While Steve Jobs deservedly received a minute-long standing ovation at Apple’s iPod event, it was the new nano that was the technology star of the show.
We the media were given a chance to play with the latest device after its unveiling, so some first impressions and photos after the jump.
The new nano has a noticeably bigger screen at 2.2 inches, up from 2.0 inches, but retains its slim profile.
My first attempts with the camera consisted of the classic “thumb-over-lens” trick. The lens is at the bottom of the nano on the back, where you are most likely to hold it, so this seemed odd positioning.
Instead, I found myself holding it upside-down to film, or in landscape mode. Cleverly, the nano reorientates the frame, whichever way you hold it.
The quality looks good on the screen and did so in the YouTube upload demonstrated during the event.
However, it is 640×480 pixel VGA quality, so it is only a threat to the lower-end Flip cameras that Steve Jobs referred to as competition in his presentation.
Apple has really added a lot of improvements to the 100m-selling nano – there is also an FM radio, a pedometer, integrated microphone and speaker, new colours and the VoiceOver feature that was first introduced in the shuffle to speak the names of songs.
An iTunes tagging feature has been added to the radio to allow users to easily buy songs they hear and a Live Pause allows up to 15 minutes of radio to be paused, cached and played back. The nano lacks a still-camera feature.
Fans of the iPod touch were left wondering why it failed to receive a camera upgrade. They will have to settle for a lower base price and more storage improvements, plus the 3.1 operating system software and the ability to manage all of their Apps in a new version of iTunes.
The Classic received a storage boost, from 120Gb to 160Gb, while the Shuffle has new colours and a polished stainless steel version for $99.
