Apple iPod nano 4 GB Black (1st Generation) OLD MODEL
by Apple Computer
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Our Price: $499.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $54.99 (click here) Category: Network Media Player See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Apple iPod nano 4 GB Black (1st Generation) OLD MODEL
Customer Review: There are better sounding music players out there but overall performance ipod nano beats competition hands down.
Summary: 5 Stars
First I would say that I am not 13. It seems that when a review is titled under a kid's review the opinion doesn't really matter since the child did not have enough experience to full review a product in comparison of others. And second I am a loyal iPod nano customer. A fanatic in a way because I love the simplicity of the ipod interface and downloading capabilities.
Many people here possibly don't know this since there isn't much publicity of it but there is a product out there called minidisc players which have recently been upgraded to Hi-Mds.
Basically what this is is a cd player, mp3 player combination that has originated in 1990. It uses 174mb discs that are smaller than the original encased into a plastic sqaure, which makes the player square. It is a unique product but also really good.
When the minidiscs first came out they were just extensions to your home entertainment unit, as a cd player. What it was was a replacement to cassette players with some added features such as text and the ability to switch through tracks as in a cd player. You insert a cd into your cd player and transfer all the songs into the minidisc for good portable use. It was a good idea but it wasn't publicized well as well as the distibution.
In the year 2000 they have made the minidisc computer compatible by adding a usb port and giving the ability to transfer downloaded music into it. This is called net md as some of you are familiar to.
And last they have made Hi-Mds which are faster and higher capacity discs that have 1gb each.
I didn't come here to write about the history of the minidiscs and their origin since I am writing at the ipod nano review column. But what I am writing is that since the poor success of the Hi-Md they have started to get out of business. Now it is really hard to find one in such stores as best buy, if there are still some in your region, I urge you, BUY IT!
I have found out about this news yesterday when I was overwhelmed that the 300 sony MZ-NH600D was at a store for 70 dollars. I called the store and 2 others and I found out there was some kind of clearance of them. I drove 30 km to a warehouse where they had one left! And not one in the store but one in all of the stores in Toronto! I quickly bought it.
When I came home I put in one of my discs into it just to try it out.
I was marveled! The sound quality was amazing. And let me tell you the step from net-md to hi-md was a serious improvment. And I was in denial to say that it sounded way better than my nano, but then I had to admit it to myself. Then I turned on sonicstage and plugged my hi-md into it, it was really fast to add and delete songs, not as fast as itunes and the ipod, but comparing to netmds. And finally you are able to listen to the music from your minidisc player from your speakers, not headphones!
All I am saying is I am a crazy fan of apple and their delicious ipods lol but the minidisc player had far better sound quality with the same bit rate, and don't forget the battery life. And then I realized that there are better things than ipods in this world.
What I am telling you is that if you don't believe the sound quality that these minidisc players are now producing then don't buy it but if you want to have a last chance of owning one, get one quickly because the price is sooooo low now its comparing to bad 512mb mp3 players. You won't be dissapointed.
Customer Review: good but not perfect
Summary: 4 Stars
I received a 4gb black Nano as a gift (from my boss - how cool is that?). I like it a lot, but my disappointment with its flaws would be a lot stronger if I'd shelled out $250 for it.
The good points we all know about: tiny, light, superb UI, good capacity, good sound, "cool factor". And, uh, you can install Linux on it. :D
There are bad points, however, and for me some of them are significant. (I switched over from an iPod Shuffle 1gb and am using the same (Phillips noise-canceling) headphones, which makes for a pretty fair comparison between the two devices.)
First off, I could care less about scratches; it's a music appliance, not jewelry. I keep mine in a pocket without change or lighters and it's fine.
The Shuffle is slightly louder. This won't matter to most people but I work in a datacenter where the ambient noise level is very high, and for some songs that were ripped at low level, maximum volume on the Nano isn't quite enough.
The display screen is great for song info and album art but seems a bit washed out for photos. Perhaps it's the downsampling algorithm the Nano uses when it imports photos. Not terribly important either.
The battery level meter on the Nano display could have been programmed a bit better. From fully charged it drops to the next level within a couple of minutes. Now I know it's not technically "full" anymore, but it's still a bit disconcerting. The battery-level bar also turns red quite early, when there's more than an hour of play left. Again, disconcerting and unnecessary. I much prefer the Shuffle's way, using a single LED that goes from green to yellow to red. You see green until yellow appears with about an hour left, and when you see red you've only got a few minutes. In other words 90% of the time you see "all's well", and when you really need to recharge, it tells you so.
Now, the biggest flaw with the Nano, for me at least: battery life.
Apple advertises 12-16 hours, but that's a sad joke. I use the device heavily, pretty much continuously, at work. The indicator turns red after 4 1/2 hours and the device needs recharging after 6 hours. I've been through this cycle several times now and it is consistent. It recharges relatively fast (plug in when I go to lunch, and it's charged when I get back in an hour), but it's disappointing not to be able to get through a whole shift without a recharge. The Nano also seems to lose juice fairly quickly when idle/turned off. Put it to sleep full, and check it the next day and it's at 75%.
By contrast the iPod Shuffle hardly seems to use the battery at all. I can easily get through a whole (11-hour) shift without even getting to yellow on the indicator. If I don't listen continuously through my shift I can go days before recharging, and the Shuffle has sat idle on a full charge for over two weeks and still been green when I picked it up.
Now I realize (hello!) that the Shuffle doesn't have a display at all, nor a click wheel, nor does it store photos, nor can it hold nearly as much music as the Nano. The Nano is beautiful and a joy to use. But its versatility and utility are hampered by its short battery life. If you want a whole day's music and you're not going to be near a computer, say, hiking or boating or skiing, the Nano is going to disappoint you. If you can make a playlist you enjoy that fits in a gigabyte, for heavy users the Shuffle is a better bet.
Customer Review: love my 4GB iPod nano
Summary: 4 Stars
I've only had it for three days but we're already inseparable. Why four stars then?
The Good:
The best thing about the iPod nano is the tiny size and the ease of use. The click wheel - a wonderfully responsive, touch-sensitive feature, allows you to scroll thru menus, songs, and change the volume all with the thumb of one hand while cradling it in the palm. The menus are all fairly intuitive too so you can figure this thing out right out of the box. Even if you can't it does come with a quick start booklet to guide you. You'll also want to check out the sixty-odd page features guide that's included on the CDROM this ipod comes with.
The Bad:
The headphones it comes with are terrible -uncomfortably hard for one thing, and the large rounds were clearly not designed to fit easily in the average human's ears. They wouldn't go in even if forced, and my ears aren't particularly small. Luckily I have Sony earbuds that provide far superior comfort and sound quality. Also, my nano is black and the provided headphones are white. Eek! That's the high-tech equivalent of wearing white shoes with black stockings.
(You'll find that a lot, if not all, of the ipod accessories are also white, like the tiny USB Power adaptor you might find yourself wanting if you go on vacation, etc. and aren't dragging your computer with you, and you want to recharge your iPod's batteries by just plugging it into a wall).
Another reason for deducting a star - batteries drain out quickly if you play a game while listening to music (probably because the backlight has to stay on constantly or you can't see what you're playing; this is a huge drain on power).
When I'm just playing songs and not doing anything else,
the battery icon reflects a full charge far longer than if I'm multi-tasking with it, so it might be true that you can get 14 hours (just playing music) as Apple claims before having to recharge.
As a lot of people know by now, certain stuff you'd want to come with the iPod doesn't, like the USB wall charger, and Apple charges thirty bucks for that! That's another reason for a missing star.
The Stuff You Should Know:
Some tips for preserving battery life are available on apple.com but I will just include them here so you don't have to hunt this down.
Set the backlight to go off after no longer than ten seconds
Turn the equalizer (EQ) to "flat" to override any EQ settings you made in iTunes (for some reason this is also a drain on batteries)
Make playlists in iTunes before downloading songs to your iPod (it's especially nice to have pre-organized playlists when you're stuck on a plane, etc. as you will save yourself the need to constantly use the fast forward button to skip around and search for songs, which is another big drain on power). You can also just scroll through your library without fast forwarding, as songs are fairly easy to find. But playlists just make life easier.
Consider compressing audio files before downloading them. You can find out about that on apple.com and search on iPod and iTunes support. If, like me, you already have a library full of audio files over the suggested maximum of 9MB, I am not sure what you can do about that!
All in all, it's a great thing to have. I plan to expand on this with a Bose iPod sound dock and get the most out of my nano that I possibly can.
Customer Review: Going for my third Ipod
Summary: 4 Stars
So.. I bought a Nano. took it with me to work, was waiting in a doctors waitingroom while I opened it. Its amazingly small and light. I was a little shocked to read that there is no AC adaptor, and a little annoyed that there is not even like a demo song on it or anything. An hour, and several games of solitare later, the back has one fairly major scratch and a lot of fingerprints, and Im thinking of returning it, but wondering if that scratch will stop that. I leave the plastic protective dealy on the front, and take it home. It took me about an hour to master the itunes dealy, and I get some music on it.
At this point, I plug in my oldschool koss headphones that I love, and am immediatly blown away by the sound. about 20 minutes later, I discover podcasting, and realize even If i return the nano, Im going to have to get something to replace it(this being my first non-cd mp3 player). So I gave it a few days, slung it around a bit. More scratching, but it didnt realy flex, so I figure its probly pretty durable. Im loving it, but wishing I had a 4 rather than a 2 gb.
after a week, I take it to work with me, intending to take it jogging after work. But when I pull it out, the screen is missing about half of its lines, in the middle. And, the volume control dosnt work. click wheel does, but no volume, and its stuck on blast. It was wrapped inside of a folded handkerchief, which was inside of the cloth bag I got with my oakleys. Dont know what happened, but now Im thinking "well sh*t". I am out $200.
I took it back to the store, and they were gracious about the return(thank heaven), but persuaded me to get a second one. that was this afternoon. I got home, and decided that I really want the 4 gb, not this second 2. And I want to avoid the scratching issue, so I will try the silicon nanotubes. Since I hadnt even opened the second one, I will be returning it first thing next week, in its sealed package. I can wait for a 4 gb to be available.
I ordered it(my third nano, a black 4 gb) direct from apple this afternoon, with a set of the "nano tubes". I learned with the first one... When it arrives, It will be staying sealed in its package untill the cases I ordered with it arrive. Even then, I will be leaving the plastic cover on the front, inside the case. And I will be finding a hard case for rough travel and storage(when its gotta go in a backpack, or when I am road tripping). I think a nice soap holder will fit perfectly. Yay cheap, eh?
I think the screen thing will be biting apple in the arse. I also think that they really should look into a more durable scratch resistant coat. you cant proof it, and I like the mirror finish, but a little bit of work on this would likely yield big for the product line.
With that said, I am loving the idea, and the product. I will have an use an Ipod Nano, probably for as long as the product line Exists. perfect size, shape, etc.
My only 2 regrets are that there is no FM, and that I can't get a U2 Nano. That would make for a truely kick behind product combo. maybe a future version. I would easily shelled out 2-3 times the cost for a scratch resistant, radio recieving, U2 Ipod Nano.
Oh.. and someone needs to push a little on the availability of the nano Accessories. 4-6 week wait for some of that? no good.
Buy a Nano. Try a Nano. Im not just just the president, Im a member(now)
Customer Review: Not bitter, just freshly informed
Summary: 2 Stars
I have owned two iPods in my life. The first was the Mini, which was great, but I bought it because I didn't even really know about the other competition.
When the Nano came out, I figured I'd take the opportunity to replace my tired sad little mini. The clickwheel didn't pick up my fingers in some parts anymore and other odd little quirks, nothing serious however.
I got the wee little nano (and yes, it is by far the tiniest thing worth even looking at). The first thing I did with it was load up all the music in my iTunes library and then connect it directly to my logitech THX speakers. To anyone who says this guy sounds better than any iPod before, you are wrong. It is exactly the same. To determine the cause for this I looked up the specs on it, and they blatantly told me that the audio processor is identical on all 2g mini's and the 5g iPods, and yes people, in the world of portable players, decoding is ENTIRELY hardware.
That said, it still sounded good. Then one fateful minute, I got careless and cracked the screen. I thought to myself, well, I am kinda a brute when it comes to electronics. So i sent it back to apple and waited 2 weeks before I got my repaired little victim of pocket change. by now it was thoroughly scratched, which really doesn't bother me because I figure, who sees the stuff in my pocket. Then the battery died...two weeks later it comes back (apple has to be the most irritating company to deal with too I must say, they have a strong-held belief in their superiority over the rest of humanity). This caused me a bit of irritation, but hey, stuff happens.
I went out and got a protective case for it, just to be safe. When I pulled it out the next week, it was more scratched than ever before, apparently some lint in a stiff wind will scratch this sucker. Now it was to the point wher the screen was getting blurry (and ya, I know I shouldn't keep it in my pocket, but I'm sorry, I don't feel the need to show the entire world that I have a nano, and I figure, pockets were invented before the nano, apple should have made it "backward compatible")
By now I'm getting a bit unhappy with the way I have decided to spend my hard-earned money, to the point that looking at the thing makes me angry. It still works, and they did manage to fix the screen problem from what I can tell, but ya know what? I wish it was a bit more user-servicable (ie, I could have replaced the battery and saved myself 2 weeks of waiting).
Well, in short, I went out, looked at the nifty new color version of the Creative Zen micro, the microPHOTO, ooo... cool name guys. It looked and felt more sturdy, I could hold it in my hand like a cell phone and play with it and I have come to rely on all the other features that Apple sells peripherals to take care of. (I can record stuff through a mic, listen to FM radio and use my standard backup program to treat the Zen as a portable harddrive, without any third party software, something that my iPod's never really supported).
It is a dandy little machine, and it is all the rage, and I did like it at first, trouble is, when the shine wears off (like when you touch it) it isn't really all that special, it is kinda limited in features, and who really cares about album art when your screen is 1.5 inches across anyway?