ThinkSecret has some new iPod rumours: The iPod Mini should get a capacity bump to 5 GB (courtesy of Seagate rather than Hitachi) and may appear in new colours. A product announcement could happen in the February or March timeframe. As we reported earlier, Hitachi is working on new drives with 8-10 GB capacity – Maybe these will make their way into the Mini by year’s end.
The iPod will move up a generation – The 5G iPod’s casing could see the use of more silver in the casing (rather than than the traditional all-white) to more closely align it with the current line of Macs and PowerBooks. The recently announced Hitachi 1.8-inch drives with capacity of 40 GB (single platter) and 80 GB (double platter) are the likely candidates for storage. ThinkOutside thinks that the 40GB drive has an edge because it will let the new 40 GB model be as thin as the current 20 GB model. The street date is not expected to be earlier than the latter half of the year.