Apple hates it when the public hears about its plans, yet somehow, someone somewhere always manages to slip up and lets the cat out of the bag.

This time it was the Chairman of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Hon Hai, Taiwan's biggest electronic company, and the company expects to grow even more in the following years, based on an estimated average revenue growth over the next five years of 30 percent. This prediction is based on the orders from customers such as Apple Computer, whose iPod is assembled by Hon Hai.

Interesting enough, Chairman Terry Gou let it slip that Apple is about to unveil the next generation of the iPod using a 'none-touch' concept. He did not elaborate further.

It's pretty much unclear at the moment what exactly this 'non -touch' concept refers to. While there has been a patent that surfaced recently about voice navigation, that patent dealt with the iPod speaking the information of the song and playlist currently selected to the user, but the actual control was a traditional one, the implementation simply allowing the user to navigate without having to look at the iPod screen.
It also seems improbable that this is a voice controlled system, as having personal conversations with your iPod in public places would be awkward at the very least for most people.

If anything, it might be a case of misinterpretation, like the Microsoft announcement not so long ago, and Gou was referring to a touch screen iPod that would have no click-wheel and be controlled via a virtual interface.