When Apple released the iPod video in 2005, people started wondering what the next version of the iPod would look like. It seemed obvious that the media player needed a bigger screen. While a 2.5-inch LCD was fine for browsing through lists of artists and songs, it was far too small for watching videos, especially in a widescreen format.

iPod Image Gallery

Photo courtesy Apple The iPod touch.See more iPod pictures.

The basic iPod design is pretty sleek, and making it bigger to accommodate a larger screen would take away a lot of its charm. So many Apple aficionados speculated that the next iPod would be all screen. It would have a virtual Click Wheel, and it would play widescreen videos on a horizontal display.

The theorists got it partly right. The newest iPod design is the iPod touch. A display screen covers most of the front surface of the iPod touch, making it resemble an iPhone. But the iPod touch doesn't have a virtual Click Wheel that appears on the screen. Instead, it uses the same multi-touch interface that the iPhone uses. You navigate through music, videos and other files using your fingers and the touch-sensitive screen.

The iPod touch also has a few other features that iPod enthusiasts had hoped to see on standard iPod models. Some users hoped for a wirelessly enabled iPod so they could synch their music or share files with friends over a Bluetooth or WiFi connection. The iPod touch is the first iPod to have wireless capability, although it doesn't use it to synch with a computer or friends' iPods. Instead, you can use it to browse the Web, watch YouTube videos or download music from a WiFi-specific iTunes Music Store.

With its widescreen display and WiFi capability, the iPod touch might sound like a big step up from older iPod models. But the iPod touch isn't for everyone. In this article, we'll look at how the iPod touch measures up to the iPod classic and other versions of the iPod. We'll also examine the technology behind the multi-touch interface and the media player's technical specifications.

Video Gallery: MP3 Players The Zune is a portable MP3 player that lets you wirelessly send and receive songs with other Zune devices. The problem, though, is it never caught on. Learn about Microsoft's Zune in this episode of Technology Evangelist. Check out the world's most expensive MP3 player in this video from Loren Feldman of 1938 Media. Now you can put iPods, cell phones, PDAs or even glucose-monitoring or heart rate monitors into your hat, shoes or jacket. See how wearable tech gear works in this video from Reuters.