Oh boy oh boy oh boy I’m so excited about Apple’s new iPods. I’ll do my best to report on Apple’s “The Beat Goes On” iPod Special Event held earlier in San Francisco.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs gave a keynote on Wednesday announcing a revamp to every iPod in their lineup. Here are summaries of the announcements, in the order that Steve gave them.

iPod shuffle

The iPod shuffle received a small update which was basically a set of new colours (they dropped the orange one!). Of note is the (PRODUCT) RED iPod shuffle, which will contribute a portion of its price to the Global Fund to fight AIDS in Africa.

iPod nano

Steve said that the iPod nano was their most popular iPod ever, and now they’re going to change it completely. The new iPod nanos are the “fatty’s” and sport a wider body to accommodate a larger screen (320×240 pixels). This larger screen now gives the iPod nano the ability to play videos like its big brother.

The new iPod nano also features Cover Flow and comes in the same new colours as the iPod shuffle. Storage is the same at 4GB and 8GB but battery life has been improved to 24 hours for audio playback and 5 hours for video playback.

iPod classic

The iPod is now officially a classic! Apple’s flagship iPod gets a new metal body like the nanos and a major bump in storage - the iPod classic now comes in 80GB and 160GB models. Phew! That’s more space than I’ll ever need! It’s also got all the new fancy features as the iPod nano, possibly because these new iPods are running on OS X.

iPod touch

Steve then said, “Wait! We’re not done yet” and introduced the iPod we’ve all been waiting for—the iPod touch.

The iPod touch is basically the iPhone without the phone features. It looks the same, works pretty much the same way too and just like the iPhone, it’s drool-inducing and super awesome! Like the iPhone, the iPod touch is most likely running on OS X, giving it added functionality over traditional iPods. The iPod touch has a touch screen (hence the name) and the fancy Cover Flow effects. It’s also got built-in Wi-Fi so you can download songs directly from the iTunes Store to your iPod (big new feature), surf the web with Safari and watch videos from YouTube.

The new iPod touch will set you back $249 and $399 for the 8GB and 16GB models respectively. What I’m most excited about though is Steve’s announcement that the iPod touch is a worldwide product, meaning that it will be available in Malaysia soon. Time to raid the piggy bank!

P.S. be sure to check out the guided tour to the iPod touch.

Other big announcements

There were some other big announcements like new iTunes features, a big price drop for the iPhone (signaling a new 3G model coming soon maybe??) and Apple’s collaboration with Starbucks. Unfortunately I can’t cover them all as I’m rushing off to attend a seminar today so I’ll direct you to one of the following esteemed publications for more updates on the event.

• Steve Jobs live — Apple’s “The beat goes on” special event @ Engadget
• Apple Event — Live Coverage @ Macworld
• The Unofficial Apple Weblog for all sorts of coverage and analysis.