OTHER TECH

[December] People who gave their hearts to the iPod years ago got a chance to fall in love all over again when Apple debuted the iPod nano, easily the slickest music player ever.

Replacing the wildly successful iPod mini, the nano shrank the iPod's thickness to an almost absurd quarter inch, and the name prompted no end of spoofs and tongue-in-cheek predictions of what would be next. But Apple had the last laugh as the nano's meticulously detailed design and clever marketing made it an overnight success.

The color screen measures a Lilliputian 1 1/2 inches diagonal, but photo viewing isn't why you want a nano. Beyond its good sound quality and brilliantly simple interface, the nano is just pleasant to hold. This $249 player's 4 gigabytes (GB) of flash memory, enough for about 1,000 songs, is plenty for most music listeners (a 2-GB version sells for $199). And its solid-state memory makes skipping during playback unthinkable. If only Apple had made the screen and casing unscratchable - or at least less scratchable - it would be perfect.

The iPod nano has reconfirmed Apple's ranking as leader of the digital-music-player pack. The company took a big risk in killing the mini but showed visionary instincts by turning to flash memory to take miniaturization to the next level. Now that the groundwork's laid for a new generation of music players, the competition is left playing catch-up...again. -Peter Pachal apple.com

View Another Editors' Choice Award Winner Product of the Year and Best Video Product: Sony KDS-R50XBR1 50-inch SXRD HDTV Best Portable: Apple iPod nano portable music player Best Network Product: Sonos Digital Music System whole-house audio network Best Audio Product: Denon AVR-5805 multiroom receiver Retail Innovation Award: Best Buy Visionary Award: Mark Cuban

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