By Michael Hansberry (staff@latinospost.com) | First Posted: Oct 11, 2012 03:44 PM EDT

The super-secret Apple has yet to reveal a release date for its iPod Touch "5," but the company has begun pre-orders.

International Business Times said that on Tuesday, Apple began filling retail stores with the new iPods and sending notifications to pre-order customers, telling them their orders have shipped.

"How does the 5th Generation iPod Touch stack up to the iPhone 5? Well, literally speaking, they're fairly well matched in terms of size. The new iPod Touch shares the same height (within a ± .01 inch difference) as the iPhone 5," iFixit wrote. "Along with a 4-inch (diagonal) screen, a 5-megapixel iSight camera, and 32 GB or 64 GB storage capacity, the new iPod Touch also sports a retractable post for 'the loop.' With any luck, this loop will prevent the unintentional iPod 'drop test' that often results in shattered hopes and screens."

iFixit said the iPod Touch was "much easier" to get inside to the lack of external screws and two "hard-to-manage ribbon cables" on the logic board.

"While very difficult, opening the case and replacing components is not impossible," iFixit added.

Techno Bloom says the fifth generation iPod is basically the iPhone, without phone capabilities and the excess battery consumption.

"The iPod Touch can focus its resources to music, games and other multimedia content. It gives you a near full experience of what iOS can provide," TechnoBloom reports. "If you pair that up with a phone from a different operating system, you gain variety; the best of both worlds.

 The article said the iPod Touch 5 runs on the same A5 processor as the iPhone 4S, has the same large 4-inch display of the iPhone 5, along with the earphone jack and grill speaker.

As far as pricing goes, the phone device sells for $299, but at that price, you can get an iPhone 5 on contract and still have money left over, the article said.

Here's the full list of components and internal features iFixit discovered in the new iPod Touch:

* A5 Processor

* Hynix H9TKNNN4KDBRCR 512 MB RAM

* Toshiba THGBX2G8D4JLA01 32 GB NAND flash

* Apple 3381064 dialog power management IC

* Murata 339S0171 Wi-Fi module

* Broadcom BCM 5976 touchscreen controller

* Apple 33831116

* STMicroelectronics AGD32229ESGEK low-power, three-axis gyroscope

* Texas Instruments 27AZ5R1 touchscreen SoC