My New iPod Nano

I’d been using an old click-wheel iPod for listening to music in the car. It’s nice having music ready to go without futzing with hooking up my iPhone and cables every time I get in the car. Unfortunately, it stopped working a few months ago.

When I heard Apple was discontinuing the iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle, I hustled to Best Buy and bought a brand new Nano before they were gone.

I like being able to get in the car and just push the play button to continue listening to an audio book. Having to take out my phone, connect cables, find and launch an app, select something to listen to, and hit “play” adds just enough friction so that I often don’t bother listening to anything.

Having to sync everything using iTunes on my Mac adds a bit of friction, but it’s the good kind. It’s the kind that forces me to consider what I’d like to listen to until next time. That’s fine with me. Audio books take forever to listen to, so it doesn’t come up often.

It also works great while walking. The Nano is tiny and it’s nice not having my phone with me. The downside is that it doesn’t work with the Airpods, so I have to use chorded headphones like some sort of Neanderthal. On the other hand, there’s no need to worry about charging the plain old EarPods.

It’s a nice setup.