Apple ships iPods with EarPods sans mic

When Apple raised the curtains on the iPhone 5, apart from the redesigned dock connector known as Lightning, the brand also took the opportunity to showcase its new line up of earphones, which they have dubbed EarPods. A neat feature of these EarPods is that they are ergonomically designed and many Apple users had voiced their opinion in various forums claiming that the previous earphones were in desperate need of an upgrade. While Apple changed the design of the earphones, they also added a mic to it so that it can be used for hands free calling or for making calls over FaceTime. However, it now appears that the EarPod with mic will come only with the iPhone and not the recently announced iPods.

As per a report by CNET, the author David Carnoy states, “iPod Touch buyers should also note that while Apple has included its new EarPods, they're missing a small but important feature -- the inline remote with integrated microphone found on the iPhone 5's EarPods. The same mic-less EarPods also ship with the new iPod Nano. Oh, and these step-down EarPods don't come with a carrying case. In all other respects, including sound quality, the two EarPod versions are the same. “

New earphone design.. finally!

However, don't despair yet... as the iPod touch does come with an in-built microphone that should be sufficient for most users. However, it would have been great if Apple did bundle it along with the handset especially since the iPod touch is available for quite a high amount.

For those who missed out on the unveiling, Apple introduced the new line-up of the world’s most popular music players – the all-new iPod touch and its 7th generation iPod nano. The new iPod touch is the thinnest version ever and features a 4-inch Retina display, a 5 megapixel iSight camera with 1080p HD video recording, Apple’s A5 chip, Siri—the intelligent assistant and iOS 6, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system. The new iPod touch comes in a new ultra-thin and light anodized aluminium design, and for the first time ever, it comes in five vibrant colours.

The reinvented iPod nano is the thinnest iPod ever, at just 5mm, and features the largest display ever built into an iPod nano, allowing you to enjoy more of your music, photos and widescreen videos. It features a 2.5-inch Multi-Touch display to make navigating your music even easier; a home button to quickly get back to your home screen; and convenient buttons to easily control volume and quickly play, pause or change songs without looking. The new iPod nano gives music lovers built-in Bluetooth for wireless listening with Bluetooth-enabled headphones, speakers and cars.

iPod nano will be available in October in pink, yellow, blue, green, purple, silver, and slate for a suggested price of Rs 12,500 including VAT (Rs 11,013 excluding VAT) in a 16GB model through Apple's authorised resellers. The new iPod touch is available at approximately Rs. 23,900 for the 32GB version while the 64GB model will sell for around Rs. 30,900.