As we reported this morning, Apple has today launched a new version of the iPod touch, featuring a 64-bit A8 CPU. This breaks a long run of neglect for Apple’s cheapest iOS device, which last received an update way back in 2012. It will be a huge leap in performance over the previous iPod touch which featured an A5 SoC. Both the front and back cameras have been improved, with the back shooter now featuring 8 megapixels of resolution.
The new iPod touch is also available for the first time in gold matching the iPhone and iPad in addition to new dark blue and pink case options. The iPod touch is also getting a storage bump at least at the higher end — there is now a $399 128 GB model. The base $199 iPod touch remains the same with 16 GB of onboard storage, the 32 GB model is $249 and the 64 GB version is $299.
There are also updates to the iPod shuffle and iPod nano, although these are merely cosmetic changes to fascia of the products. The shuffle and nano now come in dark blue, pink and gold variants.
The new iPod touch also includes the M8 motion coprocessor for fitness tracking, just like the iPhone, as well as support for 802.11ac. The front camera now supports burst mode for quick selfie shots. The prices and specs of the iPod nano and shuffle remain the same.
“iPod touch gives customers around the world access to Apple Music, the App Store and iOS, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, starting at just $199,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of iPhone, iPod and iOS Product Marketing. “With big advancements like the A8 chip and the 8 megapixel iSight camera, customers can experience next-level gameplay, take even more beautiful photos and enjoy their favorite music, TV shows and movies.”
Despite an improved camera, the new iPod touch does not include the wrist-strap ‘Loop’ that the previous generation incorporated into its design. You can buy all of the new iPods from Apple.com right now.
Apple Introduces The Best iPod touch Yet
Featuring New Colors, A8 Chip, 8 Megapixel iSight Camera & Apple Music
CUPERTINO, California — July 15, 2015 — Apple® today introduced the best iPod touch® yet and unveiled a new lineup of colors for all iPod® models, including space gray, silver, gold, pink and blue. The ultra-portable iPod touch features a new 8 megapixel iSight® camera for beautiful photos, an improved FaceTime® HD camera for even better selfies, the Apple-designed A8 chip with 10 times faster graphics performance for a more immersive gaming experience, and even better fitness tracking with the M8 motion coprocessor. With the newly launched Apple Music™ service, members can enjoy playlists curated by the most talented music experts from around the world, stay in-the-know on music culture with a global 24/7 broadcast on Beats 1℠ radio, and comment on or like backstage photos and videos shared directly by their favorite artists on Connect.
“iPod touch gives customers around the world access to Apple Music, the App Store and iOS, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, starting at just $199,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of iPhone, iPod and iOS Product Marketing. “With big advancements like the A8 chip and the 8 megapixel iSight camera, customers can experience next-level gameplay, take even more beautiful photos and enjoy their favorite music, TV shows and movies.”
With the A8 chip, the same used in the revolutionary iPhone® 6, users can play even more immersive games for hours at a time, all the while with great battery life. iPod touch has become one of the world’s most loved mobile gaming experiences — its 4-inch Retina® display and rich collection of gaming titles are further enhanced with incredible graphics performance and thousands of Metal-optimized games. With the advanced iSight and FaceTime HD cameras, iPod touch owners, for the first time, can have fun with popular features including slo-mo and burst mode, while capturing memories and everyday moments with gorgeous photos and videos. Three times faster Wi-Fi lets customers stay in touch with friends and family through FaceTime calls, and download movies and TV shows with ease.
The App Store℠ on iPod touch, available in 155 countries, gives users access to 1.5 million apps across 24 categories. iPod touch is also the perfect way to carry your music collection in your pocket. iTunes® boasts the world’s largest music catalog, and with Apple Music, customers have access to the revolutionary streaming music service, Beats 1, Apple’s first ever live radio station, and Connect, where artists can communicate directly to fans. Apple Music is available on iPod touch through the Music app — users are invited to a 3-month trial, after which a $9.99/month membership fee will apply. There is a family plan providing service for up to six family members available for just $14.99/month.
iPod touch comes with iOS 8 and a collection of powerful built-in apps. Send unlimited voice and video text messages through iMessage® over Wi-Fi, quickly make edits to your photos with the Photos app and keep track of your fitness and wellness with the Health app. With Family Sharing, up to six family members can share purchases from iTunes, iBooks® and the App Store, along with photos and calendars. Parents can also create Apple IDs for children which includes Ask to Buy where parental permission is required for all purchases.
Pricing & Availability
The new iPod touch starts at $199 (US) for the 16GB model, $249 (US) for 32GB and $299 (US) for 64GB, and the entire iPod family in its five new colors is available starting today through the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers. For the first time, iPod touch is available in a 128GB model for $399 (US) through Apple Retail Stores and the Apple Online Store, along with the (PRODUCT)RED lineup. iPod touch requires a Wi-Fi connection or a Mac® or PC; USB 2.0 port; Mac OS® X v10.7.5 or later; Windows 7, Windows 8 or later; and iTunes 12.2 or later. An Apple ID is required for some iPod touch features.
Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, the Mac and Apple Watch. Apple’s three software platforms — iOS, OS X and watchOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay and iCloud. Apple’s 100,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.
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I don’t see anything on Apples site yet?
Same here. The store is still down for me.
Close safari and re-open it will work. Worked for me.
449$ for the 128gb? Fkin thieves!
449€*
It’s $399 US.
Yes I’m from Europe, and everyting Apple is much more expensive here. The 128GB Touch costs 449€ here, equaling 493$
100$ difference.
When comparing the highest end Macbook Pro, we’re talking of a difference of about 1000$.
you have to subtract the ~20% VAT from that price, then you can see who the real thief is. Prices in the US are generally without VAT (which also is a lot lower).
It’s still cheaper than a 16GB 5S ($550 US), and that only has an A7 processor.
iPhone 5S is a phone. Theres cellular antenna in it, with GPS, there is also Touch ID ib the 5S, completely different story.
Idiot. U.S. prices are, as opposed to european prices, WITHOUT TAX!
Still 4″S?
Didn’t I say they were gonna put the A8 in the new Touch :D
Awesome
One of the best iPod releases ever. Fantastic job Apple!
Is this new ipod faster than iphone 6? Same soc but lower resolution.
IF it isn’t downclocked to maintain battery life (iPod touch has less juice), it will have slightly higher on-screen fps. Don’t expect any visible difference however, as almost every game is optimized per A# chip (specifically each iPhone), so if it runs perfectly on iPhone 6, same on the iPod.
A8! Well that’s a surprise! The Touch should be renamed the iPad nano, as that’s pretty much what it is in every way. Nice.
They eliminated all the older colors such as yellow, green, and purple.
Really hate that they removed the wrist strap. My son has the 5th gen and it comes in handy. Wanted to buy the pink one for my daughter, but without the strap i’m afraid she will drop it.
I have seen cases with wrist straps.
I really don’t understand, why they didn’t update the iPod nano’s UI to the flat look of iOS 9! They still use that glossy iOS 6-like design! Are the people at Apple to lazy to design flat round icons?! That’s really not understandable because the design isn’t consistant with the rest of the software at that point!
I would imagine that the number of people that Apple is willing to pull off of OSX / iOS to work on iPod nano software improvements is pretty low these days.
Very nice. The 16 GB model makes this a very accessible product that can run modern Apps.
Small but interesting fact: the new iPod touch features Bluetooth 4.1. But the iPhone 6 only has 4.0. Does that mean we’ll get an upgrade there with 6s? And ist the 4.1 Standard more power efficient or does it have other enhancements?
i read on wikipedia that bluetooth 4.1 does not require a hardware update but 4.2 does
it has Bluetooth 4.1 instead of 4.0 😯
But as I read it – do we actually realize what Apple did?
They probably had a lot of A8 chips produced, and just waited until they had enough.
Popped in 2 better cameras, removed the loop, added the new chip, and new iPod is ready, wow.
Well Apple does have the A8 in full production, and once you have a chip in full production the costs normally go way down. And so the A7 is likely no cheaper than the A8 at this point. And plus all the engineers are already familiar with the A8. So it makes good sense for Apple to go with the A8 here.
Like most well run companies, I’m sure Apple has not stockpiled any A8s. It’s all “just in time” production these days. And we know that Apple’s suppliers can crank out the A8s because they just shipped a kazillion iPhone 6’s.
Yeah, but it is actually almost 1 year old chip – because IN JUST 2 MONTHS – iPhone 6s(or 7?) is going to come out with A9, so APPLE KNOWS WHAT IT IS DOING – basically selling the SAME FREAKING THING FOR HOW MANY YEARS?
And it is basically the same scenario as with iPod 5g – when it had last years chip – now it is just 10 month difference, instead of full 12, lol… Which will probably make it highly demanding these 2 months.
It allows video games to play the same as they do on the iPhone. This is big for game developers.
Those new colour options could give us some indication of the new option(s) in the 6s. Just saying.
But listen closely people- what APPLE ACTUALLY DID IS THEY DID THE SAME THING (minus design change) AS THEY DID WITH THE PREVIOUS IPOD TOUCH 5G.
BECAUSE IT IS BASICALLY RECEIVING YEAR OLD CHIP!!!!!!!!!!!!
Think about it – within around 2 months THERE WILL BE A9 CHIP ALLREADY, WHICH WILL MEAN THIS IPOD TOUCH WILL BE USING A YEAR OLD CHIP.
CLEVER SNEAKY APPLE, THEY KNOW WHAT TO DO, THIS WAY THEY WILL HAVE HIGH DEMAND RIGHT NOW, BUT IF THEY ANNOUCED IT AT THE STAGE TOGETHER WITH THE IPHONE 6S(they won´t do 7 this year, will they? – ugly 6 design is staying looks like it) IT WOULD HAVE BEEN COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.
So they cleverly done this – and it just SEEMs like the best ipod release yet, but is it really? A lot of stuff needs online access now, and yes it is a good device, but what if you want to be productive aswell ?
As you have a pretty good analysis and projection, and you have absolute freedom to decide what you can do, then what’s the problem here?
Protip; typing in all caps makes it look like your trying to force the idea on us. It also makes you look like a conspiracy theory nut case.
Did the Touch get Touch ID?
No
Big loss. Wish they would’ve added that. Still it’s a big upgrade over the A5-based one.
indeed, I will likely grab one
iOS 9 requires 6-digit passcode instead of 4 to get into devices. This is going to be somewhat frustrating when it becomes official iOS.
I’m actually happy with this. Every passcode back in my country is 6-digit. It was a pain to downsize to 4-digit though.
Change to a text-based password and it can be any length you want.
Longer passwords are great – when you have TouchID to avoid having to type it in every time.
When you have no TouchID, it’s a PITA
iOS 9 PB1 on iPhone 4S, 4-digit passcode. Well?
To bad the different iPods are hid at the bottom of the music section on Apples site, unless you are shopping in the store section.
I would went wit the IPod as the name for the touch all the internal updates and no iPod Classic for sale. Nobody will get the nano or shuffle co fused with it.
I wonder if the dimensions are exactly the same as before? I have a Pad & Quill case for my current (5th-gen) iPod Touch, which fits very tightly. It’d be nice to keep using the case for the new model. The size specs on Apple’s site all match the previous version, but I wonder if any little details have changed, other than the loss of the Loop.
Does this indicate that blue and pink iPhones are coming next?
It’s still a foregone conclusion that iPod sales will be down YoY in 12 months.
Your point? As long as it still generates revenue Apple can allow a down trend YoY.
Meanwhile, the Apple Watch demand is plummeting and has not even came close to recouping just its R&D costs. But I doubt you mind those facts. It is far more hipster to snide at the iPod than the futurist Apple Watch.
We have a Mr. Analyst here. Watch out!
Not able to refute anything I said? Oh sorry let me get in line with the rest of you who lack foresight, The Apple Watch is so amazing Apple changed the world…..Maybe thats all anyone needs to hear around here.
You’ll hear the sale numbers on keynote. Come back then.
No you wont, thats why Apple has his it in their OTHER products category. No one wants the watch outside techie geeks. End of story.
To all the conspiracy theory people saying its apple stocking an old chip in a device, we hear you. Thank you. It could he that apple ordered the chips by the million in anticipation for this, and the A8 is pretty stout to begin with. No one is debating if apple is clever with marketing or good with supply chain manipulation – if memory serves that was Tim Cooks baby coming on at apple; supply chain leveraging and utilization. This was all part of the plan from the start.
As well, the reason why they are updating without fanfare of a keynote? The iPod touch is losing its gateway factor. With the iPhone being larger now, it has paved it’s own way with tight App Store integration, MFi support, and solid programming and development. I’m not saying that the iPod touch isn’t a first Apple device for many now, I’m saying apples gateway is widening from small multimedia device to full fledged phone in a big way. Put another way; more people are going straight to phones first before iPods now.
Damn, really hoped for a 64GB+ Nano. Disappointing. Don’t care for the Touch, personally.
I’m surprised they didn’t at least upgrade the screen to at least 4.7inch so it makes gaming better. 4inch for gaming is a little on the small side. or made a 5inch version.
I think it would be great if they could just give the iphone 5c the A8 chip, higher storage options and the same old price points, the same way they did with these new ipod touches. I surely would be getting one.
i feel like it is worth it to keep releasing these. alot of parents do not want the kids to have an actual cell phone. these Ipod touches are perfect for that 5-12yr old range.
if Apple wants to keep these things selling, they have to drop the price so these debates stop happening. they have to drop them $100 each. they can use these as a tool to keep the kids apple users because when they are ready for iphones it will be an easy transition.
F—
I bought the last iPod Touch version on May ¬¬
Why no 240fps? :(
Anyone knows anything about the speakers on the IPod touch? was that upgraded as well. I have the last version with 64gb and the speakers on it was not loud.
Anyone knows anything about the speakers of the new iPod touch? was that upgraded as well?
what kind of iOS? is that use iOS 8.4? and how about the plus and minus of iPod taouchpad 2015? i read from website the specification is not really that from the last generation before this. just adding the strong of spec like iphone 6 and spec for camera like iphone 5. so, what if we better buy the ipod or iphone that’s before than this new released or we buy it as a thing what we really needed most, rite?
what kind of iOS? is that use iOS 8.4? and how about the plus and minus of iPod taouchpad 2015? i read from website the specification is not really good from the last generation before this. just adding the strong of spec like iphone 6 and spec for camera like iphone 5. so, what if we better buy the ipod or iphone type before this new released or we buy it as a thing what we really needed most, rite?