Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

While Apple’s new iPod nano is unlikely to make it onto anyone’s list of essential equipment for walking, running, or jogging, listening to music does make exercise more bearable, and a flash memory based music player doesn’t skip like a CD player or an old-fashioned iPod.

One more reason to consider this particular music player: If you don’t have a watch handy, the nano doubles as a stopwatch. Even if you do have a watch handy, it probably doesn’t have all of the features of this stopwatch—it tracks lap time and total time, and each stopwatch session is saved in a list. You can select an entry in the list to view the date, time, time for each lap, and other statistics.

Don’t let the lack of a $200 music player stop you from running, of course—but kudos to Apple for making this one a bit more than an entertainment device. See the Ars Technica review for a description and screenshot of the stopwatch feature.