The Berkeley Beacon

Issue date: 9/22/05 Section: Lifestyle

Media Credit: Beacon photo/Samantha Baime

Bigger is no longer better. You might have thought Apple finished their iPod line with the Mini. They have gone one step further, however, with the new iPod Nano. The newest addition to the family weighs only 1.5 ounces, with width at a slim .27 inches (about the width of a number 2 pencil). The regular iPod is 5.9 ounces in its smallest form. Do not let its size fool you, though: the Nano manages to fit quite a bit.

This iPod has a good-sized screen despite the fact that it is small enough to hide in your hand. The color display is 1.5 inches wide. The battery is said to have up to 14 hours of life, which will allow you to rock out for more than half a day. A warning, though: an Apple employee described the battery power as "often unpredictable."

Unlike the Mini, which has a range of color options from which to choose, there are two versions, and two colors, of the Nano. The two-gigabyte Nano holds 500 songs and costs about $199. For those needing extra storage, the four-gigabyte is listed as $249 and retains 1,000 tunes. According to the Apple Web site, these numbers are based on a song length of four minutes. That being the case, and assuming you are not a fan of lengthy ballads, it is possible to fit more than it seems.

This little brother of the Mini also has the capacity for 25,000 pictures in place of 1000 songs, or little of each. Apple promises it is compatible with both PC and Mac systems, so each can be used to download the photos from iTunes. To really keep you entertained on the T, you can create slide shows with musical accompaniment and transitional effects, so you can relive a summer concert with your favorite band playing while photos from their Boston gig roll across the screen.

Some familiar iPod features are included as well. When you are not in the mood for music, there are four games available: Music Quiz, Solitaire, Brick, and Parachute. Or, for the more literary set, the iTunes library has over 11,000 audio books to download. Some include James Patterson's mystery novel 4th of July, and the ever popular The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. If there is not enough time to finish, the Nano lets you set a chapter marker. You can even slow down the narration pace so that you can keep up with even the most complicated stories.

If you wish to keep up with different radio shows, you can download podcasts (audio broadcasts) from iTunes, and they will be automatically updated. These podcasts are located in a separate menu on your Nano and can be reached using the dial.

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