iPod.

Its been around for more than a little while now, and has also been dominating the portable music player market for more than a little while as well.

And ladies and gentlemen..... Apple has released a new line of iPods.... that actually don't make your wallet skinny, well not as skinny as before.

Lets start off with the new iPod Nano. The gen. 4 Nano is SLEEK. It actually looks cool. But, the unusual thing about it is that, with an accelorometer, the iPod nano does what the Zune and iPhone and iPod Touch do; play movies sideways. If that isnt crazy enough, talk about that odd curvature which is less than unwelcome when using coverflow--sideways.


But enough with the cons. What about the pluses? Shake to shuffle. A tight new feature which allows you to shake your ipod to shuffle to another song in your current playlist. There is also (a much better looking) operating system for the nano which is found on the nano only. What more? a voice recorder app and the new Genius playlist support that iTunes 8 features.

Thats that for the iPod nano. What about the classic? The iPod that started it all has been almost thrown aside. With an easy to break Hard Drive and the rising market for those Solid State flsh thingys found on nanos, touches, and shuffles, Hard Drives are going down. The iPod Classic is a single $249 120giger that is really for the people that have too much media.

The iPod Shuffle. Nothing new here, exept for cheaper prices, just go to the Apple website for heaven's sake.

iPod Touch. The funnest iPod ever. With the app-store to top it off, this new revision features no cons whatsoever. With genius playlist support, external volume buttons and a built in speaker, this iPod is the major hit. But app-store really brings it. Mostly all the apps are amazingly cool and the games are phenomonal, and not always free, but never exeeding 10 bucks, which for some people, is a lot. Even the battery life is better (go to Apple's website for more). The one thing that is kind of dissapointing is the price. Starting at $220 for the 8gig model compared to $150 for the 8gig nano, this is rather a diet for your wallet. Especially with this condition that our economy is going through, This is an iffy one for the stocking (if it actually fints in there).

Thats it, with three new models killin the line, this may be the doorbuster for Apple.
If you are still holding on to one of those old gen.1 nanos or even a mini, its time to upgrade.

If you can afford it.