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2008 iPod Reviews: iPod nano 4G and iPod touch 2G

I've owned at least one version of every iPod that Apple's ever released, and I've been an unabashed fan of these devices since the first one arrived on my doorstep in late 2001. But let's be honest here. Several years and millions of devices sold later, a certain amount of fatigue has set in. The iPod line is mature, even tired. And though Apple still insists on releasing "new" iPods every year like clockwork, one gets the sense that even the product's maker is starting to lose interest. This year, Apple issued only one totally new iPod, the iPod nano 4G, while providing just minor revisions to a second, the iPod touch 2G.

Fortunately for Apple, even Microsoft essentially took the year off from a hardware perspective, and that company has a lot more ground to make up than does the iPod maker. In fact, Microsoft's done even less to improve its devices in 2008 than did Apple, an issue I'll discuss in more detail in my forthcoming Zune 3 review. For anyone looking to upgrade an existing device, these are dark days. But for those who have not yet made the MP3 player plunge, Apple's devices are now better than ever. How you view them, of course, will depend on where you're coming from.

As with 2007, Apple is offering four iPod products with this year's update. They include:

iPod shuffle. Unchanged over two years now, the iPod shuffle is Apple's low-end MP3 player. It comes in 1 GB and 2 GB capacities and offers no screen at all, and the only meaningful difference between this shuffle and last's year's version is the price: Last year, the 1 GB shuffle was $79, whereas a price cut earlier this year brought that down to a far more reasonable $49. (The 2 GB version is $69.) The shuffle is available in five very colorful colors. See my review of last year's version for a verdict, as nothing's changed at all. In fact, Apple didn't even mention the shuffle during its recent introduction of the 2008 iPod models.

iPod nano. Next up the price chart is the iPod nano. Based on flash memory, the iPod nano is the best-selling iPod, and it's aimed squarely at the mainstream of the MP3 player market: Those people who value music playback primarily but don't mind to venture a little off-center with video content. Since the iPod nano is the only 2008 iPod to receive a significant update this year, I'll dive deeper into this device later in this review.

iPod classic.