New iPods Galore!

By Donald Chan, staff writer
Monday September 24, 2007

It had been two years since Apple has made revisions to its iPod lineup, besides the iPod Shuffle. On September 5, Apple finally released its new and improved iPods.

Apple only made slight changes to the previous iPod Video, which is now called the iPod Classic. Sporting a new user interface, the iPod Classic displays previews of multimedia on the right half of the screen and allows owners to browse through their music library by album covers, also known as Cover Flow.

The screen size, dimensions, click wheel, design, and headphones remain unchanged, but Apple has replaced the classic white color with silver, creating much criticism. All iPod Classics are also constructed with a matte metal instead of the shiny, scratch-prone plastic from the previous generation. These new music players are priced at $249 for 80 Gigabytes model and $349 for the 160 Gigabytes model.

Junior John Albert, however, disagreed with Apple's attempt to cram more capacity into the iPod Classic, “The new 160 GB iPod Classic is overrated because the only reason you would buy it is to back up your hard drive. For the price of it, you can buy a Terabyte (1000 Gigabytes) of external memory.”

Apple made significant changes to a now shorter and wider iPod Nano. Its two-inch screen, which is larger than that the previous version, can now play videos. Despite the increased functionality, the fatter, stubbier design has drawn controversy when compared to the old product's slender, tall design.

Sophomore Brody Cox laughed and criticized the new shape, “What iPod Nano? I though it was the ‘iHobbit.'”

The click wheel, headphones, and anodized aluminum shell remain the same. The iPod Nano is available in silver, turquoise, red, green, and black. Apple also added the new user interface similar to that of the iPod Classic. The Nano is priced at $149 for the 4 Gigabyte model and $199 for the 8 Gigabyte model.

The iPod Shuffle, which received a significant size reduction last year, is now available in silver, turquoise, red, green, and purple. Apple recently added the red iPod Shuffle, representing (PRODUCT) RED, the organization that fights AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis in Africa. For every (PRODUCT) RED iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle, or iTunes card a customer buys, Apple will donate a portion of that purchase to the organization.

Apple introduced another model into the growing lineup, the iPod Touch. The new product has the same elegant design and easy-to-use interface as the iPhone and possesses a 3.5 inch touch screen, making it the better choice for viewing videos than other iPods. It is also the first and currently the only iPod that can browse full HTML web pages and view YouTube videos using Wi-Fi.

The iPod Touch cannot perform many of the iPhone applications, such as making phone calls, sending text messages, taking pictures, and accessing Google Maps, Notes, and Mail. Many iPod owners also complained about the diminutive memory size when compared to the cheaper iPod Classic. The iPod Touch is available in the 8 Gigabyte model ($299) or 16 Gigabyte model ($399).

Sophomore Tong Yan was concerned by the iPod Touch's minimal storage space and said, “I wouldn't buy [an iPod Touch.] I would buy an iPod Classic.”

Apple has removed the 4 GB iPhone and has dropped the price of the 8 GB model to $399. In response to the angry early adopters, the company has also issued a $100 gift certificate to all previous iPhone owners.

In other news, certain songs on iTunes can now be used as ringtones for the Apple iPhone; it costs $.99 for the song itself and $.99 to convert a section of the song into a ring tone. Finally, Apple announced its iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, which allows iPod Touch and iPhone owners to buy music straight into their portable device from any Wi-Fi access location.