You can't watch television these days without seeing
Apple commercials. One of the latest, featuring "Bourgeois Shangri La" by Miss Li as a music bed, cleverly conveys that the new, colorful
iPod Nano shoots video, which is remarkable, considering the ultra-thin, polished aluminum music player is smaller than a business card and weighs less than one and a third ounces.
Nevertheless, you can actually shoot video (with audio, via a built-in microphone), which you can playback using the unit's 2.2-inch color display and speaker. You can also easily share your clips via
YouTube or via email. You can't shoot stills and there's no zoom, but you add real-time effects such as
Thermal,
Film Grain,
Kaleidoscope and
X-Ray.
Being able to shoot video isn't all that's new. The latest Nano also has built-in
FM radio. It needs earphones (or external speakers) attached to work, but it allows you to add favorite stations, plus pause radio shows for up to 15 minutes, then resume. Furthermore, when you hear a song you like, your can tag it with
iTunes Tagging, which lets you preview it later and/or purchase it when you sync your Nano with iTunes.
The radio is ideal for iPod lovers who are also members of health clubs where TV audio is broadcast over FM for the treadmill crowd. Right away, there was some buzz about the video Nano
being banned by a health club chain because of privacy issues, but it appears the chain only banned the units from locker rooms, which is understandable.
Regardless, fitness buffs will also appreciate the Nano's built-in pedometer, which records both distance and calories burned. Like previous models, the pedometer is also compatible with the
Nike + IPod System.
Apple claims the new Nano provides up to 24 hours of music playback or five hours of video playback on a single charge. The unit also features
Genius Mixes, which automatically creates up to twelve endless mixes of songs from your
iTunes library that go great together.
Two iPod Nano models are available. One with 8 gigabytes (GB) of storage lists for
$149, one with 16GB goes for
$179. The 8GB model holds up to 2,000 songs, 7,000 photos, eight hours of video and seven hours of captured video; and the 16GB model holds up to 4,000 songs, 14,000 photos, 16 hours of video and 14 hours of captured video. Both models come in nine colors, including silver, black, purple, blue, green, orange, yellow, red, and pink.
To date, Apple has reportedly sold over 100 million iPod Nanos and over 220 million iPods, in general. Along with the new Nano, Apple has also introduced
iTunes 9, with
several new features, including
iTunes LP,
Home Sharing and more.
The newest iPod isn't perfect. The location of the camera lens is where your hand naturally falls (although the onboard motion sensor allows you to re-orient the unit without shooting upside down video), but overall it's a beautifully-crafted chunk of aluminum. Offerings by
Flip (Pure Digital Technologies) and
Kodak are better choices for shooting video, particularly if you prefer HD video, but as a great all-around, mini music player, the new
iPod Nano with Built-in Video is without peer.
