Touch of class

The three new iPods from Apple8212;Classic, Nano and Touch8212;take a march over their predecessors. Brimming with fresh features, they are reason enough to splurge

When a friend imported an Apple iPhone and wanted me to get it going through a cell phone network, I advised him against it. It8217;s not really possible and after putting in time, money and energy, it8217;s still useless. Without the phone, the iPhone is only a glorified iPod. I mention the iPod, because earlier this week, Apple came up with three new iPods.

The first is the iPod Classic. It looks and feels the same as the previous iPod by the same name video version. What has changed is that it is a sixth generation iPod, comes with 80 and 160 GB storage capacities the earlier versions were in 40 and 80 GB, and has 30 hours of battery back-up for audio playback and about six hours for a video playback. The new Classic has an all-metal design, is sleeker yes, it8217;s even thinner and has a new interface, which is similar to that of the iPhone, or what Apple calls it the Cover Flow. So when you flip around an album, you can actually see the photocovers move. The sad part is that the iPod Classic still has a 2.5-inch screen, and though images can be reproduced beautifully here, it is not ideal for watching movies.

Classic also features games Vortex, iQuiz and Klondike and you can buy more at the Apple store for 4.99, but its best asset is the search provision. Though difficult to use with the click wheel and no keyboard, it8217;s a great feature. How else will you look for the song that you want to listen to from the 40,000 songs that its 160 GB capacity can store?

The other release is the iPod Nano. With a larger screen 2-inch diagonal, the new Nano has become broader, shorter and slimmer 6.5 mm. It8217;s still the lightest 49.2 gm among its competitors, and with the new video feature, it offers 24 hours of music playback and about five hours of video playback with a single recharge. Available as a 4 and 8 GB variant, this makes for a great choice. Sadly, it8217;s available only in grey colour in the 4 GB version, while in the 8 GB version, one can choose from five colours, including red.

Lastly, there8217;s the iPod Touch, which as I mentioned earlier, is very much what iPhone would be without the phone. It has the look and feel of an iPhone and comes in two variants: 8 GB and 16 GB. A 3.5-inch diagonal screen, it has a battery back-up of 22 hours for music and five hours for video playback, the new Cover Flow interaction, a sensor that alters the brightness of the screen according to the room lighting and a built-in wireless connectivity to download music and videos from the Internet directly without a PC.

Weighing 120 gm and at 8 mm thick, it8217;s a great personal media player to carry around in your pocket. The Apple browser, Safari, is also built into Touch. The fact that you can turn around the Touch to a landscape and portrait mode makes it interesting to carry it around as a portable Internet device and a media player. Though the glass front makes it susceptible to scratches, the Apple does bundle in a piece of cloth for polishing.

The new variants are still not available in India and should be in a week. If you have been waiting to buy an iPod, now8217;s the time. But if you still want the older version of Nano, make sure you get a discount. It won8217;t take long for the new version to replace the old one.

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Gagandeep S. Sapra is the Chairman and CEO of System3 group of companies. gagandeepsystem3group.com