Pretty, isn’t it? That’s not all. According to Apple, the new iPod Nano boasts some cool new features, too:

iPod nano rocks like never before. With the new Genius feature, iPod nano makes playlists of songs that go great together. Give it a shake to shuffle your music. Turn it on its side and flip through albums with Cover Flow. All this and more now comes in a stunning, curved all-aluminum and glass design.

This fourth generation iPod is the thinnest yet, has a bigger screen, and comes in 8GB and 16GB models, starting at $149. Not too shabby, but will it convince current iPod owners to fork out the cash for a new model? And what about all those iPod Touch owners? Apple didn’t forget you. Today’s announcement included a new iPod Touch, with up to 32 GB of storage and the new iTunes 8.0, providing the “Genius” technology found on the new iPod Nano.

The iTunes make-over
I knew there were some changes worthy of mention when I had to wait an hour for it to sift through my music, applying updates. A little warning would have been nice, but maybe most people don’t have 13,000 tracks to process. Once it finished making me wait, I noticed an immediate difference. The tidy list of tracks I’ve come to expect has gone on vacation, replaced by album covers. This “Grid” view option replaces the “Album” view found in previous versions of iTunes. While it looks neat, it seems counter-productive. This is emphasized when you have a very eclectic taste in music, like I do. In my case, more than half the screen has question marks where the album covers should be.

While it may SEEM counter-productive, there is some silver lining. You can click an album to play that whole album, which isn’t terribly exciting on its own. When you switch from the “Albums” view to “Artists”, “Genres”, or “Composers”, however, clicking an album cover or image will play all the tracks by that artist or composer or in that genre. At the top right, where I almost missed it, is a slider to adjust the size of the album covers. Another nice benefit is the ability to simply grab drag any album cover or genre image to a playlist to add all of its tracks.

What makes a genius?
Genius is Apple’s try at something Pandora is doing currently and I tried some time ago with a web site (I sold it in 2006). The idea is pretty simple. Combine information about relationships between tracks in a person’s playlists with similar information from everyone else to enhance the ability for the software to suggest new relationships. In short, it should give me a list of tracks I might like, based on music I already own. Having created such an algorithm myself, I know how complicated it can be and won’t expect too much from this new feature. That said, I decided to try it out, using the simple instructions provided by iTunes.

To make a Genius playlist, select any song from your library and press the Genius button at the bottom of the window. Genius playlists and recommendations will get even better over time, as more iTunes library information is gathered from you and other Genius users.

After highlighting Love Song by Sara Bareilles, I clicked the little Genius icon at the bottom right of the screen and was disappointed to learn that the Genius hiding in my iTunes had noting to offer “at this time”. I tried a few other songs by other artists with the same results. Once again, I understand why, but it’s unfortunate that I couldn’t really give it a try. I figure a month from now results should start showing up, so I’ll have to wait and see.

Apple’s big party and array of new releases may not squeeze any green out of my wallet, but I’m sure it will boost their sales as usual. Maybe Apple will invite me to their next party to give me a closer look at their new items and features.

Have you moved up to 8.0? Will you open your wallet for the new hardware?

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