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"   MORE NEW IPOD COVERAGE \u2022 ANALYSIS: How New iPod Could Kill Nintendo DS &amp;amp;amp; Sony PSP  \u2022 PLUS: Top 5 iPod Features Apple DIDN&amp;#039;T Unveil    Earlier this morning, we predicted\u2014correctly, it turns out\u2014that the new iPod Touch from Apple&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;Let&amp;#039;s Rock&amp;quot; event today wouldn&amp;#039;t include any of our wish-list items. No camera, no Wi-Fi VoIP, no Bluetooth, nothin&amp;#039;. In fact, except for a slightly slimmer form factor and lower price point, there&amp;#039;s not all that much new in the iPhone&amp;#039;s younger cousin that Steve Jobs announced this afternoon. The two biggest changes to the iPod Touch are that it now has integrated volume controls and a built-in receiver for the $29 Nike+iPod Sport Kit. But as far as we can tell, Apple&amp;#039;s dedication to sports fanatics ends there. The iPod Touch was never built to become a gym accessory, and the new generation of iPod Nanos is less gym-friendly than ever.   Our friends and family members who have an iPod Touch (one came as a corporate gift, the second came free with a student computer) never bring it to the gym. In fact, the machine hardly leaves the house, losing out to iPod models that take up less space or come with larger hard drives. The new volume button on the machine is unlikely to change that\u2014the Touch&amp;#039;s glass screen is still too big and fragile. One thing that might have helped for outdoor sports enthusiasts would have been GPS functionality\u2014something the iPhone has already. If the Touch had GPS, then it wouldn&amp;#039;t need Nike at all\u2014soon third-party developers would build a program letting you know exactly how far you&amp;#039;d run, walked or biked on any given trip. As it stands, we&amp;#039;re not sure whether this is a step forward for integrated running gear so much as another glitzy Apple partnership (not unlike the awkward Starbucks deal when Jobs announced the first-gen iPod Touch), with more benefits for the continuing Nike product line than athletic gadgetheads.   In general, runners want to bring something lighter to the gym. The iPod Shuffle is tiny, but it doesn&amp;#039;t let you pick music as easily as some other mini MP3 players. So until now the ideal solution has been the iPod Nano. Too bad the new Nano unveiled today isn&amp;#039;t really for the gym either. Its new features all move it away from being a light, secondary music player and toward being a full-on media player. We won&amp;#039;t know whether it&amp;#039;s even more fragile than previous iterations until we test one, but with the new Nano featuring a curved glass screen, it certainly doesn&amp;#039;t seem like something that you&amp;#039;d want falling off its arm strap.   Meanwhile, the Nano&amp;#039;s new accelerometer is useless on the treadmill. One supposedly exciting development for the Nano is that it&amp;#039;s taken a page from a kid&amp;#039;s MP3 player, the Sansa Shaker. You&amp;#039;ll just have to shake the Nano to transform into Shuffle mode and choose a new song from your playlist. We can&amp;#039;t imagine a stupider feature for a music player that you&amp;#039;re supposed to bring on a run. We&amp;#039;re sure Apple has built in a way to turn off the feature\u2014we&amp;#039;re wondering why anyone would want to turn it on. From jostling train and car rides to an overflowing backpack, it&amp;#039;s like bringing skipping back to the record player.   Steve Jobs probably isn&amp;#039;t exactly banking on the Nike functionality to move a ton of iPod Touch units. If anything, it&amp;#039;s a move to appease Nike while Apple moves away from sports and music while pushing games and TV downloads. After all, in this fitness-challenged nation, gaming and watching movies are far more popular than going for an afternoon jog. \u2014S.E. Kramer   RELATED STORIES \u2022 PREVIEW: Top 5 iPod Features Apple Won&amp;#039;t Unveil (Even Though It Could)   \u2022 TRACK TEST: Will 6 High-Tech Running Systems Run Out of Gas?  \u2022 TECH TEST: Nike Plus SportBand Down-Mods Web-Based Workouts  \u2022 COMPLETE COVERAGE: Jobs Live Blogs, iPhone Video Reviews &amp;amp;amp; More    (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/a12863/4281918/>