New 6th gen iPod nano gains touchscreen, new iPod shuffle regains buttons

Apple has introduced a new touchscreen iPod nano with multi-touch technology, which means the end of the click-wheel era for the nano. “It’s really small, it’s very tiny,” says Jobs of the new square-ish iPod nano, which is indeed small enough that it comes with a built-in clip. Jobs says it’s 46% smaller than the previous nano, and also nearly half as light. The new nano includes hard volume buttons, but is otherwise a touchscreen device, with its screen taking up essentially the entire front face.

Apple has also introduced the new iPod shuffle, and it looks a lot like the second generation iPod shuffle that Apple abandoned a year ago. Apple CEO Steve Jobs says that users have “missed the buttons” to they’ve been added back. The fourth generation iPod shuffle is smaller than the second generation, but still resembles it with a more square shape. This marks the end of the button-less iPod shuffle era, which lasted only a year to mixed reviews. The new iPod shuffle has fifteen hours of battery life and sells for forty-nine bucks.