Nanu Nano, as Mork would say*

The new iPod in a phone unveiled today was well signposted in recent weeks - in fact, the product was first mooted last year - so the Motorola Rokr was the least surprising announcement from Apple this evening.

The honour goes to the iPod Nano, which replaces the iPod Mini line by effectively grafting a colour screen and scroll wheel onto a Shuffle. Looks great, seems tiny, and deals another blow to rivals aiming to capitalise on any hesitation by Apple in the MP3 space. Shamefully, though, with battery life of only 14 hours, Apple is making no effort to replicate the incredible efforts of Sony in similar devices, with 40 hours the norm. But then Sony's portable-music products still have a long way to go in many other areas in which the iPod excels.

The Nano comes in 2GB/4GB configs priced at €210 and €260.

The Rokr was described by Apple boss Steve Jobs as an "iPod shuffle on your phone" but Motorola's design seems to have had no Apple input, looking, well ordinary. Though no Irish network has been confirmed, Motorola has already signalled a press conference about the phone in London next week, so it'll probably be available here quite soon.


* OK so you have to quite old to remember Mork and Mindy (Robin Williams' first TV gig) but he used to say "nanu-nanu" as way of greeting people.