iPod Touch Software Upgrade Will Cost You 20 Bucks

The good news is, Apple has a major software upgrade for the iPod touch. The bad news is, they are charging $19.99 for it. The portable media player and Wi-Fi mobile device gets five more mobile applications with the upgrade, including Mail, Maps, Stocks, Weather and Notes, along with new features like Web Clips, a customizable home screen, and the ability to watch iTunes Movie Rentals.

Fortunately, if you buy a new iPod touch the software upgrade is already on the device, but existing iPod touch owners will have to dish out $19.99 for the software upgrade when downloading it from iTunes.

Mail on iPod touch is a rich HTML email client that fetches email in the background from most POP3 or IMAP mail services and displays photos and graphics along with the text of the email. Users can configure Mail for Google's Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, .Mac Mail or most POP or IMAP based mail services with just a few clicks.    

Maps on iPod touch features the ability to automatically find your current location using nearby Wi-Fi base stations*, and use it as a starting or ending point for directions or to find local points of interest. Users can get real-time traffic conditions, and view maps in map or satellite view, or a hybrid view which combines map and satellite views so you can see major street names overlaid on satellite imagery.    

Stocks and Weather allow users to access live stock and weather reports at their fingertips, and Notes lets you jot down information on-the-go using the intelligent keyboard.    

The iPod touch home screen can now be customized, allowing users to reorder and add new icons, with support for up to nine different home screens which they can easily flick between. With the new Web Clips feature, you can even create custom icons on your home screen for your favorite websites. Web Clips are a great way to easily track web sites that you frequently check such as news, blogs, sports sites, movie listings and more.    

With Apple's new iTunes Movie Rentals, movie fans can rent movies on their computer, easily and quickly transfer them to their iPod touch, and watch them anywhere on iPod touch's gorgeous 3.5 inch screen. Users can also now navigate forward or backward through their movies by chapters, select alternate language tracks and view subtitles, if available.