Very little changed for this year's iPod lineup

I love the iPod classic. Killing it off would be like killing off the MacBook. Oh, wait...

Still, I have both a classic and an old 2nd gen nano that I still use. They are great for listening to music. I never used my iPod touch for music at all and never use my Droid for it either. Songs are too short and numerous and people are too fickle to not have tactile controls available to you. Also, using a touch device in the car is just asking to die or kill someone. If you're one of the [almost all] people who just has their iPhone/iPod touch plugged in via aux cable and not some fancy car dock, you have to pick the device up, turn on the screen, unlock it, and then touch an area of a surface with 0 tactile feedback just to skip a track. Finding a new thing to listen to altogether is even tougher. I was pretty sad when they chopped the controls off of the nano and I'll be even sadder if they don't revamp the classic in a way that keeps it's basic form factor around while bringing it up to date with modern standards, like SSD, wireless syncing, etc.

The Classic is awesome, because, I can have either a lot of music ripped at a lower bitrate or less music ripped at a higher bitrate. What would you rather have stolen from your car? A huge binder full of CDs worth tens of thousands of dollars or your iPod Classic? Yeah, been there. There's so much derision for the iPod Classic and those of us who like to carry "absurd" amounts of music with us, as if the amount of music that fits on a 32 GB or even a 16 GB is qualitatively less absurd than 160 GB when lossless files are still quite large. If they add BlueTooth and improve the DAC in the Classic line they'll have the best, most versatile music player ever.

Also, the Classic is the only product that still has Album Shuffle, which remains a favorite way to listen to large playlists with high-rated songs. When the iPhone/iPod Touch reaches 128 and has Album Shuffle, then it will be a doable but still inferior music player. Flicking through long lists isn't nearly as convenient as scrolling with the click wheel.

It sounds to me like a dual core A5 Chip is really not necessary for the majority of the games and apps that will available over the next year. If that was not the case, I don't think Apple would have touted the ipod as a gaming device. The A4 was a freakin' sweet processor when it came out and even now can still handle most anything. Leaving the ipod touch with the A4 was one of the main reasons I decided I didn't need to upgrade my iphone 4.

Now if Apple had given us a 4 inch screen and left everything else the same, I'd have upgraded in a heartbeat.

Go ahead and ruin your Nano at the gym with sweat and whatnot. Sorry, the Shuffle is the ONLY ipod for workouts.

so if they don't plan to ever do much with the ipod classic, what about creating a larger capacity iphone or ipod touch - say in the area of 128 GB. I have a large library of music and music still outweighs "apps" for me. My itunes library is larger than the capacity of my 160 GB classic so I already have to cut down some on my music.

Yea it's unfortunate that it didn't include anything new. In the past I only stuck to the iPod because I absolutely hated AT&T (still do). But now that the iPhone is on other carriers I'll definitely jump on a data plan elsewhere.

The article is incorrect about the new iPod nano. The ability to use Nike+ without an external dongle is a software change, not a hardware change. It uses the nano's accelerometer. I have the previous generation nano, and with the software update that came out on Tuesday, I am able to use Nike+ without anything external the same as the new nano is able to.

I, like so many other people, was looking forward to bluetooth connectivity for the iPod Nano. Especially if Apple is touting the watch design now... it only make sense. I don't want to have headphones running from my wrist to my head.

Something I very rarely see mentioned about the iPod Classic that sets it apart from the other current models is that the click wheel makes it easy to operate by touch alone. That makes it the only practical model for me to plug into my car stereo, so I can do things like pause and skip tracks without taking my eyes off the road. The touchscreen models are all but impossible to operate without actually looking at them, and not just a quick glance, either. They demand a lot more attention than the Classic.

Quite simply, dedicated music players are a dying breed, and it's a damn good thing Apple is moving forward from them. Outside of specialized uses (exercise especially), most people are now served better by using their phones (whether iOS, Android, etc). Then you can stream things live, download new music, and do everything else offered by such devices. They also benefit from the fact that you *always* have your phone with you. Until Apple showed how to do convergence *right*, it was always a maddening set of compromises and dedicated devices were superior. Now it's inevitable and the advantages are significant.

The iPod Touch has strongly become the teen "pre-iPhone". I live in a neighborhood with lots of kids of this age, and every one of them has an iPod Touch. They get the apps, the music, etc, and there are no monthly charges or surprises (well, except for out of control in app purchasing). They're cheap enough that while it's still distressing when they smash the screen - twice (Jeffrey Smith, I'm looking at you) - it's not the end of the world like a $650 off-subsidy iPhone.

This market doesn't necessarily care that it's the best or latest and greatest - it has to be good enough, and cheap enough. That's what Apple is targeting. Later on, they'll upgrade either to iPhones or iPads, as they already have a huge chunk of apps and music already in the ecosystem.

Seeing the iPod Touch fall to a year behind the rest of the product line is probably a good thing. It allows it to stay relatively current, eases component pressures, and most importantly allows Apple to keep driving down the price. A few years from now they'll have the Nano to $49 and the Touch to $129. All the better to bring people into the fold, and later move up to iPhones and iPads.