Apple will also be announcing the release of a new iPod Nano

4 G on Tuesday. Apple says it may offer the feature in the future. Apple's much-anticipated launch of the iPod touch this week heralds a new era for Apple's wildly popular line of music and video players. The iPod

, which emerged first as nothing more than a portable music player -- albeit one dripping in cool -- grew up to become a music and video device in adolesence and is now a semi-full featured Internet tablet device.

Apple addressed these missing software features in a $20 package of apps that it offered months afterward, and later bundled the apps on all new iPod touch units. Apple also differentiated the iPod touch from the iPhone by changing the home screen dock to appear more like the Mac OS X Leopard

dock, complete with reflections (below: first generation iPhone and iPod touch). Apple is calling the new iPod Touch "the funnest iPod ever. I purchased the 32 GB version last week, and after playing with it for awhile, I'd have to agree with them. I use it to play music in my car, to play games at work, and to surf the web when I'm away from home. Apple's inclusion of the Nike+ receiver and software on the touch will be a big . It certainly does a good job of basics -- what you've come to expect on an iPod (with maybe a slight bit more flair), but frankly, we were hoping for more.

Apple is making a pretty big deal of the iPod touch as a gaming device this time around, too - thanks to the arrival of the Wi-Fi accessible App store. I would pay good money for a few minutes in a locked room with whoever thought calling it's the funnest iPod ever was a good idea but I at least agree with the sentiment, if not the grammar. Apple quickly recognized that some customers didn't necessarily want cellular service on their iPhone and created the iPod touch- essentially an iPhone minus the phone. The iPod touch was available in 8GB and 16GB models initially , and later a 32GB model. Apple hasn't done anything strikingly wrong with the second generation Touch. At the same time, they haven't done anything all that striking.

Apple has integrated an accelerometer that enables the device to flip into landscape mode when displaying pictures and video. What's more, Apple has used the accelerometer in another way a shaking the new nano shuffles to the next track. Apple gaming hasn't really caught on that much, but it looks like this time Jobs and company are really putting a lot behind marketing the iPod Touch as a gaming device. The iPod Touch certainly looks like it packs some considerable graphical power under its hood. Apple was having a special where you got the ipod touch free with the purchase of a macbook. I was fortunate enough to get in on that deal on the last day of the offer.