As noted by Joe Rossignol, Apple’s sixth-generation iPod nano has been marked obsolete by the company.
The first five generations of iPod nanos were all remixes of the original iPod. They all had the same basic building blocks: a screen and a clickwheel.
Introduced in September 2010, sixth-generation Nano got rid of the latter, the very thing that made the iPod great. In its place, a 1.54-inch square touchscreen that showed off software that was reminiscent of iOS.
Around back, this new iPod nano had adopted the clip from the smaller iPod shuffle. The device dropped video playback support and the camera found on the previous model, as well as the built-in speaker.
Many — myself included — found the software difficult to use. It relied on swipes and taps, but in many places, those gestures were confusing.
There was one thing in the software, that when coupled with the square shape, proved too tempting for some users to ignore: watch faces.
Here’s your truly, back in April 2012:
The promise of the iPod nano as a watch is endless. Lots of people would love to see Apple integrate it with the iPhone, giving the nano a true “smart watch” level of usefulness.
As it stands today, though, the iPod nano makes you look like a secret agent, but one who can’t actually do anything all that cool.
I’ll be going back to the Casio as my daily watch. At least it has a calculator, which the iPod nano lacks.
Wowzers.