The manual gadget

4 inch 5th generation iPod Touch Many changes

Apple just announced their 5th Gen iPod Touch which is a big improvement over the previous version. Size-wise, it’s thinner and lighter than it’s predecessor at just 6.1mm thick and weighs just 88 grams. The 4th Gen Touch was 7.2mm thick and weighs 101 grams.

This new iPod Touch also has a squarer back with a brushed aluminum finish so no more shiny chrome to scratch. It even has what they call the iPod Touch loop at the back where you can attach a wrist strap.

Biggest improvement in my opinion would be the size of the screen. It now has a 4-inch screen which is similar to the iPhone 5’s display. That’s a widescreen Retina display (1136 x 640) with multi-touch IPS technology.

Next big thing is the 5-megapixel iSight camera which has a backside illumination f/2.4 sensor with the same Five-element lens as that of their new iPhone. It can also do Full HD 1080p video recording and take stills at the same time. The 1.2mp front camera can do FaceTime HD and 720p video recording.

Apple also upgrade the processor on the new iPod Touch giving it a dual-core A5 chip which is used by the iPhone 4S. This makes it 7x faster in graphics compared to the old Touch. Makes editing with iMovie manageable as well.

The new iPod Touch will make use of Apple’s new 8-pin connector called “Lightning”. This makes your old speaker docks obsolete unless you purchase an adapter for this new connector. It will also run on iOS6 and will have Siri on board!

Lastly, it will come in five colors – raw aluminum, black, blue, yellow and red. It comes in 32GB ($299) and 64GB ($399) models with the new EarPod (reshaped earbuds) included. The iPod Touch 5th Gen will start shipping in October.

A major upgrade indeed that will probably make unsold iPod Touch 4th gen stay unsold. =)