Hold that purchase! Apple’s redesigned its nano, ratcheted up its capacity, slimmed down its body, and added an interesting new feature or two. Now, I’m thinking this is the model I should put on the Christmas shopping list for my spouse. (See “The iPod nano is Just Right.”)

Here are the basics. The new nano, referred to as the nano-chromatic on the Apple site, comes in nine flavors — I mean, colors, raspberry, cherry, orange, lemon, lime, blueberry, grape, dark gray and light gray (though I’m sure the actual internally used names of their colors are much more sophisticated than my Kool-Aid phraseology).

The new body, made from aluminum, is longer and leaner, intended to make you feel, says Apple, like once you pick it up, “you won’t want to put iPod nano down.” (Note how the word “the” doesn’t appear before “iPod nano”? That’s to make you feel like you’re buying more than just another noun — you are buying a new friend, one whom you call by its formal name, like that girl Katherine whom you knew in high school.)

Capacity is doubled — from four or eight gigabytes to eight or 16 gigabytes. It weighs less than two ounces. The display is two inches on the diagonal and has a 32-x240 resolution.

The cool thing about that display is that it borrows from the iPhone. When you flip the phone to the side, the display shifts too and moves from portrait mode to landscape. Plus, Cover Flow lets you flip through album cover art to select it. Or you can press and hold the center button and pick album or artist to generate a new list to choose from.

Give the nano a shake and it’ll mix up your offerings and shuffle to a different song in the library. (Surely, this was a product bug that genius Steve turned into a feature: “Hey, Mr. Jobs, we gotta stability problem. When you jiggle the iPod, the music wigs out and another song starts up…”)

Speaking of genius, a new “Genius” feature finds songs in your library that go well together and generates a playlist for you. When a tune is playing, you press and hold the center button, select “Genius” from the menu, and it automatically finds other songs that go well with the initial one. If you don’t care for the selections, you can pick Refresh to get a different batch.

Video still plays on the unit, of course, and you can add your favorite photos too.

Best, the prices have come down. You can get the 16 gigabyte model, which holds 4,000 songs or 16 hours of video, for $199.

Tasty!

The other day my son sat me down so that we could compose his Christmas list. I’m not sure what spurred this, but I do know one thing: This is the year I will get holiday cards sent out before the end of January, and this will be the year when we actually hang out the lights we bought for Christmas eight years ago but have never removed from the package.

And, since green is truly a holiday color in so many ways, I’m thinking I might just need to add these babies to the Christmas mix: solar-powered lights. Since our address post is about a tenth of a mile from the house, this is a great way to decorate for the season without having to run a 600-foot extension cord down the driveway.

The string consists of 60 lights that turn on automatically at dusk and run for about eight hours. The length is 26 feet.

Mind you, I live in California, where the sun shines practically even when it’s snowing. So I’m guessing I’d have better results than, say, those of you who live in Finland, where the day lasts for about 50 minutes before night once again descends. After all, “solar-powered” does imply the existence of sunshine.

These would also be great if you’re a snowbird who has landed in Gila Bend, Arizona or Palm Springs for the winter season, and you’re looking for a way to decorate the ol’ RV besides putting out your traditional pink flamingos with Santa hats on them.

I love tasting the wines in my little region of Northern California. We have easily a dozen wineries around us, and we’re members of a couple of them, which means we always have a steady supply of bottles coming into the household. What we don’t have is a great way to store them for future consumption.

That’s why I’m thrilled that wine refrigerators have finally come down in price and size so that even a plebian drinker like me can accumulate a wine collection for future years that won’t end up tasting like screwcap Carlo Rossi.

Here’s my current pick: the Cuisinart 32-Bottle Wine Cellar.

No, it won’t hold the entire collection, but since most of our bottles of white wine and champagne are to enjoy in the short term, I’m less concerned about those. It’s the library reds that I’d like this chiller for.

According to William-Sonoma, which sells the Cuisinart, an electronic thermostat offers eight preprogrammed settings for red and white varietals, plus manual adjustment for those who are extra fussy. To protect wines from sunlight, the double-paned glass door is tinted, but keeps bottles visible. The soft interior light automatically switches on when you open the door and can remain on for display when you want to impress in-laws and friends.

The chromed-steel racks accommodate 750ml and 1500ml bottles. The 32-bottle cellar has eight racks and is 21″ x 15 3/4″ x 31 3/4″. A 16-bottle cellar with four racks is width and depth but only 17 1/4″ high.

This one could do until I figure out how to remodel the ol’ homestead to add that basement cellar.

Dell has launched a new ultra-portable computer it calls the Inspiron Mini 9. I’ve written about these little computers before, but this Mini will offer strong competition to HP’s Mini-Note PC, which is a really great machine in its own right.

According to the press release, the Mini 9 has a starting weight of 2.28 pounds (I think The Da Vinci Code in hardback weighed more.), an 8.9-inch diagonal screen with 1024×600 resolution, and built-in wi-fi. The standard version comes with Ubuntu Linux 8.04 — your chance to wean yourself off Windows. Or you can upgrade to Windows XP. (Why XP? Because the vendor saves money loading an outdated operating system and it doesn’t require the same hardware resources as, say, Vista.)

The $349 edition includes 512 megabytes of memory and a 4 gigabyte solid state drive.

Options include a built-in webcam with Dell Video Chat and built-in Bluetooth, which lets you accessorize your computing with Bluetooth gizmos like headphones, a mouse, and the like. You can also upgrade memory and storage, case color, add an external hard drive and a whole bunch of other components.

But the beauty of these devices is that you can keep it light and mobile. That may require relinquishing your hard and fast rules about what’s required for a quality computing experience (such as a DVD drive or extra battery).

Choosing to invest in a machine such as the Mini 9 is kind of like supporting Barack Obama — it’s time to start dreaming again!

Today, playing field trip mom, I went to a rather impressive small-city aerospace museum. One of the docents, who’d served in the United States Air Force for 20 years, delighted in pointing out that all of the computing power outfitting the early manned spacecraft could now be found inside a typical calculator.

Just a few months ago, HP introduced a new line of calculators, including the HP 20b Business Consultant, which sells for $43.49 from HP directly.

Listen to what this device contains:

—Frequently used business functions, such as TVM (the time value of money — what it’ll cost you later should you decide to hold onto or spend the money you have today), depreciation, and amortization.

—15 statistical analysis functions, four probability distributions, and an advanced math library with trig and hyperbolic functions.

—A two-line display and scroll keys (on a calculator!), which let you scroll through variables, text labels, menus and prompts.

Plus, HP is touting this one as being green. There’s less packaging. That means fewer resources are used up to create the package, plus, less fuel is burned transporting that product around the world.

The company is also talking up a new “clip and zip” feature, which lets you use regular scissors to open up the package. And I think I can safely speak for the entire civilized world when I say that I’m hoping whoever created that plastic that’s used to protect today’s electronic products had a hand sliced off at the wrist shortly after the patent was issued. After all, that’s what the rest of us risk when we attempt to cut those things open. But I digress.

My point is this: Although space travel has come a long way since those early days, so have calculators. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that the computing power of the newest generation of rocketry will be found on the shelves of Staples in just a few years.

Went to one of the final ballgames of the summer the other night. Thanks to my spouse’s generous boss, we were treated to free parking, great seats and all the tri-tip, potato salad and peanuts we could consume. Life was good. But as we were entering the stadium, I noticed a few tailgating parties going on. With football season upon us, the parties will only expand.

That’s why I love this idea: trailer hitch hanging chairs.

What better way to take advantage of the amazing strength of your trailer hitch than to run a sturdy metal pipe up from it to suspend a couple of hammock chairs?

The stand itself weighs about 45 pounds and can hold up to 350 pounds. So even your beefy brother-in-law can try it out, as long as he leaves the beer keg on the camp table and doesn’t insist on his goofy best friend trying it out at the same time.

The chair itself includes a footrest, armrests and a carrying case. When tailgating time is over, you can haul this along for camping. Or, you can just hang the chair itself by the pool, from your office ceiling, or in your dorm room — any place you have a brawny beam and a sturdy chain.