iPod Nano Editorial Review (Page 1 of 4)
Categories: Portable AV
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/AStorage 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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