I was hoping this story would just go away, but so many tech news outlets have picked it up that I have to comment.

ThinkSecret must think they need to generate more ad click-throughs or something, because they are reporting that Apple is working on a "true" video iPod sporting a 3.5" touch-sensitive screen and no click wheel. Instead of a physical click wheel, the wheel would appear on the screen when it is touched. Presumably, the screen would be rotated 90 degrees and take up pretty much the entire front of the iPod, similar to the orientation of Sony's PlayStation Portable.

This is hogwash, for two reasons:

1. The click wheel is Apple's silver bullet. It is at least half of what makes the iPod the #1 music player. Apple is not going to dump it unless they come up with something better, and this ain't it.

2. Even assuming that Apple could come up with something better than a click wheel, they aren't going to make users watch video through fingerprints that would inevitably smudge up the screen. My 4th generation iPod gets eye-prints just by my looking at it, and touch-sensitive screens in general might not be a good idea for the scratch-prone iPod.

There is one caveat that I should mention, which might make this a remote possibility: inclusion of a stylus as the preferred input method. If apple includes a stylus with a non-abrasive tip and re-engineers the screen to be made out of rugged glass instead of the relatively soft plastic currently coating it, this might work.

Personally, I think this is just too "hypey". ThinkSecret either made it up, or are reporting indiscriminately. (Which is, after all, what rumor sites are all about.)  

UPI reported today that cable television's premium channel Showtime has added some of its original content to the iTunes Music Store. Users can download episodes of "Sleeper Cell" and "Weeds" for $1.99 each to their computers and iPods.

Considering that Showtime was originally formed to bring unedited feature films into the home in the early days of cable, perhaps it won't be long now before we can download whole movies.  

Apple has released a new 1GB iPod nano, which will retail for $149. It is identical to previous nanos in all other respects. 1GB is sufficient for 240 songs (at 128kbps) or 15,000 photos.

This announcement did NOT coincide with the demise of the iPod shuffle as some predicted. Rather, the price on the shuffles were lowered to $69 for the 512k version and $99 for the 1GB version.

So the extra $50 now gets you no greater capacity, but it does get you a pretty display, photo capability, and more flexible listening, albeit in a slightly less rugged form.

I predict a big hit, and the end of the 1GB shuffle within weeks.  

After getting sued by a bozo who hasn't yet discovered that his iPod has a volume control, the Crazy Apple Rumors Site is reporting that Apple will no longer sell to nitwits, morons, dunderheads, idiots, or boneheads.  

Jason Cross over at Extreme Tech has posted an article about how, after running two articles in years past about why he won't use an iPod, he has switched to "the Dark Side". (An ironic choice of words.)

Interestingly, he had nothing against the iPod itself; Cross just objected to Apple's closed system, wherein he would be locked into the iPod forever once he switched. (Obviously this defies logic. If one can switch to the iPod, one can switch away from the iPod.)

His reason for switching? In his words, he got "tired of waiting for Microsoft and its partners to get their act together."

That's what I've said all along: being locked into the iPod is bad, only if the iPod is bad. If the iPod is so good that you would never think of dumping it (the opinion of most users), then what's the harm in being "locked in"?