Apple's gPod

With the launch of the PSP, Apple sees Sony falling into a similar trap. But despite relative quantum leaps in computing technology and publishers like Blizzard and Maxis (among others) backing the Mac, Apple is still hardly synonymous with gaming.

That is, until today. iPod, meet gPod, your younger, nerdier, muscle-bound brother. GR was there to get the scoop on this interesting new move from the house that Jobs built.

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Although slimmer and lighter than both competing handhelds, the gPod feels quite sturdy (unlike the PSP, which will detonate if you sneeze). Apple hopes to marry their ingenious minimalist design with considerable power and a staggering array of features. According to Jonathan Ive, the industrial designer behind the iPod and G5 iMacs, "the gPod will go one step beyond the PSP's merger of console quality and portable convenience. It will undoubtedly blur the line between the handheld and the laptop."

We'd love to argue, but witness the tech. The gPod's OS is a UNIX based variant of Mac OS X, tentatively titled "Cheshire," in keeping with that whole feline motif Apple's got going. "Jaguar, Panther, and Tiger are names that befit the larger systems," grinned Allison Johnson, Apple's newly appointed VP of Worldwide Marketing Communications. "Cheshire  rouses the perfect blend of youth and maturity, the promise of a fantastic experience as you delve further into the rabbit hole."

And delve we did. Click onward to see and read more!

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