I go through watch wearing phases. I'll go years without wearing a watch and then decide that I Must Have One Now, then decide a few years later that I don't want to be a timekeeper anymore. I've also worn a pedometer off and on for years, but hated the look of wearing a little gadget clipped to my waist. I've kept my eye out for eight years for a pedometer I didn't feel self-conscious wearing. I wanted to wear one on a daily basis but where do you put a pedometer if you're wearing a dress and heels to work? I recently found the perfect solution for my needs in the iPod Nano 6th Generation.

We've had two iPods in our family in the past six years; one won't sync anymore and the other is really, really old. Z just received an iPod Touch as an early Christmas gift, and since my car radio doesn't play digital music, I've been wanting to get either a new radio or a new iPod to plug into the auxiliary jack of my car stereo. I found an excellent price on the Nano at a Black Friday sale and figured it was cheaper than the new car stereo, so I bought it.

When I bought the Nano, I didn't even realize that it had a pedometer on it - I was simply buying it so that I could have music in my car. I'd considered in the past getting a Nano and the Nike+ iPod accessory but I'm not a runner and I could never figure out where I'd put that little shoe piece when I was wearing flip-flops, which I do more often than not. The Nano is now so small and thin a secondary market in watchbands has taken off, with a wide range of styles to choose from. It's fashionable (at least, I think so) and it's a pedometer-watch that oh, yeah, stores eight gigabytes of music! The Nano features a watch face that can be set as the default screen when you push the power button, making it an attractive watch with a lot of cool features under the hood. Everything is navigable with a touch screen, which means you just flick from one feature to the next (watch/pedometer/media categories) and then click on icons or categories in a navigation tree.

I've noticed since I've been wearing it daily I've started walking more. It's little things, like parking further from the store or taking the stairs instead of the elevator, but I'm motivated by the step count and those steps add up quickly. (Seeing that you've only walked 1,000 of your 10,000 daily steps is very motivating!) You can upload your step results to the Nike+ website and even play little games like tracking your step counts in a virtual "walk" around New York City and earning medals (I do love gold stars). If you're a serious runner, you might want to buy the actual Nike+ iPod accessory pack, which provides voice-over encouragement, additional data on your workouts, and the ability to use more than one sensor to record data. I don't run so a pedometer is perfect for my needs. I haven't had a chance to calibrate the steps yet but I've done a few casual experiments and the pedometer appears to be pretty accurate, missing only 1-2 out of every 50 steps (not a scientific survey, your mileage may vary).

In addition to music, the iPod Nano can also store and show off photos and videos and store and play podcasts and iTunes Genius mixes. It also has an FM band radio built in, of which Jeremiah is supremely jealous. The touch screen makes navigation simple for kids who might not yet be able to easily manipulate the click wheel (even I turn the volume the wrong way 50% of the time I used my iPod video). The simple icons make it easy to make your selections and the album covers help with ease of selection (I find myself looking for the cover I want more often that reading the actual title of the album).

The Nano's small size is both a pro and a con - it's small about 2" square which makes it extremely portable but also potentially easily lost. I don't think I'd do well clipping my Nano to my clothing the way they promote so heavily in the ads.


On a watchband, though, it's easy to keep track of. I wear it every day and leave it in the same place every night. The Nano itself seems fairly sturdy, but I've only had it a month.

I think that despite its small size, the Nano could be an attractive option for a child over six once a sturdy, chunky case is available. To date, though, we haven't spotted the kind of variety of case options you'd expect to accompany an iPod release. That said, I think it's important for kids to have control over their own music - on Z's iPod she has a mix of children's music and music of ours that she likes along with audio stories (we even sneak in her Suzuki practice songs). She is so pleased when she uses the iPod that she can control what she listens to (she does get a bit tired of NPR) and how many times she can listen to a specific song in a row (we usually lose patience after two replays of the same song).

Since I got my watch pedometer iPod Nano, the rest of the family now wants one. At the moment you can pick up an iPod Nano 6G on Amazon for about $170.