The newly announced iPod Nano is freaking sweet. My first instinct is to put one on order right away. But according to rumors going around before it was officially announced, an 8 GB version is heading our way... and I think I could hold out for a few months, even until next year to get more space.

It only took an a moment of looking at the Apple web site to see a huge design issue for me - the headphone jack is on the bottom of the iPod! For me, when I am on the elliptical trainer at the gym, I set my iPod in front of me on the little shelf on the machine so I can look at my song info while working out... I will no longer be able to do this with the Nano. If I want to see the song info clearly I will either need to tweak my head side-ways or pick the Nano up and look at it.

When I complained to Mike about this issue, he instantly thought up a great solution! Apple could add a preference to rotate the screen (and click wheel controls) to orient itself to its current position. This is so brilliant!

If you were holding it sideways the screen would rotate 90 degrees, or if you set it upside down (so the headphone jack was coming out upwards as current iPod models do) the screen would be rotated 180 degrees. Holding it sideways seems ideal to me, like I am holding my Sidekick II or my Nintendo DS. Perfect.

Dang you Mike into eternity! You have given such a perfect suggestion that Apple will never* implement! It only took Apple like 20+ years to make a two-button mouse, even though everyone knew two-buttons were better.

*never = 20+ years