Apple today peeled the wraps off its latest iPod, promising that the iPod Photo will allow customers to take their entire music and photo library with them wherever they go.

Launched to compete with Sony's recently unveiled Vaio Pocket, the iPod Photo holds up to 25,000 digital photos in addition to digital music tracks and displays them on its high-resolution colour screen.

The device allows users to combine music and favourite photos to create slideshows, and features TV-out for sharing slideshows on big-screen televisions and projectors.

Shipping in 40GB or 60GB models which hold up to 10,000 or 15,000 songs respectively, the iPod Photo's supplied battery can deliver 15 hours of music playback or up to five hours of slideshows.

"Having both your entire photo and music collections with you wherever you go is the next big thing," said Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive officer.

"Everyone has a digital camera and wants to enjoy and share their growing library of digital photos wherever they are. Unlike video content, photo content is free and abundant, and there are no copyright issues to deal with."

The iPod Photo ships with Apple's Auto-Sync technology, designed to allow users to automatically download digital music and photos and keep it synched with a Mac or Windows computer using FireWire or USB.

The new 40GB and 60GB iPod Photo models will begin shipping today in the US for a suggested retail price of $499 and $599 respectively.