks to the App Store, download and play hundreds of great games on their iPod touch.”
The new iPod touch is smaller and lighter than the original, with a sleek new design that features a contoured metal enclosure with integrated volume control buttons and a brilliant 3.5-inch widescreen glass display. With its rounded edges, flush display and curved, more compact design, the new iPod touch is more comfortable to hold and more portable than ever.
iPod touch users can choose from hundreds of exciting game titles such as “Spore Origins” and “Scrabble” from Electronic Arts, and “Real Football 2009” from Gameloft available on iTunes or directly through the App Store application on the iPod touch. The revolutionary App Store works over Wi-Fi, enabling users to browse, purchase and wirelessly download applications directly onto their iPod touch and start using them instantly. The App Store features an incredible array of applications in a wide variety of categories, including games, travel, entertainment, social networking, sports and much more.
iPod touch works seamlessly with iTunes so you can import, manage, and then easily auto-sync your favorite content. With up to 36 hours of music playback or six hours of video playback on a single charge, the new iPod touch is the ultra-portable way to enjoy your favorite music, TV shows, movies and games on the go. The 32GB model holds up to 7,000 songs, 25,000 photos or 40 hours of video; the 16GB model holds up to 3,500 songs, 20,000 photos or 20 hours of video, and the 8GB model holds up to 1,750 songs, 10,000 photos and 10 hours of video.
The new iPod touch works with the new iTunes 8 Genius feature, allowing customers to automatically create playlists while on the go. Users can preview the playlist Genius creates, refresh the list to choose different songs and save Genius playlists to enjoy again later.
The new iPod touch also features built-in Nike + iPod support making it an incredible workout companion. Users simply place the optional Nike + iPod sensor (US$19) in their Nike + shoe to seamlessly connect with the new iPod touch to track miles run or sync with the latest generation gym equipment.
The iPod is the world’s most popular family of digital music players with over 160 million sold. Apple’s incredible new lineup includes the iPod shuffle in four vivid new colors starting at just $49; the iPod classic in one slimline model with 50 percent more capacity for the same great price — 120GB of storage for just $249; the fourth generation iPod nano featuring a gorgeous curved metal and curved glass enclosure, in nine vibrant colors starting at $149; and the second generation iPod touch now starting at just $229. iPod owners can choose from a vast ecosystem of accessories with over 5,000 products made specifically for the iPod including speaker systems, fitness accessories, fashionable cases and iPod connectivity available in over 90 percent of new car models sold in the US.
The new iPod touch is available immediately for a suggested price of $229 for the 8GB model, $299 for the 16GB and $399 for the 32 GB model through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. iPod touch requires a Mac with a USB 2.0 port, Mac OS X v10.4.10 or later and iTunes 8; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows Vista or Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 2) or later and iTunes 8. Existing iPod touch users can update to the latest 2.1 software for just $9.95 to add the new Genius feature. iPod touch owners who already have the 2.0 software get the 2.1 software update for free. Simply download the latest version of iTunes onto your Mac or PC, and purchase the 2.1 software update via iTunes.
“funnest” That proves it. He is healthy. He is making up new words.
Merriam-Webster:
funnest
One entry found.
fun [adjective]
Function:
adjective
Inflected Form(s):
sometimes fun·ner; sometimes fun·nest
Date: circa 1846
1 : providing entertainment, amusement, or enjoyment <a > <a >
2 : full of fun : pleasant <a > <have a fun time>
It has a speaker and volume controls…! $229 is $20 less than I expected.
I don’t get why it is the “funniest” iPod. Maybe the “fun-est”…
Oh, I misread that… I guess it was the “funnest”
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“a built-in speaker for casual listening”
Nice.
@ Modbus
Webster’s is the least accurate dictionary for English, and when they say “sometimes” that means “dumb variant term used in USA that has come into use only very recently.”
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anyone but me have eyes that read “funniest” instead of “funnest”? Totally oddball word to use in an ad IMO.
Yes, excellent keynote. Share price fell three percent. If Microsoft made this kind of a production – calling in journalists from every corner of the world – every time they tweaked a product you’d soon have a very pissed off media. The more I see of Apple the more it seems like some kind of perverse fascist organisation with Jobs as blackshirt in chief.
Yeah, yeah, that’s what I’ve been waiting for. 16 GB Touch, you’ll soon be mine. Guess I won’t need that Powerbook “Pismo” any longer.
So basically the announcements at up to a big yawn. Price points don’t seem to be anything special. $400 for an iPod Touch with a mere 32GB.
Zealots, ignite your flames, but darned if there wasn’t more announced in the Zune stuff.
iPods sure are purdy, but come on. Does this kind of minor update to products warrant press conferences and all the hoopla?
Where’s my new MacBook Pro. And what’s this? The iPod touch gets the 2.1 software, but not the iPhone?
Oh well. At least BattleStar Galactica is back for their final season.
@StarkReality:
You should be more careful to whom you reveal that your brain is no longer functioning.
The thing is, Mondovino, if they fail to show up at the next event then they might miss Jobs pulling another revolution out of his pocket. That’s how he successfully milks this coverage time after time.
They have no idea when he’ll whip out that MacBook Touch but when he does they’ll forget about the more lackluster announcements like today.
No Mac news?
Dear Mondovino,
if MS could bring out anything worthwhile at such a ‘production’ (i.e. be innovative) nobody would complain at all, and Ballmer’s impending demise wouldn’t be such a foregone conclusion.
@mondovino
“Fascist” is harsh, but this is getting to be a bit weird, if not old.
Jobs is starting to seem like Big Brother in the old 1984 video. He needs to cool it. Apple needs to relax on all the product policing and get back to their core competency, creating the “insanely cool.”
It’s definitely time for a change. This crap is stale stale stale.
Jobs and company are becoming distorted caricatures of their formal selves.
If they wanted to be cool, they could just tell people to go to the website on Tuesday morning and check out the new products. Jobs could give the demo in one of those nice minimalist white background videos and be done with it. In fact, it shouldn’t be jobs anymore. The company needs to stop putting jobs out front for every stupid little update.
I mean an entire press conference. OMG! Stop the World! There’s a new iPod out! Never mind the Cern collider and whether or not they accidentally create a singularity that drops through to the Earth’s core and starts swallowing the planet with geometrically increasing speed, which color nano are ya gonna get???
@Jeremy
“Webster’s is the least accurate dictionary for English, and when they say “sometimes” that means “dumb variant term used in USA that has come into use only very recently.” “
You mean its the “accuratelessest”?
Just confirmed microphone earphones work with the new iPod touch. A TruPhone (or similar) VOIP app will likely be out soon. The touch is now the desired VOIP phone.
@alansky
I’m sorry, did I disturb you whilst you were kneeling on your little prayer carpet and bumping your head on the floor chanting Jobs Jobs Jobs?
Are you going to issue a fatwah now? Oh noes! The Mac jihadists are warning me to be careful!
I really have to agree with those who think this was a yawner, or those who think that Jobs has gone OTT inviting journalists by saying this was to be a 5 star event. A most disappointing keynote. I was waiting for that “one more thing,” well I suppose boredom could be considered one more thing………………..
Where in the hell is that 64GB or 128GB iPod Touch???
Now that would be news breaking and get my attention
as well, plus my money.
I thought,
” Cool! An iPod that’s just ‘All Comedy – All the Time!’
Probably includies an hilarious assortment of Ballmer videos! “
But then I re-read the headline.
@ Jeremy
Good point. Language is dynamic. I just about fell over the first time I heard someone say, “my bad.”
I like the wiktionary explanation better:
“Funnest is a regular superlative of the adjective fun. However, the use of fun as an adjective is itself still often seen as informal or casual and to be avoided in formal writing, and this would apply equally to the superlative form. Merriam-Webster, however, gives fun as an adjective without comment, and states that funner and funnest are ‘sometimes’ used. Because of the remaining stigma, most fun may be preferred in formal writing.”
Think different?
You know, it’s interesting. I read that as funniest also. For a moment or two I couldn’t see what was so darned funny either.
Before the US Manhattan Project staged the Trinity test of the first atomic bomb, there were some physicists who feared that the atomic explosion would ignite the sky and consume the earth.
It didn’t happen.
Contrary to your blather, when CERN starts testing the LHC tomorrow, any mini black holes created will last for a nanosecond. They are formed constantly in space by intense gamma radiation, and last I checked, we’re still here.
May I send you a tinfoil hat to protect yourself?
First it was “Think Different” (should be Think Differently)
Now “Funnest” now THAT’S innovation!
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MW = party, ’cause its the “funnest”!
This was obviously not a revolutionary product introduction but it was a reminder that Apple is a well-oiled locomotive, humming along with timely product updates, ready for the Christmas shopping season, continuing to leave the rest of the mobile computing market in the dust and posing a serious threat to the handheld gaming market.
The revolution started over a year ago with the iPhone. Now it is simply gathering more and more strength with the entire iPod line and the App store.
Apple is going to rule the mobile computing space for the next 10 years. Don’t believe me? Just look at the 100 million app store downloads in two months. No one, no one is even close to realizing those kinds of numbers.
To Stark Raving Lunatic:
” And what’s this? The iPod touch gets the 2.1 software, but not the iPhone?”
Now you’re just making shit up. This is one of the many reasons you’re labeled a troll.
From Ars Technica:
New iPhone OS 2.1
The iPhone also got some time in the spotlight today with the much-anticipated announcement of iPhone OS 2.1, the software and firmware that runs both the iPhone and iPod touch. The major update should “significantly” improve battery life, problems with droppped calls, fix a lot of bugs, and backing up to iTunes should be “dramatically” faster. New iPod touches ship with the 2.1 OS update, and it should be available to download for free for all other iPhone and iPod touch owners running iPhone OS 2.0 this Friday. iPod touch owners still using 1.x will need to pay the 2.x upgrade fee of $9.99.
From: “Real Academia Española” dictionary:
funesto, ta.
(Del lat. funestus).
1. adj. Aciago, que es origen de pesares o de ruina.
2. adj. Triste y desgraciado.
Google Translation:
disastrous, ta.
(from latin Funestus).
1. Adj. Fateful, which is source of sorrow or ruin.
2. Adj. Sad and unfortunate.
UUUPPS!!!!
“Never mind the Cern collider and whether or not they accidentally create a singularity that drops through to the Earth’s core . . .”
Whew! Now I understand. You’re an uneducated paranoid schizophrenic with delusions of grandeur. Thanks!
I would’ve liked to see a 64gb touch, too. That’d mean a 32gb iPhone was right around the corner.
8gb iPod touch at $199, 16gb touch at $249, 32gb touch at $299 and 64gb touch at $399 — now THAT would’ve blown me away.
That conference call statement on profit margins must have been about Macs cause there clearly wasn’t any drastic price cuts for iPods.
@mondovino
Jobs is in control all right. Like at a lot of companies. The unusual thing is what good deicsions he is making. That list is much smaller. Edison. Ford. Bell. Jack Welch. We are not talking about democracy and facism here.
@StarkReality,
Another Microsoft Troll??? I am sure that Vista continues to impress the hell out of you and that forever funny MS commercial must have you kneeling on the floor in admiration.
“So basically the announcements at up to a big yawn. Price points don’t seem to be anything special. $400 for an iPod Touch with a mere 32GB.”
——- so, what have you invented this year??? Anti-gravity? Try $229 for an iPod Touch!!!
“Zealots, ignite your flames, but darned if there wasn’t more announced in the Zune stuff.”
—– Hey, Microsoft dropped the price of a Zune and added wireless song buying….. from them. You must be in seventh heaven. ????
“iPods sure are purdy, but come on. Does this kind of minor update to products warrant press conferences and all the hoopla? “
—- I believe the mention was, “Lets Rock” which would, I don’t know, imply MUSIC maybe????
Just another Microsoft troll who can do nothing but go to Mac sights and complain when they don’t invent anti-gravity.
PS, on the extremely rare chance that you are not an MS troll (which I think your writing indicates that you are) I would apologize. But if you are not a Troll, please, take my advice.
In the future ignore any Mac ads or articles. PERIOD. IF you happen to hear about some new Macs or iPods and you find that good, then good for you. BUt other wise, NO ONE here or from APPLE tried to raise YOUR expections one whit.
If you do not like the location of the new volume control, fine. I can understand. Boring colors,… cool.
But Steve did not make you happy. So?? Bite me.
Just a thought.
en
Mine won’t update to 2.1.
I do have iTunes 7.7.1 but the iTunes updater says I need to download it and the software update tool say I don’t need it.
Bummer
Just my personal comment. I am getting really sick of Microsoft Trolls, paid or just fanboys. I have no care if they exist or not, but I do not go their Microsoft web sites and troll around.
If they were really creative, that would be one thing, but they just log in as guest, blather on the standard Anti Apple trivia and usually move on. (Sadly, some stay. 🙁 )
One trait that I usually see is that of making some big issue about people liking Apple products.
“FANBOY” they scream just cause he product does not SUCK. “Kiss the ground that Steve Jobs walks on.” they blather yet never a word against Steve Ballmer. HMMMMMMM
Sorry, but the world sucks enough with out these people spending all day creating negative press, just for the sake of …. either money (really sick Microsoft and it just goes to show how scared you really are… and how out of touch) or some perverse desire to make us all suffer. Like Therott’s (sp) blather about Mac users that want to return to Windows. …. I actually read his stuff.
The main feeling I get is that Microsoft users feel that they deserve the pain and suffering that Microsoft puts on them and that some how they must endure it. Of course, its always easier if you suffer together rather than alone. 🙁
So, My Sept pledge. I will try to totally ignore any article or comment that appears to be from a MS troll. PERIOD. No commenting, just ignore it. And maybe feel a twinge of sorry for their sad sad lives.
Just a thought.
en
Synthmeister,
I agree with your post; moreover it’s not Apple who creates the ‘hype’. We, the Apple faithful, do and, of course, the press.
This was a good event and Apple is going from strength to strength.
By the way, I’ve just ordered a 32 Gb touch from the Apple Store here in Berlin. It’s now €90,- cheaperl
Thanks EN.
To ElderNorm:
Very well said and an admirable pledge. Thanks.
If you’re sick of the trolls, just ignore them. Nothing they say is new, intelligent, or out of the ordinary anyway. It’s all perceived nonsense about “smug” and “arrogant” Apple users, when it’s their own low self-esteem and jealousy that causes them to make the comments they make based on these assumptions.
Ignore them. It’s easy.
I am sorry Apple, but this is not the Touch I thought I would get. I wanted GPS, Camera, Mic. Where are they?
MacSoftwareList.com
@macsoftwarelist.com
…if they added all the spec you ask for the iphone contract would look very expensive ( not that it isn’t already).
The new touch’s guide tour video won’t play on the iPhone.
iPod touch users can choose from hundreds of exciting game titles
… despite the best efforts from Cupertino.
32 GB for $399 isn’t bad especially with the new features.
If I had any spare cash then this would be my time to buy.
Next update will have bluetooth and 64 GB option.
I would like to see a camera on the touch. Take a photo and it goes into a mini iPhoto.
The unusual thing is what good deicsions he is making. That list is much smaller. Edison. Ford. Bell. Jack Welch.
Careful in likening Apple and Steve with this group….
Study Edison’s wars with Westinghouse and Tesla. Classic “Not Invented Here” syndrome.
Ford is Ford. Gotta thank them for the Edsel, Pinto, Mustang II, Explorer, Windstar 3.8, PowerStroke 6.0, etc…
Ma Bell, “We Don’t Care. We’re the Phone Company.” Rightly broken up.
Jack Welch does have potential to compare favorably, but even that is very debatable.
Wade said: “Where in the hell is that 64GB or 128GB iPod Touch???
Now that would be news breaking and get my attention
as well, plus my money.”
===============================
128 GB might be asking for a bit much, but I won’t be updating my current 60 GB iPod until the Touch reaches at least 64 GB. Must be cost prohibitive, or they would have done it by now.
Hello Apple, there are millions of us classic iPod users just waiting for you to ramp up the gigabytes on the iPod Touch. Get cracking!
StarkReality,
Eat Zune and die !!!
Wow, givin’ the love to “tap-tap revolution”….
Nice!
I run with my iPhone and I’m not to happy with only the Touch having nike plus support . I’m hoping that they come up with something for me to use. Also those cool new head phones that they just released on their website isn’t even compatible with the iPhone. They are starting to push my buttons on with these little things. I’m a huge fan of everything Apple does but come on. I’m hoping this new update is worth it.
Do the iPod Touch’s have iCal? I really want one, and I’m hoping there’s a calander app for it. Thats the only thing I can think of that I could really use…
i called a few apple stores today none of them have these yet. Im hoping they come in this week since they are supposedly available “today”.
I don’t understand the tie in with Nike. Why would I want to be tied in to a specific shoe company of all things????!!???!!!? It would be as though the iTunes store was only tied in to one music label or a few bands and singers. The whole Nike thing is goofy. We need standards and software that support all vendors not just a chosen few.
The iCal works nicely. You can sync between you Mac and your touch.
Just curious if anyone knows what application or game or whatnot is running on the iPod Touch pictured above? It looks sweet.
Nevermind I figured it out. It’s Tap Tap Revenge. Looks sweet.
@JoshtheiMacGuy
Really mate, at some point in the future you will have to start doing things for yourself … I mean, it took me less than sixty seconds to find this LINK on google regarding running shoes and
iPods
-Here are couple of others-
http://podophile.com/2006/07/14/shoe-hacker-nikeipod-sport-kit-shoe-mod/
http://digg.com/gadgets/Nike_iPod_Sport_Kit_AnyShoe_Adapter
You are on your own from here.
You fanboys really need to calm down. StarkReality is entitled to his opinion. Calling him an M$ troll just because he doesn’t weep with joy at the announcement of a new iPod says a lot more about your zealotry than anything about him.
Personally I agree with him on this point. Why the fanfare over such a minor announcement? If Apple released a fully touch-screen tablet that would warrant a conference but really this hoopla over such a non-issue is lame.
I saw a Zune in use today. That is the very first time since the Zune was released that I have seen one being used by anyone in public (in this case, on an airplane). I’m not impressed and, judging from its small market penetration, few other people are impressed, either.
The new iPod nano and touch are incremental, evolutionary upgrades. The terms “innovative” and “revolutionary” are wildly overused. It is not possible to consistently “innovate” throughout a product lifecycle.
I am interested in the shift in the nano aspect ratio back towards that of two generations ago. I thought that the last generation squarer version worked pretty well but, perhaps, it was not as convenient for exercise and did not fit as well in a pocket? Also, Apple may be looking to push the touch for people who want an iPod with a larger screen, and reverting to the earlier nano form factor enhances differentiation.