Hands on with sixth-generation iPod nano

Source from Apple.com and Macworld.com

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iPod nano has been completely redesigned with Multi-Touch, which lets you navigate your music collection by simply tapping or swiping a finger on the display. Nearly half the size and weight of the previous generation, the new iPod nano features a polished aluminum and glass enclosure with a built-in clip, making it instantly wearable.

A rocking new design.

iPod nano is now all music and all Multi-Touch. It's smaller, lighter, colorful, and sleek. You can clip it on, take it everywhere, and always keep your music within reach.

New features for fingers.

If you think you're into music now, wait until you get your hands on iPod nano. Your favorite songs are a tap away — along with a mix-making Genius, a built-in FM radio, and more.

During its many lives, the iPod nano's design has been all over the place. It was super tall, then it was fat, then it was thin with a bigger screen. Late in the game Apple threw in a video camera, just for kicks. This new nano is unlike any that have come before. In fact, the best way to describe it is like a larger iPod shuffle, but with a touchscreen. It even comes with an integrated clip, so you can stick it just about anywhere.

While it's unclear what operating system is actually driving the new nano, that's a geeky question that loses sight of the most important point: The new nano's touchscreen interface will be instantly recognizable to anyone who has ever used an iOS device. The device's home screen is no longer a set of menu options, but a set of icons with labels underneath them that you tap on, just like iPhone apps. You swipe your finger from right to left to page through a series of screens.

I was able to pick a nano up and start using it immediately, with very little learning curve. You can tap and hold your finger to go back to the home screen, or just keep swiping back through menus until you reach the top. Scrolling through lists and tapping on options is a natural, iPhone-like experience. When a song is playing, the screen displays cover art, and you can tap to reveal play/pause controls. There are dedicated volume buttons on the side.

Unlike the iPhone and iPod touch, the iPod nano doesn't have an accelerometer to determine orientation. That's a good thing—you can clip the device in any orientation you want, and then use two fingers to "spin" the iPod's interface so that it's displaying face-up for you.

No, this iPod nano isn't like an iPhone, with downloadable apps and the like. And it's utterly lost the ability to record or even display video—"nano does video" no more. You can display photos on the tiny 1.5-inch touchscreen, and they look nice, but they are most definitely small.

One last detail: Unlike the iPod shuffle, which requires a special cable that plugs into its headphone jack in order to to sync with a Mac, this tiny nano still has a full-sized iPhone dock connector port.

The audio playback of the new sixth-generation iPod nano

Audio formats supported:

Audio formats supported: AAC (8 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), HE-AAC, MP3 (8 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, 4, Audible Enhanced Audio, AAX, and AAX+), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV