Apple’s New Nano - World’s Smallest Camcorder

Every year at about this time, Apple hosts an auditorium full of reporters and reviewers in California to unveil the new holiday season’s iPod/iTunes line—and yesterday was it.

There were lots of refinements to the free iTunes software, to the iTunes store, to the iPhone’s 3.0 software (now 3.1), and to the iPods themselves.

So what was everyone’s reaction? I tell you, man, it’s all about your expectations.

Already, there’s been a lot of grumbling about what Apple didn’t deliver. According to the rumor blogs, there was supposed to be a new iPod Touch with a camera. The Beatles catalog was supposed to come to the iTunes store. There was supposed to be an Apple Tablet, basically a giant-sized iPod Touch.

None of it was there.

What Apple did unveil, though, was a new iPod Nano model, which has enough new features to last for—well, until *next* September.

It’s exactly the same size as the previous one: 3.6 x 1.5 x 0.2 inches. That is, it’s a wafer-thin, rounded-edged slab that comes in 9 metallic colors.

But it now has a microphone. And a speaker. And an FM radio. And a voice recorder. And a pedometer that counts how many steps you walk or run. And a camcorder.

It sounds like a lot to cram onto a (slightly larger) 2.2-inch screen. I’ve taken it for an 18-hour spin, and this is how it works.

Article source: The New York Times
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