At a conference today announcing its fourth-quarter sales figures, Apple CEO Steve Jobs also unveiled some new Apple products. Speculation had been circulating at places like Think Secret that the next version of the iPod would have video-playback capability. It was the next logical step, after all. Jobs revealed the fifth generation iPod, which has a larger (2.5" diagonal) backlit, color LCD screen and a smaller click-wheel a la iPod Nano. The fifth-generation iPod is available in standard white or glossy black. It comes in two sizes: 30 GB ($299, the same as the fourth-generation 20 GB iPod) and 60 GB ($399, the same price as the fourth-generation 60 GB iPod). The iPod U2 Edition has been phased out. I suspect many people bought it because of its glossy black color, but now that Apple makes a glossy black regular iPod, there's no reason to pay more money for DRM-crippled U2 songs just so you can have a black case.

Jobs announced a deal with ABC in which the iTunes Music Store would provide full-length episodes of Lost and Desperate Housewives for $1.99 each the day after they air. The iTunes Music Store also has a new video download department. I don't suspect all television viewing will now move to the iPod -- since viewers like large screens -- but it will certainly allow people to be distracted by their iPods while walking around town in a new and different way.

Apple also unveiled its new iMac G5, which looks a lot like the old iMac G5, except this one has a remote control and a built-in iSight camera. The new iMac G5 is available in a 1.9 GHz 17" model ($1299) or a 2.1 GHz 20" model ($1699). The new iMac G5 still sports a PowerPC processor, but it contains DDR2 RAM instead of DDR RAM. Think Secret expected to see updates to the PowerBook and Power Mac lines, but they were not unveiled today. The only updates possible for the PowerBook would be a change from DDR to DDR2 RAM and a switch to a slightly faster G4 processor. Any Power Mac update is expected to be a switch to a dual-core G5 processor. Don't expect a G5 PowerBook anytime in the near ... ever.

Along with a new iPod came a new version of iTunes, iTunes 6, which interfaces with the iTunes Music Store's new video download section. And along with a new version of iTunes came a new version of QuickTime, QuickTime 7.0.3.