Theres a brand new ipod touch that has anew sleeker look, and a much needed built in speaker! The latest ipod touch also has built in support for Nike+, Longer Battery life and volume control buttons on the side of the ipod!

Spore will be released today on the apple app store or by accessing the EA mobile Website with their Apple iPhones.

“We’re really excited to bring Spore Origins to the iPhone and iPod touch,” said Travis Boatman, Vice President Worldwide Studios at EA Mobile in a statement. “By leveraging the unique capabilities of these devices, players can customize their own creatures and shape their destiny in an exciting evolutionary journey.”

One of those apparently by accident. We spotted this review of the app:

The latest firmware release resolves several performance-related issues and bugs found in OS 2.0. Apples release notes only state “Bug Fixes”.
After upgrading and having a look around we’ve noticed:

• Improved keyboard responsiveness
• Less lag in the Contacts application
• Faster backups (at last)

1. Download the zip file to your Mac/PC.
2. Unzip the archive.
3. Upload the entire “theme” folder to your iPod touch’s either one of the following folders depending on your firmware version:
   • Firmware Ver 1.1.1 & 1.1.2
     /private/var/root/Library/SummerBoard/Themes/
   • Firmware 1.1.3
     /private/var/mobile/Library/SummerBoard/Themes/
4. Launch “SMBpref” and turn ON  the following options:
   • Theme Wallpaper - ON
   • Theme Status Bar - ON
   • Theme Icons - ON
   • Theme Dock - ON
   • Wallpaper - ON
   • Skip Last Row - ON (for firmware 1.1.1 & 1.1.2 only)
5. Look for the Name of the theme you uploaded under “Themes”, and select it.
6. Tap “Restart Springboard”.

Voila you should be looking at your new theme

Apple has finally released the highly anticipated SDK for iPhone’s and iPod touch. To download them you need an apple developer account head over to:
http://developer.apple.com/ and sign up for an account.
Requirements:

• Mac OS X Leopard
• An Intel-based Mac
• Xcode
• a free Apple iPhone developer account and the SDK itself — note that access to the SDK is not going to cost you ninety-nine bucks. It’s free, though getting the application approved and out onto devices will set you back the $99.

Aplle will also be releasing Firmware 2.0 in June, including an app store and were hoping to see alot of apps available form the start, and several Enterprise level updates, such as:

• Push Email
• Push Calender
• Push Contacts
• Remote Wipe
• 802.x

For full details of the SDK and Firmware 2.0 check out the apple presentation video of when it was all unveiled

Firmware 2.0 will be free for iPhone users to upgrade but will cost a “nominal” fee for iPod touch users “due to accounting being different”. We would suspect 2.0 to come with the additional iPhone apps that were released in January for $20 to iPod touch users, so if your planning on buying those we suggest you hang on until June.

The iPod Touch’s multi touch interface isn’t like any other mp3 player or pda. You do everything touching the screen instead of phyiscal buttons, here are 7 basic techniques for operating and navigating your ipod touch:

Tap
The most common interaction with your ipod touch will be tapping the on screen buttons. You cannot use a stylus, pen or anything else only skin contact works.  (There maybe a few exceptions to this, but not worth mentioning)

Slide
Some actions require you to slide your finger accross the screen, most notably when unlocking and  to confirm turning it off. The slide technique is also used for deleting files in certain screens such as emails, videos, images etc.

Drag
When your zoomed into webpage, photo or email you canuse your finger to drag in any direction. It’s similar to the flick but more controlled.

Flick
A flick is similar to the slide but faster and less controlled and usually in a vertical motion when navigating your music list (unless in album view). The faster your flick the faster the list will scroll, similar to real physics the list will slow down after a couple of seconds, so you can see what you ended up on or giving the screen a tap while its moving will stop it dead.

Pinch and Spread
The Pinch and Spread is a two finger technique usually done by placing a thumb and fore finger on the screen and spreading apart to zoom in or “pinching” together to zoom out. Usefull when viewing websites, mail, photos,  maps etc

Double Tap
The double tap is probably the least common technique used. Reserved for only 3 functions; In Safari, mail, photos, maps double tapping an area will automatically zoom in and fit that section to your screen, double tapping again will zoom back out. When viewing a video double tapping changes the aspect ratio.

Two Finger Tap
This interesting technique only appears to be valid using the maps application(requires jailbroken touch to install the map app).  The two finger tap lets you zoom out of a map, this lets you quickly move around zooming in with a double tap, and out with a two finger tap.

As the iPod touch doesn’t come with a manual we have compiled the ultimate list of tips and tricks for operating and managing your iPod touch with more control:

When you’re scrolling through a long webpage in Safari - if you tap the bar at the top of your screen containing the time and battery, Safari will automatically scroll up to the top of the document/page and the show address bar.

Double clicking the home button in any application, or with the screen off will bring up the music controls.

To completely exit an application to save battery power. Press and holding the home button for approximately 5-8 seconds. This will help boost battery life if you run lots of different apps regularly.

Holding down letters on the keyboard will pop up the accents/symbols associated with those letters. Once it pops up, slide your finger over to the accent/symbol you like.

When you in the Mail apps inbox view, slide your finger from left to right on a message and a ‘delete’ button will appear. This also applies in the list view of the Videos application.

In Safari double tap to zoom in. You can also “pinch” (putting your thumb and index finger on the screen and pinching in and out) to zoom in Safari and in Pictures.

You can charge your iPod Touch from any powered USB port. Such as a computer, printer, media centre.

If your watching a video and want to resume it later tap the “done” button and it will remember the videos progress next time you open it. Same with music/podcasts.

When typing a lot of text in Safari turn it to horizontal view. The keyboard will be bigger and you can get a better grip of the Touch while typing with two thumbs.

When typing if you want to add something from the numbers keyboard just hold down the numbers and slide your finger to the number or symbol you want, and release. It will take you back to your letters keyboard. This also works by holding the ’shift’ key and sliding your finger to apply capital letters.

When viewing a website in Safari, if you want to check the url of a link before clicking it, hold your finger on the link and a bubble will appear showing the URL that the link is tied to.

A quick way to open a link in a new window in Safari is to open a new page, tap the bookmarks icon, tap the history folder and direct yourself to the last page you were just on and open the link from there.

When listening to an audiobook, iTunes and your iPod create a new chapter list unrelated to the subject of the book. It’s accessible using the same control used for viewing audio tracks (upper right of screen).

Make a typo? Press and hold the word you spelt wrong and a magnifying glass will appear. Slide your finger back and forwth to move the cursor.

When typing, if you press the space bar twice after a word it will insert a period and another space.

If you wish to use the horizontal keyboard to chat on AIM, MSN, Yahoo, GTalk, ICQ, etc. Using Safari go to the site www.meebo.com and use it there.

In Google Maps, double tapping zooms in as expected, but single tapping with two fingers zooms out.

when watching a movie  press pause and press foward ( but don’t release it ) this will make your video go slow motion to fast foward just dont press pause beforehand.

** Disclaimer: ipodtouchnews accepts NO responsibility should you decide to do this and end up screwing up your ipod! **

This Guide assumes you have allready downloaded the 1.1.2 firmware from apple to your hardrive.

Instructions after the jump

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With the official release expected to be on iTunes today hackers allready with iphones running 1.1.2 have managed to jailbreak the new firmware within just a few hours ! Congratulations to all the iPhone/iPod team, including Pumpkin, Edgan, Dinopio, Drudge, Kroo, and all the rest. Details will be forthcoming as the method gets debugged and safety-features put in-place. More news as it unfolds.

First screenshot of jailbroken 1.1.2 ipod touch:

Picture Courtesy of planet being.