Do you remember your reaction when you saw the first iPod Nano commercial? Those two hands fought over something that seemed, at the time, ‘impossibly small.’ By today’s standards, that first Nano would look commonplace – some people might even mistake it for a new iPhone. All signs point to a Nano announcement at this week’s Apple event, and from all the leaked pictures and accessories, we know it’s going to be small.

This picture, which comes from Apple Insider, shows an old Nano up against a render of the new, touchscreen version. There have been some concerns raised about controls – that screen is awfully small to comfortably navigate your music library. Apple could be headed toward an inline control system, similar to that of the iPod Shuffle. Personally, I hate the idea. I want to be able to use my own headphones without worrying about a stupid control dongle.

From the looks of things, I’d say Apple also scrapped the crappy little camera it added to the most recent generation of the Nano. Thank god. That thing was the laughing stock of Flip SD owners everywhere, to say nothing of all the portable HD handcam owners of the world.

MacRumors has pictures of what could very well be the screen and bezel from the new iPod Touch. The most notable feature you can see is the little pinhole near the top that looks to be the spot for a FaceTime camera.

None of this is really exciting, considering we already knew that FaceTime would be moving to non-iPhone devices some time this year and that it would start relying on email addresses instead of phone numbers to connect users. From what we know so far, it looks like the fourth-generation Touch could be on track for a september release.

Today, Apple saw fit to hit us with the cold hard numbers about the App Store, and they are big. Big like 2 billion downloads. Big like 85,000 apps. Big like a half billion downloads in the last quarter alone. That’s insane growth, and the App Store is now available to some 50 million customers across 77 countries, meaning that growth isn’t likely to slow down.

AppleInsider did a breakdown on the numbers, which includes some staggering statistics on daily download rates. The App Store has averaged 4.1 million downloads every day in its first year. Since April, that number is up to 6.3 million daily downloads. The staggering growth is something Apple obviously hopes to continue, and likely will as more and more carriers adopt the iPhone and more apps become available to iPod Touch users.

As expected, Apple made some changes to its iPod lineup today. With a few improvements, a few additions, and a few unexpected omissions, the new models may or may not be all you’ve been waiting for. This post is a short list of the changes made to each model. I’ll have detailed posts for each model change over the next day or two.

iPod Shuffle
It’s the smallest of the bunch and got very few changes. You can now get a 2GB model for $59 and a 4GB model for $79. Apple is still committed to that ridiculous VoiceOver feature, so you’ll be seeing more headphone manufacturers with VO support built in. Oh, you can also get the shuffle in five different colors. Nothing else to say, so you won’t get a breakdown post for this one.

iPod Classic
This old boy got the smallest (or biggest) update of all. The Classic is now up to 160GB of storage for $249. Boring.

iPod Nano
This is where things start to get interesting. Steve Jobs said today that the Nano has sold more than 200 million units, making it the most popular music player the world over. This is where most of the event was focused – new features for the Nano. As you’ve probably heard, Apple added a camera. It added a video camera. Only a video camera. More on that later.

The unit also got a microphone to go with video recording, which means it’s got voice recording capability as well. There’s also a pedometer inside and Apple even added FM radio capability. Really, this is the MP3 player that just about everyone else on the market has been making for years, plus some video, plus that special Apple touch. You can now get the Nano in nine different colors. Read the full update…

iPod Touch
You feel that? That’s the feeling of disappointment. The iPod Touch didn’t get a camera. Period. No camera. Instead, this model got a price reduction on the low-end and a processor boost on the in the upper two-thirds. The 8GB model is down to $199 while the 32GB and 64GB versions, both of which have the faster processor from the iPhone 3GS, will cost $299 and $399 respectively.

The real update for the iPod Touch is iPhone OS 3.1, adding peer-to-peer gaming functionality, Genius Mixes, and Genius Recommendations for apps. In fact, Apple’s whole presentation surrounding the Touch today pitched the model as a “great pocket computer.” Unfortunately that computer didn’t get the camera update we were all expecting, forcing the average consumer to choose between the functionality of apps versus a video camera.

There have been plenty of rumors surrounding the Apple media event next week. We’re almost guaranteed to see an iPod update, and though people would love to see a tablet announcement, it doesn’t look likely. There is one product, though, that the world (including Apple) has all but forgotten: Apple TV.

The box hasn’t seen an update since release, really, and analysts think it’s a good candidate for a refresh at the music event. Gene Munster, an analyst for Piper Jaffray, points out that the delivery time for the 40GB Apple TV has gone from 24 hours to 1-2 weeks, which you’ll notice puts it past the media event. That could definitely mean the announcement of a new model. As far as I know, Apple TV doesn’t sell well enough to merit that kind of shortage, particularly during the beginning of September.

Unless Apple does something truly incredible with Apple TV, it will definitely get overshadowed by the addition of cameras to the Nano/Touch lines of iPods. In any case, we’re only waiting another 5 days to find out.