The Musical Side of Things

The iPhone 5 was the centerpiece of the Apple event today, but that was not the only announcement Apple was yet to make. A whole new line of iPod's, a major update to iTunes and a newly designed pair of earphones. While quite a bit of stuff regarding the event today was leaked, we did get a couple of nice surprises in the second half of the event.

New iTUNES

Apple has completely overhauled iTunes in terms of its user interface. The desktop version of iTunes now has a UI inspired by the look of the iTunes store and media player on the iPad. There are several animations and ditties added to the functionality that eerily remind us about the tablet interface.

When you click on an album it expands in place. Sort of like folders on iOS.
Again, several mobile design cues taken here.

There is a nice split screen view to see your full library while adding songs to playlists. Real Nifty. Other changes include a pre-view function, which allows you to gain instant access to songs/movies you had going on earlier. Apparently they have improved the recommendations feature to well....recommend stuff I guess.

Mini player design has been changed. It now allows you manage playlists and swap around incoming songs. It even has a small pic for the album art. Cute.

New iCloud functionality is also added, brings you content on all your devices simultaneously when you buy it.
iCloud is also gonna be used to remember where you have left off/paused your media, so you can pick it back up and start it on any other device. This is just another nice little bonus to the iOS ecosystem.

So, that's about it for iTunes. Overall I'd say, that they have opted for a more mobile and tabletcentric design. There seem to be several cosmetic changes which work very well. It seems to make it more easy to use and to manage playlists with. That was one thing that always annoyed me about the iTunes media player- A pain in the ass to manage playlists with.
Anyway, moving on......

iPOD NANO (7th GENERATION)

The new iPod nano is completely different from the 6th gen one. It features a 2.5 inch multi touch display, external controls (a volume rocker, even a Home button) and the new "Lightning" socket.
It also has Bluetooth enabled wireless audio playback, DVR functionality and a FM tuner.

The iPod Nano finally retains Video playback and the abilty to view photos, in widescreen too. Battery levels are improved with 30 hrs of audio playback, not bad for such a small mp3 player.

It is the thinnest iPod nano till date - 5.4 mm thick. And it is now available in 7 colors. 
The iPod Nano ships on October, with a price tag of 149 $ for a 16 GB variant. (no other memory options have been announced as of yet).

In my opinion, a perfect choice for people wanting eyecandy an ultra-portable mp3 player. This thing is microscopic, and very beautifully designed.

iPOD TOUCH (5th GENERATION)

This iteration of the iPod Touch has impressed me to a great extent. This is cause it takes several features of the iPhone 5 and packs them all into a razor thin frame of just 6.1 mm. This is friggin half a centimeter thick, almost of the same size as the iPod Nano, and thats saying something !

Features Features...Where do I begin!

Retina Display

Like its bigger brother the iPhone 5, it features a 4 inch "Retina" display having a 326 ppi (pixels per inch) resolution. This is an industry leading, super high quality display, and it supposedly has 40% better color saturation than the previous retina display's.

The 4 inch (tall) screen obviously means that the new iPod Touch will support widescreen 16:9 aspect ratios. So, movie's are bound to look better on this iteration of the Touch.

Dual Core Processor

It has a dual core powerhouse A5 chip built in, the same ones used in the iPad2. This gives us faster CPU and graphics performance over the previous generation.This combined with newly added "Airplay mirroring"should lead to crazier and more hardcore gaming sessions.

5MP iSight Camera

The camera has been improved. The Touch now has a 5MP iSight camera, just like the ones in use for the 3rd gen iPad, but with the added feature of panorama. Photos can now be edited on iPhoto as well. There is also a new "Facetime" (front facing) camera. This records HD videos of upto 720p.

iOS 6 and Siri

The new iPod Touch will be available pre-installed with iOS 6. It will have the updated version of Siri as seen on the iPhone 5.

5 New Colors

In addition to all these goodies, Apple has finally brought us some eye candy to a mobile touch device. While the iPhone 5 is only available in the customary white and black(plus the metallic finish on the back of course), the iPod touch is available in 5 new colors. They even have a color coded bracelet ring on them, for clumsy people.

The iPod touch ships in October, with the 32 GB model at $299 (the 64 GB one is priced at $399 ).
So, there you have it - the new generation of iPod's. Apple has revamped the iPod, added a dash of color  and produced a set of solid, elegant  device's.
I already have an iPhone 4s, and there is no immediate need for me to buy an iPhone 5. But I do have a big collection of music, movies and TV shows which cannot be adequately accommodated on my phone. This is why, of all the devices released on the Apple event, I can probably think of buying the new iPod touch as a dedicated music/movies and handheld games device.
With the new 4inch widescreen display, A5 chip and ultra portable razor thin design, I would even buy this over the new retina iPad Behemoth.

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