It's Tuesday, September 9th. A room resembling an auditorium is crowded with journalists from every respectable and semi-respectable news outlet, internet blogs or otherwise, gathering for a press event boldly titled "Let's Rock." Music slightly better than that of an elevator's soundtrack fills the room. The most powerful man to ever wear a black turtleneck and jeans walks onto the stage. The man is greeted with a thunderous round of applause as he welcomes the press. After a few brief moments of business-speak that doesn't quite make sense to the likes of me, the man reaches into his pocket… and Steve Jobs pulls out the slimmest, sleekest iPod anyone has ever seen.
This is, of course, with the understanding that the iPhone and the iPod Touch are of a completely different household than the regular iPod. This sleek new pocket-inhabiting iPod is the newest generation of the Nano line. A drastic change from last year's version of the Nano, this redesign sports a much slimmer and longer look to hit the nostalgia center of many Nano-lovers' brains. The aluminum case is curved for the added comfort it will provide once it's actually in your hands. The best part of this cosmetic change is the splash of color it will be adding to the Apple family, sporting a color spectrum from gray to pink (or magenta, whichever you choose to call it).
The new slim Nanos actually share a couple aspects with the Touch and iPhone. Now, the memory capacity has been bumped up to 8 and 16 Gigabytes, putting it in league with its cousins. The price stays the same at $149 and $199, but now it's much bang – or swooning voice – for your buck. The newest software update for every iPod (except for the Classic, which I'm still upset over) brings with it the Genius function.
This option is the biggest addition to both iTunes and the iPod lines. The quickest way to explain it is to say that iTunes will make an entire playlist out of whatever song you'll be listening to at the time. To be honest, that is actually the only way to explain it. The Genius option is the easiest and most functional way to find music you want to hear, and it's all tailored to your tastes. If you're listening to your iPod, the playlist will be made right then and there based on whatever is in your library. The same thing will happen whenever you are listening to your computer's music library, but on the side will be some suggested songs from the iTunes Store. With so many songs to buy, being able to whittle it down to suggested lists is a… well, a Steve Jobs-send.
Apple tends to make some huge announcements and the new Nano line was the biggest. There are some small side notes, with the new iTunes 8 available for download right now, a "one size fits all" 120 GB-only Classic coming out, and slimmer iPod touches with better wi-fi functionality hitting stores. The absolute best news out of the conference is that the majority of these new releases are in Apple stores and electronics departments everywhere right now. Yes, I really do mean right now. I'm not going to tell you that you might want to close out this web page, turn off your computer, grab your wallet and get to the mall. What I am going to tell you is that it would be a little bit smarter if you actually wanted to get your hands on one.
