New Pix Suggest Upcoming iPods Will Get Video Recording

Leander Kahney ()

cutout_detail

New pictures suggest the iPod Touch camera will get a microphone next to the camera, which means video recording.

New pictures from a Chinese case manufacturer suggest that the next-gen iPod Touch and iPod Nano will get video recording.

Back

The back of the clay models shows a little round hole to the right of the camera, which appears to be a microphone.

CoM has acquired new pictures of clay models used to make molds for iPod cases. The clay models appear to show a microphone next to the camera on the back.

See the full picture of the iPod Touch model below — there’s a small, round hole to the immediate right of the camera. The shape and placement suggests it is a microphone (or possibly a status light, like the green status light on Apple’s iSight camera to show it is active and recording).

And since a microphone is of little use for taking still pictures, its presence on the new iPods suggest both devices will be able to record video.

In addition, all the new iPod cases published by CoM last week have cutouts next to the camera.

The cutouts look as though they are designed to accommodate a microphone. As previously reported, Chinese cases makers are so confident they have the specs and dimensions of the new iPods, they are already making cases for them.

The same cutouts are present in dozens of cases from several different manufacturers, suggesting they all got the same intelligence (which may be faulty of course).

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One case manufacturer, who asked not to be identified, said her company didn’t know the hardware capabilities of the new iPods, but was very confident about their outside dimensions.

“We just got the size of these new iPod products and knew both of Touch 3 & Nano 5 have a camera,” she wrote in email. “I’m not sure for the other details.”

UPDATE: As reader G points out in the comment below, the round hole next to the camera is more likely a microphone than a status light. The story has been updated to reflect that.

Front

The front of clay models used to cast cases for Apple's new iPod Nano (left) and iPod Touch (right). The models are very precise, as they are used to create form-fitting cases for the new devices.

9 comments »

About the author

Leander Kahney

is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: Inside Steve’s Brain, the New York Times bestseller about Steve Jobs; Cult of Mac; and Cult of iPod. Leander has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Guardian in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

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Posted in Apple, iPhone, iPod, News, Rumors, Top stories |

  • G

    I don’t think it’s a status light…What’s the point of a status light on the back of the device?? Most probably, consideing the dimention of the hole on the iPod touch, it’s the microphone (required for shooting video with audio, obviously)

  • JB

    What’s the larger hole for? A flash maybe?

  • PJ

    The larger hole is for the wifi antenna…

  • http://cultofmac.com Leander Kahney

    @G Thanks, you’re obviously right. I don’t know what I was thinking. I’ve updated the post.

  • chris

    i hope it has gps. that would be the best

  • Matt

    It wont have GPS I’m guessing.. I mean you would only be able to use it in wifi remember.

  • http://blog.argentinaslovenia.com/ Carlitos

    So, with a microphone and a camera, using a Touch to place Skype calls out of the box would be finally possible?

  • d.adams

    I hope the new touch has 3G and GPS. That would be awesome! I’d even be willing to pay a few bucks a month to get that kind of service. It would also make sense, because Archos is coming out with a 3G mp3 player soon and Archos is the only real competitor Apple has right now. And we still don’t know exactly what Microsoft will come out with on their Zune HD. Of course, they would have to disable VOIP calling on 3G so that it wouldn’t compete with the iPhone, but they’ve already done that ON the iPhone. I don’t care if it has a camera. I mean, I might use it once or twice, but usually I won’t use it. I’m a little skeptical about the camera on the Nano…but maybe they will turn it into some kind of camcorder/mp3 player, like that “flip” camcorder.

  • DB

    @JB: Ofcourse it’s not for flash. I don’t know if you got an iPod Touch yourself, but it’s just for a black-pad. Probably so it won’t slide out of your hands.

    But anyway, it looks very cool.. My display just broke, so i might buy the new one.. Depends on what it’ll cost.

    Greetz,

    DB, The Netherlands