new ipod touch

With Appple's announcement today of the new iPod Touch—just as we and many others suspected, an "iPhone without the phone"—the conditions of the NEWIPOD prop on PPX have officially been met. The stock was halted shortly after the announcement at POP$81.00, meaning the market had the probability of the announcement coming before the end of this month at 81%—not too shabby. NEWIPOD will begin to pay out at POP$100 per share immediately.

It's interesting, the picture of Apple painted by NEWIPOD and another proposition that closed recently, SUBPC—which proposed a new Apple sub-portable computer before Labor Day (which obviously didn't happen). Clearly, Apple has shifted a huge amount of their engineering resources to their consumer electronics division, focusing on what has become their specialty in the 21st century: slick, beautifully designed consumer gadgets that are a joy to use no matter what kind of computer you have on your desk at home. So while die-hard Apple users may be clamoring for a compact, UMPC-like Mac, their numbers pale in comparison to the number of folks currently carrying an iPod (and drooling over today's upgraded versions).

When one thinks of a typical Apple user these days, it's not the basement-dwelling, beard-wearing, PC-hating zealot that we all have come to know, love and appreciate. No, the typical Apple product user today is, well, pretty much anyone. Much to Apple's delight, purchasing and using their products no longer feels like being a member of your high school's A/V club—now, it's like being one of the cool (and well-off) kids. Ah, how things change. —John Mahoney

Apple didn't exactly shock the world today with the announcement of its new iPod Touch, but the gadget-loving faithful weren't disappointed, either. With trademark grandeur, Apple guru Steve Jobs announced a revamped line of the absurdly popular music players.

The new iPod touch will take advantage of the touch-screen technology developed for the iPhone, and users will be able to connect to the Internet at a WiFi hotspot, too. It's basically an iPhone without the phone part. Other upgrades include a standard iPod with double the memory, and iPod nanos with 2-inch screens. And for those of you who decided to shell out the cash for an iPhone in the last few weeks, sorry to break this to you, but Apple's slashing the price. The cost of an 8GB model is dropping from $599 to $399.—Gregory Mone