A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.” Gandalf’s approach to time in the Lord of the Rings pretty much sums up the timing and manner in which Apple introduces product features. They usually don’t have all the features that the market’s clamouring for on Day One. But then, this is Apple — when they do include those features, there’s that little bit extra that makes the difference.

Take the recent updates (if you can call them mere updates) to the nano, now in its fifth generation. On the outside, not much has changed — the nano has retained its svelte dimensions, yet it manages to look a tad bigger because of the inclusion of a 2.2-in (diagonal) display — 0.2 inches taller than the screen found on the 4G nano. This gives the device more screen space for menus and the like. It’s really when you flip it around that you notice the headline feature — the camera lens and microphone unit found on the bottom-left of the 5G nano.

Yes, if you haven’t heard already, the diminutive iPod nano has added a video camera without changing its form factor! It’s extremely easy to use, and should shooting your mates get boring after the novelty wears off, there are 15 video effects, including Sepia, Cyborg, Twirl, Stretch — if you’ve used the Photo Booth application on a Mac, you’ll be familiar with these — that distort, mutilate or creatively enhance your video. Just remember, these effects are permanent, and can’t be removed. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Now, at 640 x 480 pixels, it doesn’t aim to replace your Full HD camcorder, but video from the nano is extremely usable and makes for perfect YouTube-quality. There’s even a tiny little internal speaker to play back your videos on the device, and for casual music listening.

My initial gripe — the placement of the lens means that a couple of fingers find their way into your first few videos. I was left experimenting with multiple ways to hold the device to get the best finger-free video. And no, you can’t shoot still pictures with the nano — the autofocus sensor needed for stills appears to take much too much space.

When you tire of all the video effects, you’ve got to realise this is still a solid media player, and while video and music are largely unchanged, the new nano gets the long-awaited and much-criticised feature it lacked — radio.

And in typical Apple style, it’s radio on steroids! Sure, so you get the standard scan functionality, the ability to store favourite stations, but what makes the radio really interesting is the ability to live pause radio — you can “pause” and buffer 15 minutes of radio playback.

Just click the play/pause button, say when you have a phone call coming in, and again when you’re done, and the broadcast picks up from where you left off. If you’ve let it record the full 15 minutes, you can even skip forward or backward, skip ad breaks, re- listen to that song you like — awesome! You can’t sync the audio back onto your PC, which steers clear of copyright violation concerns.

Now, if that were all they’d changed in the device, it’d still be worth the buy. This time around, Apple has apparently pulled out all the stops in the features department, and added the Shuffle’s VoiceOver feature and a pedometer in the new nano.

Start up the pedometer at the beginning of your day, and it will keep track of the number of steps you take, and based on that, estimate the number of calories burned. Now I walk around a lot throughout the day, so let’s hope all that walking is making a difference! All this fitness data also syncs back to your PC much like the Nike+ application.

There’s little to fault with the new nano — the question is what else can Apple add? I’m pleasantly surprised that everything they have in it right now actually fits! It’s difficult not to recommend this baby for yourself or someone who’s been hinting at a Diwali gift.

Along with the nano, the Touch received a hardware upgrade for the high-capacity models (16GB and 32GB) and a price cut on the lowest-capacity model. Depending on what you’re doing, the new iPods are upto 50 per cent faster than the previous generation, and with the new processors and OpenGL ES 2.0 enhancements, starts up applications and plays games that much faster.

It’s got the iPhone 3GS’ Voice Control feature as well, but the camera that has found favour with the nano and the iPhone is conspicuously absent. My theory is that as good as it already was, the Touch’s updates not including a camera might just be intended to give the nano a fighting chance in a world that is fast moving towards the converged benefits via the games and applications of the iPod Touch/iPhone. Though subtle, the updates on the iPod Touch are good, and now is as good as time as any if you’re in the market for one. My advice? Don’t grow old waiting for the camera!

Rounding up the package of new iPod launches is the Shuffle, now available in five colours, and an ageing iPod Classic, now available in a single 160 GB capacity.

• liPod nano — 9/10 — Rs 9,400 (8GB) and Rs 12,400 (16GB)
• liPod Touch — 8/10 — Rs 12,400 (8GB), Rs 18,400 (32GB) and Rs 24,400 (64GB)
• liPod Shuffle — Rs 3,700 (2GB) and Rs 4,800 (4GB)
• liPod Classic — Rs 15,200 (160GB)
• URL: http://www.apple.com/in/ipod/compare- ipod-models/

A glass act

Finally a set of video glasses you can actually be seen wearing in public. The new Wrap 310 from Vuzix features 16x9 widescreen, twin VGA-resolution displays, noise isolating earphones and compatibility with almost any video player — including the iPod and iPhone. Powered by two AA cells, these shades claim to deliver a 55-in image, and there’s also an expansion port that’ll give it VGA component outputs in the near future. Porta-cinema, anyone?

• http://www.vuzix.com/iwear/products_wrap310.html
• Price: To be announced