David,

Unless you want to continually 'mark' only the songs in your library to download - which is an incredible nuisance - you need an iPod that can handle all your material.

I use my iPod everyday. Listen to podcasts on the way to work in the morning. Music at night on way home. When playing games with friends at the cottage on the weekend, we all pick it up and select from a huge librbary. I create playlists for parties and it is much easier if they are already loaded onto your iPod.

AND, if you're into video, the files are so much bigger, you would be having to make decisions on a daily basis of what you want to copy onto and off your iPod. People just don't do that.

So 8G and 16G are waaaaaay too small.

If you think about it, when Apple introduced the "classic" Video iPod, it had 80G of storage and not the 30G the photo iPod had. They recognised they needed more storage to support video. And the new one supports widescreen video. These are bigger files.

P. McDevitt, Oshawa, Canada

Christmas is approaching
Market is saturated with mutimedia players
Nothing new and significant to me
My 2 year old PDA phone could do the same and more than the apple
See what happened to I phone recently in USA
good luck Apple You are in big trouble soon
I have 2 dead ipods with battery issues

mza, london UK,

I still think that viewing films or webshots on a small screen such as this is very difficult for most people and the only real use for these small screens is for cameras, music menus and the like. They are an aid to operating the device in question and not the primary interface. Even watching a DVD on a 5 or 7 inch screen is taxing on your eyesight and when I travel I do take my portable DVD player but I plug it into the hotel TV to watch a movie. If the kids aren't careful, they'll damage their eyesight squinting at these very small screens for any length of time.

Mike, Alicante, Spain

Alex, please tell me how you have the time and money to buy and listen to 40 000 songs ????

David, Kansas, USA

I wonder when they will be offering a Skype accessory to use this device as a wifi-phone?

Michael, Amsterdam,

Looks great. However try using a touch screen when running or liftng weights at the gym to control what track you want to listen to. Apple did almost everything right - except there is still no FM tuner. Adding a FM tuner can't cost them that much - but then they could not sell it to you as an overpriced add-on. I am going to wait 6-8 weeks and wait for the price to drop, following the iPhone precedence. Then I'll see what I think of it for the new price.

Jason, Denver, US

where is the blue tooth? where is the Radio? And where is the capacity?
Not yet time to upgrade for me.

charles, London, UK

It's bad service of Apple to be selling the old versions right up to the release of these. I bought an iPod Nano a week ago and if I had been told that it would be replaced by a better model so soon I WOULD HAVE WAITED!!!! Thanks Apple!

Phoebe Dee, chorley, lancs

They won't include mail cause then what do you need an iPhone for right ??If this has mail, then no iPhone is needed cause you will be able to do everything an iPhone can do, when someone writes Skype for the iPod Touch that is.

Carl Enns, Winnipeg, MB

I filled up my totally ace 30gb video iPod a little while ago.

The release of 80/160gb capacities will burn holes in all my pockets until I get one I guess.

The Touch looks great, but not enough capacity for me, and the nearest Starbucks is a 40-minute drive.

I await a UK-spec iPhone with baited breath and open wallet.

David Jefferis, Brill, UK

In 6 months or so,Steve Jobs and his team ,will come up with something slicker, cooler and with more features for less money . The iPhone 8gig is merely 2 months old,and went down from $599 to $399,and soon there will be a nano iPhone for God only knows how much !!!.I think I will iWait .

sam , Dallas, USA

There are a few things I wish this new ipod family would have....Radio, Mail, and Room! 16 GB? Not enough... And like previously stated, if there is some significane of internet, where is the mail? This new iPod family has a cool design, but why only 16 GB? The other new model can hold 40,000 songs...

Alex, My City,

My phone has a touch screen, I'm trying to get rid of the thing, since it keeps randomly ringing people and cancelling actions. Touch screens are a nightmare! I hope they go out of fashion ASAP. Give me a good old-fashioned button anyday.

starling, Lancaster,

Don't know why people are complaining about maintenance or battery life - perhaps they just don't look after their iPods properly?

Mine is 5 years old and still functioning perfectly well. The fact it keeps on working is why I've never had an excuse to upgrade.

If I do buy one of the new ones, my 5yo iPod will be going to a friend who will probably get another 2-3 years of use out of it (judging from the lifespan of the 3 Apple Mac computers I've had covering the past 20 years!).

Sue B, Pontypridd, Wales

So ,the brand new Ipod 'innovation' is to 'invent' a Sony PSP rip-off ,make it a bit trimmer and include standard memory. This is progress ???

Richard, Melksham, UK

"wide is a shape not a size so wide doesn't mean big"
joe hansome, NYC, NY

Hmm yes, I do love triangles, a nice round circle, always been a fan of the rhombus. Good old trusty rhombus always there when you need it. Never likely to go rolling down hills when you need it most. But the love I have for these pales in comparison to my all time favorite..... The Wide. Oh the wide, how beautiful you are.I would hug you but you are just too ...... ? tall(?) , but not from top to bottom kind of tall, the other one...?

2nd dumb comment in under a day from NYC. Can you all just keep to your own Times please and stop polluting us with this rubbish.

Rhombus, Japan,

The iPOD touch brings the range bang up to date and is certainly the product I've been waiting for not wanting to tie in to a horrendously long contract to get the iPHONE when it (eventually) gets to Europe.

However, I am sick and tired of Apple (and other companies) fleecing us in the UK! They are basically charging double the price for an iPOD touch in their UK store than the US price. Given the current exchange rate shouldn't it be the other way around? Similar pricing strategies on iTunes also really annoy me to the extent that I prefer buying CDs online and loading them through iTunes!

Marios Patrinos, Reading, UK

Big deal. It doesn't hold 15,000+ songs, so what's the use?

I'll keep my old one(s).

David Harrison, Manchester, UK

Pure hype - sure Apple now how integrate the various multimedia functions consumers now expect into a beautifully presented device, but the fact is others have been doing it for better, and for longer.

The fuss that is being made about the "acceleromoter" surprises me, my Canon digital camera that I've had for about three years has exactly this feature.

I think the fact that Apple can still generate such excitement over a revision of a product that was first sold over five years ago pays testament to the fact that consumers in general will buy what they are told to. If only Apple could pay more attention to actually standing by their products for longer (like Dyson) and supporting those customers with paperweight iPods (sometimes only two to three months after the 12 month guarantee period expires), I would probably say that I really do admire the company.

Hassan Azam, Banbury , Oxfordshire

Interesting story about Apple. As a long-time fan of Apple products I wonder how they keep designing such great items. What a R&D team they must have. Story should have been proofread before it was published though. If the Times can't get things right, who can?

Doug Schop, Cpquitlam B.C., Canada

Apple may be turning into the new wal-mart/microsoft wtih its ethos of profit over ethics...but if it has wi-fi and a 120gb hard drive, I'll have one!!!

Dale Drake, Salisbury, England

And this would have absolutely nothing to do with the fact that they've realised too late that their iphone was hacked open pretty darn quickly.....

Martin, St Andrews, Scotland

just check Archos 704, iPod is so late......

Kastis, Ottawa, Canada

Built by geeks for geeks. I've always felt kinda sad for people who feel they can't possibly be anywhere without such crutches, and choose to live, attached to ear buds, in a bubble of electronic exile.

With a standard laptop for work (+ roaming internet), a tv at home (with much bigger screen), stereo, and a standard mobile phone, I have all bases adequately covered..... dare I suggest to the 'daleks' that its more sociable and more fun and and open ones senses to the wider world?

steve p, Christchurch, New Zealand

Try Amazon USA

Dave Madley, Alicante, Spain

There we go again....Apple over hyping and charging their fans an arm and a leg for devices that companies like Archos and creative and Cowon have out in the market for years. Apple is like that next door girl , who got a god father in the movie industry ('media') ..and became a famous actress who people love.
I think in other countries folks who paid $200 more for Apple's lacklusture iphone would have probably sued Apple by now ...for 'overcharging' on a subpar devices. These folks should checkout other gizmos like the Nokia N series. I would conclud folks who buy Apple are simple dumb...be dumb and buy Apple !!

Faisal, Tampa, US

i take it you haven't been getting much recently then Mia?

Peter, Hong Kong,

I'm sure that Abbott of London understands aspect ratio: his comment is clearly ironic. In these days of ever bigger TV screens, that a 3.5 inch screen of any aspect could be called wide is certainly a new application of the term. How do you teach irony to an American?

On a different note - and I'm joking here in case anyone doubts it - I never realised that iPods had 'Lunch' (Third paragraph from the end)

Andy, Derby, UK

Widescreen would have to be at least 700mm across...

dachaidh, rhu, scotland

Can't see anyone buying them to get 8Gb or 16Gb, given the standard or classic iPods already offered 80Gb and this article talks about a 160Gb coming soon. The reason the 80Gb came out was to support video.

I have a 30Gb iPod, which was the max size at the time and I filled it up pretty quickly with my music.

So, unless people are going to be constantly loading up new videos to watch each day, can't really see these catching on....other than the initial batch who have more money than sense and just want to show off the latest toy.

P. McDevitt, Oshawa, Canada

a 3.5 inch screen held at the same distance as you would to read a book is the same as a watching a 32inch screen from about 6 feet away. also widescreen refers to the ratio between the height and width of the screen.
the trick is not how large the screen is but whether or not there is anything worth watching.

snowboy, edmonton,

It's OK bringing this out and I am sure it will be a huge success, though they need to give a little more that the usual 4 hour viewing time. In all honesty once an Ipod is over 1 year old you are lucky to get 2 hours out of it!
Also, if it has got 120gb the hassle of turning all your video files into MP4's is slow to say the least. Apple will only be truely global when they stop pushing their Operating systems on everybody.

Jimmy, stockholm, sweden

Media has??????????

Barry James, Sevres, France

With regards to the first poster's query regarding the announcement to shop turnaround, Apple has announced that the new products will be available on the internet and in stores this weekend (how long initial supplies will last remains to be seen, but the hype over here hasnt been as large as the IPhone launch was but I do believe that Apple's priority is to have as many of these products available in reasonable supplies prior to the XMas shopping binge.

jeff, westfield, MA/ USA

Instead of introducing new iPods, Apple should support the thousands (millions?) of broken iPods out there. My iPod Mini died in August, just 5 months after the warranty expired. So did many other iPod Minis of the same vintage. (I’m calling it “The Month the Music Died.”) But Apple refuses to recognize this as an “event.” Their Tech Support suggested that I purchase a new one . . .

Janet, Eugene, OR

The bigger news that the article overlooked is that it allows you to buy music directly from the device itself over wifi.
this is the biggest news from today - the impulse buy is now available for monetisation

robbie, london, uk

Why is everything "sexy" from phones to cars, to foods, to clothes, to jewellry, to booze, to appliances to everything in existence. l suppose sex is not just restricted to the opposite sex anymore but with everything and everyone. The whole world does not know how to appreciate sex anymore but has tainted the beauty of it. It has made it ugly, depraved, sordid, dirty, trashy, laughable (playboy), and even criminal !! Sex is created for the sole purpose of bonding 2 souls together physically and spirtually and appreciating the results of creating a new being.

Mia, Brisbane, Australia

Arrghh! I'm off to the states next week and was going to buy an ipod as the $ rate is so good. If a new version is announced it will put me off as i'll effecitvely be buying an out of date sytem. Does anyone know what Apple's history of 'announcement to shop' time-lag is? If I can get my hands on a new one that'll be a big bonus!

Paul, London,

Because when rotated through 90 degrees, it is wider than it is taller!

Jason Scrutton, London,

"wide screen" refers to the aspect ratio (length / width) not the actual size of the screen.

Wilber, Los Angeles, California

That's aspect ratio silly, not size.

Justin, Washington, DC

How does Apple contribute to the hype if it doesn't say anything about a product? It's the bloggers, analysts and news media that build the hype and buzz. Apple said it was going hold a special event. That's all. It was the media that added the product, it's features and how many are going to be sold. It's media speculation that feeds the fires, not Apple.
Apple would be hard pressed to get all those features claimed into an iPod for $300 unless they take a huge profit margin hit and I doubt that's likely.

Constable Odo, Jamaica, NY

While sales may be flat for the new iPod, it should not be forgotten that those who bought the iPhone, already have a touch screen iPod.

Wayne, Mississauga, canada

wide is a shape not a size so wide doesn't mean big

joe hansome, NYC, NY

by the looks of things, "widescreen" is referring to aspect ratio.

tim, milford,

What new terminological vista have we reached when a 3.5-inch display is described as "wide screen"?

Abbott Katz, London, England,