The iPod nano
posted Sep 7th 2005 1:50PM
Well, looks like Apple's updating their iPod starting lineup—welcome the iPod nano (and wave goodbye to the mini, which is now missing from Apple's page after they announced it going south earlier today). The 3.5 x 1.6 x 0.27-inch device will feature 500 song/2GB and 1,000 song/4GB capacities, a 1.5-inch color display, and, of course, a click wheel, which appears to have a drastically larger center button. If you're willing to ignore the fact that the headphone jack is located on the bottom of the device (sigh), you'll be otherwise rewarded with a device that's no more than 62% the size of the once diminutive iPod mini; it weighs 1.5 ounces (42 grams), has a maximum of 14 hours battery life, will come in black (as well as iPod white), and includes a few new niceties such as a nighttime inverse screen mode. Expect it to have a $199 and $249 pricetag; dock ($29) not included, and new lanyard headphones will be available for $39.
I'm going to buy one for sure... but I still wanted the video ipod.....
Any news on if that crapy ROKR has Isync capabilities? Ical, Iphoto, and contacts?
Low battery life ?? All you "bitch-ing" people ever considered the colour screen ? and yes ... 4 gig flash drives are still quite ex.. and well if a company owns the word nano .. . then we're pretty all screwed.. . I mean they did follow the naming system .. cough *iPod Photo* ... cough *Zen Micro Photo* . .. and of ya .. doesn't this effectively screws the micro photo is some manner... Now where's our iPod Video?
#39: I was thinking along those lines, too...
iPod razor blk
iRazr blk
nano bytes....oh well... :P
OMG I love it. I don't know whether to wait for the iPod with video capability now, as I was gonna. I do love this though, I want it, its so cute
If you're in education and you buy a mac you get a free iPod mini,
or am I going to get a free Nano Hope so. Or is this offer going to end prematureor is Apple getting rid of the Mini's this way. I think the Nano rocks.
http://www.apple.com/education/backtoschool/
Guys, I own 2 ipod nanos, I love them but the only problem is replacing them when there are not big enough to hold all my music. A friend of mine told me to buy refurbished instead of new and save, but I was afraid to buy it used. He says refurbished does not mean used, what do you guys think? when I did a search on google, i found this site www.millennnium3000.com/ipod-nano.php and looks like they sell refurbished ipods, I like what they said about price guarantee and that refurbished is not necessary used or damaged stuff. My question is, if they guarantee the ipods for 90 days, and they said lowest price guarantee, should I take the risk of buying refurbished to save? it sounds great deal to me, what do you guys think?
Manuel
Looks like that port that FM Transmitters used (and some other accessories) is not on the iPod Nano. I haven't seen any sites talk about this, but it's going to make the iPod Nano very difficult to play in most cars out there.
Perfect form factor, I admit. But lessee...
doesn't play vorbis or FLAC, doesn't have a
USB connector (so you have to carry the dock
around if you want to use it as a mass
storage device), and doesn't do encoding.
Verdict: same old Apple crap.
-Carl
amazing and I only bought a 6GB mini in april:(
oh well at least I still have more storage...for now
Just when I thought I was out... they pull me back in!
Sexy.
Same shit different size...Is everyone done making small capacity flash players yet?
Wow this thing looks amazing! I just ordered a black 4 GB version! Can't wait....
The NANO appears to use the same dock connector as other models, so a FireWire cable should be no problem. They sell them seperately, and have for a few revs of the iPod.
TK
You got the 2GB nano for $249 CA I live in Canada that is way too much money.
Hey!
Who needs a video iPod when we get a Harry Potter special edition?
Urm, ROKR anyone?
I am a bit confused, so what's revolutionary about this iPod? Only thinner?
So, will all of you who will be selling your current iPods for the Nano be selling the Nano in a few months when Apple releases another iPod update?
Dance, monkeys. Dance.
I could be wrong, but it looks like it uses the standard iPod dock connector... so you should still be able to buy a FireWire cable and use that, unless I'm missing some note on Apple's site that the Nano can only sync via USB. (And that could be possible... the site is getting hammered, and I'm having trouble even loading pages.)
I like it, but I liked the mini, and sort of miss it. Nice that there is now a black model, but there really needs to be a bigger color selection, because the color options were a big plus for your average consumer. As well, I'm not sure what I think about the headphone jack being on the bottom. Thank god it isn't the side or something like that, but that still seems like an odd choice.
Looks like Apple is working under design of the phone, because this thing almost looks like a phone. ;)
This thing don't work with lots of iPod add-ons for the TOP part of all other dock based iPods. Dammit. I hate to prove the haters wrong but I will still get one fully knowledgeable of this shortcoming...
This thing don't work with lots of iPod add-ons for the TOP part of all other dock based iPods. Dammit. I hate to prove the haters wrong but I will still get one fully knowledgeable of this shortcoming...
#104 (Elias), Steve Jobs is a genius.
Poolshark,
Nope. My billing confirmation says 4GB for $249...my credit card company says it was $249 CND.
Wait...do you need the doc to sync or does it come w/ a cable?
OK...what a bunch of bitters!!! First Apple rips off the patten from Creative for the navigational features, and now they rip off the name "NANO" from Creative. Whats next?
RE #98, #105
No FW. USB only. Directly from specs page.
iPod (and mini) will connect with FW or USB, even though recent models come only with the USB cable. This one will not work with FW, according to Apple's page.
Will ...well that is weird...I will have to look into it. Did you call apple canada to confirm?
Thumbs up:
-Damn pretty
-Really, really small
-Comes in black for no extra charge
-Has everything his older brothers have
-Nice Home-Branded Accessories
-iPod phenomena clich?-Did I mention is really small and pretty
Thumbs Down
-Should I buy a 4GB iPod nano or a 20GB regular iPod?
-If it's like some sort of hybrid between shuffle and regular iPod shouldnt it have like 10GB capacity?
-No video... and no signs of it
-Isn't the regular iPod going to get an update soon?
-Are those 2.5inch perpendicular recording hard drives way too far to be inside the iPod?
SWEET!
#109 - jsis, no arguing that.
it's not weird that it doesn't support firewire, because the storage medium is flash.
It's similar to how the shuffle does not support firewire.
#14...
Given that the iPod interface and capabilities haven't changed significantly in their almost five year history, it's pretty safe to say that a review isn't required. If you liked the previous iPods, you'll like this one.
Fine, here's a review... It's like a Mini reduced to 62% of normal size with no moving parts, slightly worse battery life (18hrs vs. 14hrs), better and brighter screen, and it comes in black. Sold? I am.
Re: Looks like that port that FM Transmitters used (and some other accessories) is not on the iPod Nano. I haven't seen any sites talk about this, but it's going to make the iPod Nano very difficult to play in most cars out there.
-> I'm sure they will make an FM transmitter for this. My 1st gen 10gb iPod works with the original iTrip, and that iPod didnt' have that extra port - it just had a stereo headphone jack. The iPod mini was the most popular iPod ever and with the nano being its new replacement, I'm sure there will be no shortage of accessories. True, your old accessories won't fit your new iPod, but its a totally different form factor.
In every few months apple releases something in the ipod line up,
and people go crazy over it. Does Steve expect us to shell $$$ from
our pockets everytime? ipod nano (and apple products) are way over priced.
--------------
12" power book, ipod mini
i think it looks awsome, and to the people complaining about battery life, think about the fact that A. this ipod has a smaller battery than the mini (phisicaly), and B.it also has to run a color screen. im sure apple did the best they could in that respect. the only thing i could complain about is how theirs less storage space.
Oops! That should have been for #15
The headphone jack on the bottom is genius! Now when you take it out of your pocket (after searching for it) the iPod is now the right way round in your hands instead of turning it the otherway round.
The black/chrome one will go nicely with my black/chrome Sennheiser PMX60 headphones
Poolshark,
No, I am afraid they'll fix it:-) I bought it as soon as the store came online so they must have made a mistake. Good luck to you, fellow beaver eater.
"it's not weird that it doesn't support firewire, because the storage medium is flash."
One has nothing to do with the other.
I will wait for the iPod Pico.
WE WANT updated firmware for the ipod photo/colour that include those neat new features such as lock/clock/invert...
COME ON APPLE... get yer fingers out!
WE WANT updated firmware for the ipod photo/colour that include those neat new features such as lock/clock/invert...
COME ON APPLE... get yer fingers out!
I always thought it was interesting when Creative suddenly dropped the name Muvo Micro and went straight to Zen Nano. You could argue it was to unify the Zen brand name... I don't know, maybe I'm looking to deep into it.
Will the remote for the other iPods work with the nano? The Apple site says "will work with all iPods but the shuffle" but the picture shows the old mini.
rls
If you want a color nano go here:
http://www.colorwarepc.com/content.aspx?id=36
The battery on my 4GB mini was starting to go. And I broke the screen on it the other day. Costs $200 to repair with Apple. Guess I'll just have to buy a 4GB black nano. Oh, I already did.
Supplementing my car radio is a BIG reason why I would considering buying this pretty thang. Other than the overpriced car stereo interfaces at Apple.com, anyone know if Griffin or other accesory manufacturers have plans to add FM support Nano?
14 hours this is incredible. Its so sexy and nobody thought this
would be called nano
Check the link below on iPod nano
I think this will definetely kill the shuffle
but then again 199 is still pricey.
http://www.epicempire.com/mp3-players/ipod-nano.html
Supplementing my car radio is a BIG reason why I would considering buying this pretty thang. Other than the overpriced car stereo interfaces at Apple.com, anyone know if Griffin or other accesory manufacturers have plans to add FM support Nano?
Sorry, am I the only one that doesn't get it?
Less storage (Where's the 8GB?)
More Expensive
4hrs Less battery life
Smaller Screen
Scratch Prone
Damm ugly!
The last one is debateable but when I first saw this I honestly thought this was some Apple fan boy mock-up. Anyone can design that. The screen should be horizontal and they should have stuck with the anodized metal.
All these negatives just so that you can have it thinner and a colour screen wtf?
Well it's nice to see they finally put a freaking screen on their flash based player (stupid shuffle POS). And I do have to say, I'm impressed, I like the way it looks, etc..
However, why keep the proprietary dock connecter?
What's the need for album art on such a small screen (you can barely see the album).
Keeping that thing around your neck (which it was obviously desgined for with the headphone jack on the bottom) seems sort of cumbersome.
The scroll wheel seems like it may be a bit too small to use comfortably (especially for games).
And how the hell did they screw up the battery life at 14 hours...
Otherwise it seems like a good product. Just flawed...
Of course the headphone jack is on the bottom. There is no way they could stack both the jack and the LCD/backlight in a package that thin.
According to the tech specs for the nano, the battery can be charged via Firewire/dock connector but has no mention of data connectivity via Firewire. I'm not to savvy on the finer details of the technology but it seems to me that while the iPod nano can receive "juice" via a Firewire cable, it will not be able to receive data. Sucks for me - I'll have to borrow Dad's Mac Mini ;-)
Song quantity is definitely bullshit. Look.
My 3G iPod (with BUTTONS, BITCHES!) presently holds 1429 songs -- not all that much, I know. However, it holds those 1429 songs using only 2.5 GB of space, according to its "About" thing, in which it has 13.8 GB of capacity (why 13.8 on a 15 gig iPod? Got me), and has 11.3 GB available.
So, even assuming that 1.2 GB will be mysteriously unusable on the Nano also, that's still 3.7 GB being used for 1400+ songs, which averages out to 1544 songs. And, by the way, one of the "songs" I have on here is an hour-long comedy routine.
So don't trust the numbers.
The lack of firewire is a big no-no to me. That leaves out > 50% of all mac users. Shame on you Apple!
The Nano is a perfect solution for a lot of runners out there. I never minded the size of my 20 gig, but the hard drive causes the player to crash if you skip too many songs while running. The Mini should have remained as a product though. Then everyone could have what they wanted.
#58 - iPhoto *has* been released for the PC. It's called Picasa2. I like it even better than iPhoto.
yup yup yup
This makes a little more sense than some of the rumors that we were seeing prior... not a redesigned mini, not a bumped-up shuffle, a totally new product. And this thing gets it right in all the ways the shuffle didn't.
It does leave a big hole in the iPod lineup, though... nothing between 4GB and 20GB? Whoa, man. That's probably a mistake, and it leaves the door open to competitors... I woulda thought the mini would stick around, in something like 6GB and 8GB or 8GB and 10GB varieties. Kinda got a feeling this isn't the last we'll hear of those capacities, and maybe not even the last we'll hear of the mini... Apple "refreshes" their lineup about once every six months, so who knows what we'll see next spring?
Does it support album artist yet?
I'm guessing that the battery on the Nano is half the size of the battery on the Mini which is one of the reasons it's so small and why it only gets 14hrs... so stop asking y it's only 14hrs :p Apple probably did lots of market reseach and came to the conclusion to people wanted smaller size over longer battery life. I'm not really an ipod fan at all, but this looks like a nice product. I'd consider getting one. Shame it still doesn't support ogg. MP3 is soooo 2001 =)
.
I'd hold off on buying this until early next year, when there will certainly be capacity bumps for the same price.
.
.
Is it gonna have the same audio hardware as the shuffle? I heard the shuffle produces the best sound quality, bar none. If it does, I'm sold.
Sorry, am I the only one that doesn't get it?
Less storage (Where's the 8GB?)
More Expensive
4hrs Less battery life
Smaller Screen
Scratch Prone
Damm ugly!
The last one is debateable but when I first saw this I honestly thought this was some Apple fan boy mock-up. Anyone can design that. The screen should be horizontal and they should have stuck with the anodized metal.
All these negatives just so that you can have it thinner and a colour screen wtf?
Nano iPods are sooo last year! ;-)
http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/517.html
You guys better expect a djungle of accessories for this skinny piece of plastic. Damn it's sweet.
Why is there no talk about battery life. Its smaller (smaller space for battery) yet has a backlit colour lcd? It would be not good if it came in less than 20hr esp. considering its a flash unit.
The battery is fine. look how small it is and it has a color screen. maybe that is why 4 hours were knocked off the battery life.. but look at size and everything.. it will get a bump soon enough(damnt... already purchased oen!)
#133 - Do you normally purchase new products (a nano) from a company whose shoddy product (a mini) already ran out of battery on you and then broke? Not to mention the overpriced repair costs you've been quoted. Apple has such an amazingly lucrative yet sleazy marketing strategy.
If you read iPod nano's specs, it says 1.000 songs with full album art. And always supposing 4 minute songs, at 128 Kbps encoding. There's no vanished storage, it's a 4GB capacity iPod, period.
The center button isn't larger. Everything else is just smaller.
iPod-Gasm!!!!!!
Who cares?
Didn't Creative already make a player called "nano"? Sounds like another legal battle for apple.
Firewire??? yes? or no?
I'm confused now. When shopping the Apple site, the dock is actually the existing iPod Mini dock which presumable explains the "dock adapter" as simply being a piece one affixes to the iPod Nano so it will sit correctly in the iPod Mini dock. If that is correct, then the iPod Nano is, in fact, Firewire compatible because it would sync via the dock via Firewire.
Maybe I'm interpreting that incorrectly...I'm in heaven if I'm not!
For those of you looking for a radio tuner to use with the Nano, look no further than that Monster iCarPlay. I've got one in my car that connects to my mini, through only the dock. Theoretically, since the Nano has the same dock port, the Monster iCarPlay should still work.
By the way, I like the Nano. Awesome. And those who don't think it's priced appropriately, just don't buy it! There's a novel idea!
You don't need itunes anymore if you have a pc!
There is now a winamp plugin that allows you to manage your ipod!
http://www.mlipod.com/index.php
hah yea, now creative can go to court with them over two issues, UI and copyrighted names. lady and gents please welcome the Creative Zen-ipod (owned by creative) :p
when is creative really going to come up with something innovative? certainly not the ipod
OMG, i'm going to the Apple store this weekend to check these out... i was going to buy a mini for my wife, but maybe i'll have to give her mine and get one of these babies for myself! :)
well that just made no sense, lol let me correct myself
"hah yea, now creative can go to court with them over two issues, UI and copyrighted names. lady and gents please welcome the Creative Zen-ipod (owned by creative) :p
when is creative really going to come up with something innovative? certainly not the ipod"
hah yea, now creative can go to court with them over two issues, UI and copyrighted names. ladies and gents please welcome the Creative Zen-ipod :p
when is apple really going to come up with something innovative? certainly not the ipod
my 2 cents on the ipod nano
and before i start, i do own an ipod, or 2, actually, its 3, but whatever =D
my question is and age old one, if it aint broke, why fix it?
the new click wheel just looks weird, while im sure the big button will help some people, after staring at ipods for so long, it just rubs me the other way.
as for storage, its decent considering the price.
as for the earphone plug, it seems to be apple's logo to take something good and crapify it, such as it did with its computers.
1.5 color is pretty nice, but the resolution on the ipod photo isnt something to brag about, and neither is this one, but color is nice, even though most of the time you use black and green.
the battery, i like the ipod mini design, i dont see the need to make every thing that uses electricity smaller. why not keep the mini design and use all that extra space to do something amazing, such as, actual battery life!
apple ipods are like most sony devices, overpriced, but sell well due to the brand (or else i wouldnt have shelled out a thousand bucks for my 20gig ipod, 60gig ipod photo, and 1gig ipod shuffle, and that 6gig ipod mini for my gf -_-) except in sony's case, their products are often better than the competition.
Why is the headphone port on the bottom a bad thing? If you think about how you're going to be holding it when using it, that makes the most sense to me. You just stick it in your pocket upside down, with the headphone jack facing up.
Whats with all the people dissing on the name nano? Or saying Apple's copying Creative's Muvo Nano? Havn't you people heard of SI?
Nice but I'll wait for a Black or Aluminium 60 gig.
I want one of these in black! :). Extra space and battery life would have been nice tough.
Just to clarify on my previous statement...
Nano is the SI (Syst? International d'Unit? perfix for 10^(-9) or 0.000 000 001, known as a billionth in short scale and a milliardth in long scale.
In common terms, it is often used to refer to something that is very small. (For instance, what people generally refer to as nanomachines are not generally the size of a nanometre.)
Thus said... in both Creative and Apple's cases, terms such as Micro [1x10^(-6th)] and Mini arn't actually names themselves but descripters inside longer names. It isn't the Creative Nano or the Apple Nano, its the Creative ZEN MUVO NANO and the Apple IPOD NANO. Any kind of lawsuit over the use of Nano would be as stupid as lil Kim sueing lil Bow Wow for "little". And its hard to be as stupid as rap mogul lawsuits.
It's hideous. It looks like a squashed version of a regular ipod. And the design of itunes 5 isn't an improvement either. Shame ...
Let's have an easy poll.
Which one do you like more? White or black?
Why or why not?
the headphone jack on the bottom seemed odd at first, but from a usability standpoint it seems to make sense. also check out the neckband on the accessories page for the nano - it plainly shows why the headphone jack on the bottom is the obvious solution.
wait... your missing one: neither
I don't even have an ipod, but it seems to me the headphone jack at the bottom would be an improvement over it being on top. That way, you can slip the ipod into your pocket upside down (the controls would be at the top of your pocket) and you can still navigate through youre music by just sticking your hand in your pocket and messing with the controls.
I can see why the headphone jack is on the bottom, I'm always putting my ipod in my pocket upside down, so the headphone jack out the bottom sounds like a good idea to me.
Robert (no.146) - Yeah I played with Picasa while freelancing on PC and it runs really nicely. Sadly that doesn't help apple while trying to logically develop cross platform apps. with sweet functionality...
Anyone else notice the slight vibration from the disk drive in the iPod and iPod mini? Whenever I lay a HD iPod on my stomach I can feel it. Now I'll be able to lay my iPod on my stomach while i lounge in my hammock.
Having the headphone port on the bottom makes perfectly good sense. The use of the lanyard like previous postings state, make it ideal. The other thing, say you have it in your hand, and the cord can have a tendency to go across the screen if the port is on the top. I have heard of people complaining they don't like it, but what is the advantage of having the port on the top???? I cant think of any.
Has apple given up on the remote then? Shame I would have liked a nice Sony style remote, then again it is so small...
http://images.apple.com/uk/ipodnano/images/specstop20050907.jpg
DualUSBGirl: I wouldn't count on it being firewire compatible. It needs a firewire physical layer to be compatible. (check ipodlinux.org/generations for more info about those) I think they left this out so it would be smaller/cheaper. It can charge via firewire because, well, just because. Someone else can explain why because I, uh, don't know why. Can it charge via firewire? Where did you hear that?
They left the dock connector because standardizing connectors makes life easier! Wooo! standards! seriously.
George Bush doesn't care about the black one.
I see they're already being listed on Amazon in the UK.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index%3Delectronics-uk%26field-asin%3DB000A31TUM%7CB000A322NU%7CB000A322QW%7CB000A322Q2
I really like the black version. I'd like to see some black headphones to go with it.
I may then ditch my Zen Micro
Has apple given up on the remote then? Shame I would have liked a nice Sony style remote, then again it is so small...
http://images.apple.com/uk/ipodnano/images/specstop20050907.jpg
Sadly that doesn't help apple while trying to logically develop cross platform apps. with sweet functionality...
---
Not a software company.. they're not TRYING to make great Apps for Windows. iTunes was just to push iPod sales.
I see this as a great step in the right direction towards making portable hard drives completely obsolete.
I love my 20 gig iPod but do find it bulky and cumbersome when lumped into my pockets with a cell phone, flash drive, etc. What I'll be looking for right now is a price drop in Minis.
If this has been said before I apologize.
I am the only one here that read a rumor that there would be a new ipod called the "nano" a long time ago (1 week at least) and didn't believe the rumor just because we thought apple would come up with a better name than "nano?"