Speculations, speculations. A lot of fans are longing for a new generation of iPods and some say it’s going to happen soon. We don’t know when, and frankly I don’t even think God himself knows, but it seems likely that the announcement will take place at Apple Expo in Paris next month.

Let’s take speculations one step further and think about all the neat little new features we’ll see when this finally happens. The iPhone is a revolution. Will the iPod too bring something “new” in the true sense of the word? Will Apple let it fade into the dark as the spotlight continues to shine on it’s half-brother, the iPhone?

Playlist’s iPod Blog posted their guesses on which iPhone features that will, or will not, be included in a new generation of iPods. We thought we’d give our opinions on this fine article.

First of all we have the mighty touch-screen interface which everyone want to lay their fingers on, literally. It would sure be great too see this feature on the next iPod. It’s one of those features that makes one want to buy the product just to get it. If the next iPod doesn’t have it, it will lose it’s sex appeal because the iPhone will just be so much cooler.

Next up is…

“a headset that includes a clicker much like what we see on the iPhone’s headset. Click once to pause, twice to skip ahead to the next track, and you’ve provided just enough functionality to satisfy those iPod users who routinely shuffle their music.”

Awesome. At least for the rare (?) souls that use the standard iPod headphones that completely destroy the whole experience of music. Give me an extension cable with a clicker on, for use with third-party headphones. Or maybe a bluetooth remote control? Nah, I’m dreaming.

A search feature would be more than great, it would be perfect. If I had all of my 6000 songs on an iPod, I’d be frustrated by the lack of a search function. Since Apple stands for ease of use and user experience, I’d expect at least some kind of search functionality in these small multimedia wonders. Think iTunes.

There are some iPhone features that don’t belong in an iPod, and camera is definitely one of them. An iPod is a media player, which has the main purpose of playing media. A camera would just make it too bloated and expensive, and it’s really not necessary. Displaying photos is enough.

And if a camera is unnecessary, so is sound recording for the same reasons. A lot of people seem to be missing this in the iPod, because “many other players have it”. I’m wondering; who uses sound recording on a media player anyway? I personally use my iPod to listen to music and having audio recording as a menu option would just annoy me.

Last but not least, the dreaded incompatible headphone jack. This is so messed up, I don’t even know where to begin. I would be mighty pissed off if I couldn’t use my $100 third-party headphones with the new iPod, and I can imagine all the Shure e2c/e3c owners feel the same way. The standard headphones sure look great but when it comes to sound, they suck.

Read about more features at Playlist’s iPod Blog. Time will tell which one’s will be included but hopefully we’ll see for ourselves next month. Anyhow, it’s always fun to speculate.

By the way, what about a visualizer for the iPod? That’s something for the generations to come. It would be really cool, but bye bye battery life…