Apple Inc (AAPL)

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08:31 AAPL WSJ's Walter Mossberg reviews the new iPod (74.08 )

WSJ reports next month marks the fifth anniversary of one of the most successful products of the digital era, Apple Computer's iPod music player. For the main iPod, there's now a search feature that lets you find items alphabetically, by using the scroll wheel to select letters. In our tests, it worked well. The iPod Nano has been given a new aluminum skin, like the old iPod Mini had. This has two advantages: It resists the scratches that affected the first Nano models last year, and it allows for a range of bright colors.

The coolest new feature on iTunes is called Cover Flow, an optional way of viewing your music library. Unfortunately, Cover Flow puts such heavy demand on computer graphics systems that it doesn't work properly or at all on some machines, especially older or more limited Windows computers. It's impossible to know if Apple can sustain its remarkably high mkt shares in the face of new competition, but it is going into the battle with better products at better prices.