Word came down on Thursday this week that the iPod Nano is no more. The Verge did a great retrospective of the history of the Nano, and reading it brought me down memory lane. I remember even blogging about wanting a Nano, and then getting a Nano back in 2007. I vividly remember getting a Product RED version to help support the global fight against AIDS.

As time wore on I eventually moved on to different devices, like the iPod Touch, but others in my immediate family still used the Nano for many, many years. I remember my kids had a silver nano that they used to listen to their music long before they got cell phones with that capability in them. I think I might even still have one of them sitting around in a box somewhere.

Needless to say, it was a great and simple device for listening to any type of audio. The screen was big enough to deal with menus and lists, and the click-wheel is still one of the most incredible UI innovations. We’ve obviously grown beyond the simple click wheel, but I firmly believe it was the harbinger of our eventual full touch interfaces. I used to be very adept of spinning the wheel just far enough to get where I needed, without going past my choice.

Things move on and technology changes. I’ll always remember how cool the iPod Nano was though, and how it was one of the most revolutionary devices of it’s time. A simple music player, for a much simpler media era.