The New iPods

The Classic and Shuffle remain the same, the Nano becomes a Mini Me of the Classic, which I think is an excellent idea. For those on a limited budget you get the full iPod just with smaller disk space. The 4 GB is $149, the 8 GB is $199, and you can watch videos.

But the really cool one is the iPod Touch. Looks just like an iPhone only slightly shorter with the full touch screen and WiFi. You can even download songs from the Apple Store if you have a WiFi connection. And they are working a deal with Starbucks to sync their music and WiFi with what Starbucks is playing in their store. Hear a good tune while buying your coffee? Just whip out your iPod Touch and you are immediately on a WiFi connection to the iTunes store where they will let you know automatically what song is playing and you can buy it with just a touch. Surf the web with Safari, too. Runs $299 for an 8 GB, $399 for a 16 GB.

They still aren't doing enough, though. This is the perfect opportunity for them to turn it into a full blown PDA with notes, calendar, games and things. They have half of that now and the touch screen for easy maneuvering and typing, why stop with it half full? Still, I don't own an iPod and don't need one (especially if it isn't a PDA). Darcy has one but after spending $299 just last Xmas I'm certainly not getting another one now, especially since I just spent a fortune on 2 new iMacs. Someday they will make the iPhone good enough, as well as AT&T good enough (and cheap enough) and I'll put away my Palm and LG flip phone. For now I'll just wait and see what develops.