Rumor: New IPod Nano To Sport Longer Form Factor And Home Button?
Amid all the iPhone and iPad rumors, it’s surprisingly easy to forget that there was a product rockin’ that little “i” long before any iOS device even existed – the iPod. Apple’s dedicated music player is unique in that there are four distinct models all classified under the “iPod” moniker.
There’s the iPod Touch, the iPod Classic, the iPod Nano, and the iPod Shuffle. They’ve all seen their fair share of changes, but none more so than the iPod Nano. And, if new reports are correct, it’s about to see another one.
In the time the iPod Nano has bene available, we’ve seen it tall and rectangular, we’ve seen it short and square, and we’ve seen it tiny with a touch screen. In my opinion, the best version of the iPod Nano by far was the fifth-generation.
It rocked a much larger screen that previos Nano models, a crappy but entertaining camera, a sleek, thin and rectangular design, and it came in a bunch of awesome colors.
The current generation of iPod Nano is basically the small square iPod Shuffle with a clip on the back, only Apple has stuck a minuscule touch screen on the front. It’s hideous. Not to mention totally unintuitive.
The iPod Nano is great for on-the-go listening, but much of that is lost when you have to squint down at a screen so small that it has no business being covered by a finger. Luckily it seems like Apple has finally come to its senses.
According to Japanese blog Macotakara, Apple is planning to revert back to the long, rectangle form factor for the seventh generation of iPod Nano (hallelujah!). What’s more, this Nano will feature a decent-sized touch screen, a home button, and could run some sort “dedicated new iTunes service.”
This definitely seems questionable, especially because a device like this would be so similar to the iPod Touch. That being said, though, what Apple does with the Nano line has always been a mystery to me, so there’s really no way of predicting what will happen next. One thing is for sure, though: the iPod Nano is in desperate need of a refresh.
What do you guys think? Will the iPod Nano ditch the Shuffle’s form factor in favor of the iPod Touch’s, or is the once-great Nano doomed to be a mutated iPod Shuffle for ever? Sound off in the comments below
