Apple iPod Essentials   Tracking the Pulse of iPod

I was blown away by Apple's latest iPod, the "nano". It's a super-tiny device yet comes with a color LCD screen and clickwheel. There's two versions, the 2gb (about 500 songs) or 4gb (about 1,000 songs). These things are as slim as a #2 yellow pencil and smaller even than the now discontinued iPod Minis. Oh! and they also include the photo features and other features currently only available on the nano.



I already own a 20Gb/click wheel model, and need more space than offered on the nano, but I'm very tempted to get one as a second unit. The color screens are gorgeous and being able to carry around some photos, tunes and my contacts in such a tiny form factor is appealing. I predict this new addition to the iPod family will be very popular with kids and teens.

I just got an offer by email from MacMall with some down and dirty pricing on these new pods:

• iPod nano 2Gb - $194 - with free shipping, free transmitter and free engraving


• iPod nano 4Gb - $244 - with free shipping, free transmitter and free engraving

Other features of the iPod nano:

• Apple Click Wheel
• Holds up to 1,000 songs and full-color album art
• 1.5-inch (diagonal) color LCD with LED backlight
• Syncs iPod-viewable photos in JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PSD (Mac only) and PNG formats
• Completely skip-free playback
• Holds up to 25,000 photos
• Works with Mac OS X or Windows 2000/XP
• Charges and syncs via USB
• Up to 14 hours of battery life