It’s just a swipe to the left to bring up the next screen, and then a swipe to the right to go back. A tap on the bottom pulls up a menu, and from there a normal tap activates any option on the screen. Like folds in an origami sculpture or precision cuts by a three-star Michelin chef these four basic moves on the new iPod nano are used to unpack Apple’s entire iPod system. Lyrics, ratings, album listings, it used to be that the micro-sized iPods would need to sacrifice a number of features to function, but somehow a screen the size of a Loonie coin now holds everything short of the iTunes Store itself.

My finger takes up half the screen and yet I’ve had no difficulty picking out the icons, slider bars, or scrollable lists. Usually with something this small there’s a few days of adjustment, for your mind to map out the perimeters of the screen, your fingers to learn where all the “hot spots” are, but the new nano took to my taps as if the 1.54” screen were really 3.5” and I’ve spent days pulling out all the packed features just as you would on a Swiss Army Knife.

Your music, your playlists, photos and podcasts have all been grouped into App-like icons across a swipe able menu system. They’re not apps, but they behave in the same fashion allowing you to jump in and out of different features as if they were. This includes the option to change the background wallpaper, but unfortunately not with your own images.

With music the nano includes the “Shake To Shuffle” option, equalizer, Genius mixes, and podcasts. With photos you can play slideshows complete with transitions and timed slides plus use an iPod AV cable to output them to a television or external display. The clock offers a traditional, but very attractive face complete with calendar, stop watch, and a timer that includes all the iPhone ringtones as alarms.

The built-in FM Radio does an excellent job of finding and pulling in stations for you into channels you can flip to and the Live Pause system is seamless in allowing you to put broadcasts on hold and then get back to them. You can swipe the radio dial to manually sift through the frequencies and with stations that support it you can actually get song titles and artist names displayed. It’s so well presented, it’s easily one of the best features included.

The Pedometer is far more sophisticated than expected. It uses a built-in sensor and your entered weight to record how many steps you’ve taken and how many calories you’ve burned in a given time, then records this to a personal journal that keeps track of your best scores for specific distances and across different months.

There are a number of hidden features whose icons will only appear when connected with specific accessories. The Fitness feature can expand if you include Nike’s+ sensor system and a Voice Memo application will appear if you connect an external microphone.

The downside with the new nano is its physical design. It doesn’t seem to know quite what it wants to be. The previous nano was tall and considerably larger with a built-in camera and speaker and was just a few steps away from the iPod Touch. This version of the nano has evolved in the opposite direction, shrinking down to a smaller, square body with less hardware features. It seems to be instead a step down towards the shuffle. Place the new nano next to the new Shuffle and the one merely looks like a larger version of the other.

The large metal clip on the back plus the option to change the screen’s orientation to face any direction suggests that the nano, like the Shuffle, is designed to be clipped to a lapel or strap, but the touch controls make it very difficult to use in that way and you have to constantly clip and unclip, pocket or un-pocket the device to make changes. I’ve had it for a week and I’m never sure where to put it.

Square with a few simple metal buttons for volume and power, the new nano isn’t Apple’s most stylish design. When the screen is turned on, the square aluminum combined with a thick, black border do give the impression of one of those picture frames you can get to hang your old vinyl albums on the wall like art. I think that’s intentional, but I’m not sure if it’s as attractive as it could be.

While I’m not sure about the form, the function and the way that’s organized is the bigger appeal. Having so many elements, including accessibility options like Voice Over, screen contrast, and mono audio, tightly and efficiently organized into such a small, pocket space is delightful to use, even if you’re not sure where to put it.