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Ok, I haven't read ALL the posts, but this is my guess, the new iPod nano will be of a similar form factor as the current (maybe very slightly wider), but with wide-screen and scroll-wheel (no touch-controls for the nano). This is my GIMP'ed rendition.

Think this way, the actual nano has a lot of real estate wasted, so, a) in order to boost video sales throug iTunes, and b) take advantage of a successful form-factor, just enlarge the screen to watch video (turned 90 degrees).

But wouldn't a screen that big break all the time if it didn't have a glass overlay like the iphone? And the nano's form factor doesn't allow for that. Also, what would a screen that bit do to the nano's battery life?
 
Here's my mock-up of the new 'shorter' design

1020148556_95638b08d6_o.png


Touch-screen. No click wheel. 2.5" screen. Does video. All video is viewable in landscape mode. New features like calculator. Comes with headset in-line remote for pocket usage. Similar UI to existing nano UI. Internal accelerometer for sensing rotation between portrait and landscape modes, for photo displaying, and possibly clover flow. 4GB & 8GB versions.
 
The new iPod Nano will not have video in it. If you want video, you have to upgrade, that was the whole point of the actualy iPod Nano. A cheap, affordable, little player that has the charm of it's big brother, but smaller, much smaller. With video added in, the Nano will take a chunk out of the real iPod, but if Apple releases a touch-screen iPod, then it takes a chunk out of the iPhone's market. It's a chain, mind as well stay where you are.

God Bless Steve Jobs:apple:

i was thinking the same thing! But i really hope for a touch-screen iPod! Also i really hate the new Nano colors. As someone said, they're not bright (happy colors) as the actual Nanos, which are great.
 
I wouldn't mind having a touch-screen nano, but I think that functionality is reserved for the regular iPod...

1020148556_95638b08d6_o.png


AND below, that in the world is this... MONSTROSITY? Zune nano, anyone? :confused:

attachment.php


On the other hand...

attachment.php


I could see Apple taking this direction. This actually doesn't look half-bad. Very appealing, pocketable and bite-sized. And you thought the nano couldn't get any smaller... :rolleyes:
 

This is what we'll get, but perhaps with slightly bigger gaps around the click wheel on the top/bottom.

New nano will be a current gen nano, with the little gaps on the top and bottom of the nano removed and new colours. Possibly a slightly bigger screen and wider body than the current gen. 4gb and 8gb versions, and a price drop.

iPod will simply be a bigger version of the new nano, with a widescreen aspect ratio and slightly wider body. No touchscreen (wait for gen7), but new operating system
 
This is what we'll get, but perhaps with slightly bigger gaps around the click wheel on the top/bottom.

New nano will be a current gen nano, with the little gaps on the top and bottom of the nano removed and new colours. Possibly a slightly bigger screen and wider body than the current gen. 4gb and 8gb versions, and a price drop.

iPod will simply be a bigger version of the new nano, with a widescreen aspect ratio and slightly wider body. No touchscreen (wait for gen7), but new operating system

it means the new video iPod will have the same screen ratio to not be really really fat... that's not very cool :(
 
I still think Apple will keep the current 2G nano, but drop the 2 GB model, make the 4 GB model a new low end model with possibly silver case as the only color, make the 8 GB model the "mainstream" model with up to ten different color case designs (including the new "wine" and orange colors), and offer a new 16 GB model in black and red only.

We'll see a new "intermediate" model that looks like a cross between the nano and a reduced size video iPod with 8 and 16 GB of flash memory that can play videos in the same format now used for the 5.5G iPod. This new model will come in case colors described by the 9to5mac.com article. Don't be surprised if Apple calls this new model the iPod nano video.
 
If the colors are deep like the current ones, then sure, I won't mind the change. But if they are dull like the original iPod Mini colors, that will just be cheap looking.
 
Hit me with your ugly square!

I'm still having trouble accepting that Apple would drastically change the form factor of the nano that much....
I totally agree. The little square design that has been passed around is so ugly I have a hard time thinking up ways that Apple could still use this form factor but make it look good as opposed to all the fugly mockups we have been seeing.

Just like Jonathan Ive, I have been to design school and one of the first things they teach you (if you don't know already), is the importance of proportion and the centrality of the golden rectangle. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_rectangle)

Objects that are shaped like this just "look right" to the eye, this is why doors, buildings, and almost everything else has been shaped this way since the stone age. Objects that are "thinner" rectangles, look even cooler or slimmer, whereas objects that approach a square, will look "fat" and ugly. Every designer/artist knows this either by training or just instinctively.

On a practical level, this square design would imply either that the nano is getting wider (as this poster and others assume), or that they have chopped the height only. If it's the first case, then this design will require all new docks and accessories! WTF? Why would they do that to us?

If it's the second case, then they have removed all the comfort areas around the clickwheel, and jammed everything into this ugly little square when they clearly didn't even need to. The thing is already dead tiny, and there is no design advantage to reducing the height. Staying the same form factor would not affect plans for the wider screen, would not affect the controls, etc.

Making the current nano form factor shorter, just introduces a design *constraint*, in that it makes the interior volume smaller, meaning less storage and less room for the OS. I can see nothing to be gained by this except perhaps a slightly lighter weight.

The "rounded corner rectangle" might be Apples longest running design standard, but almost always it's the golden rectangle we see, and for good reason. If Ive has actually done this to the nano, it might be the first of his designs that I truly think misses the mark.

These square mockups we have been seeing just make no sense from a design perspective unless it's like the Volkswagon "Thing" where the product was supposed to be "so ugly it's cool." And you don't see many VW Things driving the streets these days do you? :)
 
9to5mac?!

They're often right about their rumors... Maybe this could explain something:

search in whois comes up with this address:

Quincy Pince-Nez (ssnyc4me@yahoo.com)
+1.9178925594
Fax:
1 infinite loop
Cupertino, CA 90210
US

Same address as Apple.. Is there some kind of other explanation to this, other than Apple is somehow running the site?
 
I don't like it, I love the freshness-level of the present colours, and these look so... dusty

So I really hope this rumour is false :rolleyes:
 
i like 'em though i'd be more interested in the form factor, screen size and the industrial design than the colours.
 
Yuck!!!

The colors are hideous! The current colors are nice, but I could see where a adding purple would be a hit with a lot of women. Apple needs to stop messing around with colors.
 
So the colors are more refined- elegant and modern compared to the bright, bold colors of the shuffle. I like that; it sets the nano apart from the shuffle. (I also had hoped for a different-shade blue nano).

-=|Mgkwho
 
I wouldn't mind having a touch-screen nano, but I think that functionality is reserved for the regular iPod...

why?
the nano commands a much higher price per GB than the iPod (i know flash vs HDD obviously flash would be more expensive, but they still use pro quality material for the nano v consumer quality plastic for the iPod).

if the nano does ship without a touchscreen and the iPod does indeed have one. then expect 1 or both of the below to be true :
# nano prices reduced whilst doubling capacity
# ipod prices to go up whilst adding 20 to 30% capacity.

bottom line, i wouldn't be surprised if both the nano and the ipod shipped with touch screens. so no, the touch screen functionality is not reserved for the iPod. as long as both are prices correctly (and there is sufficient difference between the size of their screen) i don;t see them eating up each others market share. they are both flagships for their intended market.

it would be prefect for apple to go all touch screen. they haven't had a major innovation within the iPod sphere since 4G (advent of the click wheel). putting in touchscreens with iPhonesque UI would put them ahead of competing DAPs/PMPs (whatever they are called). hardware wise apple can only do so much, competition has caught up. software is apples forte, might as well use it to regain some market share off SanDisk and weed to silly attempts (zune).
also releasing updated versions of their existing games (obviously that would come with iPhone compatibility would do wonders in-terms of marketing).
 
Here's are some different colors throughout the generations, for everyone's reference...

First Gen Minis

ipodmini_fam.jpg


Second Gen Minis

minifam.jpg


Second Gen Nanos

ipod-nano.jpg
464a_1.jpg


Purported new colors:
black.png
grey.png
red.png
blue.png
green.png
 
They're often right about their rumors... Maybe this could explain something:

search in whois comes up with this address:

Quincy Pince-Nez (ssnyc4me@yahoo.com)
+1.9178925594
Fax:
1 infinite loop
Cupertino, CA 90210
US

Same address as Apple.. Is there some kind of other explanation to this, other than Apple is somehow running the site?
That last name is a joke for sure (it's an old fashioned type of glasses), so if the name is fake, the address might be also IMO.

Funny thing is, while a lot of people do it, providing a fake whois record for a website is actually a crime and means that you (technically) don't have rights to the site or domain.

Anyone wanting to be a jerk about it could steal 9 to 5 mac out from under this guy, or at least get him in trouble and force him to use his real name.
 
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