The iPod classic looks like it's getting the runt's end of the "Let's Rock" magic wand today—with boosted storage to 120GB for $250, up from 80GB for the same price. And it's death for the 160GB thickie, matching the Zune's lineup to a tee. Same form factor and colors as last time. Now, the largest iPod money can buy has been downgraded by 40GB—seem like a strange move to backtrack like this to anyone else?

Shaking the player activates Shuffle Mode and tilting allows scanning of Cover Flow when the nano is held in landscape. The nano's storage will jump to 8GB and 16GB.

Not a lot of information on the iPod classic and iPod shuffle. The classic is said to come in two colors (probably white silver and black) with the shuffle available in five colors.

The iPod touch will have no color choices and retain the same storage options of 8, 16 and 32GB.

Oh, and the last juicy tidbit from the rumors: The new iPods are supposed to be available at Apple stores today. [AppleInsider]

[Impress]

In an otherwise surprise-free keynote today, one without booms or "one more thing"s, one bit of news stood out: White made a quiet return to the iPod family in the premium 16GB iPhone 3G. Sure, it never fully left Apple—remaining the default color for earbuds, plugs, power bricks, AirPort products and the cheapest MacBooks—but we were finally getting used to a world without white iPods. Does this mean after nine short months put out to the pastures, white is already retro-cool again?

This time around, white won't be for everybody. Once the staple color of the iPod revolution, white will be a statement for those bold enough to sport a phone that bright. It's incredible; when Jobs dropped a little black on the masses, we thought that was radical, but eventually accepted it as the norm. When most Apple products went brushed-aluminum, we were again stunned, but now we think nothing of it. Today white, the color that we accepted from the beginning, is back, this time on an iPhone, and it looks like the most far-out Apple product yet.

Will the return of white in the iPhone set a pattern for the iPod touch, classic, and others? Will white be the new, well, white, taking back the reins as the most popular color? Will the color make its way back to Apple's high-style MacBook Air? Can Jobs, Jonathan Ive and the Cupertino crew keep us on our toes forever by recycling the same three finishes? Most importantly, are you a person that's bold enough to rock this flamboyant new phone? I, for one, am not. [Apple]

Blood was reported to spill from the deceased, unfortunate test animals, but it was instantly turned to water. Blood to water—not even Jesus could do that. The officials that attended were so in awe of the dazzling power, they prevented any further development until the Death Ray Machine could be put to a useful, defensive purpose by the government. No one knows what became of the Death Ray Machine, but we think it just may be the scariest vaporware ever. [Modern Mechanix via Boing Boing]

1. Maxell Digital Earbuds 191208

Better fit, deep in the ear. Volume control on wire. But soft sound levels, and a slight static. Music was in the other room, not my ears.
Price: $15.95
Verdict: Staticky, NOT BETTER

2. Genius HP-02 Live

Once again, deep ear fit. These bad boys are exploring places of my body I didn't know I had. Sound doesn't have a bad balance, but once again, nothing spectacular here.
Price: $9.99
Verdict: Frisky but NOT BETTER

3. Philips SHE2650

Design is very similar to iPod headphones, as is the sound. But these are just a hair less sparkling than Apple's headphones with even less impressive lows.
Price: $7.99
Verdict: Has a case, NOT BETTER

4. Jlabs JBuds Hi-Fi

These had the strongest bass of any model we tested. And they gave Bolero, our test song, more of a stage feel. But fidelity was lacking. So while the headphones sound "big" they don't always sound so clear.
Price: $19.19
Verdict: NOT BETTER

5. Coby Super Bass CV-E92

The balance reminded me of the jLab model we tested, possibly with even better clarity in some ranges. There is certainly more bass in these headphones than Apple's offerings, but while it makes us crave more lows in the iPod stock earbuds, Coby doesn't touch the present highs to mids of Apple. They're a pretty sweet deal for $5 though.
Price: $4.88
Verdict: A bargain, but NOT BETTER

6. Koss BDZ1 Two-Pack Earbud Headphones with Case

Unresponsive. Very quiet at a given volume level compared to the ipod earbuds. But for this price, you get TWO sets of earbuds and a case.
Price: $8.01
Verdict: (NOT BETTER X 2) + Case

7. Philips SHS3201/37 Flexible Earhook w/ Bud -White

I'd expected these fancy white headphones to sound better, given Philips' reputation and the solid placement coming from the earhooks, but they were loud, but less clear than the iPod's.
Price: $8.38
Verdict: White, impossible to Shake Off, but NOT BETTER

Also of note, the iPod earbuds fit the Nano a lot better than competitors. We think this is mostly because the earbud jack isn't bent on Apple's model, unlike all the other models which bend at a 90-degree angle before the wire. A non-bending plug translates to less cord rotation and subsequent static/pops.

As for fitting the ears, most models on the market now offer multiple sized earplug adapters. If Apple's earbuds aren't fitting you correctly, then don't think twice about finding something more comfortable or just using the black foam inserts. You'll never get optimal sound out of any headphone that doesn't fit you properly, anyway.

At the end of the day, Apple might not give us the best headphones around with our iPods, but they're not highway robbery either. Given that they were better than quite a few $20 and under models, we're thinking that $30 isn't the most ludicrous price in the world, and "free with iPod" is looking pretty freaking decent.

Cover Flow now loses some of its simplistic design in favour of a closer rendition to the iTunes layout. Album art and names are a little better adapted than previously, and the changes seemed to have made the lagging issue less noticeable. That is a great for now, but we would like to see the slow down lost completely.

The TV Out lock has been partially eliminated; the new options allow you to choose between 'On', 'Off' or 'Ask'. With the settings on either 'On' or 'Ask,' a prompt occurs prior to playback requesting a connection to an Apple authorized accessory. The guys at iLounge managed to get video playback working by starting with an authorized accessory, and then switching across to a non-official device. Sadly, it didn't "just work," and seems far from a workable solution to us. The upgrade is available for download now. [iLounge]

But is the new iPod classic really an improvement? Or are we just a bunch of sheep, following one another to the nearest Apple store because Something Better has arrived? Hit the jump for our Frankenreview: the final verdict on the iPod cassic, because it's 10 reviews in one.

iLounge
For $249, you now get...a 2.7x jump in storage capacity, a 2.14x jump in audio run time, and a 1.43x jump in video play time for the same price.

PCWorld
Turn the classic on, and you'll notice the other hardware change: a new LED-backlit screen. It sports the same 2.5-inch-diagonal size and 320-by-240-pixel resolution as the previous version, but the expanded color reproduction it offers was noticeable in my side-by-side tests with an 80GB video iPod.

CoolTechZone
We absolutely adore the display, even though it features the same 320x280 resolution despite a 0.5-inch increase in display size from the initial 2.0-inch on the new iPod nano...[the classic is] far more comfortable for videos.
CNET
The classic's most impressive design improvement is its dramatically overhauled menu system. One of the most striking changes is a split-screen main menu that displays the selections on the right half of the screen and a picture related to the selection on the left...the end result is quite beautiful.

YahooTech
The one big UI change, of course, is the addition of Cover Flow to the new iPods, and while it certainly does the job...it's definitely slow and jittery—not at all the smooth experience I've come to expect on iTunes, or even the iPhone.

iPodClassicReview
...Cover Flow, that stupid system where you see the album art scrolling around. I personally find this to be a waste of time. As a lot of my digital music does not have cover art, it ends up just being a bunch of blank covers flowing by.

Arstechnica
What we see here is that the new sixth generation iPod, when allowing the menu animations to complete...takes, on average, an extra second or two to complete, nearly 45 percent longer than the previous models. While one or two seconds might not seem like a lot, and it's spread out over a few menu transitions, it can become quite annoying for someone who is used to the speed of the previous model.
WashingtonPost
I suppose I could re-rip most of my music in Apple Lossless. A 160GB player holds 600 CDs' worth of lossless-compressed tunes, more than enough space for my non-eMusic recordings.

PCAdvisor
For those who worried that the iPhone's recessed headphone jack was a sign of things to come, both the iPod classic and iPod nano have headphone jacks that can be used with third-party headphones without requiring an adapter.
Gizmodo
I know it's tough to tell what to believe when you see so many different voiced stacked on top of one another. But if you've used iPods in the past, know that the delays (though slight) may be incredibly frustrating. Boo to Apple on that. You'll have to decide if the annoyance is worth the extra space and battery life. And at the end of the day, it probably is.

In addition to the metal plate, the deconstruction revealed the nano has approximately the same surface area as the previous nanos, and there is an increased use of adhesive in assembling the iPods. The adhesive is only worth noting because it could make replacing your own battery a more daunting task. See the entire gallery over at iFixit. [iFixit via Apple Insider]

In a week where Apple hasn't made the most popular decisions(iPhone price cut HELLO), this probably won't gain them any cool points. No official statement has been issued by Apple, so it's tough to say there is a good reason for this, or if it is just an oversight. Either way, it's a tough pill to swallow for those who shelled out a lot of money for old video gear and now want a new iPod. [iLounge]

The 80GB classic has a 3mm-thinner hard drive than its predecessor, the iPod video, and there was a metal plate inside which, iFixit speculated, was probably to give an extra layer of support to the display. While the battery inside the classic is identical to the 30GB iPod video, the plastic tabs of the earlier model have been replaced by metal ones, making the case much harder to open. Gah!

What sets the new nano aside from the earlier models is, apparently, adhesive. Nothing but strong glue is used to keep the wheel in place, which means that it's harder to put back together again once you take it apart (this was not a problem for the iFixit gang, however.) The battery is, like the second-gen nano, attached to the logic board by three through-hole solder-points, and for the headphone jack, they have gone back to how it was on the first-gen model and soldered it to the logic board. [iFixit and iFixit again]

There's also Belkin's Remix Acrylic Case for nano ($24), classic and touch ($29), the Remix Metal case for nano ($24) and classic ($29), the Leather Sleeve for nano ($24), classic and touch ($29), the Leather Folio for nano ($24), classic and touch ($29), and the Silicone for nano ($14), classic and touch ($19). [Belkin]

• By Gender•

While the iPod Touch did win in overall votes, women actually preferred the iPod nano more. The tiny competitor received 32% of their votes. And the poor shuffle, no matter what gender, only picked up 4% of the votes with either sex.

• By Age•

With the 13-17, 18-24 and 25-34 crowds all favoring the iPod touch, there seems to be a trend going on here. Although the aging Facebook'ers, 35-49, gave the finger to the iPod Touch (Get it? The Finger. Touch. Sorry-BL) and heralded two new winners, the iPod nano and the iPhone both coming in with 30% of the geriatric vote.

[Facebook]

If you add the Steve Jobs boom count (1 boom, 36 minutes into the presentation) to the number of hardware announcements (5-iPhone, touch, classic, nano & shuffle), then subtract the closing day stock price at WWDC '07 ($120.19) divided by the opening day stock price ($145.12), and then finally subtract our two cents, you get 5.15—the same as the percentage drop in Apple's stock today.

1+5-($120.19/$145.12)-.02=5.15 (rounded off)

See, we can be analysts too! [AAPL]

• iPod touch's 16GB of flash - Solid-state can't deliver enough storage capacity yet—shoulda risked the bulkier, more fragile HDD, Steve!
• 99-cent ringtone surcharge - All for using your own damn songs on your own damn iPhone.
• The slightly Hobbit-esque look of the nano - A little plump around the edges, no? I half-expected hairy toes.
• No free browsing in Starbucks - Give us a little taste for free, eh? How very crack-dealer of you.
• No email app for the touch - The software is written, the platform is there—please don't make me check Gmail on Safari!!

There's actually one thing we're torn on, and that is being torn. We love so large a bounty of worthy toys, but I am sad that there are now three very different products from which I will have to choose. This may sound blasphemous, but I'll say it: there is no One True iPod.

The white iPod might have started it all off, but sure enough, it has been moved out of the spotlight.

Obviously there were the colorful mini's, but they never had a white option to begin with. The first true blow came with the shuffle going silver, exclusively.

But nobody thought much of this since it was just a shuffle, the lowest rung of the iPod totem poll. However, when the nano quickly followed suit and moved to a white-less lineup, a warning shot had definitely been fired.

Some buzz was generated by the obvious move to a color-only selection, but it didn't matter because we always will have our premium big daddy iPod sporting the purest color of all.

But then earlier today Steve struck the final nail into whitey's coffin, the iPod touch came sporting a svelte black look and the iPod classic went with black & silver color options. Nowhere was a white iPod to be found.

With one little event, Apple had dropped the color scheme that had started it all. Goodbye white iPod, you spun an entire electronics style movement, you will not soon be forgotten...as long as we have these stupid white earbuds to remind us.

It's definitely thin. The 80GB model is slightly thinner than the old 30GB, but they didn't have any 160GB models on display. The only thing I have to complain about is that the touchwheel needs a little more sensitivity. Other than that, 80 and 160GB of your music all in one place is nothing to sneeze at.

Atari joystick candle-holder [Boing Boing]

Here is my problem: This "3310 Classic" looks nothing like the vintage 3310. The only similar feature is the candybar or "brick" form factor. I am thoroughly disappointed in Nokia trying to exploit the classic 3310 to hock another ho-hum cellphone. –Travis Hudson

Nokia 3310 Classic Gets FCC Nod [MobileWhack]

The current Pocket PC Phone Edition (touchscreen, Mobile Office) is going to be Professional, whereas the current Smartphone (no touchscreen, no Mobile Office), is the Standard, and the current Pocket PC Edition (for PDAs, no calling) will be the Classic. These names still don't really do a good job of describing how one does or does not have touchscreen and other functionality, but it's a lot better than what they had before. – Jason Chen

Crossbow Info [Pocketinfo via Crunchgear]

Product Page [11-fingers]