The fellas over at Gizmodo posted up some news about some changes in Apple’s iPod lineup that, quite frankly, had me a little nervous.  You see, I’ve had my eye on one of the black, 80GB iPod Videos for awhile now, and I’ve always really liked the way they look.  I currently have a first-generation iPod Nano, courtesy of Jean, and I much prefer the ‘square’ design of the first-gens to the rounded design of the current models.  So when Gizmodo shared the news and a screenshot of the new iPod Classic, I was nervous.  I saw a sleeker, more rounded iPod instead of the sharp-edged look I’ve grown attached to.  I expect to be getting my new iPod sometime in the next couple of months, but I was somewhat afraid that the new iPod Classic would completely replace out its predecessor before I could acquire one.

I took a look at the Apple Store, though, since none of the stores around here seem to have the new iPods in stock yet, in order to get a better look at the new models.  From the front, it almost looks like the iPod Classic is just a larger version of the 3rd-generation iPod Nano – rounded sides, just with a larger hard drive.  But the profile view revealed that it was still pretty boxy looking and just the face had slightly rounded edges, which made me much happier. 

It was then that I noticed something very exciting, at least for a geek like myself.  All of Apple’s iPods now have double the space for the same price as the previous generation.  So now, instead of getting an 80GB iPod Video for $350, I can get a 160GB iPod Classic for the same price!  Very exciting stuff. 

I’m also very pleased with Apple’s new iPod Nano with its video capability.  I’ve always thought the Nano would benefit from being able to play video, so it was very cool to see them chop the legs of the iPod and call it the next generation Nano.

I was fairly intrigued by the iPod Touch, with its WiFi ability and widescreen video, but the storage space isn’t quite right for me yet.  If you can’t tell, I’m all about the big hard drive, and 16GB just isn’t enough space for what I want.  Given time, though, I’m sure the size will grow as the price comes down.

I should probably stop drooling now.  My keyboard’s liable to short out any minute.

Google has made me a very happy camper recently.  It started about the time I finally landed one of those much coveted Gmail beta-tester accounts – I’ve never been happier with email.  Then, I discovered how powerful the Google search engine really is – Google Search is now the only search engine I’ll ever use. 

Recently, I switched my RSS feed reader over to Google Reader.  I’d been looking for a suitable replacement for Mozilla Thunderbird – much as I love Thunderbird, it was just a little bit too difficult for me to use it on multiple computers, even as a portable app.  My computer at home is actually a bit too slow to handle running any applications from a flash drive (I really need to upgrade to USB 2.0 one of these days).  I’d started using a server-side feed reader, but it didn’t automatically update the way I wanted.  Then, I’d heard about Google Reader updating their services, so I decided to give them a second try (the first time around I was less than impressed).  Now, I’m very satisfied with this program, and it fits very nicely into my Firefox browser, making it very easy to add new interesting feeds as I stumble across.  It updates automatically and organizes everything in a logical manner.

Add to that one more service I think I like – Google Sync.  This is a slick little add-on for Firefox that allows you to use Firefox on several different computers but keep your browsing session in sync on all of them.  This includes history and saved passwords (encryped, of course), bookmarks, history, and tabs and windows.  I’ve been using it for about 24 hours now, and so far I like what I see.  Eventually, I’d like to simply run Firefox Portable from my flash drive everywhere I go, but again, that requires USB 2.0 to be really effective.  So in the meantime, this is an effective solution I can live with.

I’ve also been keeping my eye on Apple recently.  This is one company that continues to dish out some really neat products.  My wife has had her eye on a G5 for quite some time now – she has a background in multimedia and video work and would love to be able to set up at home.  I’ve had my eye on either an iPod or an iPod Nano.  Now I come to find out that Apple has produced the iPhone.  I’ve kind of kvetched recently about combining too many digital devices into one thing, but I have to say that this iPhone idea holds a bit of a glamour for me.  This one looks like it might actually be usable.  Of course, I don’t really have much interest in owning a cell phone, so the iPod solution is still probably the best one for me.  But if I were to get a cell phone, the iPhone would certainly be one I’d be interested in.