Apple announced an update to its iPod touch and iPod touch/iPhone software at the “Let’s Rock” event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco.
The new model of iPod touch is slightly thinner than before, and sports a contoured stainless steel design.
It now incorporates the side controls from the iPhone so you can adjust the volume without using the touch-screen. Like the iPhone, it now also sports a built-in speaker. Steve Jobs – a known music fan – joked that “it’s for casual listening; it’s not for audiophiles.”
It also has built in software for the Nike + iPod running accessory and Jobs informed the crowd that they would no longer require the dongle attachment because Nike + iPod hardware is built into the device.
It also has a new iPod touch 2.1 software that sports numerous interface enhancements and the new Genius Playback feature, also introduced to iTunes 8 at the “Let’s Rock” event.
Steve Jobs also said that the 2.1 update was a big download that would beavailable to iPod touch and iPhone owners from Friday. “It fixes a lot of bugs” said Jobs “”You’ll get fewer call drops and significantly improved battery life. You’re not going to get some of the application crashes. And backing up to iTunes is dramatically faster and there’s some great new performance enhancements.”
The iPhone 2.1 update is free to all owners of iPhones, and iPod touch users that paid to upgrade to the iPod touch 2.0 software update. iPod touch owners running the original iPod touch software will need to pay a 5.99 upgrade fee.
The iPod touch itself sees a price drop. The 8GB model now costs 169, the 16GB model costs 219 and the 32GB model 289.
All models are shipping now and should be available in the stores from this weekend.
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