Major new iPod news

So Apple's media event "The Beat Goes On" has announced a complete refresh and overhaul of their entire iPod line, along with a few surprises.

The iPod Nano gains a colour screen, games, and increased capacity, as well as the CoverFlow interface from the iPhone.

The trusty old iPod is renamed the iPod Classic, and capacity has been boosted to 80gb or a whopping 160gb.

If you like the iPhone, you'll be pleased to see the new iPod Touch, which looks very very similar, and includes the natty touch screen interface.

Ars Technica have seen nice photos here. It'll be available in 8gb and 16gb versions.

In a move that'll please consumers but is pretty much guaranteed to piss off early adopters, Apple has also reduced the price of the 8gb iPhone by $200, and is going to drop the 4gb model once stock is out. It's clear they want to introduce a 16gb model inline with the iPod Touch, but with such a massive price cut coming so soon after launching the iPhone, I'm sure there are a lot of iPhone owners out there who are pretty steamed right now.

By far and away the coolest thing, though, is the launch of the iTunes Wi-Fi store. The iPod Touch comes with Wi-Fi, and will allow you to buy songs direct from the iTunes store. The next time you sync your iPod to your Mac or PC, these new purchases will be backed up.

This is really impressive - with the flood of wi-hi hotspots, especially in cities and large towns, this enables the sort of impulse purchase that was missing from the already slick iTunes/iPod experience.

On top of this, Apple have struck a deal with Starbucks. The iPod Touch will not only work seemlessly with Starbucks' wi-fi hotspots, showing an icon when you're in range, but can also pop up a "buy the song that's playing" link. Like the tune playing while you wait for your coffee? Just click a couple of times and it's yours, downloaded to your iPod.

This is the sort of slick integration of technology that has made the iPod so successful. Remove the hassle and barriers to the purchase, make it easy for the consumer to get what they want, and you're on the road to success.

When Microsoft announced the Zune would have Wi-Fi support, this is the sort of thing I was hoping they meant. Sadly they crippled the whole experience, and the Zune ended up as just another MP3 player - there's no advantage there that would eat into iPod sales.

With this latest announcement Apple have made it clear that they understand the consumer's needs perfectly.

The other music stores and MP3 player manufacturers must be more than a little worried this morning.

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