The iPod touch is rumored to be making another comeback in 2021

And we’ve got pictures

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The 7th-geniPod touchwe saw appear in 2019 was something of a surprise – before that,Applehadn’t refreshed its dedicated music player since 2015 – but apparently the pocketable jukebox isn’t dead yet, with another model rumored to be on the way this year.

That’s according to MacRumors contributor@SteveMoserand tipster@AppleLe257on Twitter, although they’re keen to label this as a ‘rumor’ rather than a ‘leak’ – so it sounds like it’s something that’s been heard in passing from inside sources, rather than something there is hard evidence for.

There are a couple of reasons we’re inclined to believe it: number one, Apple’s recent announcement ofa lossless upgradefor Apple Music, and number two, it’s the 20th anniversary of the original iPod this year.

We’ve got renders too, courtesy of@Apple_Tomorrow, but it’s worth emphasizing that these are based on specs and features that are being talked about – these aren’t taken from any images or diagrams sourced from Apple, so bear in mind that they’re slightly speculative at this point.

It looks as though the 8th-gen iPod touch could come in a variety of colors – like theiPhone 12and thenew iMac– and with a long-overdue upgrade to Face ID as well. The rest of the specs remain something of a mystery, though we’d be amazed if the current screen size of 4 inches wasn’t upgraded.

We haven’t heard much in the way of 8th-gen iPod touch rumors up to this point, and it felt as though Apple had largely forgotten about it. As Moser points out though, the iPodwas mentionedin Apple Music promotional material pushed out in November.

So when might we see this colorful new music player? Theusual tipstersare already hinting that we’re going to see new hardware appear at theWWDC 2021developer conference, which could potentially include this new iPod touch when it gets underway on June 7.

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If not then, it might show up later in the year, around September or October time. Apple seems to be on schedule to launch its newiPhone 13handsets in September, though it often has a hardware event in October as well.

ViaXDA Developers

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you’ll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.

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