After five generations of nano, Apple now dumps physical button navigation in favor of multi-touch interface. The iPod nano’s form factor is long due for an update, but that click-wheel is obviously standing between miniaturization and innovation. So it’s logical to let go of the wheel. This move could signal the end for the legendary click-wheel should Apple also decide to phase out the iPod classic in near future. There’s a lot to like about the new 6th generation iPod nano. With a tiny 1.54″ touch-sensitive display and a size not much bigger than the shuffle, it looks a lot like those cheap photo frame keychains.
The software interface is completely revamped, resulting in something that is reminiscent of iPhone’s home screen. You are allowed to have 4 pages, each of which contain 4 icons. Like the iPod touch and iPhone, you can customize each screen by moving these icons around. Trying to scroll through the song list is by swiping in either up or down direction. During playback, the album art dominates the entire screen. Apple did remove a few things, notably the camcorder, H.264 video playback, and ability to run iPod games. FM radio, pedometer and VoiceOver stay. There are now seven colors to choose from, down from nine of previous generation. iPod nano 8GB will retail for $149 and the 16GB for $179. From the looks of it, the capable yet compact iPod nano 6G could cannibalize iPod shuffle even if the latter is now only $49.Permanent Link
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