Not all iPods are white! (Apple iPod nano 2 GB)

Member Name: sirg0508

Product:	Apple iPod nano 2 GB
Date:	06/07/06 (265 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Compact, holds a lot, great colour for photos, acts as external disk

Disadvantages: Earphones (white and rubbish), Click Wheel sensitivity, Mains adapater needed, scratches

Also posted on Epinions.

iPod is a brand probably worldly known and a huge technological advancement by Apple. The Nano isn’t just an MP3 player and came after the traditional iPod and the iPod Mini but I was surprised just how small it is and how much it does. I’m used to a lipstick sized, £30 MP3 player with 128MB space (around 50 songs) but the 2GB Nano holds 500 songs, photos, games, contacts, calendar, notes and stopwatch. Really it’s more like a musical organiser. Costing around £120 it is far from the cheapest MP3 player but as I was bought it as a present I was told it was worth spending the £30 extra for double the memory.

Well packaged the Nano looks extremely sophisticated in its black box opening more like a cardboard CD case. The Nano itself nestled into its own little compartment. I was surprised by the size actually – I expected something larger but it’s only tiny (9 x 4 x 0.69 cm). Very importantly it comes with software that needs to be installed before connecting it to the computer as Windows XP likes to find things for itself rather than be told what to do. It will also work on Apple Mac computers but these can’t be switched between without removing everything first. There is also a case, Dock adapter, earphones, 2 Apple logo stickers, Quick Start ‘instructions’, user agreements and warranty info. Never owning an iPod I had no idea how this was to be charged as there is no AC mains adapter and the sole way (provided anyway) is by connecting it to the computer by USB. This can be a problem if I don’t want to leave the laptop on or if I’m not near a computer so I was bought a separate AC adapter (around £5) – the only black one (as my iPod is black) could be found on eBay.

The CD is easily installed, containing iTunes software for legal downloading and QuickTime player. I just put the iPod CD in and when asked, allowed it to install. There a couple of user agreements that had to be agreed to and I was asked to register my iPod which was also easily done but I do warn you that it requires reading the microscopic serial number on the back of the iPod/on box. Personally I used to use Windows Media Player to copy CDs from their originals to my computer although I found iTunes much more efficient and it also finds song names and the album cover.

I did mention the box contained Quick Start ‘instructions’. This is almost like a CD insert booklet which contains few pages and even fewer instructions. All it really covers is how to actually play a song and Troubleshooting all very basically as well as describing what you get. Provided are two separate inserts both in English and in French. A detailed manual can only be found through the Apple website: http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iPod_nano_Feature s_Guide.pdf

I did have to leave my Nano connected to my laptop for a good few hours on first charge. As soon as this was done I continually played with it for a good few hours to get acquainted with it. Navigation is certainly something that has to be gotten used to. There is the centre ‘Click Wheel’ button which powers on the player but also acts as a joystick – by running my finger around the outer edge of it in either clockwise/anti-clockwise direction I can fast forward/rewind and increase/decrease volume as well as navigate menus. I still have a few issues with it as it takes the slightest pressure to adjust the settings – if a song is playing then the slightest touch will turn the volume up or down which can give quite a shock if it jumps quite a bit up the scale. There is the advantage that if being used at night that the backlight will come on easily rather than fiddling trying to find a button. Around that is another circle which is just buttons for the menu, skip (forward and back) and play/pause (but also turns power off). There isn’t much difference to be felt in the dark and there is no light to aid navigation unless using the light from the screen. There is no stop button – only pause and to stop it completely it has to be switched off or skipping the tracks to the start or the end.

I don’t download music as I’m picky about it and iTunes does not hold the music I want (plus it costs around 79p for each track) so my sole source of music is from CDs. There are advantages to the iTunes library such as the ability to preview 30 seconds of tracks before purchase and ease of searching for music and audio books. Depending on software and as I only have USB 1.1, burning CDs to the computer can normally take a good few minutes but once it’s there all I have to do is load the iTunes software (if done through Windows Media Player) and just go to ‘File’ and ‘Add file to library’ and choose what I want to add. iTunes itself wants to convert these files and find the cover on the internet so just like adding them from the CD to the computer, it then can take a few minutes but once they are ready they are instantly uploaded to the iPod when it’s connected (by request). For some reason some of the albums I have don’t load the song names so just say ‘Track 1’ etc. which can be annoying but file names can be changed through the computer so the screen on the iPod shows the name. I have an audio book on my Nano and rather than having to search for it I made a folder for it so I could choose specifically to play tracks in that folder than go onto something else. The software does provide some insightful information such as free/used space and how many times each track has been listened to!

The screen is very clear, in colour and very readable but I do find it quite bright which isn’t so pleasant in the dark. It is a small screen at 3cm x 2.4cm. The text isn’t overly small and without too much else on the screen means it’s well spaced out. Unfortunately it only shows the song name and not the artist as well. There is a time line which when pressing the centre button will change from time, to an easier way to skip through a track, to rating the track. In the same sense the menu is also very easy to navigate from Music, Photos, Extras, Settings, Shuffle Songs and if a song is playing, to Now Playing. Within each of these are a lot more menus but each is clearly labelled so is easy to find what I’m looking for. I particularly like ‘Top 25 Most Played’ as these are the songs I prefer if I listen to them over again so I can choose those songs to listen to rather than those I don’t really like. There is a bonus that the Menu can be customised e.g. if I didn’t want ‘Photos’ to be visible on the screen I could easily turn it off in the Settings menu.

Apart from Music, the Nano also holds photos which are able to be played in a slideshow although it is a small screen which does take away some of the impact of a larger photo. I admit I didn’t need instructions for uploading music but there was nothing at all mentioned about photos so I did have to download the manual. However it is very simple! By pressing the iPod shaped icon on the iTunes software it allows me to choose which folders I want to import although I just chose everything from ‘My Pictures’ which was 113 photos and it took around 45 seconds to load (no doubt quicker if using USB 2.0). The colour isn’t lost at all and can be viewed by each separate folder which then takes me to small thumbnails of the photos so I can skip to the one I want or I can click on one to let it fill the screen and by moving the click wheel, can scroll each picture. It even adds the month/year they were created. I prefer the slideshow as the wheel tends to jump a few pictures at a time on slightest touch like it does with the volume. It will only hold still images although others can be added (animated .gif etc.) but it will only show a still of it.

The Extras provided include a clock which can be set to show on screen and act as an alarm. If it is set to beep this is done through the Nano but by setting to songs on the iPod has to be done through headphones. The beep wouldn’t wake me from a light sleep. Games include Brick, Music Quiz, Parachute and Solitaire. I much prefer Solitaire although again with the click wheel it can be hard to navigate and the cards are quite small on screen. The Music Quiz is also recommended as it plays clips from what is stored on the iPod and you have to guess from a choice which is being played (a score is kept based on doing it quickly). Contacts, Calendar, Notes and Stopwatch are also provided although features I rarely use as I don’t particularly have any items I want to upload from the computer in .txt file onto the Nano and never need the Stopwatch although for some people using the Nano as an external disk drive is an advantage. The screen can also be locked under this category although I’d rather use ‘Hold’ than forget the combination but Hold won’t provide protection to stop others listening to what is on it if stolen.

The settings area I do actually use quite a lot as it does contain a couple of features that I’d have preferred to be in the Music menu such as ‘Repeat’. If I want to hear one song continually or repeat the songs once the last is listened to then I have to find it in there. It also contains ‘Shuffle’ which can be changed to either Songs or Albums which again would have been much better in the Music menu. There is also a ‘Clicker’ which I turned off almost as soon as I knew how as the Nano does make noises when it goes through menus – a rather pointless feature that can even be set to go through the Nano alone, through headphones or both! Other general set up areas are covered such as language selection, backlight timer, effects when listening to songs and audio books as well as legal information.

Sound quality is fantastic however I absolutely hate the ear bud earphones for four reasons. Not only are they uncomfortable but the length of the wire just seems too short. I did ask for a black Nano (white also available) but they only come supplied with white wired earphones! They don’t stay in my ears but do provide great sound. They have ‘L’ and ‘R’ marked but when the covers are on to make them more comfortable they can’t be seen so I don’t always use these but others I bought which are another added cost. I can easily put the iPod on and turn the volume up full to have almost a speaker effect which is preferable at night rather than actual speakers although I have found they produce a buzzing noise when up full.

The Nano is flat and light so it is extremely portable and with the addition of the Hold switch at the top means buttons can’t be pressed by mistake which really saves on battery life. I rate the battery life rather highly as I tend to use my Nano as a sleep aid and can have it playing continually for around 6 hours a night and only find half the battery has run down. With my other MP3 player, it would make a horrid sound when the battery was low so I was very pleased that this wasn’t found on the Nano. I can see that it could be a problem if it is constantly being connected to the computer to load new songs or photos because as soon as it is connected it will set it charging and like any other gadget with a rechargeable battery will begin to think that the level it is connected at is dead so battery life eventually becomes shorter and shorter. Luckily I hardly ever connect mine so I have not seen a huge reduction in life and will only charge when it is dead or very low on power.

While I have the black Nano, the back is silver and I was warned they scratch easily which I have now realised and see a few on mine. There are covers available to buy but in the box there did come supplied a little case for it. I say little because it is a tight fit and little chance of actually using the Nano at the same time. It is made of soft material which will protect it from scratches but in no way provides any other protection. All that is visible is either the top or bottom depending on what way it is put in so earphones could be plugged in but it’s not as convenient as other covers.

So why buy an iPod? Well personally as I had little trouble with my other MP3 player I didn’t see the point but really it is all down to features. The memory size is a big difference – with ability to store about 12500 photos or 500 songs it means I can store around 40 albums (or even just pick and choose what I want from others) so there is always something new without too much repetition… There are other iPods with 60GB of space but especially for me it’s just wasted space that would never be used. Secondly are the extras – with games I can keep myself amused while listening to music and with the ability to hold photos it saves carrying printed photos or even a digital camera with a screen to view. The battery life can easily last me two or three nights which is a huge advantage over others I’ve used and it doesn’t give me the shock of my life if running low on power.

However there are extra costs involved. The purchase of the AC adapter so I can charge the Nano in the wall socket, a new pair of earphones to provide more comfort and I can see the need for getting a cover for better protection to save it from being scratched further. Then I could buy songs from iTunes which would add up or buy CDs to help fill it up! Then of course my Nano isn’t white and it does seem a little harder to find black accessories.

Overall I think it’s fantastic. There are features I perhaps may never use but it’s all down to whatever purpose it’s bought for other than music. Having used it daily since I received it I’ve not had any major problems and probably used it more already than my old one. I haven’t filled it but if I do I could easily look at how many times certain songs have been played and if few, could replace them with something new. It’s very portable and could easily fit into a pocket which is much more preferable than carrying stacks of CDs, CD player, digital camera and organiser around. It does have extra costs attached if ease of use wants to be extended and personally I recommend some of them (although I have seen several strange accessories!). With added features such as games it means there are other uses to keep me amused and even shuffle on music can pick random songs than having the same play list.

Cost: £117 from Amazon
Separate AC adapter: £5 from eBay
New earphones: £10 from Amazon
Hours of listening pleasure: Priceless

Summary: Portable organiser in the palm of your hand

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