iPod nano, iTunes 5, iTunes Phone

adpowers writes "Lots of updates today on the Apple front. First we have the iPod nano, which is an iPod photo-esque replacement for the iPod mini. It comes in 2 and 4 gig varieties and is half the thickness of the mini it replaces. A new iTunes is release as well, which looks similar to Mail.app. I'm not sure I like the cosmetic changes. It also touts an improved search bar, but I can't find an explanation of what that means. Finally, Apple, Motorola, and Cingular announced the ROKR E1, which has the iTunes on a cellular phone. (Theorized last week.) It syncs with iTunes just like an iPod." Coverage of the Apple news extravaganza available at The NYT, Forbes, Gizmodo, Mobiledia, and Macworld.

Comments

On first look, quite nice

[aftk2]

Ah...now we know why Apple's been buying up flash memory in spades.

That iPod nano looks ridiculously slick. Heh, and although I imagine I'm going to have my geek card forcibly removed after saying this, my first thought upon seeing it was, "What happened to all the colors?" Granted, it's form over function, but judging by the amount of iPod minis that I've seen, people like the colors.

Well, fear not: iPod nano tubes: Colorful iPod nano Tubes fit like a glove and offer full Click Wheel control from the outside. (Actually, as someone whose iPod sports an impressive amount of scrapes, I think this is a good idea.)

That Apple, they think of everything. Now I'm going to go back to waiting for my Dalmation iPod nano tube.

ROKR questions

[Johnny Mnemonic]

• Why can't you sync iTunes via BlueTooth, since the phone actually has BT? First the mini mouse, now this.
• Will this phone be a full iSync citizen, or at least as much as other Moto phones? via BT?
• Can you use this phone as a Cell modem? Via BT? And why is it not EDGE capable?
• Can you sync photos via iPhoto?
• Can you purchase ringtones via iTunes?

I wish this was more of an iPhone, with the above features, than just some phone with iTunes slapped on it. As it is, it looks pretty half-baked, and I'm sorry to see Apple endorse it. I think I'm holding out until v 2.0 at least.

audio quality?

[TheGratefulNet]

I wonder how it will compare to the ipod shuffle.

I didn't believe it until I got one (as a gift) but the shuffle has the best audio quality I've heard short of an external DAC into an spdif stream. its noisy (biased transistors in output stage?) but it has actual bass and enough drive to power headphones without distorting.

if this nano has the same audio or better, it will blow the market away for those that CARE about sound as well as the features of the player.

Not Impressed

[aluminumcube]

I am totally disappointed with the Moto phone.

- It is substantially ugly. The basic shape is OK, but then it has the vented sides and all sorts of useless depressions, lines and curves. I would have expected Apple to demand some quality ID out of Moto (and we know Moto can do it, the RAZR and upcoming SLVR are very hot).

- The dynamics of the phone market suck for releasing new technology. Phone handsets are way overpriced for the consumer and rely on those pesky contracts. Sure the ROKR looks OK now, but how is it going to look a year from now when better stuff is available and your locked into that contract? To me, this is a major problem with the cell phone market- there are numerous technology improvements going on IRT data rates, camera quality, wireless features, design, etc... but the carrier contract lockin puts a significant strain in consumer's ability to acquire such technology at a reasonable price.

- The capacity on the ROKR sucks. 100 songs? That's less then 512mb. If your going to lock people into an MP3 playing cellphone for 2 years, give them some real capacity and/or an SD expansion slot. Hell, the slot doesn't even need to be readily accessible, throw it behind the battery (because I don't know if iTunes can manage an iPod device with removable storage) so people can upgrade as they see fit.

- It looks huge. I don't get it how they can make a tiny cellphone (again, the RAZR and it's upcoming SLVR brother) and a tiny MP3 player (the Nano and the Shuffle), but when you throw these devices together, you end up with a product that is bigger the the stand alone components tapped together even though the most space hogging portions are combined (buttons, enclosure).

Apple gets how to design a product and Motorola, while they have had some success, really needs to let Apple take the lead on ID/Product design. Moto should focus on the wireless tech, dealing with the FCC and cell carriers and manufacturing.

It's a Motorola Phone, not an iPod.

[Zombie]

There seems to be lots of confusion about this. It's a Motorola phone. In fact, it's an exact copy of my E398, only with "sound" now as an extra hard button instead of a soft button.

Which means:

• Transflash card. It's really tiny, the size and thickness of my pinky nail
• Tri-band
• USB 2.0, and you get to choose between it exposing the flash card as a USB disk device, or a modem. Cable included
• Stereo speakers. It's really cool to hold it just about 20-30cm from your face and hear pretty good stereo sound
• Earphones
• Bluetooth, and yes, you can copy MP3's that way too
• Groovy multi-coloured lights on both sides of the phone
• Speakerphone
• Camera with a powerful led instead of a flash. Doubles as a flashlight

And the downsides

• Sluggish user interface
• Blurry 640x480 camera. Taking into account the previous point, when you press "capture," you get to wait 2 seconds for the snapshot to be taken
• Buggy. Crashes on you, especially when the battery is low
• Really bad mpeg-4 playback. The user interface stops responding when it's playing. Sound may crap out. It will only do a bitrate so low that the picture has severe compression artifacts
• Limited functionality in BlueTooth. The only decent BlueTooth phone I've ever seen is a SonyEricsson
• No voice recording (duh), but I'm under the impression that that's a hidden feature that you can enable with a hack

Of course, the specs of the ROKR may vary, and the MP3 navigation is beyond a doubt better than on the E398, but it won't be far off.

Re:$50 more, 2GB less

[thatguywhoiam]

OK, so the display is color. However, if I'm interested in a music player, want music. I see the nano as a step backwards because the 4GB mini was $199, so I either get half the storage for the same price, or I pay $50 more for that 4G.

I agree with you, but we are possibly in the (or a) minority.

I said the same thing when the iPod mini came out: you could get another model of iPod at the time which was 10GB, and $50 more than the 4GB. I pointed this out to people. The response? Either 'but it comes in colours' or 'but its so small'. Lesson learned, people put a huge premium on the size/shape/appearance of the thing. The Shuffle underscores this.

Kinda too bad, I always liked the Mini body the best, with the metal... maybe it was deemed too heavy. So yes from a stats point of view it seems a bit daft but the market reaction sure seems to bear out Apple's thinking. I was also surprised that the battery life on the Nano is a touch less than a regular iPod... I guess a smaller battery overall.. but usually flash memory gives you a big power savings (eaten up in the Nano by that colour screen no doubt).