At the beginning of September 2010, Apple unveiled their newest iPod Touch. New features included in this fourth-generation iPod Touch are Retina Display, a front facing camera, a rear HD camera, 3-axis Gyro, and an A4 processor.
The retinal display in the iPod Touch 4G is a high-end LCD screen that has four times as many pixels as the display on the previous iPod Touch. The chemically treated glass is more scratch resistant than ever, being 20 times stiffer than plastic and 30 times harder.
The front facing camera allows users connected to a WiFi network to use Apple’s video chat service, FaceTime. It is the same as the front camera in the iPhone 4 offering 640×480 resolution.
The rear HD camera in the iPod 4G is not the same 5-megapixel camera that the iPhone 4 has. The camera in the new iPod is a 0.7 megapixels with a still photo resolution of 960×720. With that resolution, it is only able to take 4:3 photos, not widescreen 16:9. This is not a camera for use as your primary means of taking pictures. It is mainly there to use for uploading photos to social networking sites.
The new iPod Touch 4G can run the iMovie application. Users can shoot video using the rear-facing HD camera and then edit it right on the iPod. The output for videos is 720p at 1280×720 resolutions.
The iPod 4G has a 3-axis gyroscope. When combined with the accelerometer already in the iPod, it yields 6-axis motion sensing. This motion sensitivity makes the iPod 4G a virtual gaming machine with more motion gestures and greater precision that rivals the PS3 controller. The device will be able to detect up/down, side to side, forward/backward, and pitch/roll movement.
The A4 processor in the iPod Touch 4G allows the device to easily do complex jobs in a power-efficient way, thereby maximizing the battery life. These complex tasks include multitasking, editing video, and using FaceTime to make calls.
Prices for the new iPod Touch started at $229 for the 8GB, $299 for the 32GB, and $399 for the 64GB model.