The fifth generation iPod touches down

Last night saw the announcement of the latest update to the full-sized iPod. Now entering its fifth generation, video capabilities have finally been included. Taking its design aesthetic from the nano, the new iPod comes in both black and white styling, is much thinner than its predecessor and has a clear plastic front over the top of the glossy finish to help combat the high scratchibility that previous iPods have traditionally suffered from.

The new iPod will come in 30Gb and 60Gb sizes keeping the same price point as the current models, £220 and £300 respectively. Both models are thinner than the current 20Gb model and at 31 per cent and 12 per cent leaner that's quite an impressive feat. Other notable changes are the moving of the headphone jack to the right corner, the inclusion of effects available in slideshow mode (dissolve, fade etc) and an improved larger screen.

The screen has increased in size from 2in to 2.5in, received a pixel upgrade from 220x176 to 320x240 and is able to display video at 30 frames per second. The video capabilities themselves are not being touted as movie playback per se, but more toward music videos, which are available to buy on the iTunes Music Store. As well as music videos, Apple has struck a groundbreaking deal with Disney to carry a series of short Pixar films and television shows, including current hits Lost and Desperate Housewives, to the iTunes store at a cost of $1.99 per episode. These are only available in the US for now, but we're expecting more deals to be announced shortly. It will also be possible to convert your own movie files to the iPod via MPEG and H.264 formats.

With the sales of the larger iPods down due to the focus on the lower end of the scale, the Shuffle and the nano, the video capabilities are likely to re-address the balance and drive sales back up. The fact that no mention of movie playback was made is likely to be due to the lack of a deal to sell films on iTunes yet, though it's possible that there is a deliberate plan to keep the iPod as primarily a music device with some video capability, with a dedicated 'vPod' to follow, which will focus on visuals. It'd certainly explain the small screen size (for a video player) and rumours are already spreading that Apple will be making be an even bigger announcement next month…

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