Apple Upgrades iPod Line. Gives Touchscreen to Nano, Cameras to Touch, and Buttons to Shuffle

Apple recently announced upgrades across its iPod line. Notable in this announcement are the following features:

* The iPod Touch now has two cameras: one for taking snapshots and one in the front for video-conferencing via FaceTime. The interface and OS now follows the iPhone 4, too, with a high-resolution Retina display.
* The iPod Nano’s size is almost halved. It now comes with touchscreen instead of the iPod’s signature clickwheel interface. Are we now saying goodbye to the clickwheel?
* The iPod Shuffle gets back its button interface. What’s new is that it now gives album, song and battery information through VoiceOver. The Shuffle also gets playlists.

Also, notably missing is an update on the iPod Classic. Perhaps Apple is truly saying goodbye to the clickwheel, and focusing instead on its trademark touch-screen interfaces with multi-touch. Also missing is the Nano’s camera. Maybe Apple thought including a camera on such a small device would be tantamount to selling spy gear to everyone. Or maybe placing a camera at the rear would only have it covered by the clip (duh!).

Philippine prices are listed as follows on the Apple Store:

iPod Touch

* 8GB — PhP 12,490
* 32GB — PhP 15,990
* 64GB — PhP 21,990

iPod Nano

* 8GB — PhP 7,990
* 16GB — PhP 9,790

iPod Shuffle

* 2GB — PhP 2,490

Apple is still selling the iPod Classic on the Apple Store (and retailers), so if you prefer storage capacity over apps and a touchscreen interface, it costs PhP 13,490 for 160GB of capacity.