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: Using I-Pod Nano with USB 1.1 Macs
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased the nano from my local Fry's electronics. 4gig, black. I'm using it with a 1Ghz Powerbook G4 15" 10/10/1000 ethernet, DVI, but NOT USB 2.0... which poses a problem because the Nano does not support sync via firewire.(although it can be charged over firewire)
The lack of firewire, my only real complaint about the nano, and aside from that, there is very little to find fault in aside from an overly bright screen (see below). I've overcome the lack of firewire compatability by upgrading my laptop to USB 2.0 through the purchase of a $24 USB 2.0 PCMCIA card from Fry's. For about the same cost as what I would have had to pay for the firewire cable anyway (if it were useful for anything other than charging) I have a PCMCIA card that provides compatability in addition to fast USB for external hard disks, etc... The mac (osx panther) recognized the card immediately, without the need for drivers, etc. Sync was very very fast, transfering complete songs in less than 1 second per song in many cases. FAST transfers. Fry's had numerous models of cards, some with Firewire and USB 2.0, other's with just firewire, and still others with only USB. I purchased the least expensive, USB 2.0 only card that, only on the back of the package in fine type did it mention macs... and it works almost perfectly. (note unplug the card before closing the powerbook lid or it won't sleep, and won't wake up the monitor, forcing a restart... this is the only issue I've encountered)
Regarding the Nano. Small, stupid small, almost too small...almost. Click wheel works great, volume is powerful, songs are accessed immediatly with no delay (flash memory). As there is no hard disk to be scrambled from impacts, it is able to take minor drops without issue. And when it does fall, the thing is so light that it almost always falls softly. Syncs are very very quick using USB 2.0. (I frequently wipe all the songs and re-upload rather than poke through them when I want to make changes. Uploading about 3 gigs of music takes around 30-40 seconds at most)
The unit is light weight enough that I often pick it up by the headphone cord with no fear of it unplugging and falling. The stock earbuds sound great, but hurt my ears after extended listening. I currently use some foam earbuds I already owned. Others have no problems with the ear buds, so I think it's just dependant upon the shape of one's ears.
My only other complaint and I'm sure it can be overcome with a firmware upgrade, is that the white LED back light is blindingly bright at night. When in the car using it, it actually almost hurts to look at it. When the back light turns off, it does so by quickly fading out, so the capability to vary brightness is there, and needs to only have a menu option added to control it for low light use. If I had to think up anything else wrong, I would say it the black moel shows fingerprints and smudges too easily. (but it looks sooo good in black)... but really, disregarding the lack of firewire which I'm sure would have added size, and since mose people already have USB 2.0 anyway could afford to be sacrificed... If the best complaints I can come up with are "a screen that's too bright", and "shows smudges", then this one is most certainly a winner.
-Jason
Customer Review: Very classy...
Summary: 4 Stars
Coming in two varieties; a 2Gb and 4Gb model both are available in black or white. However using the mini name just wasn't going to cut it and this device is amazingly small. Think two iPod shuffles but only flatter and weighing a svelte 42 grams and you start to get the picture.
The casing is split in two sections, the iconic silver backing found on all the iPod models and depending on your model either a shiny white cover or shiny black cover. Apple has opted to make the click wheel themselves this time and that means that it's a rougher texture than iPod users will be used to. As to whether that's a good thing or not, we think this actually helps.
Concerns over the scratchability of the player are rightly so and I would recommend anyone thinking of buying one to invest in some sort of protection from day one. I took it out of the packaging, put it in our pocket with some change and a mobile phone. Five minutes later I took it out again and it already had a faint scratch on it.
Connecting to iTunes, users will be able to opt for the same experience as previous iPod models and there is even an Autofill option that will randomly fill your iPod with tunes from your collection if you've got too many to fit on the 2Gb or 4Gb offering.
2Gb will get you around 500 songs and 4Gb 1000 tracks as long as they aren't all 13 minute John Coltrane numbers.
Because of the photo-viewing element, you can also sync the nano with iPod Photo on an Apple Mac. As with previous models you can opt to sync your entire photo collection or specific rolls or albums.
The main cause of amazement is that the nano has a screen built in such a small and thin device. Taking a leaf out of the iPod Photo, the nano features a bright colour screen, if not a bit on the small size, but still able to view image you've transferred via your computer.
Digital photographers however will be upset to hear that the Apple Digital Camera connector doesn't work on the nano nor can you get a cable to be able to view the images on a nearby television. Viewing back you images on the screen is more likely to be a reference option rather than something worth straining your eyes over.
Those bored of the music can head over to the in-built games, challenge themselves at their own music collection with the music quiz, play miniature solitaire or even bricks - Apple's version of Breakout.
VERDICT
There is no doubt that this is going to be one of those must have devices if you haven't already signed up for the iPod revolution. The sleekness of the device means it will garner oohs and aahs from all over, heck Mrs Pocket-lint got excited by the smallness of the box it came in let alone the player itself.
What makes this a winning combination is the iTunes software and how easy it is to use. Okay so the catches are that you will be tied into Apple's iTunes Music Store and the Apple file format for the foreseeable future, but when it's this good, who cares?
Our final and most important piece of advice however to any would be buyer; make sure you get a protective case from day one, else your shiny new toy will have more scratches on it than a funky renegade dj's record collection.
Customer Review: tiny form, huge function
Summary: 5 Stars
Upon opening the box, the first thing to surprise me was the size. It's amazingly small and light. The overall feel of it is pleasant. Excellent design. Not just the actual nano, but the design of the interface too. The screen is bright, clear, and has superb color. It's easy to see that a great deal of thought went into the design.
After installing the included iTunes software on my laptop with no problems, I connected the nano with the supplied USB cable. It was incredibly easy to get music from my CD library to the nano. Very intuitive. Make sure you're connected to the Internet when you're importing CDs. This makes it possible for your CDs to be "found" and all the information (track names, album name, artist, genre, etc.) to be automatically entered into your iTunes library. Much easier than typing it in manually. The process of importing is surprisingly quick. But I imagine that is dependent on your computing platform (mine's a screamer).
After building up a library of about 20 CDs the nano had fully charged. I ejected the nano from iTunes, disconnected it and plugged in the supplied apple earbuds. To be honest, I was disappointed with the sound. Not bad, just not what I'm used to. So I plugged in the Shure E3c earphones I purchased earlier. WOW!!
This little thing can reproduce sound very well. All the subtle nuances and space is there. I'm impressed. As much with the capabilities of the nano in the quality of the signal it produces as I am with the AAC compression algorithm. During import I used the AAC (default I think) compression, and glad I did. Excellent sound quality
I've now imported 476 songs into my nano and I've used about half of the 3.7 GB available. (I guess .3 GB is used for the...firmware? interface?)
I've explored some of the features, like the EQ feature. I encourage nano owners to become familiar with this feature. It makes a noticable difference in the sound. Especially if you're using quality earbuds. The more I play around with this thing the more impressed I am with the overall design.
I got over 14 hours of play time on a complete discharge. Following lithium-ion battery protocols I don't frequently deep discharge. Even so I'm getting about 12 hours of play time. I follow the recommendations from apple on how to extend battery life, and they seem to be working.
I agree with other reviewers on the scratches. Even though I took care to keep the nano in its provided case, after a single day the front face showed scratches. I haven't dropped mine so I can't attest to it's sturdiness. My only concern at this point is the battery replacement issue. But from what I've found that seems to be the biggest "failing" of iPods in general. I'm confident that capitalism will "fix" that too.
Overall I think this product is one of those technologies that is changing how we live. Radio, TV, cassette tape, CD, DVD, iPod. What's next? If I had to choose over again I'd get the 8 GB nano. Apple doesn't make one? They should. You can never have too much memory, or too big a hard drive. When I comes to digital playback you can never have too much storage space. You won't regret owning one of these.
Customer Review: Expensive but neat little toy
Summary: 4 Stars
I don't own the Apple Nano. My friend does and I used it enough to write an Amazon review about it.
Sound Quality: The sound quality was not as good as on my iRiver (my i had more clarity and a little more bass response), but the difference isn't even noticeable unless your obsessive-compuslive about sound. There is a custom EQ along with some presets to match what genre of music you like. I've never seen the Apple earbuds but most people say they are awful so you should probably pick up some better earbuds or headphones (the ones I have are the Panasonic RPHJE50's and my friend's are the cheaper Sony MDRJ10's if that helps you on your search).
Interface: Well, I must say I'm impressed. I will say that it's much easier to use than most MP3 players on the market (the iPod's interface is really the whole reason they are so popular). The artists, albums, genres, and titles are set up like most, in category forms so you can find your song. Note that 500 songs (128 kbps, trust me don't go any lower) is around 40 albums, so I would recommend stepping up to the 4 GB Nano which will hold 1,000 songs/80 albums. The software the Nano uses is iTunes (which most people are familiar with). It does pretty much any function Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, or MusicMatch would do. It's easy to create playlists on iTunes and send them into your player.
Features: The Apple Nano has some features, even though it's somewhat lacking. One of the best features is it's size. This thing is small, only 3.5 x 1.6 x 0.27 inches and only weighs 1.5 ounces. The player does display album art, most MP3 players will not do that. It has a nice 1.5-inch color display and a photo viewer. It works with most OSs, even my friend got it to work on Windows 98. Some websites will podcast and you can put casts on your Nano. The Nano has some nice features, however, some of the features are lacking. The battery life is only 14 hours while most MP3 players are more than this. It charges and syncs with one USB, which means you have to take both along if you have to charge it. Hopefully your computer has a USB port in the front like me, that way you won't have much of a hassle. There is no FM tuner/recording but most people don't need that feature, however I think it should be deserved for the high cost.
Durability: The durability is much better than an iPod. I've heard batterys are fine on the Nano unlike iPods. It seems pretty durable, though I would highly recommend getting a case AND a rubber thing for it for two reasons. 1) It scratches very easily, both the plastic and the LCD. 2) The Nano will probably break if you drop it on concrete or the road.
Price: Just in my opinion, the price is way too high for just a 4 GB MP3 player. I think Apple is just asking for too much. I know it's small, but that still doesn't balance the price.
Overall: The Apple 4 GB Nano is a treat anyone would enjoy. Though the price is high and it doesn't have a radio or a record feature, it's good because of its size and its ease of use. 4 stars.
Customer Review: Very cool... great sounding and every accessory you could ever want.
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought my Nano a couple weeks ago for just under two-hundred bucks. I have the black version. I also purchased Sennheiser CX300 earbuds to upgrade from the decidedly vanilla sounding earbuds that come with the Nano. In addition, I also picked up a black leather Belkin folding case to protect my investment.
I really couldn't be happier with this purchase, as a musician and a music lover in general. The sound quality is actually quite superb. In my opinion, I think it's best to encode MP3's at high variable bit rate since this player will show the flaws in lower encoded music. I'm just beginning to get comfortable with the Itunes software. It still seems overcomplicated compared to most flash drive players. It would be nice if you could simply drag and drop from your PC or laptop to the player, but it's not an option. Reading the help files will help you to understand how to use the software feature functions.
The Ipod itself has many features including a contacts list, timer, many EQ presets and more things that I can't remember off the top of my head.
I hear that the 8gb version will be or has been released now. I guess for the extra 50 bucks it may be worth it to some people, but for my money and to remain within my budget constraints, I decided to spend that money on the headphone upgrade which was well worth it. The Sennheisers are better than the stock earphones - Hands down. They also play much more efficently requiring less power from your IPod which also increases your battery life. If you can find a set, pick them up, it's well worth it.
The battery life for the Nano is rated for 14 hours, but if you tend to play with it a lot and skip around playing different tunes from different playlists, you will burn up your battery quite a bit faster than that.
The IPod is much smaller than it seems to appear in pictures and is also very thin. You could have this in your pocket and easily forget about it so be carefull not to run it through the wash!
The desirability factor is high with this player, everyone wants one these. IPod has instant name recognition and you have to make sure you don't leave it laying around or someone may just slip it into there pocket and now you're out a couple hundred bucks and you'll need to reinvest in a new one.
Overall an excellent player. Very sexy and stylish with excellent sound quality. If you can afford it, get one. Or steal someone elses if you're slick enough.... just kidding. But seriously, this is well worth the money for anyone like myself who can't stand to be without music while on the go. You can also purchase an FM transmitter to allow you to play through any stereo that has an FM tuner, that way all stored music is accessible and can be amplified whether you're in the car or at home and want to listen to your tracks over your home stereo system. Like I said, get one. You'll be happy you did.