Tech

Apple made another big announcement today, introducing three new iPods for the masses and an iTunes social network called Ping. There are a ton of new features on the iPods, which may even make you forget about wanting an iPhone 4.

The iPod Touch is thinner and lighter than ever, and while it still plays all of your favorite music, it also can make FaceTime video calls and record HD video. As long as you have Wi-Fi, you can video chat with your friends just like on the iPhone 4. The device also has that sweet Retina display and Game Center, where you can challenge your friends and show all your scores and stats.

On Wednesday, Facebook announced a new service called Places, which, as you've probably guessed, is a location-based feature that lets you show your friends where you are.

The concept isn't a new one -- Foursquare has been at the top of the location game for a while now, and Twitter launched their location tweets feature in March. But Facebook's Places aims to take a piece of the action and score support from local businesses and advertisers.

"This is not a service to broadcast your location at all times, but rather one to share where you are, who you are with, when you want to," Michael Sharon, product manager for Places said. "It lets you find friends that are nearby and help you discover nearby places."

Here's how it works: Users will have the option to "check in" to a spot directly from their iPhones or other smartphones. You can then see if any of your other friends are in the same place, and even tag the friends you're with kind of like tagging people in photos. Your check-in will update your status, and can be seen on your wall, your friends' walls or the Places page for that particular location. If you want to opt out of the service, you'll need to go into your privacy settings and disable the settings.

Obsessed with video games? Then if things work out, a small city in Iowa will be on your places to visit list in a few years.

Ottumwa, Iowa has a population of only 25,000 people. This weekend video game fans from all over celebrated Big Bang 2010 there, which marked the anniversary of Pac-Man. But the town has even bigger plans in mind. They want to create an International Video Game Hall of Fame.

"We want to be the most complete archive of video game history," explains Dan Canny, vice president of the Hall of Fame board. "Maybe we had no business stepping up and doing this, but we're doing it."

The city would welcome the opportunity to create new jobs because their unemployment rate is at a staggering 9.2 percent; however it doesn't look like this Hall of Fame will be built any time soon. Millions of dollars still need to be raised in order to turn this dream into a reality.

Everyone has been buzzing about the Flipboard iPad app, but what exactly is it? Basically the program lets users create a social media magazine of their own using the feeds from their Facebook and Twitter accounts. But is it cool or corny?

From what we've seen in the trailer, the app looks pretty amazing. It takes info from your accounts and turns them into a sweet layout, just like you'd see in your favorite glossy. Touching the "articles" opens them up to full view, and if your friends link to photos or features, you can see them right there.

The best part about the app is that you can reply to posts or like them on Facebook without having to exit the tool. Of course, it's not meant to be a full blown Twitter browser, so you can't see tweets from people you're not following. But if you just want to experience your social media streams in a fun way, this is an awesome app for it. The best part? It's free.

Watch the trailer for Flipbook after the jump. What do you think of the app? If you have an iPad, would you download it? And if you don't have the device, do you still think it's a cool concept?

Since the iPhone 4 was released, Apple has been getting a lot of backlash about the phone's antenna and wireless service. So, in an effort to address the complaints, Apple will be giving away free cases to all of its iPhone 4 users.

Yep, that's right. Free cases. On Friday, the tech company held a rare press conference in which CEO Steve Jobs discussed all the media and customer claims.

Dubbed 'Antennagate,' the most popular complaint has been about the steel band where the antenna is located. Many have reported that holding the phone a certain way affects service, contributing to increased dropped calls.

"A lot of people have told us the bumper solves the signal strength problem." Steve Jobs said. "Okay. Great. Let's give everyone a case. We want to give everyone is going to get a free case."

Despite all of its bad reviews, just .55 percent of iPhone 4 customers have called to complain about the antenna. The phone only has a 1.7% return rate at AT&T, and Apple's CEO says the same antenna issues can be applied to many other phones on the market.

If you're a fan of Facebook, don't worry. Although there have been claims that the social networking site will soon turn into a pay-to-use service, Facebook is has made it clear that it is "free and will always be."

In fact, to drive the message home completely, the site has put those very words on its home page. When users go to log into their accounts, a big message above the sign-up form states Facebook's intentions loud and proud.

Why is the social site still available for free? Well, the Facebook makes most of its money from advertising. Many companies pay to post small ads on the right column of your page. Some are more obvious than others, but those spaces are paid for and basically allow people to enjoy the rest of the site for free.

But in the end, does this really make a difference to account holders when they have reported less usage or have stopped logging onto the site all together? Facebook sure hopes so. What do you think? Is it reassuring to know that the site won't charge in the future?