Apple’s Steve Jobs Announces New iPod Nano

Yesterday was a big day for Apple. The iPod Nano got outfitted with video, the iPod Touch doubled in size, and most importantly, Steve Jobs was back from his liver transplant and in full fighting force. While there was no official announcement of The Beatles coming to iTunes, there was still plenty of excitement, and thanks to Wired we have the whole rundown.

Let’s start with the good news coming out of yesterday’s Apple event. The iPod Nano is now available in either 8gb ($150) or 16gb ($180) versions. Both come equipped with a 640×480 video camera, which is nice, but you can’t take a simple snapshot because the software doesn’t allow stills. To appeal to all those middle schoolers, Apple deemed it necessary for the Nano to handle adding real-time effects to video and made sure the chip would be able to hold it. Gimmicky? Yes.

Also, Nike+ capabilities have been added making your current shoe-mounted iPod obsolete. The software allows for workout history, power songs, and the use of the accelerometer as a pedometer so you can count every step. Apple also made the decision to add an FM radio tuner (the first for any iPod) with a Tivo-esque pausing feature. That’s right, you can pause a live radio broadcast and rewind up to 15 minutes using the buffer. The tuner also allows users to tag tracks, which will save the song’s information for possible purchase at the iTunes store later.

With everything the iPod Nano brings to the table, the other iPods simply don’t. The iPod Classic is the same ol’ same ol’ and now only offered in 160gb (silver/black) for $249. The iPod Touch got a tiny upgrade with a doubling of size to 64gb and a small processor update but still NO CAMERA. Of all the important upgrades to make, a camera for the Touch was the most important!

Apple isn’t going to lure users of the iPod Touch into buying a 16gb iPod Nano just so they can record some video here and there. C’mon Apple. There’s gotta be another event on the horizon, right?

Will you be putting money down for the new iPod Nano?