iPod Touch power boosted, price cut

By Tom Bramwell Published 10 September, 2009

OpenGL ES 2.0 support as with 3GS.

Apple has refreshed the iPod Touch product line, cut prices and promised superior game performance from the high-capacity 32GB and 64GB models.

Those two units will retail for £229 / $299 and £299 / $399 respectively and should offer "up to 50 per cent faster performance", according to Apple, along with OpenGL ES 2.0 support, the same as the iPhone 3GS.

As usual, the new units are available immediately from Apple's website, stores and resellers, following their announcement at the firm's "It's Only Rock and Roll" event yesterday.

Elsewhere at the briefing, Apple announced firmware 3.1 for iPhone and iPod Touch and debuted iTunes 9, although there were no immediate implications for gaming in either update.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (23) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Eraysor #1 2 years ago

    Hmm. Might have to trade in my old 32gb, it's getting full.

  • kendoji #2 2 years ago

    The camera is the iPhone's worst feature, can't imagine why you'd actually want it on the Touch.

  • wizlon #3 2 years ago

    And the Nano's camera only does video, how useless is that, I mean, yeah, it's great for happy slapping pregnant woman and old people, but that's it! My 1st gen 32GB touch is getting a little sluggish so this wouldn't be a bad investment.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #4 2 years ago

    I hope increased support in the product line means we start getting games using OGLES2 out soon for my new baby (hugs 3GS).

    How come seemingly nobody has released even a tech demo to break an untapped market?

    (I can't afford a mac to knock one up).

  • Rev.StuartCampbell #5 2 years ago

    No mention of the 8GB Touch having its price cut to compete directly with the DSi at £149? Tut tut, EG.

  • Rev.StuartCampbell #6 2 years ago

    "Not game related, but the new Touch is epic fail. Nano gets camera. Touch misses out."

    As has been noted, the Nano's camera is motion-only. But since the Touch has no phone, presumably you carry a phone around anyway. And most phones now have cameras at least as good as the iPhone's, so what are you missing out on?

  • Johnsters #7 2 years ago

    I have a 16GB touch and I cant think of a reason why I would want a camera for it.
    I have a camera. I have a camera in my phone. I dont think the touch needs a camera.

    Could do with more space though (64GB). I now have to manually sync the device as my library is somewhat expanding.......

    The nano is being marketed at the more "getup-and-go-about-town-wine@lunch-action-jackson-folk". If all the Ipods could do the same thing, why have a product range?
    Edited by 3 at 10/09/09 @ 10:05

  • Greebo #8 2 years ago

    So Steve Jobs says the the Touch didn't get a camera because they're selling it as a gaming device now. Erm? DSi?

    Anyway, the camera would have been great, not so much for pictures & video, but for all the possibilities that 'Augmented Reality' applications and games could have brought. The iPhone will get these games, but the 'gaming' ipod touch will be left in the cold.

  • andromeda #9 2 years ago

    the new nano is only useful if you own a skateboard, have friends that look like MGMT, say "shred" and "awesome" a lot and live near some grafitti.


  • Inigo #10 2 years ago

    I've been holding off replacing my 16g one for ages. Never play games on it though, crazy as it sound i listen to music!!

  • marty_k #11 2 years ago

    @andromeda what's wrong with "awesome" ? :-)

  • Alkeno #12 2 years ago

    I was hoping for Apple to do two things to the iPod touch: Camera and more power (iPhone like with OpenGL ES 2.0). We got the power and a price cut, its good enough for me to get one. Buying an iPhone is more expensive than an 360 and a PS3 together if you add up the monthly payments...

    Why should anyone want a camera in an iPod touch? To prototype Apps, my friends! That's what I'll do with it. I am an amateur App developer, I need a proper device to test things on (the iPhone Simulator is useless when it comes to measuring performance). So the more the iPod touch resembles the iPhone the better (less code, faster testing, better results).

    Anyway I don't expect to make any money from this new hobby, just to end up with some Apps I can call my own and impress my friends. I encourage everyone who knows programming to try it: the SDK is incredible, the documentation flawless and the entry-price as low as it can get to have something published: An Intel Mac, 99$ licence and an iPod touch to test things on :-)

  • peterfll #13 2 years ago

    I'm so glad I wasn't the only one who choked on their rice crispies this morning when watching on the Apple website the "awesome!" and "DUDE!" movie samples filmed on the new RAD and AWESOME iPod Nanos.

    This refresh of the iPod line-up is quite underwhelming no? Strangely my iPod Classic has just given up the ghost after reaching its 3rd birthday. I consider that not bad, given the usual 2-year built in obsolesce. I am considering getting an iPhone when my current mobile contract is up. Yesterday's annoucements hasn't made me reconsider much :-\

  • davisorle #14 2 years ago

    Still not tempting for me since im not leaning to portable for gaming as a person myself.. For music I have no reason to change my excisting iPod, and if I did now id do it weith the ZuneHD which is very very promising with HD output of video and HDRadio other than the better price of iPod itself. I wouldnt wanna have something 2ice for different version and only. I wish they would also impliment some gaming in Zune and id go buy it for "just in case" im ever interested in that bit too, since with the NVidia GPU it would rock for portable. If not, if im interested in portable gaming Id get me a DS for the touch bit of the games or a PSP for better "mini"graphs.. ( NOT a PSPGo since its not just as if Im bending over for Sony with it if I was willing to pay so much for that pos, but also if I wanted to count on downloaded games then I would go for an iPod again which, again, isnt for me ) Simple as that.

    When it comes to "good" gaming apple hasnt managed to do more than a Doom and a WoW on their bigger platforms, a.k.a. Macs. I would never count on Appl for gaming unless they remake something fully. If they did what MS did with the ZuneHD Id actually go buy it since Apple, at least, has so much handheld experience + online store services.

  • penhalion #15 2 years ago

    You guys do realise that the new touches are NOT the 3rd generation touches right. From all accounts apple have had camera issues with the touches (no idea why they decided to use different camera innards forthe touch and nano). So they must have done a hasty U-Turn in time for the show.

    If you look at the line, you'll notice that the 16gb model is missing. This adds weight to the u-turn story, given that the 16gb model, with camera was supposed to be the one shown at the show to introduce the iPod Touch 3rd generation to the world.

    I would steer clear of a hasty upgrade to a 32 or 64gb model until January at least, when the camera issues should be resolved and it's likely that apple with then introduce an actual touch 3rd gen with camera, movie edit app and everything bar the phone.

  • Jelly_Head #16 2 years ago

    davisorle: "When it comes to "good" gaming apple hasnt managed to do more than a Doom and a WoW on their bigger platforms, a.k.a. Macs."

    Erm... are you absolutely sure about that?
    Edited by 1 at 10/09/09 @ 13:27

  • Sar #17 2 years ago

    I have an 8Gb Touch 2G, and I'm perfectly happy with it thanks.

    Just updating it now to 3.1.1 now that most of the 3.x bugs have been sorted, and I'll be re-jailbreaking it shortly thereafter. Can't be doing without me Winterboard!

  • byakuya83 #18 2 years ago

    I have a recent 32gb touch from HMV but when I try to sync Apple want to charge me for an update!? I suppose this new update will be even more expensive. I mostly use it for playing music but do like a little Peggle or Bejewelled 2 - only problem is games drain the battery really, really quickly.

  • Rev.StuartCampbell #19 2 years ago

    Actually they've just slashed the price of the 3.0 update, and 3.1 is free to anyone with 3.0.

  • InternetRed #20 2 years ago

    Ok I'm going stateside on Sat (real reason, to get some neat new import games, fake reason is to visit Disneyland and all that rubbish!), and me and my partner was looking at buying each other an Ipod Touch as an anniversary present. I want one because of the games, music, web browsing (my phone does all the rest), but then I realise (like, just as I typed this) that I'm not sure what the games are like on the iPod. Is there games on the Ipod that are worth it's purchase? Or, a good mass of games that make the purchase of the Ipod worthwhile?

  • actionfitz #21 2 years ago

    i have an 8gb one.
    i'd trade up to a 3GS if apple and O2 weren't such cunts -> 2yr £40 p/m contract and near £200 for the phone?
    fuck you very much!

  • Jelly_Head #22 2 years ago

    InternetRed: Ok I'm going stateside on Sat (real reason, to get some neat new import games, fake reason is to visit Disneyland and all that rubbish!),

    Hah! I once thought as you, but Disneyland can melt the most cynical heart. Make sure you take your other half on "It's a Small World" (the most acid-induced ride of them all).

    :-)

  • Rack #23 2 years ago

    Was half-tempted to get one of these, but I'm going to hang fire for a bit to see if they do a version with a camera for AR games and ideally a replaceable battery. I know Apple would never willingly do this, but hopefully some of the pressure brought onto them will eventually bear some fruit.