Gadgetory

hey I'm Donald Bell and today we're taking a first look at the sixth generation Apple iPod Nano comes in seven colors and two capacities an 8 gigabyte model for $149 and a 16 gig version for 179 compared to the previous model they've chopped off the click wheel shrunk the screen and oddly they've ditched the video camera that they made such a big deal about last year they've also put a clip on the back similar to the iPod shuffle and on the top er buttons for volume and a screen lock now to make up for the missing click wheel Apple is using a tiny touchscreen that measures about one inch square you get little icons similar to the iPhone that control music playback photos radio a pedometer and even a clock the screen lets you browse your music collection by flicking up and down and you can also back out of menus by flicking back you can even reorient the screen by pinching two fingers together and twisting it around it's fun to play around with such a unique in small touchscreen but I got to say for all its novelty the new interface isn't much better than the click wheel in any practical way if anything is more difficult to operate by feel which is kind of important if you're actually using this while driving or exercising I'll hand it to Apple though for finding a way to make the smallest Nano yet but I also have a hard time believing that anyone really thought the last version of the Nano was too big plus at half the size you're also getting half the features there's no video playback no camcorder games calendar notes contacts or alarm clock that said I have to admit the features you do get are fairly incredible for such a small size the main focus here is music and you should get around 24 hours of music playback from a single charge you get icons for your music library playlists genius mixes as well as shortcuts for artists album songs genres composers audiobooks and podcasts you can customize the arrangement by pressing and holding any icon and shifting it around there's also a shake to shuffle feature that you can turn on or off in the settings menu that can play a random selection of songs when you give the player a shake beyond that you also get a built-in radio which has the unique ability of pausing live broadcasts for up to 15 minutes you can also rewind anything you hear on the radio which is pretty cool photos on such a small screen are really just for fun and you can't set your own image as a wallpaper under settings though you can go back and swap out the wallpaper for one of Apple's own designs there's a fitness app that includes a pedometer and there's also support for the Nike Plus fitness system but you'll need to plug in the Nike receiver into the 30-pin dock connection or to make that work another hidden feature is voice memos which you'll only see if you plug in a compatible headset with a microphone the same goes for Apple's voiceover feature which will announce track information for you if you have a pair of headphones with a compatible remote control the headphone is bundled with the Nano or just your plain old Apple earbuds which we strongly recommend upgrading from for the sake of sound quality but also for the sake of extra features a remote also gives you the ability to skip and pause songs without looking at the screen which is really useful if you're using this for exercising last but not least there's the clock it's an analog clock face and we have to believe that manufacturers are going to find some creative way to turn this thing into a watch by flicking on the screen you also get access to a stopwatch and a timer so that's the sixth generation Apple iPod Nano the smallest Nano yet but definitely a step backwards in terms of iPod features if you're not sold on the small size the cool little touch screen or the unmistakable Apple design you can stretch your dollar a lot further with an older model or going with an iPod alternative for cnet.com I'm Donnell bone