APPLE's new range of iPods are as tasty looking as ever, which is handy because yours is probably about to break.

Previously the iMac made a strained appearance in the shed, tempting us away from our beloved but bug-ridden PCs with its luscious looks and ease of use. It didn't work. To the committed PC owner, the prospect of buying a Mac is no less dreadful than chopping off one's head and replacing it with a brushed metal orb. On the plus side, passers by would be struck by our futuristic beauty, but on the downside we'd have a steel head.

At least there's one area in which Apple is less controversial - the iPod. Ubiquitous and show-offy they may be, but no-one can deny that the realm of portable music playing is a place where the company's superhuman levels of design simplicity deserve to dominate. Plus, the entertaining secret policy of ensuring all iPods go wrong after about a year also helps to ensure constant demand for new models. Cue the iPod Classic, the new Nano, and best of all, the iPod Touch.

Boring bits first. The Classic is your basic iPod, the latest iteration of the original rectangular block which first seduced the world. It's now a titan inside, carrying a 160gb memory baby in its sleek belly. That's better than the hard drive on a lot of home computers, and certainly more than we'll ever need. Westlife's back catalogue only takes up so much space.

Where the old iPod gets bigger, the Nano gets smaller. The revamped model is newly short and squat and comes in a range of pretty colours. What's more, it plays video on a 320x240 screen, so you can enjoy the latest Internet pornography while you're "on the go." For people incapable of buying a newspaper, it's also got Sudoku.

Best of all, though, is the iPod Touch, which squeezes all the desirability of the upcoming iPhone into a bowl, sieves out the phone functions then funnels the result into an mp3 player. It's a ludicrous 8mm thick, has the much vaunted "multi-touch" controls of its telecommy sibling, and it boasts wi-fi browsing, instant access to YouTube, contacts, a calendar and - thank the lord - a clock. Yes, it makes your old player look fat and dumpy, but don't worry. You'll have the perfect excuse to buy one in around 12 months, when your current iPod breaks.