As widely predicted, Apple has just revamped its iPod range, with updates to the nano at the top of the list. Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs announced the changes at Let's Rock - a special Apple event at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.
Most crucially, the iPod nano has been totally redesigned. In fact, it's reverted to the 'tall and very thin' configuration of the original model - "you'll be blown away with how thin it is," says Jobs. And we are. It's very thin indeed.
That's not all. The nano now sports a new aluminium design with curved glass while (as not-that-widely-predicted) Apple has taken the accelermoter from the iPod touch/iPhone. Now shaking the iPod nano activates Shuffle Mode while tilting allows scanning of Cover Flow when the nano is held in landscape. Think a cross between the iPod Touch's landscape browsing option and the 'shake control' of the Sony Ericsson W910i mobile phones. Looks good for album art, as much as photos and video.
As well as confirming new battery life (24 hours for music, four hours for video) and showing off Genius compatibility, Jobs also stressed the nano's new environmental friendliness. "We think these new nanos are the cleanest we've ever built," said Jobs. Good man.
Jobs then revealed the new colours available. Along with silver, green, pink, blue, black and red, you can now choose from purple, yellow and orange. A bit new rave but we'll go with it.
And finally… the memory and price. As predicted, memory capacity has been doubled - the 8GB model retailing for $149/£109 and the 16GB at $199/£149. 8GB nanos are in stock now, with the 16GB instore by the weekend.
Also on sale are some rather swanky new headphones which feature a microphone for voice recording. Handy for musos on the move wanted to get lyrics down. Ahem.
As these things inevitably go, there'll be loads more detail hidden in the press releases so we're off to pore over some Word docs (not before we stick in an order for an orange nano though). More as we inevitably get it.
![A comped image with a young George Harrison [left] onstage with the Beatles in Hamburg, a Gretsch Duo Jet strapped to his shoulder. On the right is his Futurama electric](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/b8Kr55ksRwtGJHnbs2GZvg-1280-80.jpg.webp)
