The New iPod Nano

Apple unveiled a whole slew of stuff this past week, and the new iPod Nano was one of them. There have been complaints in the past (especially with the iPad) that Apple does not focus enough on new design elements when they release a new upgraded product. That definitely can’t be said for the new Nano! Look at it, and you may think that you’re looking at the iPod Shuffle. Turn it on, and you might think that you’re looking at an iPod Touch. Because that’s exactly what this middle-of-the-road Apple product is. It’s the best features taken from two worlds, combined to make one new, snappy product.

Firstly, the new iPod Nano is drastically reduced in size. Being just a bit bigger than the new iPod Shuffle (which is about the same size as the old iPod Shuffle), the new iPod Nano also has a touch screen. No more click-wheel, and much fewer buttons. Simply open it up and you have all your music laid out for you on a touchscreen interface that’s as easy to use as the Touch screen that paved the way for it.

What else? There’s a handy little clip, so you don’t have to worry about carrying around armbands or banging it around in your pocket. Clip it to your belt, your backpack, wherever it’s easy and within reach for you. The voiceover feature, that will tell you what song is playing, is still there but the location of the feature has changed, being placed at the top of the device for easier and faster access. And can you still shake that thang to shuffle your songs? You bet you can!

And battery life? Well you know Apple wouldn’t have gone to all the trouble of reinventing the Nano without taking a closer look at battery life. Of course, that’s improved too and now users will be able to use their newer and better Nano for a full 24 hours without charging.

So what’s bad to say about the new iPod Nano? Well, you can no longer take video with it. That’s somewhat surprising, as Apple made such a huge deal about that feature on the current version of Nano when they first came out with it. And there’s no question that the new Nano would definitely be better with video capability. But it’s still a pretty great new gadget, and Apple needs to leave some tricks up their sleeves for that inevitable upgrade.

The new iPod Nano comes in two different versions – the 8GB is available for $149 USD; and the 16 GB is available for $179.

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