Toshiba, a known supplier of hard drives for the iPod classic, has announced two new drives that could be used to bump the capacity of the iPod classic. The current iPod classic—which hasn’t seen an update since September of 2009, and even then only saw a capacity bump from 120GB to 160GB—uses a 5mm thick, 160GB drive. Toshiba’s new drives are also 5mm in thickness, but offer capacities up to 220GB in a single-platter design with a 16MB buffer for improved performance and the smallest power consumption levels of any SATA drive. According to the release (PDF Link), samples of the drives will be available for customers in February. Apple traditionally updates its iPod lineup once a year in September, but as noted by Mac Rumors, the abnormally long time period between updates for the iPod classic could lead the company to consider a mid-cycle update.
Charles Starrett was a senior editor at iLounge. He's been covering the iPod, iPhone, and iPad since their inception. He has written numerous articles and reviews, and his work has been featured in multiple publications.