Product Reviews

If you lamented the loss of the old metal-clad iPod Mini and weren't tempted by the scratch-magnet Nano that Apple replaced it with, the new model may be just what you're looking for. Although actually marginally thinner and lighter than the previous model, the new iPod Nano has a shell made from tough aluminium and it comes in five colours too.

The new Nano is gorgeously designed and the aluminium case has a lovely tactile quality. The 4GB model we looked at is available in silver, green, blue and pink, but the 2GB model only comes in silver, while the 8GB version is only available in black. Slick new design apart though, the new Nano

is otherwise the same as before, but prices have been cut - the 2GB model is now

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just £99.

As was the case with previous

iPods though, that lower price means less goodies in the box. You only get a Nano dock adapter, USB sync/charge lead and a pair of earphones - minus their sponge covers.

What you don't get is a copy of iTunes and the Nano will only work with the newly released iTunes 7, which means a 35MB download - plus another 21MB for an optional Nano update. Fortunately, iTunes 7 is well worth the wait and it adds some very nifty features. Along with a subtly tweaked interfaced, iTunes 7 now includes a nifty album art library view that provides a passable on-screen simulation of leafing through a pile of LPs. Better still, iTunes will also automatically download any missing album art for albums in your library that are stocked in the iTunes Music Store, whether you originally bought them from there or not.

Best of all though, iTunes 7 finally offers gapless playback on current and some last generation iPods. When started for the first time, the program scans your music library and you can then enable a 'gapless' option on any tracks that were originally recorded to play seamlessly.

Other MP3 players may sound better and some offer better value too, but the Nano is the best-looking and together with the new iTunes features, it deserves to be a big hit.