Countdown to the next iPod, updated

In the words of Mike Myers, I’m as giddy as a little guuuuurl.

Apple apparently just sent out media invites for the unveiling of their new iPod next week.

NPD surveyed 11,000 U.S. consumers older than age 13 earlier this year, and found that only 6.6 percent of respondents purchased a television show or movie online during the past six months. It’s not clear how many folks are watching videos on their iPods as opposed to on their computers or TVs via Apple TV, but mobile video is still very much a niche experience at this point.

That’s what Apple could be hoping to change on Wednesday. The most persistent rumors over the past couple of months have involved a redesign of both the current iPod video player as well as the smaller iPod Nano to provide a better viewing experience.

Only the fifth-generation iPod supports video playback at the moment, but it uses a 2.5-inch screen that after the launch of the iPhone looks impossibly small. Several Apple-oriented sites, as well as a few financial analysts, have gone on record predicting Apple will release an iPod with the same 3.5-inch widescreen display found on the iPhone but without the phone hardware.

Many also expect Apple to have a new version of the iPod Nano that supports video playback. It’s not clear at all how this might be accomplished while preserving the diminutive size of the iPod Nano.

We’ll see on Wednesday.

In the meantime, if you live in New York City (and you know who you are), where the subway is plastered with ads warning about iPod theft, help is at hand.

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