8GB black 2G iPod nano gets unboxed

When Apple says "available now," they mean it. Just one day after the revamped nanos were announced at the "It's Showtime" event, some drool-worthy shots of the green and blue 2G nanos managed to surface, and now we're graced with a photoset containing the esteemed 8GB black-only model. Apparently following in the footsteps of the BlackBook, Apple is only offering the 8GB unit in a single color, so if black's your thing, be prepared to go high-end or bust in order to get one -- be sure to hit the read link for a luscious gallery of Tony Chang's presumably coveted 'Pod. Oh yeah, and PC Mag reviewed the 8GB unit, too, giving it a 4.5 / 5, and calling it the "finest flash player out there in terms of look and feel," and had only the usual nits with it: nonremovable battery, no FM tuner (oh, and something about buggy playback on longer tracks -- no way!). Still, looks for many to be a pretty solid investment; we'd suggest you wait until later today, however, to make any buying decisions on portable audio players, yeah?

[Punchy @ Sep 14th 2006 10:57AM]

Yawn...

Punchy

[Chris @ Sep 14th 2006 10:58AM]

My 2 grips... still no video playback, yes i like having music videos and glancing at them or watching news

And still the worlds smallest screen... (ok not litterally LOL) but come on give us atleast some form of bump... and personally beyond the black am i the only one that finds the cases now ugly?

[Intrepid @ Sep 14th 2006 10:59AM]

Yeah I agree with Punchy... I have seen these products unboxed a million times now.

[BeRoes3d @ Sep 14th 2006 11:06AM]

screw the ipods! ! !

when samsung starts selling them very small flash memory things, prices will drop even more (hopefully!)
and hardrive based mp3 players will be finished! (maybe?!) and hopefully ipods + apple will crash forever by other companies!

stupid ipods, they are worth nothing! ipod-generation my ass!

[Serge @ Sep 14th 2006 11:09AM]

BeRoes3d-

sounds like your parents wont buy you an ipod

[Burroughs802 @ Sep 14th 2006 11:16AM]

I agree with Chris above, a size increase for the screen would've been a great addition....perhaps a longer screen - towards the click wheel, since there's so much real estate there - would make the razor thin Nano look even smaller.

I am impressed with Apple's ability to ensure that when it announces a new upgrade to it's iPods, there is a ready supply of them available for order, and not PRE-order. Sandisk announced it's 8GB e280 a month ago, and no one's gotten any yet. And Sandisk makes the damn stuff...they're whiffing at the plate with this one....

[Yuusou @ Sep 14th 2006 11:20AM]

Great, I ordered the minute the store came back online (I was refreshing ever 30 seconds,) chose overnight delivery, I have my camera ready and still someone beat me to the first black nano on flickr. I hate them.

lol, I need to get a life. XD

[General Public @ Sep 14th 2006 11:30AM]

Am I missing something? Why on earth would you put headphone jacks at the bottom??

[disciple83 @ Sep 14th 2006 11:35AM]

didn't Jobs say that the packaging was environmentally friendlier than the last package design and like 57% smaller or something? I get where its smaller, but can someone tell me where that is logical since you cannot recycle acrylic, and the last package kit was all paper?

[james @ Sep 14th 2006 11:57AM]

well, they've got the nanos out, but the full size ipods seem a bit more difficult to come by. clearly they only "mean it" for some items.

[ThriftyTechie @ Sep 14th 2006 12:06PM]

General Public: whether the headphone jacks are on the top or bottom on a device that doesn't need to stand-up is pretty arbitrary. When you pull it out of a pocket it's actually pretty handy to have the nano right side up. If you've got it in a car via aux jack, it's wrong side up, on the other hand. Also you must remove the headphones when docking. Apple probably set it up this way because of engineering limitations, not a design statement, though.

disciple83: 6 of one, 1/2 dozen of another. Can't recycle, but you can re-use it. Also decreasing sizing of packaging is not a trivial affair. It's a large source of shipping and packaging waste right now. In the next few years you're gonna see everything from laundry detergent to computer software shrink their packaging.

[Ssco @ Sep 14th 2006 12:07PM]

General Public

I think that the bottom is the correct place for the jack. When it's at the top you have to put the player into your pocket with the bottom down.
If you have a nano you put it in top first and save having to turn it round to see the screen - it makes total sense to me

[Zizz @ Sep 14th 2006 12:26PM]

I really dislike the new rounded edges. It looks like the mini, which was ugly. So new design means copying the past? Weak Jobs.

[IrishGandalf @ Sep 14th 2006 2:05PM]

i just wanna know do the new generation ipods (inc the ipod videos) still support the industry standard 3.5mm audio jack? coz any ipod nanos i've seen (these would be 1st gen) seem to have a much slimmer jack, as do the ipod vids that were running at the same time, was this an optical illusion coz i never actually saw the jack disconnected.

[mattie @ Sep 14th 2006 2:40PM]

i'm guessing that none of the upgrades (8mb, longer lasting battery) will be usable in the 1G nano. i bet they changed it so that none of the ipod upgrade sites would be able to use the new tech to upgrade people's current 1Gs

[Paqza @ Sep 14th 2006 2:58PM]

Mattie, um...I think you miss the point completely, mate. These are hardware changes. The 1G nanos will no longer be manufactured. How are you supposed to magically increase harddrive space or battery life with a firmware upgrade? Well, you can marginally increase battery life by making the player more efficient, but realistically, practically doubling the life? I know not.

This is akin to say, Toyota releasing a next generation Camry with a larger engine with you bitching that you cannot apply more horsepower to your decade old beater.

[Aidan @ Sep 14th 2006 5:15PM]

just wanna know do the new generation ipods (inc the ipod videos) still support the industry standard 3.5mm audio jack? ...


LOL

[Fotograffiti @ Sep 14th 2006 5:55PM]

BeRoes3d, you are a fool. Nanos are flash based not hard drived based. Dumbass...

[lolup @ Sep 14th 2006 5:57PM]

yawn.too

[mattie @ Sep 14th 2006 6:13PM]

Paqza.. i wasn't talking about a firmware update at all. i meant places on the web that update older ipods with bigger hard drives and better batteries. what i'm saying is that if they had stayed with the old 1G nano format and just used a higher capacity battery and memory chipset then alot of people might have just payed these places to "upgrade" their old Nano's. i like my "old" one much better then these new ones but i'd of course rather have 8GB and a longer lastign battery. of course now the onyl way to do that is to buy a new one.

[LongshotX @ Sep 14th 2006 6:39PM]

Who cares same iPod, more storage, different case. Ipod is about to find itself in a real fight when Zune is released today.

[reel2reel @ Oct 3rd 2007 10:46PM]

"Who cares same iPod, more storage, different case. Ipod is about to find itself in a real fight when Zune is released today."

Hahahahahhahahahah!!!! That was a crap prediction.

[SonyPsp @ Sep 14th 2006 8:30PM]

"Zune" player doesnt stand a chance with the iPod Generation, first of all, theres only one size, (30 Gigs), and you all know, one size doesnt fit all, Apple have an Option avaible, and the sizes range from: 2GB-80GB. The Zune player looks thick and chuncky, and who is going to buy the chosen tastless colours of the zune player?
Apple will sell more iPod nanos in one week, then Microsoft could sell there Zune player in one Year