THE ORIGINAL IPOD, STILL WITH US IN THE FORM OF THE IPOD CLASSIC, was simple to operate, and it still is—five buttons and a click wheel take you to all your songs, movies, games, audio books, and everything else parked on your ‘Pod. Even though the player doesn’t have a mouse, its controls work just like those on a desktop computer: You highlight an item onscreen and click the Classic’s center button to select it. Performing this action either takes you to another menu of options or triggers an action—like playing a song, calling up a calendar, or displaying the time in Paris.

Although older iPod Nanos operate in a similar manner, today’s square Nano (introduced in 2010 and updated in 2011) changes all this. This little iPod is so small that it has no room for a click wheel. Heck, it’s barely bigger than the iPod Shuffle, but uses some of the same touchscreen technology that its big brother, the iPod Touch, does. You navigate the Nano not with a wheel, but with your finger—and it’s a lot of fun.