iPod nano — taste the rainbow
One of the key launches at today’s “Let’s Rock” event put on by Apple was a new iPod nano. The small iPod has gotten even thinner while becoming elongated to make room for a wider screen. But the real crowd pleaser seemed to be the new colors.
The device is now available in nine colors (if you count black and gray as colors). None seemed more popular than the new purple version. In our FriendFeed live streaming room for the event, the following comments were made:
Finally, purple! So tempting to buy a purple nano…
– Cheryl Jones
I love purple… – Steve
Wife must have purple! – scottgee
Watching videos on the previous iteration of the iPod nano wasn’t an ideal experience. The screen was small and mostly square. Now you you can watch videos in widescreen thanks to the addition of an accelerometer, which can tell when the device is turned to the side.
The accelerometer also allows for a neat, albeit gimmicky new feature: Shake to shuffle. If you don’t like the song that is currently playing, you can simply shake the device and it will skip to a new random song. For those of us who have become addicted to the iPhone headphones with the built-in controls, this is a actually a pretty useful feature.
The device also features Apple’s new Genius playlist feature. This allows you to pick a song you like and create a dynamic playlist with a few simple clicks.
The new nano comes in two different capacities: An 8 gigabyte version for $149.99 or a 16 gigabyte version for $199.99. Apple says the device will play 24 hours of audio on a full charge or 4 hours of video.
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About the Author, MG Siegler
MG Siegler writes about technology trends and new media for VentureBeat, with a focus on mobile topics, social elements and key news stories. Before that, MG wrote about technology on his blog, ParisLemon. Originally from Ohio, MG attended the University of Michigan where he studied film. He's previously lived in Los Angeles where he worked in Hollywood and in San Diego where he did web development. He now lives in San Francisco.