Looks like Apple store employees will be getting at least 3 exclusive and separate applications that will help with several important tasks. One of them will allow employees to swap iPhones or iPods on the store floor, which previously could only be done at the Genius Bar.

Another proprietary app will help employees in the stock room. The apps should make tasks done in all of Apple’s retail locations easier and more efficient.

Until now, if you wanted to get HD Radio in a portable, handheld you had to buy a Zune HD. But Gigaware is leveling the playing field by opening up HD Radio to every iPod touch and iPhone user in the US.

The adapter allows any iPhone or iPod touch with iPhone OS 3.0 or greater the ability to listen to HD Radio and local FM stations. It’s available now for $79.99 exclusively at RadioShack. The accompanying app has a manual tune wheel or auto-seek, social network integration, bookmarks and iTunes Tagging and can be downloaded for free.

Remember the XM SkyDock? It’s now available for purchase for $120. For that price it will give you full touchscreen control along with tagging capabilities over your in-car satellite radio. SkyDock features a built-in XM tuner and PowerConnect FM transmitter and will plug right into the cigarette lighter / power adapter socket where it will also charge your Apple device.

XM is making the App a free download from Apple’s App Store, but you’ll still have to run the antenna cable along the inside of your vehicle’s weather stripping to attach the magnetic antenna to your car’s roof (just above your front windshield) for optimal results.

What better way to celebrate Halloween then with an iPhone app or 10. Below are 10 of our favorites. All are ghoulishly good fun and will get you in the Halloween spirit. Plus, these will give you something to do while you are hiding in your house, pretending you aren’t home and eating all the candy yourself. You disgust me. But if you share some of that chocolate, I won’t tell.

According to Apple, the latest 32/64GB iPod touch is 50% faster than the old iPod touch. It’s an impressive claim. But is it accurate? Well, Macworld tested it out so you don’t have to worry about it. They found that the new touch comes close to that benchmark, even though it fell a tad short in some testing.

Booting: The old touch took 31 seconds. The new touch takes 19 seconds. Loading a web page went from 34 seconds to 15. And most games tested between loading 33% and 50% faster.

Adolph was really looking forward to the iPod Touch getting a camera. We all were. I mean there’s a space for a camera in the thing. Why didn’t it get a camera? He makes a good point. I’m sure he’s not alone when he says that he will no longer drink the kool-aid.

Why does the Nano get all of the cool new features? Be warned, there’s a bit of bad language in the subtitles.

Solar power has come a long way. They used to be something you only saw on hippie communes and Sci-fi movies. Solar panels are on everything now, especially our charging gadgets. The latest to sport a solar panel is the Surge iPod Touch charger, which allows you to recharge your iPod Touch anywhere, as long as you have sunlight.

The case features a 3.7 V lithium-ion battery that can be charged via the sun or by USB should it be cloudy. It comes in a bunch of colors. We aren’t sure if they have chargers for the other iPods, but at least your Touch is covered.

The folks at Apple are making a number of announcements today and they keep getting better as we go. One of the latest is a drop in price for the iPod touch. The 8GB model, previously at $249, has been dropped to what Apple is calling a “magic” price point at $199.

They are offering the 32GB iPod touch for $299 doubling the storage, and they’ve added a 64GB capacity touch for $399. Nothing else has really changed with this device (no camera), but it will be able to run OpenGL 2.0, housing the same CPU as the iPhone 3GS.

Today is Apple’s big event and in conjunction with said event, we are now seeing price drops on every iPod touch in Apple’s on-line store. The 8GB model is now listed at $189 (from $229), the 16GB model is $249 (from $299), and the 32GB model is just $279 (from $399). Obviously they are making room for the new toys.

The nano and classic have gotten the price cut treatment as well, with the classic cut to $229 (from $249) while the nano starts at $129 (from $149) for the 8GB version or $149 (was $199) for a 16GB nano.

Oops. Best Buy has listings for a number of accessories from Belkin for the as yet unannounced iPod touch 3rd generation. None of the listings mention a digital camera on the back of this new model, but they list six new case lines on their website. Some of those cases sport “hand straps” however, suggesting that it will have a camera.

Following up on rumors that the new model might be delayed, Pocket-lint managed to get a Riverdale New Jersey Walmart to comment that they were expecting the “newer” iPod touch models at the “end of the month.”

The Apple tablet saga continues. Here is the latest. Brian Lam of Gizmodo received a mysterious call from someone who claims to be an Apple insider. Their discussion lasted for awhile. Over an hour. The bottom line here is that Brian believes to “a high level of certainty” that the information is the real deal.

Here are some juicy details: The Tablet is basically a 10″ iPod Touch that comes with or without webcam (education version), it can be used as a touchpad for Macs, chances are that it will be launched for the holiday season and the price will be a staggering $700 to $900.

More and more accessory manufacturers for the iPhone and iPod touch are coming up with things that remind of us of Wii peripherals. Like this Basic Steering Wheel for iPhone and iPod touch from CTA Digital.

It’s supposed to offer a more realistic gaming experience on your iPhone, by offering a more natural way of driving, which beats just turning your iPhone/iPod touch. No word on pricing yet, but this one will arrive soon and we are certain it will be affordable. Hardcore iPhone racing fans rejoice.

According to a source at Wired, Apple’s Chinese contractors are already hard at work cranking out iPod touch units with cameras and microphones. If true, it would turn the smart media player almost into an iPhone.

According to their source, these new iPods will go on sale in “two to three months.” Could Apple eventually gain carrier independence with a 100% VoIP solution? Things could get very interesting starting in “two to three months.”

TechCrunch claims that they have heard evidence that the next generation iPod Touch will have a built in video camera. One of their sources in Asia says that Apple has placed an order for a massive number of camera modules of the type that they include in the iPhone.

The source says that due to the size of the order, they can only be used for one thing - the iPods. Since May it has been rumored that the iPod Touch would get a camera. When Apple does update the new iPod Touch, it seems likely that they will also upgrade the device to the more powerful processor and graphics chips that were introduced in the iPhone 3GS.

With Microsoft nearly ready to unleash the Zune HD on the masses, now Dell is working on a device to compete with the iPod Touch, according to reports. The device will play music and videos just like the iPod Touch, but will be based on the Google Android mobile OS and also function as a MID.

In size it will likely be slightly larger than the Touch. The device needs to compete with not only the Touch, but also with the Zune HD. It will be interesting to see what features end up in the device and whether it ends up being a true competitor or falls short.