Apple Introduces iPod Nano

[Kent Pribbernow]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/' target='_blank'>http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Apple® today introduced the iPod® nano, a revolutionary full-featured iPod that holds 1,000 songs yet is thinner than a standard #2 pencil and less than half the size of competitive players. The iPod nano features an ultra-portable, lightweight design with a gorgeous color screen, Apple’s patent pending Click Wheel and the ability to hold 1,000 songs or 25,000 photos. iPod nano works seamlessly with the iTunes® Music Store, the world’s number one digital music service. The iPod nano is available immediately in a 4GB model priced at just $249 and a 2GB model priced at just $199, with both models available in stunning white or black designs. “iPod nano is the biggest revolution since the original iPod,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iPod nano is a full-featured iPod in an impossibly small size, and it’s going to change the rules for the entire portable music market."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/nano.jpg" /><br /><br />Ok, so it's no video iPod, but this thing is probably the coolest thing to come out of Apple's iPod line in a long time. The nano is everything the shuffle should have been, but wasn't. Color screen, svelte form factor, totally cool. I'm going to pick up the $199 model as a wedding gift for a friend. Heck, if it weren't for the limited storage capacity (compared to my iPod photo) I'd grab one for myself as well.

[Jason Dunn]

This thing looks VERY cool. So cool in fact that when I read about it I actually got ANGRY because I was pissed off Creative or another company doesn't have anything to compete with this...Apple is going to remain at the top of the heap for longer than I had hoped. Grr. :evil:

Still, I admire their product design - this looks killer. If only it played WMA files! :roll:

[Felix Torres]

This thing looks VERY cool. So cool in fact that when I read about it I actually got ANGRY because I was pissed off Creative or another company doesn't have anything to compete with this...Apple is going to remain at the top of the heap for longer than I had hoped. Grr. :evil:

Still, I admire their product design - this looks killer. If only it played WMA files! :roll:

Oh, no need to be angry.
Be happy.
The more Apple raises the bar in packaging, the more incentive they give the competition to get off their butts and use the technology available to them.

This looks nice; the Shuffle done right.
Useless to me, but nice.

The most significant fact here is that FlashRAM is now price-competitive with microdrive.
So either the microdrives come down in price or go up in capacity or both.

Nothing but good things could come out of that. :-)

So even if I'd never buy it, I'm happy to see the iPod Nano come out.

If nothing else, because it *guarantees* Creative is going to sue Apple over IP violation and that is going to be way entertaining...

Uh, you folks do realize Creative has been selling flash-based Nano-branded digital music players for a while, right?

[Jason Eaton]

Hrm, I was curious what the big push was behind the free mini with computers lately. Looks like they are blowing out stock. The mini is... dead. Don't care for the nano name.. heck kill off old mini stock and keep the name.

The black version looks pretty nice, better then fruity colors in my opinion.

[Jeremy Charette]

*drooooooool*

I was going to buy a Mini and swap out the hard drive for a flash CF card, but alas, now I don't have to! Guess I know what my fiance is getting real soon!

[Phoenix]

Oh my gosh! The techlust just never ends! :lol:

I'll tell ya Kent, you're right when you say, "This is what the Shuffle should have been". No kidding. Looks like we got what we wanted.

The black version just looks amazing. Now I know what my next $200 worth of tech-discretionary income is going to.

Gorgeous.

I can't believe this thing is actually thinner than a Shuffle, only half an inch wider, and virtually no taller with four times the memory, a click wheel and color screen! Geesh. That's insane!

And personally, I like the name Nano. Very fitting.

My question is, is it flash based or does it have a spinning drive?

[James Fee]

It is flash. With Samsung in Apple corner I'm sure we'll be seeing much more flash based devices at higher capacity.

[Phoenix]

It is flash. With Samsung in Apple corner I'm sure we'll be seeing much more flash based devices at higher capacity.

Nice. Flash based - just what I wanted to hear.

Thanks, Apple. Thanks for making me want to spend more of my money. :P

[Raphael143]

http://www.beyondthetech.com/downloads/pictures/ipodmicronanotiny.jpg

Coming soon from Apple...

[Darius Wey]

Wow, very cool. 8O

I would have expected it to be priced way above average, but when put head-to-head with the Shuffle range, it seems to be adequately priced.

[Phronetix]

This thing looks VERY cool. So cool in fact that when I read about it I actually got ANGRY because I was pissed off Creative or another company doesn't have anything to compete with this...Apple is going to remain at the top of the heap for longer than I had hoped. Grr. :evil:

Still, I admire their product design - this looks killer. If only it played WMA files! :roll:

I suppose you could wait and hope for the day that WMA has 50% market share by online sales... which is the point that Steve Jobs has promised to call MS about compatibility. Could be waitin' for a wee bit, though.

You could, OTOH, convert to mp3... :wink:

[Suhit Gupta]

Very nice compromise between the Shuffle and the Mini. Very cool. But yes, like others have pointed out, support for other file formats would be cool.

Suhit

[Jason Eaton]

You could, OTOH, convert to mp3... :wink:

The force is strong in this one, he will not be converted easily... :D

[Kent Pribbernow]

I'm getting damn tempted to buy a black nano. It's hard to say no to nano. That should be Apple's ad slogan for this device! :P

[ctmagnus]

I'm tempted as well. The first iPod I'm actually interested in.

I wonder if Suhit could be converted? ;)

[Jason Eaton]

Resist you must, envy of the gadget leads to the dark side...
Join us DMT, I am your digital media player!

(posted by PSP)

[Phronetix]

Why wrestle with temptation... I ordered my black nano this morning! The iPod household will increase to five. Oh yeah, and a set of nanotubes too!

This unit is going to rock.

8)

[jlp]

iPod?! Nah, no thanks!!

Gimme a thin player with a color screen, BUT with 2 SD slots so a) I can use any card that ALL my other portable electronic devices can share and b) that I can upgrade ad eternam to 8 GB now and tens of GB soon.

And make them MOD music files compatible so I can listen to TENS or even HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of files not just a mere few hundreds.

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

MOD files? Now, that is a sequencing file format, not a pure digital wave format.. don't see how they compare!

This looks nice. Might want to take advantage of my student discount while I still can! :P

[jlp]

MOD files? Now, that is a sequencing file format, not a pure digital wave format.. don't see how they compare!...

how they compare? I don't care about the technology, that's music, the ipod is a music player, so that's what we should care about. Especially since you could put so much more music in a music player 8).

[ctmagnus]

Might want to take advantage of my student discount while I still can! :P

Hmm... How's that work?

Btw... Nice title! :)

[Tim Williamson]

After spending half the day trying out alternatives to iTunes for transferring files, I think I've found my solution! I just discovered there's a Winamp plugin called ml_iPod (http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=138888) that gives you the same file transfer functionality that iTunes has.

My next step is finding a program that can mass retag my MP3 collection with the correct tags and album art. Any suggestions?

[Tim Williamson]

I think I've figured out the combination of programs I'm gonna use to organize my music library:

Mp3tag
http://www.mp3tag.de/en/
Modify ID3 tags

Album Cover Art Downloader
http://louhi.kempele.fi/~skyostil/projects/albumart/
Download and add cover art to MP3s

Now I just need to find an MP3 ripper that has ID3v2 cover art support. I've been using CDex for the past few years, but it hasn't been updated with this ability. Any suggestions?

[Tim Williamson]

It seems that the Album Cover Art Downloader album tags aren't able to be read by the nano. So I guess I'll need to look for something else eventually.

[Phronetix]

t will: Why would you want to use something other than iTunes?


ctmagnus: There is a link in the Apple Store for More Stores. You want the education store. Then you enter in your school info. In Canada the EDU discount is 25 and 20 dollars for the 2 and 4 GB units respectively.

[ctmagnus]

ctmagnus: There is a link in the Apple Store for More Stores. You want the education store. Then you enter in your school info. In Canada the EDU discount is 25 and 20 dollars for the 2 and 4 GB units respectively.

8) Thx.

But giving a greater discount on the cheaper product? :confused totally:

[Tim Williamson]

t will: Why would you want to use something other than iTunes?

iTunes doesn't have the ability to watch a folder and keep its library updated automatically with new music added to that folder. In addition, I've been using Winamp for years and really like the flexibility it offers over iTunes.

Also, I'll never by songs from Apple or from any online music vendor because I like to have a CD version of whatever I buy. This allows me to have a hardcopy archive and allows me the flexibility to encode it in any format I want.

It just bugs me that the nano can't read the ID3v2 album covers I added. Is it looking at a certain place within the MP3 file to pull the cover from?

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Apple offers a 20% education discount for me. Not sure if it applies to everywhere though.

Is there a way to drag and drop MP3s to an iPod? I'm not particularly keen on using iTunes.

Oh, and I didn't know I have a new funky title! Thanks for pointing it out, ctmagnus. :P

[Tim Williamson]

Apple offers a 20% education discount for me. Not sure if it applies to everywhere though.

Is there a way to drag and drop MP3s to an iPod? I'm not particularly keen on using iTunes.

Oh, and I didn't know I have a new funky title! Thanks for pointing it out, ctmagnus. :P

I don't think you can drag and drop and have the player recognize the file (correct me if I'm wrong) but there's an iPod plugin for Winamp (http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=138888) or numerous 3rd-party programs out there that give you the ability to transfer mp3s without using iTunes.

[ctmagnus]

I don't think you can drag and drop and have the player recognize the file (correct me if I'm wrong) but there's an iPod plugin for Winamp (http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=138888) or numerous 3rd-party programs out there that give you the ability to transfer mp3s without using iTunes.

Is there anything that lets you use an iPod (Nano) as a drive in Windows Explorer?

[Tim Williamson]

I don't think you can drag and drop and have the player recognize the file (correct me if I'm wrong) but there's an iPod plugin for Winamp (http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=138888) or numerous 3rd-party programs out there that give you the ability to transfer mp3s without using iTunes.

Is there anything that lets you use an iPod (Nano) as a drive in Windows Explorer?

I think there's a setting in iTunes that allows you to connect your iPod in "disk mode", when I plug mine in it shows up as drive O:\

[ctmagnus]

8) But you can't just plug the player in and Windows sees it as a drive by default? Imo, that's the one fault with this iPod. iRiver devices can do this, so I've still got my eye set on an iRiver device before this one.

Also: Too funny, imo: I can't set the tip on my Tecra M4 to recognize iPod; I have to spell it with the keyboard. :D

[Tim Williamson]

8) But you can't just plug the player in and Windows sees it as a drive by default? Imo, that's the one fault with this iPod. iRiver devices can do this, so I've still got my eye set on an iRiver device before this one.

Also: Too funny, imo: I can't set the tip on my Tecra M4 to recognize iPod; I have to spell it with the keyboard. :D

Mine was set to disk mode by default. The thing I'm pretty sure you can't do is just copy music over directly and have it recognize the songs.

[ctmagnus]

Whoops, I was referring to doing so on machines without iTunes installed.

To be able to take a Nano, plug it into any Windows machine, regardless of what's loaded on it, and be able to access and manipulate the (non-audio) files on the player is exactly what I'm looking for in an audio player.