New iPod Nano confirmed to be neither chocolate nor butter
Last night, over dinner at Musso & Frank Grill in Hollywood, this correspondent confirmed that without a doubt, the new Apple iPod Nano is neither a chocolate bar nor a pat of butter. I received a review unit from Apple earlier in the day, and brought it along to test it out the best way I knew how: in the hands of friends.
Our waiter said he was astonished at how thin and lightweight it was (6.5 mm!), and he stared at an episode of Flight of the Conchords for so long that other tables began complaining. "The video quality is really amazing," he said, and I agree. The device is small, but that 204 pixel per inch display renders 320x240 res with about 65% more brightness than previous generation iPods.
One female friend at the table, who'd had a few too many of those Musso Martinis, offered to taste-test the hypothesis that the Nano is made of chocolate -- we grabbed the device back just in time.
It is in fact made of anodized aluminum and shiny polished steel, but the translucent color finish (in this case, red) does give it an appealing, candy-like feel.
The UI is a few steps more intuitive than the last nano generation, but I found myself (as did other friends at the table) thumbing at the screen, now acclamated to iPhones. It's not a touchscreen, and it's hard to kill that instinct now.
Coverflow is nice on this tiny device. One male pal at the table flipped through photos for a long time, and liked how bright and crisp they looked, even on the compact display.
I like that I can use my fancy schmanzty Bose headphones with this Nano, unlike the iPhone, which is designed to accept only Apple-issued headphones (or others designed for that non-standard jack depth, and the potential RF interference).
I spoke to an Apple rep yesterday about those pre-launch leaked images of the Nano popping up on various gadget blogs before Wednesday. Apple asked those sites to remove the images, in part because people "wouldn't see the context," as this spokesperson said -- I can see why. Those photos made the new Nano's butt look big. In the photos, the new Nano looks a lot bulkier and wider than earlier generation Nanos, but when you're holding the little bugger in your own hands it feels pleasingly petite.
4GB models are $149, 8GB are $199 (that's the edition where you can choose colors: red, silver, black, blue, green).
Of the three devices launched this week by Apple -- the "Touch," the new Nano, and the "Classic" -- if I were going to go buy one it'd probably be the Classic. 160 gazigamajigabytes! I'd use it on foreign trips to back up sound (if I'm doing field recordings and interviews for NPR), and photos or video. Holds about 200 hours of video, less if it's HD but still -- a bunch of space in what would amount to a very small portable hard drive.
Oh, bonus round: I also asked the Apple folks if they planned on releasing an SDK for iPhone any time soon, given that so many developers were working so feverishly on installable apps. No plans to do so at this time, quoth the spokesperson. They're encouraging people to develop and use Web 2.0 apps instead.
Photos: top, shot at Musso & Frank Grill on Hollywood Boulevard with an iPhone, below on my desk with the same.
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It's too bad Apple doesn't give a shit about being able to run user-created apps on the iPhone. It's the things like lack of Flash, inability to write apps (unlike Palm/Win Mobile devices), etc. that pretty much, considering that I don't need a fancy phone with an expensive plan and AT&T service, make me just consider buying a replacement PSP for my broken one (Wi-fi, good web browser with flash, can play games, music, video, replaceable media, and people have hacked the hell out of it for things like emulators and all sorts of nifty other apps. Oh, and I wouldn't have to install iTunes.)
I don't understand why Apple's products don't support removable media. Well, wait, I do - because nobody would have very much reason to upgrade. (considering that SD cards are so cheap these days and getting cheaper by the gig...) As of right now, you buy a 4-gig flash-based device and you have to buy a whole new one if you want to double your storage. Wheras with removable media, you can buy whatever is affordable now, an d spend just a little bit of money upgrading your capacity a few months later. Or you can buy a ton of cards and have as much capacity as you can afford (albeit requiring you to swap out and carry cards). But it'd be nice to have that as an OPTION in addition to built in storage.
thats a nice write up..
Of all the people I asked or such, every one or most people plan on for the classic. Truly amazing ! :)
Psst…
http://theappleblog.com/2007/08/30/iphone-headphone-adapter-roundup/
Draconum, *this* post was about the iPod Nano. Save the iPhone rant for an iPhone post. Cheers.
@Anon#3, thanks, yah, I already know about the adapters. But they stink! They're all clunky and complicate the elegance of such a small, simple device. Also, I suspect the iPhone might cause RF interference with these Bose headphones, adapter or no adapter.
XJ
Not a big apple hater here. I have a 10gig 3g on its third battery. I was just hoping for something groundbreaking on this slew of pods. Bluetooth comes to mind. The whole only offering color on top tier products only sucks. If Jobs could somehow charge people to listen to FM radio tuners would be on the pods by now.
JeffreyT
@JeffreyT, yeah, that "bluetooth on the touch" rumor would have been sweet if true!
Anon #5:
"Oh, bonus round: I also asked the Apple folks if they planned on releasing an SDK for iPhone any time soon, given that so many developers were working so feverishly on installable apps. No plans to do so at this time, quoth the spokesperson. They're encouraging people to develop and use Web 2.0 apps instead."
That's what I was commenting on. Although next time I'll try to find something to rant about that touches on every nuance of the post :p
Though the second half of my post dealt with the fact that I think Apple products (iPods, iPhones, whatever) should incorporate removable media, which, I dunno, I felt was at least somewhat relevant in response to a discussion on (flash) iPods.
I'd get excited about the new iPod offerings, but until Apple supports OGG Vorbis, I'll have to stick to my Samsung player with the Korean firmware. 75% of my music has been ripped into OGG Vorbis, and transcoding every time I want to switch up a playlist is a real pain.
Sadly, I don't ever see Apple officially supporting it :(
removable media is fine for a camera but who wants to look around for your card with those songs or that movie on it - wouldn't you rather have a falsh drive on your PSP?
Why would you want staticky radio when you have an ipod? You can download podcasts of music.
And yea, flash - that's all we need while using a portble internet browser - waiting for the dancing hamster to finish. People say a lot of things without thinking through why they want them - look, not everyone needs an ipod or iphone but don't dreg up minor issues (You mean no seat warmer?) - clearly, the majority of people live fine without them.
DRACONUM:
"Though the second half of my post dealt with the fact that I think Apple products (iPods, iPhones, whatever) should incorporate removable media, which, I dunno, I felt was at least somewhat relevant in response to a discussion on (flash) iPods."
Aren't the iPods like removable media all in itself? You get one so that you don't have to carry all your shit around. It's not very compact if you have to carry extra removable media around for it.
Just a thought.
"Coverflow is nice on this tiny device. One male pal at the table flipped through photos for a long time, and liked how bright and crisp they looked, even on the compact display."
Not sure if you meant to imply that the 3rd generation nano can "coverflow" through photos...but mine can't...unless I missed something.
I must however say that the updated interface finally feels polished/finished in the same way the iPhone interface does. Even though there have been many generations of ipods...it is this interface that makes these shine!
"Why would you want staticky radio when you have an ipod? You can download podcasts of music."
In this case, it seems like radio, though an older technology, is far less staticky than a podcast, since it is in real time. And those of us addicted to NPR or those lucky enough to be near a cool college radio station that plays decent music would find the ability to switch over to FM on our iPod a total plus. I could listen to NPR all day long.