MacRumors.com

Appleinsider sources report that Apple is planning on using a new microchip for the upcoming 4th generation iPods.

The new microchip is said to incorporate various encoding capabilities. While unclear if Apple will take advantage of the new features in an upcoming iPod revision, recording/encoding capabilities have been amongst the list of user-requested features.

Currently, the iPod is capable of audio-in recording only through 3rd party add-on devices.