True to expectation, this afternoon’s Apple announcement has brought major revamps to the iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano, and iPod Touch lines. What’s new?

Rumors abound about what afternoon’s press announcement from Apple will bring: The long-rumored iPod Touch 4G; streaming iTunes; an Apple TV reboot; iOS4 for the iPad. The guitar pictured on Apple’s press invite teases musical news of some sort, and RWW notes that Apple fall events “have always focused on the iPod line.” So: We’ll just have to see, and soon.

Apparently, our former rulers across the pond get really into their music. According to the UK Automobile Association, iPod distraction is responsible for an average 17 accidents per day. People just gotta hear their jams, yo? Surely you can’t expect people to keep their eyes on the road when their ears are being so sweetly serenaded?

The UK AA has even gone so far as to coin a term for this iPad distraction epidemic: “iPod oblivion.” Well, that just makes me want to play Elder Scrolls IV on an iPod, now. Thanks a lot, guys. Well, that or it makes me want the iPods to actually be either exploding or vanishing into thin air, mystifying and distracting their owners.

In a new release, Amazon announces that embedded video and audio are coming at last to Kindle Books. These are being rolled out bit-by-bit — you can see the full set of video- and audio-enabled books at the Kindle Store — and the upgrade does not actually apply to Amazon’s own Kindle e-reader.

Rather, Amazon is giving this Kindle functionality to none other than its rival in the nascent world of tablets, Apple: The new, media-rich books will be available for the iPad, the iPhone, and the iPod Touch.

What might really be happening here?

Any big product launch opens up lots of side markets (can you say custom iPod docks?), but we could not have possibly anticipated this: A company called iPadDummy.net is selling fake iPads for just $49. But these are no iPeds; they truly are dummies, in the sense that they contain no electronics at all and do not function. But they seem like handy facsimiles! Dummy iPads look a whole lot like real iPads, nail the dimensions, and even have a heft to them (21.76 oz versus the 24 oz of the real iPad).

More pics after the jump:

Now it’s just getting ridiculous: tinhte.vn, the Vietnamese scoop factory behind the leaked iPhone 4, is back with a bevy of clear photographs of what appears to be an iPod Touch with a 2 megapixel camera.

Some skepticism is warranted: According to BGR, even if this iPod Touch is a genuine Apple product and not a counterfeit, it’s still possible that this could be “an older prototype left over from Apple’s failed attempt at placing a camera in the iPod Touch last year.”

Judge for yourself:

President Obama delivered the commencement address at Hampton University in Virginia yesterday, and in a weirdly out-of-touch moment for a President who fought to keep his Blackberry, told the crowd of graduates that “with iPods and iPads and XBoxes and PlayStations…information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment.”

Kids today!

You’re coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don’t always rank all that high on the truth meter,” Obama said at Hampton University, Virginia.

“With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations, — none of which I know how to work — information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation,” Obama said.

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The analysts at Experian Simmons have turned their attentions to everyone’s favorite group of inscrutable consumers: MacHeads. In a sweeping analysis of 206 designated market areas across the U.S., they’ve found and ranked the urban areas in which people are most likely to own Apple products like iPods, iPads, or Mac laptops or desktop computers.

Not surprisingly, the Bay Area comes in at #1 — but New York City is #4. The top five, after the jump:

After all the hype leading up to its revelation, the iPad has gotten mixed early reviews, tilting a little towards negative.

The iPad has its cons, to be sure: the inability to multitask and the lack of a camera being the worst two strikes against it. But it’s worth remembering the harsh initial reaction against a certain other flawed Apple device: that would be the iPod, in 2001.

Looking back at the knowledgeable techie news forums of the day, you may experience deja vu: a lot of the anti-Apple talking points and storylines are surprisingly similar.

A MacRumors commenter, October, 2001:

“Sounds very revolutionary to me. hey – heres an idea Apple – rather than enter the world of gimmicks and toys, why dont you spend a little more time sorting out your pathetically expensive and crap server line up? or are you really aiming to become a glorified consumer gimmicks firm?”

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