Fourth Generation iPod Will Have Better Battery, Cheaper

Details are surfacing of the next generation of iPods from Apple featuring a number of improvements to the wildly popular music player.

There will be two new models: a 20gb for US$299 (€240) and a 40gb for US$399 (€320) – a US$100 (€80) reduction in price from the comparable existing models.

Battery life, previously a source of some controversy, has been given a significant hike – from eight hours to twelve. The battery is not thought to be user replaceable still, and no details of its longevity are available – indeed, it may well be exactly the same battery with the increase in play time coming from more efficient power conservation.

The new models will also incoroporate the click-wheel interface from iPod Mini, launched last week.

No release date has been given, Apple have a policy of not pre-announcing products, but they are said to be imminent – perhaps even this week.Apple iPod

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Fraser Lovatt

Fraser Lovatt has spent the last fifteen years working in publishing, TV and the Internet in various capacities, and believes that they will be seperate platforms for at least a while yet. His main interests at the moment are exploring where Linux is taking home entertainment and how technology is conferring technical skills on more and more people.Fraser Lovatt was born in the same year that 2001: A Space Odyssey was delighting and confusing people in the cinemas, and developed a lifelong love of technology as soon as he realised that things could be taken apart, sometimes put back together again, but mostly left in bits or made into something the original designer hadn't quite planned upon.At school he was definitely in the ZX Spectrum/Magpie/BMX camp, rather than the BBC Micro/Blue Peter/well-behaved group. This is all deeply ironic as he later went on to spend nine years working at the BBC.After a few years of working as a bookseller in Scotland, ("Back when it was actually a skilled profession" he'll tell anyone still listening), he moved to England for reasons he can't quite explain adequately to himself. After a couple of publishing jobs punctuated by sporadic bursts of travelling and photography came the aforementioned nine years at the BBC where he specialised in internet technologies and video.These days his primary interests are Java, Linux, videogames and pies - and if they're not candidates for convergence, then what is?