Apple launches "enhanced" 5.5G iPod

Not quite the video iPod we were hoping for, not by a long shot, but Apple is refreshing their flagship iPod (with video) models today with a whole lotta' software love, and a couple hardware tweaks for good measure. The screen is now 60% brighter, the battery can last up to 3.5 hours during video playback, and the iPod includes new headphones, but otherwise the specs remain the same. As for software, the iPod is finally getting gapless playback, text-based search and brightness controls, along with a whole slew of games. The 'Pod has Bejeweled, Cubis 2, Mahjong, Mini Golf, Pac Man, Tetris, Texas Hold 'Em, Vortex, and Zuma bundled, and you can nab new games for $5 each off of iTunes. Maybe the best news is that Apple is dropping the prices and bumping the storage: you can get a spankin' new 30GB iPod for $250, and the new 80 gigger for $350. No word yet on availability.

[Frank @ Sep 12th 2006 1:26PM]

Will the 60gb version still weigh a ton? If it will, then it won't be worth it. Also, first post!

[willhockey16 @ Sep 12th 2006 1:26PM]

I smell some dissapoinment

[David puffer @ Sep 12th 2006 1:32PM]

I have the 5G 60b and now the new version is $250!? The 80gb for 350. Plus, these claim to have a 60% brighter screen with adjustability and a 75% better battery life. The battery life is all I care about.

[Dave @ Sep 12th 2006 1:33PM]

What's the output resolution? Is it still 480x360, or have they upped it to SDTV yet?

[YankInOz @ Sep 12th 2006 1:35PM]

available today - 30 and 80 gig, new nano - 2nd gen shuffle availabel in October

[Jay @ Sep 12th 2006 1:36PM]

Judging from the pics you've got on the live coverage, you've got the prices wrong, $250 is for a THIRTY gig iPod.. NOT 60.

[creanium @ Sep 12th 2006 1:37PM]

Um, I don't think it's a 6G iPod, it's still only a 5G, just with some updates.

Also it's the 30GB model for $249 and the 80GB for $349.

Just look here: http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/2006/09/dsc_0888.jpg

[Josh Warner @ Sep 12th 2006 1:45PM]

Typo in the post: the lower model remains at 30 GB, and has NOT been bumped to 60GB capacity.

[Ran @ Sep 12th 2006 2:36PM]

Since Apple didn't introduce a new widescreen model what's the best WS portable video player?
Creative Zen Vision W?

[pelagato @ Sep 12th 2006 2:37PM]

So the 6g is still 320x240 screen resolution, and by soft they play 640x480? that’s not good at all.

We want 640x480 screen resolution!

[Evan @ Sep 12th 2006 2:38PM]

Since Samsung announced 32GB and 64GB Flash memory, these will probably be the last harddisk-based iPods.

[aksha @ Sep 12th 2006 2:39PM]

i think you've misstype the title... 6GB? :D

[Dave @ Sep 12th 2006 2:39PM]

Games. Well, I'm in the game developing industry so this is an interesting, uh, development. But I am thunderstruck that with all the fullscreen products out there, Apple still expects people to squint into this tiny little 2" screen. Perhaps they announced iTV now so the star of Q1 could be the fullscreen vPod, but I have decided to quit holding my breath today. I'm sitting here, defeated, staring at my venerable old 1G iPod, and it's staring back at me, mockingly, like the elephantine, black & white bastard that it is.

[dc @ Sep 12th 2006 2:39PM]

I'm wondering how well the games will control using just the clickwheel.

[Adrian @ Sep 12th 2006 2:39PM]

$249 = £133. Yes the Aple UK store is selling them for £189; I'd expect a litle mark-up, but nowhere near that much.

[jonny-choonz @ Sep 12th 2006 2:40PM]

when will a firmware update be available for existing 5gs? will the firmware update include text search, gapless playback etc?

[JD @ Sep 12th 2006 2:40PM]

That's it?! Where's my widescreen video iPod?! I guess I'll have to wait til Q1. Hopefully something better will be announced with the new iTV.

[DBX00 @ Sep 12th 2006 2:41PM]

umm...can you fast forward and rewind movies on this thing? last time I checked, you couldn't do that with the old versions...

[JinKazama @ Sep 12th 2006 2:41PM]

Cool not really a reason to replace my current 5G though.

The only "update" on the hardware side is to the screen and earphones. The extended battery life...can all be achieved through a firmware update, unless they put a higher capacity battery in there (which I doubt).

The question I have is will we be able to update the current 5G with the software updates to get gapless playback, text based search, brightness controls, extended battery life...?

[David @ Sep 12th 2006 2:41PM]

6.5 hour battery for video on the 80gb version, nice!

[Jan @ Sep 12th 2006 2:42PM]

Interestingly enough:

The Creative ZEN Vision:M has had some of these updated iPod features for a few months now, like:
1) Letter scrolling to find a song title, artist, album
2) Keyword search
3) Screen brightness adjustments
4) 4 hour plus battery life for video playback

I'm sure the games will appeal to some users as will the gapless playback.

As a Mac owner and ZEN Vision:M user its nice to see that Apple is making strides to create a better music player.

[eskwyre @ Sep 12th 2006 2:42PM]

no widescreen ipod!?!?! damm you!

[Radar @ Sep 12th 2006 2:43PM]

any word on software updates to let the "original" 5g ipod be able to use that search feature?

[zune @ Sep 12th 2006 2:43PM]

Those price drops seem significant

[Roess3333 @ Sep 12th 2006 2:44PM]

WHAT? NO LARGER SCREEN IPOD VIDEO?

i'm just going to go ahead and buy this tiny vaio which is going to cost me 2500+...

apple, you dissapoint me once again =(

[stevo @ Sep 12th 2006 2:45PM]

STILL NO STUDENT DISCOUNTS ON THE NEW IPODS!!! I am not happy.

[tomzero @ Sep 12th 2006 2:45PM]

Still no fullsize-screen :-( When will Apple FINALLY come up with a iPod-Movie-Screen worth the name?

[Martin @ Sep 12th 2006 2:47PM]

Anyone heard anything about a software upgrade for the 60GB iPOD (bought it 2 weeks ago for £300 -- Bah!)

[Ben Hollis @ Sep 12th 2006 2:49PM]

What I want to know is - will the new software be available for 5G iPods as an update? I noticed that Apple's iPod update page now tells you to just download iTunes 7 - there's no getting away from it, is there?

[GB @ Sep 12th 2006 2:49PM]

Glad they left the iPod alone. It is primarily a music player and should always be primarily a music player. Hopefully this will remain the case now that iTV is on the scene.

[Erik @ Sep 12th 2006 2:51PM]

Apple website seems to indicate that this is a upgraded 5g ipod, not a 6g ipod. At the bottom of http://www.apple.com/ipod/ipod.html it says
"See more of the fifth-generation iPod.
Browse the gallery."

[alex @ Sep 12th 2006 2:53PM]

We'll I'm not even an apple fanboy.... but I just bought an 80gb my 60gb was full and I could care less about the video or all the other stuff I just need more space for music...

[shirizaki @ Sep 12th 2006 2:56PM]

Wow. I wanted some WS iPod lovin'. Still I'll have to walk into a demo store to see this "60% brighter screen" in person. Then it's the comparison between this and the Gigabeat S.

[Magus @ Sep 12th 2006 2:58PM]

So my question is if the ipod is hitting the peak of its cycle how is a slight revamp on it going to solve this?

I was kind of hoping aplle would break into a video ipod or something to such an extent. An improvement on the curent ver isnt going to help much, especially since the prices about equivalent of a decent video player.

[Cordell @ Sep 12th 2006 2:58PM]

The Apple Store say these ship in 1-3 business days

[Rasmus @ Sep 12th 2006 3:00PM]

Why is the premium iPod still made from cheap-looking plastic? My next expensive portable gadget will probably not be something that is like a magnet for scratches...

[husky99 @ Sep 12th 2006 3:03PM]

To those who are commenting on improved battery life please notice that the music playback time has remained the same @ 14/20. I'm curious to know if there is new video hardware in this 5G-b version that improved the video playback battery life while also increasing the supported resolution or this is just firmware updates which 5G-a users should be able to also take advantage of.
I bet it is the latter considering the install base of the 5G-a would be alienated since it doesn't support H.264 higher than 320 x 240 and those movies are only available in 640 x 480.

[digicam @ Sep 12th 2006 3:04PM]

SJob does deliver one disappointment after the other recently. Oh ah, now 640 x 480 for what ? Every Laptop nowadays has higher res, my TV has 1920 x 1080, IPod has less. So who does he address with 640 x 480 some people who still use VGA CRT's ? Everything is going HD or at least 16:9 and Apple comes out to make a big huuu about 640 x 480. I think this guy lost touch with the world. Or has bad tech advisors (like his fashion advisors).

So the best PMP's are Cowoon A2 and the Creative Zen Vision W. And after today we know Apple doesn't have the punch for another 6 to 9 months to bring something to beat them.

60% brighter sounds just like the old screen did suck. Other companies call 60% brighter a bugfix :)

Shuffle ? what's the point with that one ? As if there are not millions of these tiny mp3 players with crapy or no display at all.

iTV lookout to keep people on board, cause there was just lots of hot air in the pipeline today ?

[PEZ @ Sep 12th 2006 3:04PM]

The question is $250 to go to an 8GB nano, or a 60GB 5Ge?

Wahooaoaoaa. Also, is t he 60 thinner?

[Titanas @ Sep 12th 2006 3:04PM]

Unless Apple and Samsung resolve the issues with the new chip for the new video iPod will see no new iPod. Rumors are around that the new Samsung chip is difficult to program and that causes headaches to Apple.

[Jon @ Sep 12th 2006 3:07PM]

This is NOT 6G -- it is just an updated 5G. By your logic, the color 4G's would be 5G --- after all, the ability to view photos and have a color screen is a MUCH BIGGER update than this one. The title to this post should be corrected.

[Michael @ Sep 12th 2006 3:10PM]

Wow, Apple is finally doing gapless playback... I've been waiting for that feature, I could upgrade my 4G just for that.

[Alison Scott @ Sep 12th 2006 3:11PM]

Bejewelled aka Diamond Mine, the game that Nintendo ripped off to make Zookeeper, is the classic killer app for stylus-enabled PDAs and other devices. Playing it on an iPod? Not so much. Ditto most of the other games here. Shame; want an iPod with better games.

[William @ Sep 12th 2006 3:17PM]

Quit whining.

$50 cheaper and gapless playback (finally)? Glad I waited all this time to pick one up.

I've already ordered my 30GB.

[o0adam0o @ Sep 12th 2006 3:17PM]

Oh great! Now they say it $250 for a 30gb......i was all happy thinkin the 60gb was $250.....THANKS ALOT!

[rlpm @ Sep 12th 2006 3:20PM]

This page needs some updating. The battery life is 6.5 hours for video, 20 hours for audio on both 30GB and 80GB models, for $249 and $349, respectively.

[Usman @ Sep 12th 2006 3:21PM]

WHY do they have to keep everything so secert ??? I mean i just bought 60GB iPod Video for $399 about 10 days ago. and now they are selling 80GB iPod for $349 ??? It makes me wanna kick my self. HARD .

If i'd known... i.e. IF they had annouced earlier that there's gonna be a new better, cheaper version of iPod, I'd have waited... I am so sad... I HATE Apple

[Roess3 @ Sep 12th 2006 3:24PM]

no larger screen on ipod video...
looks like i'll just buy a 10 inch laptop with 7+ hour battery life for a lot more money... =(

[kyle @ Sep 12th 2006 3:27PM]

I just plugged my 60GB 5G into iTunes 7 and it said my software was up-to-date. SO if we can update our current iPods to take advantage of gapless play back it hasn't been released yet.

[David Catalano @ Sep 12th 2006 3:42PM]

What is the point of HDMI when the output is only 640x480. Do you know what that's going to look like on my 103in Panasonic LCD TV? http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/09/panasonics-103-incher-up-close-and-personal/