Rejoice, ye lovers of magnetic drives and scroll wheels! While Steve announced no updates to the iPod Classic, that doesn’t mean it is going anywhere. In fact, it is prominently displayed on the iPod page over at Apple.com. So if you’re into “retro” tech and you like big capacities and thick gadgets, you can still grab one of the hard drive-based multitaskers for US$249.
You saw them in the keynote today, now watch them again in the privacy of your own home: the new iPod touch and iPod nano television ads are live on Apple.com and on Apple’s YouTube channel. “All kinds of fun,” indeed.
(If you’re a fan of NBC’s Chuck, like some of us are, you may appreciate that Cake’s Short Skirt/Long Jacket — the show’s theme song — is featured in the new nano ad.)
The public servants at the FCC are earning their keep today, favoring us with several PDFs full of lovely, detailed images of both the internal and external design of the soon-to-ship iPod touch.
Check out the gallery below for several of the pictures, and consider how much nicer it will be when you actually have the new hotness in hand.
Booyah has released an iPhone and iPod touch version of its Facebook game, InCrowd, and it’s now available on the App Store. The app, like the very popular MyTown, uses location check-ins to create a game around social networking. But unlike MyTown, this app was originally released as a Facebook game. Booyah originally started InCrowd as its first Facebook venture, but it’s now bringing the game back to the iPhone, where it’s presumably more comfortable at development. But the Facebook and iPhone versions work together (in fact, you need a Facebook account to play it), so check-ins on either platform can be seen in the app.
As for the game itself, it’s exactly the kind of thing that’s very popular among the huge tween audience for Facebook games — there’s a cartoonish avatar that can interact with friends socially, and checking-in to certain places earns the avatars popularity and status. There’s a microtransaction element as well — interacting uses energy, and if you don’t want to wait for a refresh, you can spend 99 cents to get more. Standard social gaming stuff, although Booyah is pretty good at putting it together by now.
Booyah remains a company to watch in the social gaming space — it doesn’t seem to have had quite the success it wanted on Facebook, but the company is flexible enough to switch a game like this over to Apple’s platform without skipping a beat. We’ll have to wait and see whether or not the free app gains MyTown’s level of adoption, however.
During this morning’s event, Steve Jobs tossed out the factoid that the iPod touch was trouncing traditional handheld gaming, claiming that the system had sold more than Nintendo and Sony’s portables combined. If, like us, you thought that meant Apple had sold more devices than traditional game makers, then Steve was wrong — he mentioned in the same event that Apple has shipped 120 million iOS devices, and while that’s very impressive, it’s not quite as big as the 125 million Nintendo DS systems the Japanese company had sold around the world as of January. That doesn’t even count the 62 million PSP units Sony has sold worldwide. In terms of gaming devices sold, Apple has a long ways to go.
But Steve can’t have been that wrong — he said that the iPod touch had sold more than Nintendo or Sony combined. He can’t be off by over 60 million, right? It’s more likely that he meant software sales. There have been about 718 million DS games sold in the system’s history, and about 252 million games sold on the PSP. And there have been 6.5 billion downloads of iOS apps so far (with 1.5 billion of those being game and entertainment apps). When you compare the numbers that way, yes, Apple is far outselling Nintendo and Sony in terms of game sales. But of course, iOS apps tend to be much cheaper than Sony and Nintendo’s software (if not free), and gamers could probably argue all day about the difference in average quality of the two platforms.
Either way, Steve was stretching the truth a little bit on that stat. Apple has done a terrific job making inroads on portable gaming (some of it even without planning to do so), but the Cupertino company has a little way to go yet before it starts really competing with the established console manufacturers.
Update: A few commenters suggest that Apple has sold more iPod touches than both other systems combined recently, as in the last quarter or so. But the other two devices are a few years older than the oldest iPod touch, so that doesn’t seem like a great comparison either. Again, Apple has made really incredible strides into handheld gaming, but the company isn’t quite overwhelming its competitors in this market yet.
So we just got our hands on the new iPod touch… and boy is it small. As you would expect, the functionality of the device is identical to the iPhone 4, as well as the functions of the front and back cameras. In essence, it’s a much thinner iPhone 4, with no cell radio, of course. The design is relatively in keeping with previous touches, so no major surprises there, but the inclusion of that A4 chip, higher resolution screen, and front and back cameras makes it a far more versatile device. Take a look at the gallery below if you’re wondering just how much of a sliver this is — it makes the iPhone 4 look… fat.
FaceTime. It isn’t just for iPhone any more. Apple has just introduced a new generation of iPod touch with an improved chip (the same A4 that powers the iPad and the iPhone 4), a better display (the iPhone 4’s double-resolution Retina display), and a built-in, front-facing camera that introduces FaceTime video conferencing capabilities.
This is a hefty refresh for an already great device, providing lots of new features that really expand the way consumers can use the device in their day-to-day lives. If you can’t walk away from your Blackberry, the latest generation iPod touch units bring nearly all of the iPhone magic to a Wi-Fi only platform.
Preorders start today, and they’ll be shipping within a week, well in time for the Christmas season. Prices start at $229 for the 8GB version.
During the ongoing Apple event, Steve Jobs revealed a new version of the iPod Touch that’s on par with the iPhone 4. The thing has all the gaming capabilities of the phone, without the AT&T contract: iOS 4.1 with Game Center is a big deal, and Apple’s crammed an A4 chip into the new iPod Touch and a 3-axis gyroscope, plus Retina display. It even has a front-facing camera.
The new iPod Touch will be available next week in an 8GB model for $229, a 32 GB model for $299 and a 64GB model for $399. You can pre-order it now.
Add this to the rumor mix – AppleInsider reports that the next generation of iPod nano will be a minuscule version of the current generation. For proof, they point to a couple of third-party case makers, including this one from Orient King, pictured at right.
The case shows a 30-pin dock connector and cutouts to accommodate four buttons or ports — most likely for a headphone jack, hold switch and volume buttons similar to the iPhone.
If this particular rumor is true, the iPod nano would more resemble its iPod shuffle sibling than retain the current form factor. It would only be the second time Apple has gone outside of the traditional gum package-shaped model. While the rumor might be a bit hard to swallow — remember that three years ago, a lot of people did not believe the pictures of the “fat-boy” model iPod nano were true either.
But, I think this rumor could also be linked with the one we reported from iLounge earlier this month saying that the new iPod shuffle would have a touchscreen. If it did, then this form factor makes sense. It’s either that, or I see the shuffle being quietly retired or not updated at all. We’ll find out on Wednesday.
Sunday night is the funnest night of the week, when you can join the TUAW staff for an hour or so of live banter about what’s happened in the Apple world in the previous week. This week, we’ll also be chatting about the mystery Apple press conference on Wednesday, which probably isn’t too much of a mystery given the past history of September press meetings.
It’s also the time of year when the kids are going back to school, so we’ll talk about some of the best Apple and third-party products and software for students of all ages.
To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, the embedded Facebook app, or the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the “TalkShoe Web” button on our profile page at 10 pm Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (take advantage of your free cellphone weekend minutes if you like): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 — during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8.
If you’ve got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac or your PC, you can connect via the free Gizmo or X-Lite SIP clients or using the Talkshoe client’s ShoePhone tool; basic instructions are here.
We’ll kick things off at 10pm ET/ 7pm PT. See you there!
Booyah has released an iPhone and iPod touch version of 
Add this to the rumor mix – 
Sunday night is the