Most of the time I love Apple, and the only time I hate them is when they release something I really want. Which is 90% of the time. Take for instance the release of the new iPod Nano this week. I purchased the Nano the moment it came out, 4gb black and great. Now there are a few changes, better battery life (supposedly 24 hours); brighter screen (40% brighter); and the most notable – 8GB of space. That last part gets me good, I mean COME ON, I want 8gb in my Nano. They changed the design back to the rounded edges of the orginial Mini from a year or two back which I’m not so sure I like. At least the prices arn’t so bad $150, $200, and $250 for 2gb, 4gb, and 8gb.

Now onto what I will call “The Clip” – or why didn’t they just name it the iClip?! The new shuffle is pretty cool looking. 1GB which they estimate to 240 songs for $80 isn’t all that bad. Perfect for running or just having “the worlds smallest music player” can be handy in many situations. The days of covering your portable cd player in your backpack ended long ago. It’s still hard to cover up the headphone wires – which is why we need wireless in ear head phones to be super sneaky with your music listening. The only downside to me is no more using it as a USB key/hard drive which was one of the selling points for me and the older shuffle.

Ohhhh the Zune. Doesn’t it just look pretty for a Microsoft product? Those guys really started getting better designers since the Xbox and also their new operating system, Vista. I myself have yet to hold a Zune, yet it looks overall impressive. My only objection is because it’s Microsoft, and that means you have to use special software and it’s completely hung around that mentality for every Microsoft product to work with every other Microsoft product even when you don’t want it to. Anyways, go ahead and check out what other music bloggers have said about the Zune, here on an engadget post.