Well I, as any loyal fan should have done, sat watching the Engadget live blog (as well as using Scott Bourne’s Jaiku – he was getting stuff out faster than Ryan Block over at Engadget at times!) of Apple’s ‘The Beat Goes On’ special event this evening (6pm – 7pm BST). I must say overall I was astounded. Steve and Apple seem to have done it again, and credit to them because their total secrecy on product development always could end up coming back to bite them on the backside…

The iPod nano refresh was unexpectedly the rumoured, and leaked nano, which for the past few weeks has been called ugly and fatty, among other things! The traditional iPod became the iPod classic, and saw relatively minor updates apart from the increase in size options to 80GB & 160GB, along with the new interface which includes that old favourite – CoverFlow. The renaming also meant that for the first time Apple could release two types of full size iPod. This came in the form of the much rumoured, and desired, iPod touch – the iPhone without the phone. This comes in 8GB and 16GB varieties, and is available (in the US at least) for pre-order, to be dispatched before 28th September.

On an aside there is no notice of these new releases on the Apple UK site, or on the Apple UK Store. Hopefully these will materialise soon!

Update: The new iPods, including the iPod touch, have since materialised on the Apple UK sites