Apple iPod Essentials   Tracking the Pulse of iPod

Apple Computer announces today, iTunes 6, Color Video iPods and G5 iMacs

• iTunes 6 - (Watch streaming video - iTunes Music Store offers more than 2,000 music videos and select TV shows).
  
  For Macintosh users, you can get the new iTunes 6 by pulling down the apple menu in the left-hand corner of your menu bar and choosing "Software Update". Everyone can download iTunes 6 from that link. (iTunes 6 requires QuickTime 7.0.3 to play the streaming videos from the iTunes Music Store.)



• New iPods with color screens - up to 20hrs of battery life and Video Playing capabilities.



• New iMac G5 - Includes 17" or 20" LCD monitor, the new PhotoBooth application and AirPort Extreme card. An iSight camera is built into every new iMac, so you can start a video chat (or join one) at a moment’s notice with nothing more to buy (that's cool!!).
  

The cheapest source I've found for new Apple hardware (iPods or iMacs) is at MacMall. They toss in freebies and for non-california residents there's no tax.
New iMac G5 Features at a Glance

• Enjoy music, movies, photos and DVDs with Front Row and the Apple Remote
• Snap pictures with Photo Booth and the built-in iSight camera
• Click, roll, squeeze and scroll with the included Mighty Mouse
• Hold a video chat with the built-in iSight camera
• Get the big picture with a widescreen flat-panel display
• Play fast with PCI-E ATI Radeon X600 Pro or XT graphics
• Burn DVDs or CDs with the 8x SuperDrive
• Banish clutter with built-in AirPort Extreme wireless networking
• Go cable-free with Bluetooth for a wireless keyboard and mouse
• Capture video from DV camcorders or add external hard drives via two FireWire 400 ports
• Connect printers and peripherals with three USB 2.0 ports
• Mirror video to your TV, display or projector with mini-VGA(2)
• Connect to a Windows network
• Organize and share music, movies and photos with iLife ’05
• Enjoy Mac OS X Tiger, the world’s most advanced operating system

Apple Computer today announced new iPods with color screens and motion Video capabilities. The new iPod boasts up to 20 hours of battery life (with all sorts of caveats of course...), both models are now thinner than their predecessors, and of course they come with iTunes, Podcast support, the cool Click-Wheel and are stylish as ever.

MacMall is usually the cheapest source for iPods and each one comes with a free FM Transmitter (for listening to your iPod music through any FM radio), free engraving and a free carrying case. see: Video iPod Deals at MacMall

For full-sized ipods you have a choice of 30Gb (approximately 7,500 songs) and 60Gb (approximately 15,000 songs) capacities.

My favorite is still those tiny iPod nanos!

Acme Technologies blogged on a new designer wooden case being released this month for iPod nano owners.

The big news today is the introduction of Yahoo!'s new Yahoo! Podcasts website. (podcasts.yahoo.com). The service offers directory browsing and searching for Podcasts, and you can download or listen online. The also show the most popular and highest rated podcasts to help you discover what's cool and interesting. This week's most popular was Ebert & Roeper Podcast.

If you haven't caught onto the Podcast craze yet, think of podcasts as a radio broadcast. Each show consists of a series of individual episodes that you can listen to how you want — on your PC, using your MP3 player, or with just a web browser. The traditional use of Podcasts is to download to your Apple iPod (well... or other mp3 player) and listen while you're in the car, jogging or working in the yard.