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Join Date: 21 Apr 2003 Location: Penang
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Reputation: 2352 Rep Power: 60 |  Review: Apple IPod Nano Packs Big Punch!
Quote:
Ever since Apple Computer Inc. jumped into the music player business with the original iPod in 2001, the rest of the consumer electronics industry has been playing catch-up. So far, nobody has come close in terms of coolness or sales.
That's unlikely to change anytime soon.
Apple, refusing to stand still, has released its trimmest full-featured iPod yet. The iPod Nano plays music, displays photos, is cleverly designed and is VERY small.
And if that weren't impressive enough, the Nano's battery lasts more than 14 hours on a single charge.
Unlike regular iPods that store songs on hard drives, the Nano uses solid-state memory. That makes the Nano less prone to skipping when dropped or jostled, though that has never really been a problem with its bulkier brethren.
The flash memory, plus an internal redesign, gives the Nano a more responsive feel. It also makes it possible to squeeze a lot of bang into a package just over a quarter inch thick.
In fact, the Nano is 80 percent smaller than the original 2001 iPod and 62 percent smaller than the iPod Mini that it replaced. The Nano is only as tall as a business card and it's three fingers wide.
The Nano is nevertheless bigger than the less capacious and cheaper iPod Shuffle, which lacks a display. And it has more features than previous versions of the regular iPod line, including a world clock, a built-in stopwatch and a software-based screen lock.
Available in black or white, the Nano comes in two configurations: A 2-gigabyte model (enough for about 500 pop songs) for $199 and a 4 GB model (1,000 songs) for $249. By comparison, a 20 GB hard-drive iPod is $299.
Like the larger iPods, navigation is simple. Scrolling through menus and songs is as simple as sliding a finger around a "click wheel." Embedded buttons enable quick track skipping.
Like all iPods, the Nano only works with Apple's free iTunes software for either Windows and Mac OS X computers. That locks you into the iTunes Music Store, which remains the most impressive site for buying music online.
The Nano supports a variety of music formats, but not Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Media. (Look elsewhere if, for some reason, you would rather pay monthly subscription fees for music that's rendered unplayable if you miss a payment).
I filled up a 4 GB Nano with about 680 songs _ including some lengthy classical pieces _ in about 10 minutes. The sound quality is very good though I'm not a big fan of the included ear buds, which fall out too easily.
To test out the battery claims, I left it on with the volume at about 50 percent. It lasted about 14 hours, 30 minutes _ a half hour longer than Apple claims.
I found the color screen to be a very nice addition from the traditional monochrome iPods that I've tested in the past. Still, color is hardly necessary to navigate and listen to music, though the Nano does display album art.
The color does come in handy for viewing pictures. Despite the screen's dimensions _ just 1.5 inches when measured diagonally _ photos, especially close-ups, were clear. Too bad, unlike regular iPods, there's no connector to display pictures on a television set.
The Nano can, though, serve as a substitute for pictures moms and dads carry in their wallets. The built-in slideshow feature supports background music, though I found it cuts down battery life to about four hours if used continuously.
So what's there not to like about the Nano?
For one, the rechargeable battery will eventually have to be replaced. Like other iPods, it's not as simple as swapping in some new Duracells. The Nano, because of its size and tight construction, appears to be even more difficult than regular iPods to disassemble.
The nano also requires a USB connection to transfer songs or pictures from a PC and to charge the device. Apple's own FireWire, ironically, can't be used to sync up a Nano though iPod FireWire cables do fit and can charge the battery.
That limitation wasn't a problem on my PC with its fast USB 2.0 connection, but my 2001 Power Mac only supports the older, slower USB 1.1. It took several hours to fill up the Nano on that system.
But the biggest problem, which also turns out to be its biggest selling point, is size. The Nano is so small that it tends to disappear quite easily on a cluttered desk. It's also conceivable that more than a few Nanos will be forgotten in pockets and sent through the washing machine.
And though a Nano can easily slide into the pocket of a tight pair of jeans, it feels far more susceptible to snapping or bending if sat on the wrong way.
And maybe that's a hint from Apple: If you want to get slim, get a new Nano and hit the gym.
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...091401705.html |
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16th Sep 2005, 09:00 AM
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