The 16GB iPod differs from its fifth-generation touchscreen iPod brethren in that it only comes in two basic colors (black and white), has a front-facing camera (for FaceTime) but lacks a rear camera for photos and a lanyard loop. Other than that, it appears to be the same as the 32GB and 64GB versions of the iPod touch released in October: it has a 4-inch Retina display and a dual-core A5 chip inside. It is selling for $229 and available now.

The timing seems a bit random, and it didn’t even merit a press release, simply a “new” tag on Apple’s website.

Apple tends to introduce new hardware lineups simultaneously. But this is the second time this year that a single model from a lineup has popped up alone: in January, three months after debuting a new line of iPads, Apple suddenly released a 128GB iPad with Retina display.

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Here’s the funny thing: these are really slick mobile apps. From Yahoo. (I know, right?)

If you had shown me the new Weather app, for example, I would have said that either Apple or a small design-focused start-up developed it. The background pictures are from around the world via Flickr’s Project Weather Group and beautiful to look at. They’re also representative of the current weather in their respective cities. Every icon provides data at a glance and it’s easy to navigate quickly for more detailed information.

I haven’t taken the new Yahoo Mail client for a spin yet but it looks like a nice visual update, meant to take advantage of the larger screens of tablets. Here’s how Yahoo describes it, along with a short video demo:

“With amazing displays, vibrant colors and lifelike images, tablets have changed the way we experience books, photos, movies and more. Yet email, something we do every day, has remained pretty much the same. We’ve been boxed in.

Today, we’re excited to introduce the Yahoo! Mail Apps for iPad and Android tablets – a full-screen experience that gets rid of the noise. There are no folders, no buttons, no tabs – just you and your mail – and you can easily flip through it like a magazine. We’ve designed Yahoo! Mail to take full advantage of the tablet making reading your email faster, easier and just a little bit more fun.”

I’m generally happy with the native email clients on my iPad mini and Android tablets, so even though I’ll kick the tires of Yahoo’s new mail app, it would have to really wow me. Regardless, both of these new applications look surprisingly fresh from a company that has been generally found itself lost in the growing forest of mobility.

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The two most used features on the new software are likely to be the same as on the iPad version. You can’t actually purchase or rent a video from the Instant Video App. Instead, you’ll rely on the Watchlist and Video Library features. These two locations house the titles you have added to a list of favorites, previously rented or purchased.

Amazon Instant Video on iOS

Likely due to Apple’s requirement for a 30 percent cut of in-app purchases, you’ll need to browse Amazon’s video store on Safari to make your purchase or rental. As an Amazon Prime customer, I find this to be a mild annoyance on my iPad mini although it hasn’t yet stopped me from using Amazon’s video service.

I still wonder how this action fits Amazon’s long-term mobile strategy. Before Amazon introduced its Kindle Fire tablet last year, it had no mobile devices of its own although it signaled the possibility with an Appstore for Android devices. Supporting other devices for purchase and playback of movies, MP3 songs and other digital content certainly made sense. And to a point, it still does because it earns revenue from content sales regardless of what device is used to consume it.

As the Kindle Fire line has expanded to more tablets and various on-again, off-again rumors of an Amazon smartphone, does this “support everything” strategy still make sense? Yes, it can certainly keep content revenue flowing. But it won’t help differentiate Amazon devices from competing handsets or tablets.

Apple was able to do just that by working out content deals far in advance of its competitors. The gap has closed as few devices now have exclusive content, but if Amazon wants to play in the mobile hardware game, it may have to change its content strategy.

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I found this out the hard way. Typically, I keep my device brightness at low levels while indoors but still use auto-brightness, mainly to save on battery life. So when I went for the mail this past Saturday while reading an article on the new iPod, the screen quickly became unreadable when I stepped outside. I figured I either didn’t have the auto-brightness setting on or it wasn’t working — actually, that was my first thought: The sensor was broken. Unfortunately, since I couldn’t read the screen, it was impossible to even find the Settings icon.

After getting the mail and coming back inside, I went into the Settings and noticed this: No auto-brightness setting, just a manual slider.

I knew Apple wouldn’t have moved the setting in iOS 6; in fact, the setting is there on my iPad. So I quickly turned to Apple’s iPod touch product page and looked under the Sensors. There’s no mention of an ambient light sensor.

Just to check my sanity, since I owned a fourth-generation iPod touch, I checked the official Apple specifications for my old device. Sure enough, the ambient light sensor is mentioned there and of course, it’s part of the iPhone and iPad line.

I’m disappointed in Apple’s decision to omit this sensor in the new iPod touch, to say the least. The company may have saved some space and a little bit of money by leaving the ambient light sensor out, but this can degrade the experience. Perhaps I’m just too picky and whining about nothing here, so I’d love to hear your thoughts: How important is that sensor and the automatic brightness for the way you use your mobile devices?

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In no particular order, here are my initial thoughts on Apple’s fifth-generation iPod touch

• The display is stellar. Apple’s new technique of integrating the touch sensor with the display brings the content even higher to the screen surface. More than ever before, it appears that the icons are simply painted on the screen; they’re that good. Of course, if you’ve seen the new iPhone 5, you know what I mean as it uses the exact same screen. The display doesn’t have a blue hue like my Samsung devices do.

• I’m starting to wonder if the Retina Display pixel density is overdone on a device this small. Hear me out for a second: I just said the screen was nice and it is. But with 326 pixels per inch crammed into a 4-inch display I’m finding text on most web sites is too small to read without zooming. On some sites, you simply have to zoom and I don’t find that to be true on my high-resolution Android devices. I’m zooming far more on the iPod touch than I am on Android phones but I don’t feel I’m losing any clarity or quality by comparison. Just a thought…. personal preferences are part of that observation, although if you go to Apple’s own web page for the iPod touch, there’s simply no way to read most of the text without zooming.
  
• I’ve never held a device this thin that is made so well. It’s a quarter-inch thin with rounded corners and built like a high-precision device. I actually like the in-hand feel better than the thicker iPod touch that preceded this one. Why? Corners on the old one dug into my hand after prolonged use. This one is much more comfortable to hold.
  
• The camera is as good as the old iPhone 4 and nearly as good as the iPhone 4S sensor from what I can see. I’ll be looking deeper into this over time, but I can say that I’d have no problem carrying this device as my only camera if I had to. Are there better cameras on other devices? Sure, but this one will suffice for most people. I also tried a FaceTime call with my wife using the new 720p front camera. She says she didn’t see any difference from prior calls.
• With Apple’s A5 chip and 512 MB of memory, performance on this iPod touch is impressive. For all intents and purposes, it performs no differently than the iPhone 4S I recently sold. That’s a good thing.
• Having Siri in the iPod touch is super. I don’t use Siri extensively save for one main function: Creating reminders. Granted with out a mobile broadband connection, Siri is rendered useless. But I’m nearly always around a Wi-Fi connection so it’s nice to take advantage of Siri as needed. Plus the Reminders sync with my OS X devices, of course.
• The retractable button for the included loop is nice, but I don’t think I’ll use it. Hard to say this early of course and it’s nice to have the option.
• Apple’s new Lightning adapter is ridiculously tiny; far smaller and thinner than the micro USB ports that most mobile devices use today. It’s quite an engineering feat.
  
• I can’t say that I hear a major difference with the new included earpods. Perhaps the sound is a little louder and richer since the speakers are angled differently. They do fit well and I don’t think they’ll fall out of my ears, even when running, which is a typical use case for me. I do wish Apple would standardize its headphones so that they all have inline volume controls and a microphone; these do not.
  
• Of course, there’s no GPS radio in the iPod touch; that’s still reserved for the iPhone. But Apple’s new Maps had no problem pinpointing my location via Wi-Fi. I don’t plan on using this device for navigation purposes, however, so I can’t say more about Maps other than they look nice.
• I’m concerned about the aluminum casing. Yes, it helps keep the device thin and light — it’s amazingly light — but I don’t want the black backing to get scratched or chipped. There aren’t any issues with the case right now, however, I suspect I’ll need a case which is a shame: It will make the super thin and light iPod touch a little thicker and heavier.

Overall, I’m quite happy with the new iPod touch so far and I anticipate most others that buy one will feel the same. There isn’t much not to like: Apple has put together an iPod that’s extremely comparable to it’s latest iPhone, minus the GPS and cellular connectivity. Plus, there’s no monthly service fee, which is why I decided to sell my iPhone 4S; I don’t have the need for two phone accounts.

Instead, I’ll use VoIP software and Wi-Fi as needed to supplement my Android phone usage while being able to monitor what’s going on in the world of iOS. And I’ll do so on a very impressive piece of hardware because this iPod touch is an oustanding little device. Some may balk at the $299 starting price and I understand that. But after using the new iPod touch and realizing that it nearly gives the iPhone 5 experience for less money and no recurring fees, I think it’s worth every dollar I spent.

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In addition to not providing a detailed release date for the iPod touch, Apple hasn’t explained the reason for the lack of specificity. Given that the iPod touch uses the exact same display as the new iPhone 5, it’s possible that supply of that component is constrained between two popular devices. In fact, the newest iPod touch is more like its iPhone counterpart than any iPod touch before it.

For that very reason, I decided to flirt with an iPod on the side while having a serious relationship with my Android phones. At $299, the iPod touch provides much of the iPhone experience — Siri, Bluetooth 4.0, faster Wi-Fi and the 4-inch Retina Display — but without the monthly bill for cellular and mobile broadband connectivity.

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The data was generated from millions of impressions from iOS devices accessing web sites that are part of Chitika’s mobile advertising network in the U.S. and Canada:

As the chart shows, about 60 percent of iPhone owners have already upgraded to or are using iOS 6. iPad owners were close behind, with about 45 percent upgrading in the first week and a half. iPod touch owners, meanwhile, were least likely of the group to upgrade right away, with just under 40 percent downloading and installing iOS 6.

One major factor in iPod touch upgrades is compatibility: only the fourth- and fifth-generation models can run iOS 6. Chitika’s theory is that people are less likely to upgrade iPod hardware than iPhones and iPads because the former are not subsidized by carriers who offer discount incentives for upgrading.

Still, even though iPod touch owners were the least likely to upgrade among iOS device owners, iOS 6 is already the most popular iOS version in use. Thirty-nine percent have moved on to iOS 6, while the next-most popular, iOS 5.1, comes in at 31 percent.

This quick software transition is one of the most attractive features of iOS to app makers: rapid uptake of new operating systems means developers don’t have to spend as much time supporting older OSes. Instead they can focus on the latest software. As a comparison, Android 4.0 was released in October 2011, and as of Tuesday, about 25 percent of devices were using 4.0 or later versions of the software.

This post was updated at 9:03 a.m. PT to include more recent Android upgrade data that was published today.

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• The new slogan for the iPod touch, “engineered for maximum funness” is riling up linguists. According to the Boston Globe, it’s almost like “Apple’s marketers are working overtime to annoy the loathers of linguistic novelty.”
• Google Chairman Eric Schmidt is in Korea to meet with Samsung, according to the Korea Times — reportedly to talk about the ongoing litigation between Samsung and their joint nemesis, Apple.
• Gawker interviews an academic expert on Chinese labor to find out whether the Western idea of boycotting Apple products will actually help or hurt the Chinese factory workers building iPhones and other mass-produced gadgets.
• While Apple added more accessibility features to iOS 6, some are complaining that the redesigned App Store is actually a step backward for visually impaired customers, according to AppleInsider.
• Ars Technica does a detailed comparison of Apple’s new VIP Mail feature and Google’s 2-year-old Priority Inbox and finds (surprise!) they are two “fundamentally different approaches” to email prioritization.

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How impressed am I with the new iPod touch? So much so that I sold my iPhone 4S; I’ve already ported the number away to the Straight Talk SIM card in my Galaxy Nexus and the sale price is enough to pay the early termination fee and put about $100 towards the 32 GB iPod touch I pre-ordered. And of course, there’s no monthly fee to use the iPod touch, which is a Wi-Fi only device. Just cutting my bills wasn’t the real impetus, however.

Meeting my needs for work and play

Objectively covering the mobile scene on a full-time basis means I really need devices for all of the major platforms, including the up-and-coming ones as well. So I have multiple Android devices, had an iPhone 4S (and still have a current model iPad), own an older Windows Phone handset and even have a Symbian device floating around. I’ll likely consider a BlackBerry 10 handset when they arrive next year if my budget allows and for now, I still have a BlackBerry PlayBook to keep tabs on RIM.

Even though my needs are atypical, I know there are a number of folks that do want to use more than one mobile platform. And why not? I stand by the idea of using whatever devices best suit your needs, regardless of what’s hip, trendy or popular. For me, Android is best, mainly because I’m deeply embedded in Google’s services for both work and personal use. A stock Android device is optimal in that case. Apple’s iOS has benefits too; particularly for my gaming and content consumption needs, and that’s where the iPod touch comes in.

What’s so great about the new iPod touch?

Like the last generation iPod touch, the new one mimics its iPhone counterpart in many ways. This year’s model includes the exact same display as the iPhone 5, complete with integrated touch panel and vibrant screen at 1136 x 640 pixels. I was impressed when looking at this screen in an AT&T store earlier this week; it’s excellent and probably one of the biggest improvements in the device. Besides, I’ve been suggesting that Apple move to a 4-inch display on the iPhone for nearly two years; now that it’s here, I can get it in the touch.

Om touted the benefits of the iPod touch’s updated camera and imaging capabilities earlier this month and although I don’t take as many pictures as others, I’m looking forward at trying the new 5 megapixel shooter. I’m also an avid FaceTime user — my wife and son have iOS products — so the new iSight camera on the front of the iPod touch will come in handy, as will the integrated LED flash. Compared to my new iPad, the iPod touch won’t be as fast, but it does use the same chip found in the iPhone 4S, so from a performance standpoint, I’m sure my needs will be met.

I’m already used to Siri — particularly for adding reminders — on my iPad and old iPhone 4S, so Siri’s inclusion is welcome. And now that we have 75 Mbps FiOS service in the house, I’m sure the faster Wi-Fi in that new iPod touch will come in handy too. I’ll use the new Bluetooth 4.0 support for both wireless headphones as well as the Wahoo Blu Heart Rate monitor I bought earlier this year.

So what’s missing besides that monthly bill I used to have? GPS and mobile broadband are the two big standouts, but I don’t care about the latter. My Android phone works as a Wi-Fi hotspot as needed with no extra charge. Technically, I’m not supposed to use the function with my service plan, but occasional use in the past hasn’t earned me a hand slap from my carrier yet. And the same holds true for GPS; both my phone and my tablet have the radio, so I don’t need it in my iPod touch, which will always be a secondary device.

This works both ways, and that’s OK

Ironically, those embedded deeply in the iOS camp with some Android curiousity could do the same as me, but in reverse. An iPhone 5 paired with a Samsung Galaxy Player, for example, would accomplish the same. The Galaxy Player is similar to an iPod touch — I’m sure that doesn’t surprise –as it’s a Wi-Fi handheld running Android without a 3G or 4G radio.

Again, you may not need or want multiple devices, but for what I do, Apple’s iPod touch is a solid-looking iOS device without the monthly bill of an iPhone. Am I cheating on my Android with an iPod touch? Maybe, but I like to look at is as being married to Android with a little harmless iOS flirting on the side.

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….whilst this new Touch may not offer a physical zoom lens like a traditional point and shoot digital compact camera (neither does the iPhone), with such a vast array of photo taking, editing and sharing apps, I think this new Touch will appeal to many people both young and old, who are looking for a point and shoot camera that does more than just take photos; and should give the new breed of Android based cameras a run for their money.

I have argued in the past that iPhoneography works because it is conveninent. It also works because iPhones (or the new Android phones) have built-in connectivity and also access to apps, whether for editing or sharing. I have a pocket-sized Lumix but I rarely use it — for special occasions, I have a higher-end Lumix GF-1 with a few lenses and lately I have been trying out the Sony Nex5n, which is a really wonderful camera.

However, it is the iPhone 4S that is my point-and-shoot camera. It is also the no. 1 camera used by folks who upload photos to Flickr. (Mark Crump said in a guest post for us that he uses the iPhone for advanced photography. Check out his tips.) The new iPod Touch further opens up the market. Evans’ post made me wonder if this will only accelerate the demise of the standalone point-and-shoot digital cameras, and instead we will see the camera business become bifurcated into two segments: smartphone cameras and higher-end cameras such as the new digital-mirror marvels. Thoughts?

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