Apple Announces New iPod: Nano
Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Wednesday surprised attendees at a special event in San Francisco by introducing a completely new addition to its popular iPod line that will replace the iPod mini. The wafer-thin iPod Nano sports a color screen and holds 1,000 songs in a form factor slimmer than a #2 pencil.
The iPod Nano is "an entirely new ground-up design," Jobs said. Smaller than even Motorola's RAZR phone, the Nano weighs in at just 1.5 ounces. The player is 62 percent smaller than the Mini and 80 percent smaller than the original iPod.
"iPod Nano is the biggest revolution since the original iPod," said Jobs in a statement. "iPod Nano is a full-featured iPod in an impossibly small size, and it's going to change the rules for the entire portable music market."
Like its larger brethren, the Nano includes a click wheel for navigating songs and uses a standard 30-pin dock connector for compatibility with existing iPod accessories. Songs can be transferred from iTunes using USB 2.0.
By using Flash memory like the Shuffle instead of the hard drive found in the iPod Mini, Nano boasts a battery life of 14 hours.
The iPod Nano comes in two sizes -- 4GB and 2GB -- and two colors: black and white. The 4GB Nano is priced at $249 USD with the 2GB model available for $199. Both versions are available now online and at Apple's retail outlets.
Accessories are also available for the Nano, including a $29 dock, $39 lanyard with built-in headphones, and armbands that run $29 each. Nano also has a protective rubber case, or Tubes as Apple calls them, which will be sold in boxes of five colors for $29.