The ToyBox

Ricardo Bilton & Gloria Sin

iPod Nano loses click wheel for square multi-touch display; starts at $149

By | September 1, 2010, 11:30am PDT

Summary: There is a new member of the iPod Nano family, with a new design that somewhat blends previous generations but truly stands apart altogether.

There is a new member of the iPod Nano family, with a new design that somewhat blends previous generations but truly stands apart altogether.

Looking slightly reminiscent of the third-gen iPod Nano with its wider display, the sixth-generation iPod Nano has a new square, multi-touch display, but it lost the click wheel altogether. Such a squarish display was previous spotted and rumored about earlier this summer, and now it is for real.

The latest Nano is 46% smaller and 42% lighter than the previous generation, with a clip (rather than an armband) and hard volume buttons.

The user interface is like a squeezed down version what you’d see on the iPhone 4 and the new iPod touch, but with only four icons on the screen at a time. It’s sure to be a useful exercise companion with a pedometer, Nike+ and FM radio. Users can also expect VoiceOver technology (like on the iPod Shuffle), support for 29 languages, and a battery life for up to 24 hours of audio playback.

The new iPod Nano is available for pre-order today, and it should be ready for shipping by next week. Pricing starts at $149 for 8GB and jumps to $179 for the 16GB variant. Traditionally, the iPod Nano has always been a colorful product (just like its predecessor, the iPod Mini), and this generation is no exception with seven color options to choose from: black, pink, blue, silver, green, orange and a Product: Red version.

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Rachel King is a staff writer for ZDNet based in San Francisco.

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Rachel King

Rachel King has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted in this blog.

Biography

Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for CBS Interactive in San Francisco. Before serving as a contributing editor at ZDNet in New York City for two years, she previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated.

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