If your wallet is already hurting from the outlay (or future outlay) on the new 4th Gen iPod Touch, get ready for one more beauty from Apple, and this in a much, much smaller package. Ladies and gentlemen, the 6th Gen iPod Nano. Once again, we invoke eye candy!
That is a thing of (aesthetic and engineering) beauty
Those Cupertino dudes did a contortionist number engineering this baby, but the result is the same: tangible awesome-ness. If you remember the 
iPod Nano before this, you will see that this is just about the boldest and most radical design change on an iPod to date.
It’s so small that a newly-designed clip — an offshoot from the iPod Shuffle — is now part of the body design. We’ll try to give you the “feel” of it in a moment, but this calls for more (you guessed it) eye candy.
Clip it on your pocket...
...or clip it anywhere you see fit, actually.
First impressions
It’s uber thin, uber light. And for where it really matters the capacitive multi-touch controls work very well. The screen is crisp and top menu navigation is smooth. The menu navigation is really nice both going in and out of menus. Due to the small size of the screen, there is no pinch-to-zoom for photos, like most of you are used to doing. Instead, Apple put in a simple double-tap motion to a fixed zoom in / zoom out distance.
Small wonder
...and it comes in many wonderful colors!!!
Features
The newly-redesigned iPod Nano makes way for a lot of the same features that you would see on the touchscreen models, namely the iPod Touch and the iPhone. So for those who are used to these units, you will find transitioning to the new Nano a lot easier.
Swipe and Tap on your Nano
You probably have a soundtrack for your life — like we do — and that’s where iPod Nano shines. The Multi-Touch opens up a whole new musical experience, while being so familiar altogether. Tap to play anything you want to hear. Swipe the Home screen to browse your music by songs, albums, artists, playlists, genres, or composers. You can even rearrange the icons on your Home screen — hold an icon until it starts jiggling (just like on the iPhone 4).
Shake to welcome random-ness
If you’re buzzing for something completely random, give the Nano a shake and it shuffles to a different song in your music library. Shake to Shuffle is perfect for when you’re not in any particular music mood. You never know what you’re going to hear, and you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised that you actually have Celine Dion songs in your library — errr… if you’re the type who enjoys Celine Dion.
Shake that Nano
Radio Nano
A welcome addition from the last version of the Nano, the radio on this one is even better. The FM tuner shows the artist, song, or program you’re listening to. Just tap to see the radio controls, flick the radio dial to change stations, and tap to set your favorites.
Radio on your Nano
Live Pause – This is a swanky new feature. If you need to take a break from listening, don’t miss a minute of radio time with Live Pause. Tap to pause a song or show, then tap again to continue where you left off. You can rewind as far back as 15 minutes or fast-forward to catch up to the live broadcast. Amazing, what these Apple dudes can do.
Greater Accessibility for the impaired
Nano VoiceOver
VoiceOver - iPod nano features VoiceOver, the world’s first gesture-based screen reader. Touch the screen to hear a description of the item under your finger, then double-tap, drag, or flick as needed. Use the optional Apple Earphones with Remote and Mic to control your music without looking at the screen. VoiceOver tells you the name of the song or artist — and it speaks 29 languages.
White on Black and Mono Audio
White on Black – If you prefer higher contrast, iPod nano lets you change the display to white on black. Use the White on Black feature in any application, as well as on the Home screen.
Mono Audio – If your hearing is limited in one ear, turn on Mono Audio to route audio into both earbuds so you can hear both channels in either ear.
A Better Nano Experience
All around, this is just a vastly improved Nano. If you’re the type who has a large audio collection — backed it up in blu-ray discs or on a USB hard drive — you’ll enjoy the specificity that the new Nano can give you. The screen, though tiny, pops-out with a very nice resolution — it shows your album art, photos, and the color-coordinated wallpaper on the 1.5-inch color display with 240-by-240 pixel resolution.
The battery life is also very nice — you get 24-hours of non-stop audio playback on this, longer if on standby. Another new feature is the incorporation of Genius Mixes / Genius Playlists — some of these you have to work synced with your iTunes, but in concept, it’s still there.
Yeah, ok, they ditched the camera on the Nano, but it was something that was here-or-there, especially on this platform. It does not really decrease the enjoyment of this gadget, if not solidified the notion that the Nano, primarily is an audio player. And a great one, at that.
Price rage is set at $149 for 8GB of storage or $179 for 16GB. Cue eye candy!
Nike + iPod Nano
Clip it anywhere
Another reason to save those pennies.
