Yesterday I got myself caught up in various blog posts around places like Engadget speaking of the new Apple iPod. The iPod, claimed to be a “true” video iPod, has any interesting features… the main being the most obvious by the obviously fake (yes, we all know by now that they are fake) images.

   
It looks spiffy, but it looks a bit too much of a leap forward. I’d support a device like this all the way, not because I’m in love with all screens of the touch variety, but because I’ve been looking for an excuse to buy a new iPod and actually have it be worthy for my upwards of 60 gigs of video. I want space for all of my music and all of my video, and if I can’t have both on the same iPod, what’s the point? If this new device has what it should, a nice big HDD awaits.The entire screen is a touch screen, meaning the click wheel is digital. For those worried about smudges, don’t complain about your greasy fingers. Perhaps you should wash your hands more. Or wipe the screen afte you touch it. Or maybe Apple’s got some genius invention that’ll stop smudging. Who knows?It can be rotated from portrait to landscape view, for watching movies in 16:9 or whatever crazy resolution these images are set in. These mock-ups have no resolution that complys to any video standard whatsoever, so what the real product will be remains a mystery of sorts. Apple, however, has patented this touchscreen technology already, or at the very least from what I hear the digital clickwheel technology, so these mock-ups may not be too shy of the real product that comes out.

Why so soon? Rumours say that this device may come out April of this year, but the 5th generation was just released. Of course, even though the 5th generation is new, it has its problems, the main being the battery, second the small screen. Not many people are willing to sacrafice good ol’ Mr. DVD Player for a tiny screen like the iPod’s - I know I wouldn’t, because many things I watch have subtitles that need to be read. If I can’t read them, why watch? Enter in the 6th gen, with it’s huge 3.5″ (Wow, that sounds like quite the oxymoron…) screen that can enter into landscape view for all us people who like widescreen big on the go. With Apple, I can only expect that the’ll have fixed, or at least moderately tweaked, the battery life of the machine. If they haven’t, I can’t see this thing running more than ten minutes of video.I suppose we now wait and see what they come out with.