iPod Nano Editorial Review


Apple's quest to own the portable music industry continues, and now they have a new nano-sized weapon in their arsenal. The announcement on September 7th was no real shocker to anyone, but next day product availability of the Mini's successor was somewhat unexpected. Can Apple's Nano help them tighten their grasp on the portable audio market?

Why the Nano?

The iPod Mini hadn't even celebrated its second birthday, yet the rise of the Nano signals a quick death of what was considered to be one of the hottest portable audio products in history. Perhaps Apple had been sitting on its duffels for too long. The Mini's lack of a color screen and abysmal battery life would never let Apple take control of the small player market. Jobs and company couldn't sit still, so they've knocked out the two biggest problems with one punch.

The Specs

Model: MA004LL/A, MA099LL/A, MA005LL/A, MA107LL/A
Storage Capacity: 2GB / 4GB
Battery Life: Up to 14 hours music playback, 4 hours slideshow w/music
Display: 1.5-inch color LCD
Connector: USB
Charge time: About 3 hours
Audio Formats: AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible, Apple Lossless, WAV, AIFF (supported bit rates vary)
Photo: Syncs iPod-viewable photos in JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PSD (Mac only) and PNG formats
Size: 3.5H x 1.6W x 0.27D
Weight: 1.5 ounces
Included Accessories: Ear bud headphones, USB cable, Dock adapter
Required Software: iTunes for PC or MAC

Goodbye Hard-Drive, Hello Flash

One of the major changes from the Mini to the Nano is the use of solid-state flash memory instead of a tiny hard drive. Flash memory, though more expensive per megabyte, is significantly easier on the Nano's battery. The Mini's expected battery life was 8 hours (more like 5); the Nano is expected to run for 14. There are many reports of users hitting this number, but that's with solid music playback at half-volume. The louder the volume, and the more the screen's backlight is on, the quicker the Nano will run out of juice. Expect 10 to 12 hours under normal use.

No hard drive also means no moving parts, so the Nano should be more durable than its predecessors. No moving parts also means that a large shock won't interrupt music listening. This could be a much better solution for those who like to exercise with a high capacity player.

The Nano also feels more responsive than the Mini, thanks to the near instantaneous speed of flash memory. Click on a song, and it starts without any kind of delay. Browsing photos on the Nano is just as much as joy; pictures appear almost instantly when selected.

The move to flash isn't entirely positive. While it has made many aspects of the Nano better in terms of performance, it's also reduced the amount of storage you get for the money. At $250 dollars, you used to get 6GB of storage with the Mini, while the Nano holds 2GB less for the same price. Some may not care about the size difference, but most would rather keep an additional 500 songs with them while they're on the go.


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The Size

When I first heard about a smaller version of the Mini, I wasn't prepared for how small this thing actually is. In person, I was taken back by how small and light it was. Let me repeat that, it is extremely small and light.

In fact, the Nano is actually smaller than a business card, and about the same thickness as a BIC pen. It's impressive that Apple packed so much punch in such a small space.

Despite the tiny size, the operation and user interface remains unchanged from that of the Mini, and the other current generation iPods. The much beloved click-wheel is present, and it gets better with each new generation.

Actually, I like the smaller version of the click wheel better than the larger version on the full size iPods. It's easier to adjust the volume and perform circular motions without looking like you're stirring your morning coffee.

Finally... A Color Screen and Photo Playback

Apple opted to ditch the antique looking grayscale LCD for a slightly smaller 1.5-inch color LCD, and it looks good, too. The Nano actually looks like it belongs in the 21st century. The new display is bright, crisp, and easy to see all but extreme angles.

Even though it's small, it works okay for browsing pictures, just don't expect to have you and three friends crowding around your Nano to watch a slideshow. Image viewing is a one-person experience. Sadly, there is no option to output your slideshow to an external monitor or any zooming features.

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Games and other Software Additions

What electronic device would be complete without the ability to play
games? Standing in line at the DMV can almost seem like fun now that
you can play Solitaire anywhere you go. That's right, the super
addictive card game from the early '90s is included in the Nano.
There's also a creative music quiz game that randomly pulls the titles
of 5 songs, and plays a snippet of one of them. As the timer goes down,
wrong choices are eliminated until you guess the correct one, but the
faster you select the song, the more points you get. Just make sure
your songs all have correct titles, or playing the game won't be any
fun.

They've included a Parachute game where you use the wheel to aim a small cannon at helicopters that drop men in parachutes. It's a game you'll play once and never pick up again. You also get a game called Bricks, which is basically a version of Arkanoid. A great addition, but the round shape of the wheel makes it
difficult to play.

Apple has also thrown in a few useful tools in the Nano. They've
included a contacts list, a stopwatch, a calender, and a world clock.
If you carry a cell-phone with you, you really don't need any of the
additional tools, but if not, the contacts list will be especially
handy.

The Flaws

Every product could be better, and the Nano is no exception to this rule. Given that Apple has fixed the two major problems that plagued the Mini, they've overlooked many of the small ones, and even created some new ones.

No FireWire - It seems Apple forgot that they are huge supporters of FireWire, since compatibility is mysteriously missing from the Nano. Using a FireWire cable will charge the internal battery, but you cannot move files or folders unless you plug it into a USB port. I imagine those in the Mac community are slightly upset by this oversight.

iTunes for Everything - Though you can still use the Nano like an external hard drive to transfer files between one computer and another, you cannot play any songs copied to the Nano in this manner. The Nano will ignore any music or picture file not transferred with the iTunes Music Suite. Not that iTunes is horrible, it's just I rather enjoyed being able to quickly copy and paste music using Windows Explorer.

No WMA Support - It's no surprise that Apple has chosen to support the same formats as it has in the past, but I still consider the lack of Windows Media Support extremely limiting. I know Apple wants everyone to shop at the iTunes Music Store, but what if I want to pay 12 cents less per song at the Wal-Mart Music Store? I like to have variety in where I can buy music, and I don't get that with Apple. Oh yeah... where the heck is native support for OGG? I guess it doesn't matter anymore, now that I'm forced to use iTunes for all music transfers.

Worthless Headphones - When will Apple finally listen to their customers and package better headphones with their music players. I can't think of anyone who doesn't hate the included headphones. Could this be another of Apple's attempts to make you buy more accessories?

Glossy Finish - The Nano's new glossy finish and mirrored back may be handy for helping you pick food scraps out of your teeth while on the go, but it does make it nearly impossible to keep the Nano looking new. It shows every fingerprint, and everything (I mean everything) scratches it.

Even after a week of gentile and loving use, the Nano (especially the gloss black version) looks like it's been through hell and back. No doubt Apple and their legion of third party accessory makers will have an infinite amount of cases for you to plop 10 to 25 dollars on.

Too Small? - I also feel that the Nano's size will be cursed just as much as it's praised. It's just so small you tend to forget about it, which means you won't notice if it falls out of your shirt pocket, and I'm sure more than a few people are going to find a broken iPod when they pull their jeans out of the dryer. Though the build quality is durable, I can't help but feel that it could snap in two if you sit the wrong way while it's in your pocket.

Final Verdict

For some reason, the iPod has never been able to truly impress me the way it has with so many others. Yes, it's a good audio player, but I don't consider the iPod series to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. In fact, despite the major advances in hardware, I'm finding I like the iPods less each time a new one is released, mostly in part to the "Apple dictates how I use my product" approach they've been taking lately. I understood why protected AAC content had to be transferred with iTunes, but I should be able to transfer unprotected AAC and MP3 files without it.

The Nano is another great hardware release from Apple; one that truly lives up to the performance of the iPod name. No one will argue that Apple's iPod music players have set a standard on how an MP3 player should work (Shuffle excluded). In the end, by stripping out conveniences and limiting consumer choice, it seems that Apple is focusing more on turning people into revenue streams than happy customers.

I give the Nano a 7.5 out of 10.

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