Apple IPod Nano: A thinner design. Five stylish colors. A brighter display. Up to 24 hours of battery life. Just about the only thing that hasn’t changed is the name. In 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB models starting at $149, iPod nano puts up to 2,000 songs in your pocket.

The Nano weighs 1.5 ounces and is about 0.25-inch thick--so small that you feel it when you have the player in your shirt pocket. The unit's screen resolution is sufficiently high that it can fit as many as 27 characters across, in extremely readable type.

Like other iPods, the Nano uses a rechargeable battery that you can't replace. It ships without an AC adapter, so you have to charge it through the included cable and your USB port. That process takes about 3 hours; a single charge should last you 14 hours, according to Apple.

Dell DJ ditty: The little silver-and-black stick weighs less than 2 ounces and is the size of a Bic lighter. It comes with ear buds and a lanyard for hanging around your neck. The unit packs 512MB($89) of flash memory and looks like--and doubles as--a USB thumb drive.

Just plug it into an open USB port, and you can drag tracks manually onto the player or you can use the bundled version of Yahoo Musicmatch Jukebox. Musicmatch recognized the Ditty immediately and let me sync music to it hassle-free.

The DJ Ditty plays MP3, WAV, and WMA music files, as well as Audible-formatted audio books. It supports PlaysForSure music subscriptions such as Napster and Musicmatch, along with Rhapsody and Yahoo Musicmatch. It includes an FM radio with room for ten preset stations.