Apple tempts fate, clings on to last year’s hardware.

Almost as a vindication of my piece yesterday, Apple has released a line of very conservatively updated devices. Here’s the breakdown:

• iPod nano – No physical changes, software allows for arguably easier interaction by swiping between single icons instead of grids of 4. More watch faces for those interested in wearing the diminutive music player on their wrist.

• iPod Touch – No changes whatsoever save the inevitable iOS 5 update, availability in white and a $30 price cut. Perhaps this is the most surprising of the bunch, the iPod touch is a huge money spinner for Apple, for them to rest on their laurels with this product category suggests a saddening complacency.

• iPhone 4S – A new, dual core A5 processor (same as the 9-month-old silicon inside the iPad 2), 8 megapixels, 1080p camera, 64GB of storage (finally!), identical external design to the iPhone 4.

Alongside the hardware refresh, Apple announced a few new apps; Google Latitude alternative ‘Find my friends’ and the frankly bizarre ‘Cards’ which allows you to design a postcard, yes, a physical, snail-mail, postcard, and have Apple send it to an address of your choosing for $2.99

Perhaps the most notable update coming out of Cupertino today however is the integration of the voice recognition technology from Siri, an App that’s been available since 2010. The company got bought by Apple around that time and now in iOS5 you’ll be able to use natural speech to have the phone make note of meetings, set alarms, check the weather and dictate text.