Slashdot Mirror
A Review of the iPod nano
Carl Bialik from the WSJ writes "Walt Mossberg has been testing the iPod nano for a few days, and he says he is 'smitten.' Mossberg writes in the Wall Street Journal, 'The nano has the best combination of beauty and functionality of any music player I've tested -- including the iconic original white iPod. And it sounds great. I plan to buy one for myself this weekend, when it is due to reach stores in the U.S., Europe and Asia.' Among other things, it has surprisingly good sound: 'Despite its small size, the nano sounded as good as any other iPod, and is packed with plenty of audio power. Plugged into my car speakers, it was able to belt out the new Fountains of Wayne rocker, "Maureen," loudly enough to be heard perfectly, even though I was going 70 mph in a convertible with the top down.'"
...is packed with plenty of audio power. Plugged into my car speakers, it was able to belt out the new Fountains of Wayne rocker, "Maureen," loudly enough to be heard perfectly, even though I was going 70 mph in a convertible with the top down.
:)
...Its your car's amplifier doing the job, not the Nano. The nano has a line-level or headphone-level power output... Nothing impressive there, other than that Apple didn't goof up, right?
Wow, the Nano has a built-in power amplifier with enough power to play that loud in your car? Cool
I'm your huckleberry
i'm gonna guess that he has another amp somewhere that's actually driving those speakers.
I have discovered a truly remarkable proof which this margin is too small to contain.
The year of the thin metallic looking device... first the new MS keyboard and now this.
Just a heads up of our current fashion tastes... i guess for slashdot crowd that means that tinfoils are almost in!
-Sj53
I'm sure they used the same decoding circuit.
Having a more powerful amp in the device is a tradeoff on battery life. Its nothing to get exited about.
Still, wish they would have added a radio to this thing.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I was able to hear Dvorak's Enter the New World crystal clear on nano's lowest volume setting while jackhammers busted up the street outside my window and parrots squawked within a meter of my ear.
Jesus saved me from my past. He can save you as well.
"Plugged into my car speakers, it was able to belt out the new Fountains of Wayne rocker, "Maureen," loudly enough to be heard perfectly, even though I was going 70 mph in a convertible with the top down.'"
He actually plugged it into his car's radio with an amplifier. The iPod Nano did not drive 4+ car speakers.
Audio quality is as good as the mp3/whatever encoding he uses - as long as the processor can keep up, and yes, all the iPod processors keep up.
The iPod audio out is very good. Much better then may other portable players. Of course you can't tell this with the earbuds they come with, but that's another issue.
So with a good set of headphones or speakers, and the right music, you can easily tell the difference.
The nano actually allows a car stereo sytem to amplify the sound! What will Apple think of next?
Seriously, what kind of reviewer is impressed by this?
[bitter]If I see one more Nano story I will smash my keyboard over my crappy CRT. Nano can go fuck itself.[/bitter]
My days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle...
that evaluating an audio products signal to noise ratios, total harmonic distortion, audio algorithms and audible compression artifacts, frequency response and sound pressure levels at 70mph with the roof down gives us a more than accurate reprensenation of the audio reproduction of a mass produced Taiwanese digital audio player
glad we have such experts making these evaluations for us so we can base our now informed purchasing decisions based on the results of these tests
I have relatives who are teachers at various levels. They are reporting that many young kids have gotten these small music devices as gifts, and often listen to them in school during lectures. Because they're so small they are often quite easy to hide if the teacher does come along.
That said, several of them have recommended the use of these portable audio devices. They can often allow those students who are easily distracted to get some work done in school. They also have been used in second-language courses to allow the students to directly hear the spoken language, rather than them trying to listen to some audio tape player at the front of the room.
I would love to see companies like Apple do more research into the educational benefits of these portable audio devices. Considering Apple's past experience providing computer systems to educational institutions, they no doubt have the talent and the ability to create a very powerful education medium. The possibilities of using such devices when teaching languages are nearly endless.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
Slow down, man! With the wind in your face and the music thump-thumpin' from the new iPod, not to mention the looks of the iPod itself, you might get in an accident :-)
Regards,
John
Falling You - beautiful
I like Apple products unfailingly myself. But then, I'm not a newspaper columnist.
Seriously, has anyone ever read anything by Mossberg about Apple products that wasn't either glowing, stellar, or outright raving?
and here come the blocklists and hosts files, congrats
I went over the review and I learnt nothing that I didnt know about after reading news reports yesterday. Absolutely no insights and the comment about the nano powering car speakers. I suspect the reviewer is incompetent (unlikely) or that the target audience is crowd who think flash is what you use on cameras for extra lighting.
I could do 95 MPH with the top down with the finale to Beethoven's Ninth playing through my Rio PMP300.
nice reference tag in the link, jackass
I've actually found it hard to get a good idea of how big iPod nano is from the photos, because my brain wants that color screen to be larger than it really is. I finally stumbled onto Apple's iTunes sync webpage which overlaps iPod nano with a regular iPod to put its size into perspective a bit.
Can I play the AAC files on alternate systems like Linux legally?
Since the iPod mini was discontinued, what will Apple do with any excess inventory?
Will they sell them for cheaper?
Speaking of eating, Apple needs to sell a candy-like spray so one can "suck" on the iPod nano like a lollipop. Cherry, orange, and grape would be excellent starters.
And if you're wondering about putting an iPod in your mouth, just imagine the other places an iPod could go on (or in!) the body.
I wonder how much the color screen on the new iPods affect the battery life? I currently own a mini and the battery life is very impressive; Showing the album title isn't that big of a deal for me, but I guess others might like that option.
One downside I've noticed on my mini is that the screen is VERY bright while driving around at night. I'll sometimes DD for my friends and it's entertaining when the backlight kicks on while the drunks are trying to get some sleep during the ride home. "Dude, turn that shit off!" which usually sounds something more like "Douf, urn tha shy awf!" *wretch*
I like big butts and I cannot lie.
Most little handheld gadgets are powered by *tiny* batteries. Tiny battery, even the most power-packed variety, holds only a *tiny* amount of power. Just enough to power the guts of the thingamagig, plus put out enough audio power to satisfy the average non-Harley rider. That would be in the neighborhood of 0.050 to 0.100 of one electrical watt.
Most car speakers don't get loud until they're getting something more than 10 watts. Yes, there are some very efficient speakers that can cause the police to knock on your door but these are rather inconveniently large to install in a average vehicle. The old Wester Electric horns come to mind, which could fill a large movie theater with under one watt.
So if we assume the first-poster has average speakers, there's no way the little bleached saltine lookalike was directly hammering on the speakers.
I wonder if Apple will get Robin Williams to hawk the new iPod Nano Nano?
Now with limited edition Mork & Mindy cover!
Plugged into my car speakers, it was able to belt out the new Fountains of Wayne rocker, "Maureen," loudly enough to be heard perfectly, even though I was going 70 mph in a convertible with the top down.'"p? ....what a wanker! Where's the truck driver from 'Duel' when you need him?
Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise. - William Shakespeare
Why is he wasting paragraphs on trying things out that are there in black and white in the specs?
... or subjecting it to repeated drops to verify that it wouldn't skip. It's flash memory. Shocks and vibration are not going to be an issue.
"It has two GB of disk space. I tried putting 1.5GB of songs on, and there was room for another 0.5GB of data to spare!"
It does look like quite a nice gadget -- but I wouldn't personally buy anything with less than 20GB for songs.
Newspaper content today is embarassing. Huge sections like "Food and Wine", "Drive", and "Technology" (i.e. ads for buyable gadgets).
A good exercise for students: Take a daily paper, discard all the ad sections, then cross out all remaining ads, then cross out all stories that promote products, then cross out all stories based on political figures saying something, and see what's left.
News is what someone doesn't want published. All else is publicity.
Wow... just... wow...
Looking for people to chat about multicopters, coding, music. skype: gtsiros
Yeah.... but there's also the flip side to that. If you're an *intern*, that implies you're not planning on staying there in that position for a great deal of time.
I'd think that doing some kind of temporary internship, about the only "perks" you could hope to get would be the little things (like the iPod Nano in this case). Who is going to do all the paperwork and incur the expenses of setting up what amounts to a glorified temp worker with a 401k plan, etc. ?
Creative Zen Nano Plus Is Apple losing creativity or did I miss some division getting bought by someone else?
......is packed with plenty of audio power. Plugged into my car speakers, it was able to belt out the new Fountains of Wayne rocker, "Maureen," loudly enough to be heard perfectly, even though I was going 70 mph in a convertible with the top down.
:-)
Okay kiddo, we got the message, you're driving this fancy convertible. Oh and yes, the Nano can be plugged into the car speakers, that do a great job
...will be very very tiny.
http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/specs.html
The Nano most likely is using the same chipset as the HDD version. If you look at the feature set the Shuffle is just a little different.
Now I have seen reviews which claim the shuffle sounds better than the regular iPod. So I am curious, does the Nano sound as good as the shuffle?
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
it's smaller.
battery lasts longer.
its more dependable.
has more space than shuffle, but smaller size.
color screen.
Thanks to the law of conservation of energy, we can be pretty sure, never having seen said small white equipment, aforesaid device cannot power your typical car speakers to anything anybody would consider "loud".
Preamp?
Because no one cares.
It's smaller than a regular iPod, doesn't have a disc to worry about jostling and, unlike a shufle, has a screen and more memory.
It fits in cleanly between the regular iPod line and the shuffle line. Makes perfect sense to me...
-30-
pry himself off of Jobs' leg, he might point out that the nano doesn't have a radio, does have the same ol' crappy EQ settings, and won't work for transporting data (yet). Despite all that, $249 is an amazing price point for 4 GB of flash memory, and with any luck competitors will come down to match it with more fully featured products.
Hey with the usb cable you can use ANY iPod as a usb key, it doesn't HAVE to be the shuffle (except that the shuffle IS smaller).
These devices all cost a hell of a lot more than they should?
Correct me if I am wrong, but aren't they essentially a HDD, Audio Output and (sometimes) a little screen?
Surely one could be made for a fraction of the cost, sure it won't look like a Fisher Pr^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Sleek bit of plastic, but wouldn't the functionality be the same?
C17H21NO4
Is there any reason to believe that Apple will dropping the prices on any of the older iPod models in the near future?
Of course, in this case older is a relative term...
... at ~18 hours of battery life, 5Gb of storage, and -$50 in price. The only downside is Rio's dropping support. Given Apple's "just buy a new one" attitude on warrantees, that's barely a negative.
- Despite popular opinion, I am not perfect.
And thus we see why slashdot people are not in marketing.
It's all about form, not function. iPods are functionally inferior to most other MP3 players- no radio, no voice record, no optical outputs, no OGG/WMA support, too expensive for the size, only work with iTunes- but they have a form factor that has yet to be equaled let alone beaten. They look good and feel good. That is what sells. Scoff all you want.
And yes, form matters, even beyond just selling more. I have an iRiver device with a clicky joystick control. It sits at home, unused, because the joystick is a pain to use. My shuffle get carried everywhere and used all the time because it has a simple interface that works.
I'm waiting for the iPod Vi, personally.
what this has the the ipod and ipod mini dont..a drive that will last a lot longer and from what i understand, should make the battery last a bit longer...I agree with above though and still say they should have them with AM/FM..I am picking one up as soon as they get to the apple store down here...my only other problem is do i buy one for my wife or give her my U2 ipod
~~"Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong." ~~Dennis Miller
"The adjective smitten has 2 meanings:
Meaning #1: (used in combination) affected by something overwhelming
Synonyms: stricken, struck
Meaning #2: marked by foolish or unreasoning fondness
Synonyms: crazy, dotty, gaga, enamored, infatuated, in love, soft on, taken with"
So I suppose we shouldn't really take this review seriously.
Sigs are for the weak.
This is the best iPod yet, though of course I do need more capacity. I think it's silly for people to complain about $199 for 4GB, though. You know, it's like looking at a Mercedes and saying, "$50,000 for four seats?!" Of course, there's more to a car than how many people it can hold. And the iPod is certainly the finest music experience out there - by far.
The next comment I write will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
I understand that a significant problem for Apple is that they've achieved so much market penetration that most of the people that want an iPod have an iPod. The solution to this is to produce new models that will encourage those people to chug their old purchase and get a new one.
I find the sound quality on my Mini to be perfectly fine for my middle-aged ears. I don't miss the ability to "view album covers in full color" and if I want to share photos with someone, that's why God made the internet.
The smaller size is great, but the Mini is already really small--much smaller than my wallet. The only part that seems attractive is that there isn't a mini-drive in there to pug out.
I think that Apple has a tough row to hoe when it comes to getting people like to me switch up. I can't think of any features that could reasonably be incorporated in a new iPod that would make me dump my present one, except maybe if it could convert those miserable DRM files that iTunes sells to MP3s.
Still, wish they would have added a radio to this thing.
And a voice recording feature, there isn't one in my iPod mini. I don't suppose they have added one to this thing? Both the Mini and the Micro would make excellent dictaphones.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
Mossberg was an Apple coup.
Disclaimer: I've been an Apple fanboy and using Macs consistently since December '84. And also reading about them for all of that time. (I've put my favorite Apple quote below.)
There was a time, not too long ago, perhaps ending in the mid- to late-90's around the time the iMac came out, when Mossberg was relentlessly ANTI-apple. In fact, as I recall, his name was pretty much synonymous with "Apple-basher" in the "beleaguered" Mac community (God, we hated that word...). Perhaps not many people, period, around the time of the Gil Amelio era were pro-Apple (I was a holdout... and proud of it), but Mossberg was quite visible as he was sort of the tech mouthpiece of corporate America.
And then... I'm fairly certain someone at Apple courted this guy. Hard.
Ever since then (and perhaps because of Apple's string of hits, starting with the iMac), Mossberg has been a fanboy. Of course, it's been easy, lately...
(my favorite quote about Apple follows...)
"One of the deep mysteries to me is our logo, the symbol of lust and knowledge, bitten into, all crossed with the colors of the rainbow in the wrong order. You couldn't dream of a more appropriate logo: lust, knowledge, hope, and anarchy."
-Jean-Louis Gassée, Former Apple Computer, Inc. Executive
I was waiting for a gig based solid state player from Apple. I'll definitely be buying one of these babies.
BTW, anyone look at the $5 yahoo music offer? It isn't worth it. Basically you pay the money to get extremely limited rights. But that's ok, I have exactly 1208 songs in my iTunes library right now that I can download to the Nano when I get it. Cool!
From the summary: "Plugged into my car speakers, it was able to belt out the new Fountains of Wayne rocker, "Maureen," loudly enough to be heard perfectly, even though I was going 70 mph in a convertible with the top down.'"
Ooooh! He's trendy (new MTV music), he's rich and stylish (convertible), and he's a wanker (blasting noise pollution).
Please, please, can I be like him? I'll definitely buy a Nano now!
This is a prime example of why trendiness drives iPod sales.
Not to upset the fans or anything, but why is this necessary in an article about a new product?
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
...with AM/FM Radio.
Call me old fashioned...but that's what so far has sttoped me from buying one..
Wondering why they jump to nano, it's not THAT small anyway.
So *that's* what Steve Jobs' ass tastes like.
And the damn thing still doesn't come with a built in radio. I don't know what in the hell Apple is thinking, as almost all of the other MP3 player manufacturers added an AM/FM tuner to their products years ago.
Sure, having 1000 songs in your pocket is cool, but what if I want to listen to a live news or weather report? What am I supposed to do, carry around a separate radio for that?
Does that mean with a uid as low as mine, I can tell you to get lost troll?
Slashdot readers also bafflingly think people who dont post on Slashdot care about OGG. Do we need to post the URL to the first iPod Slashdot thread?
They'll never learn.
Opinions, reviews, etc. are a key part of newspapers and magazines. Very often I buy some of these periodicals just because I value the opinion of its columnists, having gotten my "news" from the Internet or other sources.
-Stu
No, its better than that, its an ipod mini that is smaller and is based on solid state memory instead of a mechanical hard drive.
"You can now flame me, I am full of love,"
As others in this discission have remarked, Mossberg's bragging about his convertible's car stereo, not his Nano, amplifying clearly. Sure, a lo-fi Nano would make even a bitchin' stereo unintelligible. But "loud enough to hear" is talking about the amp, not the player.
I expect no better from Mossberg. He's a New York Times hack. He decided a few years ago which side of the Apple resurgence he was on, and shills for his chosen corporation every chance he gets. Their other corporate spinner, Markoff, is even worse. Their columns are just corporate-political spin, like the rest of the NY Times, but focused on marketing tech products (when they're not selling tech fear). As usual, read the NY Times mostly between the lines.
--
make install -not war
what exactly? of an original iPod? thats pretty small, i'll be surprised if they sell well considering you'd need very tiny thumbs
The checks in the post ...
A slashdotting - you get the stick first and then the carrot !
AAC is not a closed format and DRM is not required. You can use iTunes to rip your CDs to MP3 or AAC and they will work wherever you want. DRM is only an issue when you are buying an AAC online from the iTunes music store.
Hi-larious!
This nano iPod presents me with a big problem. Ever since the walkman came out in the 1980s I didn't see the point of listening to music in the train or the bus, where you get distracted all the time. I already have an mp3-player in my car, and an iBook that connects nicely to my stereo at home. So please /. crowd: give me a reason to buy this thing because it's soooo coool!!
-- Cheers!
Mossberg mentions that he prefers the look of the black nano. It will be interesting to see how what the market actually chooses as they start hitting the street. Seriously, I'm out here in the SF bay area and I haven't seen any of those U2 ipods out here at all. Personally, I thought they U2pods would have looked nicer had the scroll wheel been black instead of red.
Well, this seems like it'd be an almost perfect replacement for my shuffle, which I bought because it was an iPod *and* a replacement for my USB flash drive. I'd like a nano as a replacement for the Shuffle, as it's still small enough to be unobtrusive when work around the neck with a lanyard. But carrying a separate cable is out of the picture. I wish it had a flip out or something type of USB port... on the other hand, I guess I could just get an extra cable to leave at work!
--Jim (me)
Enough with the AM/FM tuner crap. Conventional broadcast TV and radio are dying. (Netcraft said so. j/k) Seriously, get a podcast if you want news and commentary.
This is the fate of a good many iPod users, I fear.
I have worked with several co-workers who have had hearing aids at age ~35.
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
Wondering how long does it take to load 2GB worth of songs, since nano use flash memory instead of HD.
Pull up the terminal on Mac OS X 10.4 and you'll find that "nano" works just fine. No Gentoo required.
Well, perhaps not any price, but I've seen quite a few comments regarding the "high" price of the Nano.
0 7VOETU/qid=1126200753/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/102-687117 6-7420916?v=glance&s=electronics
...with many other 4GB USB drives selling for $350-$450!!!
$249? I'll buy it they moment it lands at my local Apple store!
$249 for 4GB of flash, a music player and a screen is really not that bad. For example, The CHEAPEST 4GB USB drive I found on Amazon was $265.95...
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00
battery lasts longer.
This is not true. See the specs.
That review offerred not a single ounce of critical thought ability. Shame on you WSJ, Shame on you. It was almost mastabatory. Too fluffy for this guy.
http://omgwtfmedia.blogspot.com/
lame.
Ironically, the word ironically is often used incorrectly.
I think he should of stated that Apple designed a clean pre-amp stage that has a good S to N ratio and will deliver stable (as in wave form) signal to the cars amplifier.
To many cheapo pre-amps introduce hiss and noise when hitting thier limitsNow to get one and wire it to my trusty Crown DC300/A and DC150/A bi-amp setup through my IC150/a all outputed to my PSB Silvers, I love it when old and new tech comes together.
No. Just sign up and hush or move along.. I have a three digit UID, but I am not wasting my karma on you, foo.
"In fact, during my tests, I dropped the nano several times, deliberately, from a height of about 3 feet, and it didn't miss a beat. I also wore it around my neck on the lanyard during a couple of hours of pounding treadmill exercise, and it never skipped or froze."
Didn't miss a beat, eh? I wonder why.
It's $249 for the 4 GB.
Is this some sort of new rating scale I'm not familiar with?
Is this gonna start showing up in more reviews?
Are there different kinds of "top down"s? I mean, is the "top down" on a corvette the same as a mercedes or a Geo Metro LSi? Do you need to specify?
What about engine? Loud V8 vs quiet 4 banger? Tires? Surrounding traffic?
I wish he would clarify more, I mean "I can hear it with the top down" is a little bit vague...
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
thanks to Sluggy Freelance-the iSophagus!
http://store.sluggy.com/detailed-isoph.html
And now a word not from our sponsors:
bollocks
Thank you for your kind attention, we now return you to your regularly scheduled astroturf.
Don't let THEM immanentize the Eschaton!
Walkers Crisps are currently giving away an iPod Mini every 5 minutes during September. Seems the ideal way for Apple to get rid of excess stock in the UK. I wonder if Walkers were aware it was going to be discontinued?
Argh. I want the nano to have Bluetooth. Syncing the Treo with the Powerbook without detangling a forest of cables is a glorius thing.
The thing that would make me buy a new iPod would be if it were practically scratch-proof. Seriously. Is it that hard? I don't have a cover to protect my iPod---I have a cover to cover up all the scratches already on it!
"May the days be aimless. Let the seasons drift. Do not advance the action according to a plan."
Furthermore, most of the features you listed, the majority of people don't even care about. Only Slashdotters do. For example:
no radio
Who listens to the radio these days?
no voice record
How many people buying iPods to listen to music actually want this? It's available as an add-on.
no optical outputs
People don't care. Many people probably don't even know what an "optical output" is.
no OGG/WMA support
People DEFINITELY don't care. It's all MP3 or iTunes AAC.
too expensive for the size
I disagree. Those flash drives are about $200 as it is.
only work with iTunes
Most people use iTunes, so that's good to them.
"Sufferin' succotash."
I like how the guy said he dropped it and wore it while he was exercising and it didn't "skip". Yeah, I'm always having trouble with RAM-based data "skipping" when subjected to impacts. Good to know Apple has fixed that!
Yeah. That is what we old folk are doing when we make our playlists.
How does this new fangled technology handle prog rock concept albums? Got to keep the album tracks together and sequential or else the whole thing is just pointless.
Damned kids.
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
Why do we need a color screen? Are there people really looking at p0rn on this 1.5" screen? Is that's what's going on? Is that why you're killing the battery life and jacking up the price vs b&w screen so some people can look at p0rn on a 1.5" screen?
I have the "old" Mini and it did what it was suppose to do without trying to be something it's not. If I want to show people pictures I'll print them and show them, not this.
I also think the jack on the bottom is the stupidest idea yet. For nearly 5 years now all docks and cradles for PC, home stereo and vehicle have been plugging in on the bottom, which now will block that headphone jack. Also if i'm gonna hold the new ipod I have to hold it upside-down. Why Apple Why! Couldn't you just put it on top and put the hold button on the side or something?
With the Mini gone now we have no options. You can have:
--A shuffle, with 1gb max and no screen, not really a option
--the Nano, with it's upside-down headphone jack (that's my main complaint)
--the big and heavy 20+ gb iPods, which are great for in a car but I'd never want to run with one.
Guess I better go by another Mini before they're discontinued, maybe by the time the two of them die Apple will figure it out and have a decent mp3 player again.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
This is the first time an iPod has really impressed me. A 4 gig, flash-based player for $250 is quite good - and in addition this thing is TINY. Unlike the silly iPod Shuffle, this has a *nice* interface with a color screen.
I still wouldn't buy the Nano because I mostly need one for workouts, so I like to have a radio and stopwatch. Still, this is a neat little mp3 player. I think they're going to sell a LOT of these for Christmas.
Not necessarily. You have to consider your audience first. Quick quiz: What's the difference in the audiences for Popular Science or Discover and MIT Tech Review or Scientific American? Teen People might have a technical gadget review but do you think S to N ratios would make it in? And yes, the Wall Street Journal will have some savvy readers but I'm guessing that they understand their demographics and then publish reviews accordingly.
You forgot "Lame."
"Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples
Now I know where Nintendo was going with the Game Boy Micro.... I think that and nano can jockey for the "smallest consumer electronic" award this year
Insert Sig Here
However, I have to rant as I thought Slashdot was "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters." Why does ANYONE care what this Mossberg guy thinks / writes - first off, simply due to the fact that he writes for WSJ should be warning enough to not care what he has to say about anything technology based (just in case anyone forgot, the WSJ is a FINANCIAL newspaper - the only reason they have other sections of marginal interest is to broaden their reader base). Secondly, his ignorance about technology and bias to companies wooing him is simply blatant and laughable (his ignorance that the car amp being the primary driver for the sound produced by the Nano is evidence of his ignorance to various technologies - or maybe he just wanted to brag about the fact that he has a convertable and speeds) - essentially, this Mossberg guy provides surface-level fluff reviews that are rudimentary at best and essentially align with weather a respective product company is kissing his a** or not.
Note, I worked for the self-proclaiming "leader in interactive services" and I know for a fact that a good deal of executive attention was required for this guy to write a favorable article - then again, the article was primarily a self-prophecy for the executive in question - but still, this guy ended up writing a positive story about the product in question features and value to the consumer AND then, when the attention went away, he wrote in a article just a few months later talking about the exact same product that "the program is clumsy, bombarding you with promotions for features you don't use."
I mean don't get me wrong, it looks cool and everything and is fairly priced aganist the other iPods, but I have a tendency to loose things. I'm surprised I've even hung onto my cell phone this long. If I had a music player as small as a bussiness card, I'd loose it eventually...and then I'd cry.
Seriously, what kind of reviewer is impressed by this?
Well, possibly a reviewer who has used previous devices that could not emit enough volume to really turn up the music without distortion from the car amp.
I have had a few other MP3 playes before the iPod, at least one was weak enough that I didn't bother hooking it up to other stereos much and had to turn it most of the way up with headphones on.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
"Not an actor, but he plays one on TV."
Sure, having 1000 songs in your pocket is cool, but what if I want to listen to a live news or weather report?
Use the internet? 'cause radio isn't going to give you that, it's going to give you ten minutes of ads, five minutes of really annoying radio personality, and then PERHAPS a news/weather report.
Seriously, if you are looking for live news/weather you really want some kind of phone with a browser, not a radio. And for music you certainly don't want a radio - that's why I bought an iPod in the first place, because radio just never had enough variety or even music.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Direct Link for whoever wants it.
Basic Summary: Spoof Video for the 'new' iPod Flea.
Its surprisingly funny.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
>> I plan to buy one for myself this weekend, when it is due to reach stores in the U.S., Europe and Asia. you know how many times I've seen a geographical quote like this??? ARG!!! you know, we have a brand-name Apple store too, eh? ;) And we happen to be a pretty frikin' big country too!
Wouldn't they be 'stories that promote products'?
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
A good reason? One good reason is that audibooks (and you can convert standard audo tracks you have yourself into audiobooks) can be played faster with pitch-shifting - so you could for example get through a podcast or a lecture up to 25% faster than just listening to it normally.
Most people talk far too slowly (especially when lecturing) so I think it's a really nice feature.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
computer company.
The media are barking up the wrong tree as well. It gives Steve Jobs a lot of leeway for success. Heknows they're barking up the wrong tree, looking where he isn't and he's free to pursue the really BIG markets, like tying to get into the automotive playing space (selling car radios and other electronics MADE Motorola!)
As long as the media has its head up its ass, it isn't watching what he's actually doing.
Bill Gates is trying to do something with Microsoft but he made his bed with corporate culture and that is just killing him. Microsoft could never come up with anything like the iPod because they have always played catch up and it not in a market that they have any presence nor any possibility of having any. (The band width requirememts for the human factors are all wrong for the big clunky, clumsy, ugly Microsoft brand.) Bill Gates CAN'T imitate this one because it straying too far and his existing customer base won't let him.
Yeah, Apple sell the iMac and the iBook and the Power Mac and the Power Book (and the XServe stuff) but they were never in it to sell computers.
They are selling 'information appliances.' They always have. People used them as computers because they could, but Apple showed that that was the way onto their face from a standing position. (Remember Sculley's successor, Amelio?)
The iPod products, a home electronics franchise, are a much more viable and longer term product line.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
The only change in that regard is that the nano is USB 2.0 only - but even then it should work with older USB fullspeed devices, just slower. As with any iPod you can mount it as a drive and copy things to/from it - you don't ever need to load songs on it in fact if all you want is a cool USB drive.
As for a radio, I have not listened to a radio in my car for a few years now so I can't imagine why I would want to start on a portable audio device.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Does anyone know if the FM modulator for the mini can be used in the nano? If that is the case, I will be purchasing one today.
[%] Cingular Ringtones
The same cannot be said for my Cruzer Companion. I was really disappointed by the output. I turn the volume all the way up and it's still pretty weak- or at least not loud (with the earbuds). I won't even drive low frequencies on my HD280.
Additionally there is audible distortion using a Y to the RCA in on my car's amp. My friend's iPod (Gen 2) works great.
Fortunately I only paid $10 for it. I love my Cruzer Micro USB drive, it's tiny and holds a gig, but don't expect quality from the MP3 Companion (I wouldn't pay more than $15 for it).
For those of you who think it doesn't make a difference where your music is played from, let me assure you , it does!
That's what the iPod nano Tubes (on Apple store alongside nano) are for - they give color and add protection.
I have something very like it for my current iPod and like it quite a bit - beyond some measure of shock protection it also provides extra grip so the iPod will not slide off angled surfaces (like a car dash) as easily.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
or does drag and drop in XP's Explorer work ?
...) that I certainly won't buy anything that doesn't do simple drag and drop.
I've struggled so much with several flavours of proprietary software over the years (even recent stuff from Sony, Creative
PS: this is an honest question, not a troll, I've read a few articles about the nano, none answered that question.
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
If they made it clear and you could get any color you want?
I suspect that the reason the don't though is because of scratch resistance.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
88 mph my iPod nano goes back in time two generations and the battery life sucks! How can I generate enough jiggawatts to get back to the future?
It's times like this that I wish I liked music...
Moreover, when you rip CDs with iTunes, unlike WMP it will not default to add DRM to your own songs.
What the review offered the press releases did not:
Varification of battery life. Did you honestly trust the manufacturer claims for battery life outright?
Real-world storage. While he didn't give an exact figure, you can extrapolate a more real-world idea of how many of your songs the nano might hold based on Mossbergs rough explanation of Apples standrd being larger than older music.
Audio output strength - roughly the same as other iPods. They could have reduced it to save battery life. Please note I did not say Quality as you cannot determine that from the convertible test.
Improved description of size. The business card analogy was particularily good, though I am sure he reversed that - he said cut 20% from a buisness card when really I think he meant 20% longer.
So basically there was a lot of information there, if you chose to read the review carefully. Plus it's always more interesting hearing a real user speak about how it is to use. You can only trust them so far, but it's just like movie reviewers in the regard.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Compusa or Fry's or...
Seriously though, I'd expect the aftermarket price on these things to go up, so reselling them might be a good idea.
But 4 GB of storage will only hold about 6% of my MP3 collection. I guess there's a market for these small capacity players but I'm interested in a portable player that holds 80GB or more.
You know, like a set of Shure E3cs that just connect to each other, with all the memory and battery built in. Now that would be cool. And much closer to nano sized.
Guess I'll have to wait for the iPod Pico or Femto before my wish comes true.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
i thnk the solid state memory is "neat", but c'mon apple, what's with the lack of TECHNICAL innovation?! when will people stop being satisfied with shiny white plastic as a substitue for true innovation?
the ipodHearingAid would be pretty sweet too.. with 5 gigs per ear.. imagine that
All right, putting aside the fact that that link doesn't even work, what kind of anti-abuse system do these sites have? What would happen if, say, some theorertical script were to sign up about ten thousands referrers for somebody's account? Think it'd get pulled?
"I was able to make out every note to Red Dirt Road while my girlfriend was nagging me."
Better, I can't hear anything but my girlfriend's muffled "mrrrumph" when I travel the brown dirt road.
I own an Rio Carbon, and I love it. I like it better than my wife's iPod Mini. Among other things, it actually has a built-in EQ (instead of a bunch of stupid EQ presents) and I find the controls easier to use than that silly "thumb-dial thing" on the iPod. Also, iTunes does not seem to have any features over the Rio Music Manager that I would actually use. If memory serves, my RIO was ~$75 cheaper than a comparable iPod when I bought it.
But I suppose I'm the exception rather than the rule. I'm 32, and I don't listen to any of the crap they play on the radio when I can help it. My wife on the other hand, listens to top-40 almost exculsively and loves the "shuffle" feature on her iPod.
Apple's famous iPod navigation wheel
Uh, doesn't that belong to Microsoft?
even if it doesn't compare with the 15,000 songs or up to 25,000 photos that Apple says its $399 full-size iPod can hold.
I don't have even 1,500 songs I consider worth listening to.
Most flash players have tiny screens that are hard to read, lousy navigation and few or no accessories.
And cost a lot less.
Of course, one thing to take with a grain of NaCl:
This latest iPod was publicly revealed yesterday at a razzle-dazzle marketing event orchestrated by Apple CEO Steve Jobs. But I have been testing a nano for the past few days
You've got to keep writing glowing reviews if you expect to get a pre-release version of Apple's next toy.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
collection seems to dwarf yours.
800+ CDS, (all ripped) 450+ vynil records (ripping in progress.) But I seriously don't want to carry my entire collection with me.
I find the shuffle is good enough to play the lists of what I really want to have on it for a coupld of days and the podcasts that I listen to.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Last summer I was offered an internship at Apple by a guy with the last name of Nano. After 2 interviews where they got me all pumped up and told me they would send me the paperwork soon. I never heard back. He never even responded to me to let me know that they decided they hired full time guys instead of an intern. I learned that later from someone else. This was at the ITMS so I was totally stoked. Now they've named an iPod after this dick head. My Karma rating is good on /. WTF?!
Like I said, fanboys will eat it up. People who already have a 60 gig ipod will simply snicker and move on.
I own a 60 gig iPhoto and frankly I'm salivating over the 4g black Nano. Why? Because it is smaller, no HD to bust up and can easily be worn on my arm during a workout. thus far I have relied on an MD unit for workouts and on the go travelling, but now the Nano will do what I need save for capacity. For that I have the 60g iPhoto, a portable amp and a high quality set of headphones for work and school.
Having had a 3G iPod with a crapped out battery, I'd really like to see Apple give their new iPods user-replaceable batteries like cell-phones have. I don't mind a proprietary battery, as long as I can buy a spare and charge one while the other is playing. I can only assume Apple hasn't yet done this b/c it cuts into their margins, and most people don't think about this till after they already bought one.
I'd also really like a radio incorporated, even if it can't record radio audio, it would be nice to have. Although podcasts make a decent substitute, it would still be nice to listen to NPR or some of the more obscure channels.
Flying is easy, just throw yourself at the ground and miss. -Douglas Adams
We know what Apple was thinking. They want you to pay for your music (iTunes) rather than listen to it for free (AM/FM).
I'm waiting for an MP3 player with a built-in P2P client. [/sarcasm]
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Music is merely the least unpleasant noise.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
"Less space than a Nomad. No wireless. Lame."
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I have a 20gb ipod, and while i love it, it's kind of heavy.
I use it when I walk and put it in my shirt pocket (i have a long torso so the headphone wire isnt long enough to put it in my pants pocket).. And its constantly pulling my shirt down.
A nano would be perfect for walking cause its so small.
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No gapless MP3 playback! Come on, the Rio Karma could do it years ago. I've got a 1st gen Mini now, but I won't buy another iPod before they can do gapless. Mix albums just don't work now.
.sc
Of course, they'd have to start with iTunes. A jukebox that can't do gapless is severely b0rked IMO.
WTF, Mossberg has picked up the mantle for folksy witticisms and name-dropping now that Pournelle isn't producing much anymore? I mean come on, are we going to read next week about how "it was wonderful to dial the firmness level of the new Select Comfort mattress while involved with PMOY 1998, and we never once upset the fine Beluga Caviar nor Dom Perignon '79 resting on the 350-count Egyptian cotton sheets purchased specially for this occasion, despite our best efforts."
Or, are we going to get Dan Rather-esque comments now like "the sound is nicer than a horse on a gallop" or "it's smaller than an ear of corn in July."
Boy, if only Consumer Reports was so rigorous and scientific.
...get used to senior people in your job getting perks while you work your ass off. The theory is that you'll be one of them someday. I guess you missed that.
IANAL and trying hard to use FLAC which is not that iTunes friendly!
In Soviet Russia, Nano is a text editor!
You can use the "Shuffle by album" setting, which means it selects an album by random and plays it from beginning to end. I also prefer listening to complete albums on my iPod.
Lalala
Does anybody have any links to sites with photos / specs of the Nano disassembled?
I've been unable to find anything yet -- I'd like to know what kind of flash drive / connector it uses...
------------------------------
Ray Raspberry
raspberry@b3l33t.org
I feel so much better knowing that I can legally play my iTunes AAC files on Linux as an AAC file. I'm glad that Apple invented a way to have DRM that is not really DRM or intrusive.
What a great invention. This Steve Jobs must be a really great guy.
I think I will forget about alternatives and go iPod + AAC.
I really want an iPod nano, but I can't justify buying one until my current 3rd gen breaks. I've tried everything to break it. I've gone swimming with it, I've kicked it off the second floor onto concrete, I've even had a friend step on the screen with cowboy boots. It still runs fine.
Why are there still so few portable players that play gaplessly? Is it just that most people are ignorant about gapless playback and thus it's not a selling point? Seems to me that a company could make a gapless player and then advertise the hell out of it.
I'm just glad that they ported Rockbox to my iriver H120. I know there're a lot of people who aren't as fortunate.
Am I the only one who doesn't really understand this need to miniturize everything?
The only exception to this may be the cellphone (says me with a Treo 650). The point is that all these things have to be carried on your person.
I now have a (regular) iPod, a PSP and my previously mentioned Treo.
Sure, for a gadget hound who wants phone, music, movies, games and PDA on my person, this is a shrinking but they will not all fit in my pockets, unless it's winter.
I carry a 'man-bag' when I'm going somewhere sans laptop. Given that, I'm not really bothered that the new iPod is 50% smaller (or whatever). It makes no difference.
As the flood follows the storm, so follows the 'free' pyramid scheme to every new ipod release...
www.ipodsforfree.com. beautiful, really.
Funny, guys seem to go crazy for pretty girls and pretty cars.
Girls seem to go crazy for pretty boys, pretty clothes, and pretty cars.
GPL Deconstructed
Greetings, Earth creatures! I smork with glee that our plan to enslave your puny race is proceeding so well. As soon as enough of you have inserted the mind control devices into your ugly listening orifices, we will transmit the Signal and strike. Agent Steve has done a masterful job of introducing the Pod units and he shall be made Overlord of Earth when you are defeated! Plus, all the filthy lucre gained will be used to get the Supreme Commander a new ride that will attract nubile female units. All hail Agent Steve!
I am my own gestalt.
It's much snappier! I thought everyone knew that.
Because I'm the opposite. I know I would tighten it.
Ok, but then...
He goes and says the exact opposite!
The iPod might have many superior features but high quality sound wasn't one of them. Anybody who thinks any iPod "sounds great" has a tin ear.
To me, it sounds like the guy doesn't understand "how stuff works."
In short, it sounds like my grandma doing a review of knoppix.
How about next time you guys link to a review from somebody who understands sound? It might be a little more believable.
As it is, I'm taking a good pair of phones into the store and listening to the damned thing myself, and comparing to some other ones. I read Sony's new one rocks so hard that it's getting good reviews, even though it isn't out until next month.
Ok, go and rip a live or mix (as in tunes mixed together with no gaps in between) CD and transfer it to your iPod.
First, play the audio CD on a real CD player. Notice the smooth transition from one song to next.
Now try the iPod -- you'll get audible gaps (almost a second) in between the tracks, which totally kill the mood. I.e. the iPod can't play an album, something CD players, turntables, cassette decks and whatever have done forever.
Now, before someone notes that MP3 isn't gapless by design -- no it isn't, but there are ways around that. Ways that even the market leader in MP3 players should go.
See also: http://www.pretentiousname.com/mp3players/
I'm a fan in general of the ipod, but *still* there is no support for additional file formats. I was hoping OGG support would be on it's way, assuming that the chipset capability problems of the past (wether this was actually a problem or not,) would be made moot by new hardware. :-/
The ipod functions better as an mp3 player than any competitor, largely because of the functional UI and industrial design. The scroll wheel and interface are what's worth the premium, not support for fringe formats or feature creeping.
cz
so lets say it is about form and not function? so what? so are ties, rings, most clothes...it if was all about function it would be an ugly, boring and functional world. apart from the battery life, higher reliability of flash memory compared to hardrives etc.
Mac toys and accessories blog
This was done years ago.
i ews/934/index5.htmlrel=url2html-10671http://www.st ereophile.com/digitalsourcereviews/934/index5.html >
ahref=http://www.stereophile.com/digitalsourcerev
It did very, very well on all those regular THD, SNR, etc. tests. "better many CD players". Given the limitations of the size and availability of power (battery can't come close to a wall socket in ability to deliver oomph), it is a near miracle.
Of course, much of that miracle came from Wolfson (the DAC used in the iPod), and so all the iPod competitors can do the same if they just get the analog parts on the output amps right.
But anyone who says the iPod is objectively bad on audio quality is off their rocker. It may be bested in some areas, but the differences between the iPod and its competitors (especially in the negative direction) are miniscule compared to the overall excellence of any of these devices.
I mean, seriously, bitching about 96dB S/N instead of 100dB? The average background sound level in a room is 40dB or more, so you can't get even 96dB S/N to your ears unless the peaks of the music are hitting 136dB. Is your system doing that? And besides that, these S/N tests show the iPod clears 100dB by a little bit anyway.
As to your bass compaints (which are spot on), perhaps under all this pressure, Apple has seen the light with the Nano, we'll have to see some measurements. Note that into a high impedance (line level) input, even the mini has no bass problems, even from the headphone out. Because the output caps create a rolloff filter with the impedance of the load. On 16 or 32 ohm headphones, the rolloff might be distressingly high (40Hz?), but when you kick the load impedance up to 1K ohms, as a line level input is, the rolloff retreats down to below 10Hz.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Sorry about that.
3 4/index5.html
http://www.stereophile.com/digitalsourcereviews/9
And note that these tests were though the headphone jack, since the original iPod had no line out.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Saw this the other day and it made me laugh... suddenly it's relevant to a /. article! Check it out... it's pretty funny.
10100111001
It's called "warmth".
yak butter. You have to grease the connectors with yak butter.
Really, I though everyone knew that
What impresses me the most about the new played is that it's flash based, instead of hard drive based. In the past, my mp3 players that were HD based had a lot of problems with durability.
I currently use a Rio Karma (which I'd love and recommend, if it held up well), but I travel with my player too much, including biking. HD based players are much more easily ruined by jaring motions, drops, etc. Your HD begins to degrade, sometimes songs skip or the player freezes up. Perhaps you cant use the full capacity of the player for very long.
Since an music player is mostly in 'read' mode, the fact that flash memory will eventually wear out is very acceptable. The nano should last until a much nicer player comes out that has a much higher capacity for the form factor.
I've never been interested in apple products before (my rio does a lot more than the apple products do - ogg support, better playlist support, DJ modes, etc), but it's on it's way out, due to the HD. When it dies, I know where i'll be looking next...
The reason the iPod has been doing so poorly in Korea, Taiwan and elsewhere in Southeast Asia is size. People there like their mp3 players TINY -- they don't give a guff for capacity as long as it's super-small and shockproof. The Shuffle was a step in the right direction, but without a display its capabilities were limited. The Nano is perfectly poised to make serious inroads into the Asian mp3 player arena, if they market it well enough.
Now if they added recording capabilities (which Asian students often use to record lectures, for some reason), the Japanese manufacturers would really start to sweat.
20GB ~ 290 CDs ~ 300 hours (3000 songs, give or take).
How many hours do you listen to music per day ( I mean listen, caring about what you are letting smash yur auditive little bones) ? 1 hours? 2 hours? 10 hours?(yeah sure).
Do you need between 150 to 300 days worth of music at any given time?
I hasten you don't.
Bar professional people (DJs and the like) that really *need* that much music, all the rest of people have that much music just for pose.
People with that many CDs will never ever revisit 80% of them.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Someone else already said it, but this guy clearly doesn't know very much about technology. He thinks the Nano is powering the output of his car's stereo? Come on!
I'm an iPod fan myself - I own a 3rd generation 10gb - but Apple really needs to start doing something with the iPod other than making it smaller and changing the screen. I mean, come on, the "photo" thing is useless. There's absolutely no reason for an iPod to have a color screen. They should be adding new functionality that's actually useful... recording, anyone? Radio, perhaps? But of course, that would probably make the iPod less profitable. Bah.
Gapless playback would be great, too. I'm sure they could do that with a firmware update, so what are they waiting for?
Oh, and they really need to do away with the white and silver design. I know it's popular, but the Mini didn't look like that, and it still sold well. The white and silver design sucks. It looks really pretty - until you take it out of the box. Every time you touch it, you're going to leave a finger print on there, even if you wash your hands first. And don't even think about putting it in your pocket if you don't want to scratch it. Cases don't help. While they're at it, they could make the battery removable...
Of course, it doesn't really matter. People will keep buying them, and I'll certainly keep using mine. But the iPod is hardly as perfect as some people seem to think it is.
And thus we see why slashdot people are not in marketing.
Yeah, no kidding. This thing has *way* less space than most other products. Oh, and no wireless. Lame.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
Honestly, stop deluding yourself.
You don't have enough free time left on you to listen to all that music.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I'm a mac fan. I love the computers.
I really was only ever interested in the iPod for the storage capacity though, and then a little bit of brand prefference.
I was in a store that got a supply of the nano, and the eather hit the air strong!
Looking at the internet doesn't do this thing justice. I can only equate the size to about that of a remote to a car stereo(if you're even familiar with those).
This unit is beyond description after that.
Nothing will truely give you the idea of how genuinely awesome this unit is until you hold it.
The black ones will be in short supply soon, I garuntee it. In my opinion, this is one of the best designs Apple has done to date. I really encourage everyone to find a store and check them out!
The benefits of miniaturization are so obvious it is not worth mentioning them....
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Hrmmm... the Rio Karma has always tracked the number of times a song has been played as well as when the last time was.
... ( select your decade )
/mourn Rio
In addition, it has more smart "shuffle" modes than any other device I've seen:
Random (normal shuffle of the current playlist)
Entertain me (15 mins - 8 hours of the most played tracks.)
Play All ( sorted by Album, Artist, Genre, or Year)
Top Tunes ( play the most played 10-250 tunes )
New Music (songs newer than 1day-1year)
Memory Lane (songs not played in the past 1day-1yr)
Sounds of
Forgotten Gems (old favorites not played in the past 1day-1yr)
Deja Vu (only tracks that were played in the last 1day-1yr)
Random Mix (anything, lasting 15mins-8hrs (or all))
Gapless and lossless(FLAC) playing are gravy.
(really good gravy.)
It doesn't allow you to rate the tracks, but number of times played kind is similar. If a tune that you would rank low begins, and you next track, the count isn't incremented. High personally ranked songs will most likely be played fully through, and thus have the highest playcount.
I love the headphone/lanyard. I can't think of a better way to show off how cute and light this thing is.
Something still seems funny, as he said to cut "from the long end". I guess it's probably even smaller than I thought then...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
THE FINEST? It is to laugh! Assuming that by "musical experience" here you really mean "digital audio players," are you either a fanboy or just uninformed?
The Apple DAPs:
- Can't play Vorbis(ogg) or FLAC. Both formats are becoming more and more popular. FLAC is THE preferred encoding in lossless music trading.
- Have above average, but not the best, D/A output circuitry.
- Can't play songs in order gaplessly. (only the Rio Karma did?)
- Has a lousy EQ.
- Are overly pricey.
Besides being very trendy, please explain why an iPod is even close to being the "finest musical experience out there - by far."
To use your own anology, the $249 for 4GB complaint from myself would be more like looking at some $50k car and realizing that "its engine isn't powerful, not efficient, the stereo sucks, the seats are uncomfortable, and I've seen better road handling on 18-wheelers. It has OK style and is trendy though..."
Very rarely do I lust after hardware the way I did with the iPod Nano. I have yet to purchase a portable MP3 player for various reasons, but the nano was the one for me. I drove up to the local Apple retail store, picked one up, opened it up, powered it up, and was very surprised to see that it didn't come pre-loaded with any tunes or pictures. *Sigh*, I'll have to wait until I get home to play with it. When I got home, it wouldn't power up, but did respond to a reset. I was able to play a bit, and then it went into a "dark apple" screen. I figured the battery might be dead, so I installed the software but my Windoze PC didn't even recognize that a USB device was connected. I was able to reset the nano once more, but then it went back to the "dark apple" screen, where it now sits , unresponsive to any commands. Grrr. I hope this isn't a repeat of the *last* piece of apple hardware I purchased, a PowerBook 5300... -p.
http://www.stereophile.com/digitalsourcereviews/93 4/index5.html
But what would Stereophile and their testing equipment know?
The reason the ipod sounds horrible when you use the equalizer is not really the ipod's fault. It is your mp3s that are at fault. The reason they sound so bad is they are recorded at a level that leaves no room to boost any frequencies without distortion... let me explain. The EQ in the ipod is a digital one, and a digital signal can only be so loud before it runs out of bits and is clipped. Most songs are recorded right up to this digital limit of volume level to get the highest signal to noise ratio possible, but this also leaves no room for boosting using a digital EQ. Therefore any EQ setting on the ipod that is trying to boost frequencies can lead to severe clipping causeing the sound to be horrible even at low headphone volume level. The solution is to lower the volume of your MP3s that you load onto your ipod leaving room for the EQ to do its job without clipping. You can do this using various software, but the one I like most is called MP3Gain (google search for it). You just set what target dB level you want, it it changes the headers of your mp3s to reach that level, without changing the actual data of the MP3 itself (it only changes the header to use a multiplier of sorts to adjust volume). When you load these adjusted MP3s into your IPOD you will find you can use all the EQ settings with absolutely NO distortion at any headphone volume. And because the final amp of the IPOD is so good you will still get ear shattering volume despite the MP3s being slightly lower in volume. The difference in sound quality is stunning! Try it! No more shying away from using the EQ (which is a very high quality one in the ipod). There is lots of info around about this topic, just do a google search for ipod EQ distortion, and you will find more detailed info on why this works. Hope this helps!
Yes I love iPods and now have more macs than pcs.
But that isn't the reason I am going to buy one of these puppies.
Right now I have been on a kick to learn other languages. In my French class I have to memorize MANY words through audible clues only.
4G is more than enough for that purpose. And I still have my gigantic (by this things size) regular iPod for the rest of my collection. But to be honest even 20G of space is more than I need right now. So 1000 songs (at 5minutes a song that is ALOT of music) is plenty.
This is JUST what I didn't realize I wanted. Damn you Apple!
compressed files (AAC or mp3) played through an iPod sound very very thin compared with the full sound of the cd or record.
umm.. duh? It's compressed, remember? The CD isn't. Any audiophile/person with good enough equipment to 'tell' will only rip to Lossless or uncompressed formats.
Who says you have to listen to compressed music through an iPod? I use mine for checking mixdowns of artists I work with. Full, uncompressed AIF and WAV files. I don't mean to toot my own horn, but they sound crisp and clear, with all the low end I mixed in.
And trust me, a set of Grados sound amazing combined with an iPod. I think you're completely lost on this one.
These earbud's will destroy a generations hearing due to the condensor being so close to the ear drum. eh?
I'd wager the contradiction is due to the discretized nature of data in information theory. When dealing with analog signals, distortion comes into effect.
Funny how the idiotic apple-bashing always picks on iTunes. Iriver players only work with their godawful software, nobody bitches about that. At least iTunes has a decent interface. And, really, who gives a damn about OGG other than Gnu-sucking zealots? And WMA? does anybody who knows enough to post here not know how to find trans-coding software?
Check out my foes list to see who is so retarded that they can't use the signature line!!!
Quit bragging about your backdoor proclivities!
Check out my foes list to see who is so retarded that they can't use the signature line!!!
Nothing that discourages people from listening to "progressive Rock" is a bad thing for society. Cape-wearing artfags must die!
Check out my foes list to see who is so retarded that they can't use the signature line!!!
There's the magic. The same tools on this website who slam microsoft for being a monopoly are the ones who are drinking the koolaid with the ipod no questions asked. "Don't sell your soul to MS..." touts the geek chick crowd - all the while allowing a non-video pmp to stunt the world's acceptance of technology that puts pictures to sounds because "everybody else is doing it".
>The voltage levels for line inputs have been standardized for years and is quite non-critical anyway -- while standard line level is 2 V P-P for 0 dB
There are plenty of standarts. For example, 250 mV, 750 mV, 755 mV, 1,0 V. All my home equipment runs at 250 mV. So, 1 V is a 6 dB OVERLOAD of input in my case. I'm sure, you know this is bad.
And almost for sure is hearable even at 70 MPH
>Impedances are even more trivial -- a typical line input as an impedance around 15 K ohms, which is easier to drive than the 600 ohms
Yes, you can get same voltage easy. So what? How about matching output impedance, for proper work of output amlifyers in iPod? Look at your's AV receiver - 50/50 it has "LOW Impedance" mode for speakers. And there are only difference between 4 and 8 Ohms! You are talking about difference 600 to 15000. You HAVE TO think hard about this while designing such devices. Or you WILL hear distorted sound even at 70 mph in subway.
> The analysis I read compared various outputs...
t hreshold=0&commentsort=1&tid=141&mode=thread&cid=1 0860019
give me a link, please. I'm searching for it for ages:
http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=130168&
It's still missing ogg vorbis support. When will that be added or how can one hack in vorbis support?
The phone thing is just plain silly. I would LOVE to have an iTunes client on PalmOS though. I don't need an iPod since my Palm has SD cards.
So, what has all of the features you mention for $249?
Oh, and form factor is VERY important, so if it's larger than the nano in any dimension, it's too big.
What should I get?
Give your palm a rest. You'll go blind.
Well, the Rio Karma! HOWEVER
- Good Luck finding a new one (~$200), or refurbished (~$150).
- Rio just left the DAP business, so...
- It has a 20GB HD, not flash.
- It is larger than the nano in ALL dimensions.
I did research on DAP features for almost a full year before I finally decided on the Karma. It has a ton of other nifty features (Ethernet on the dock, anyone?) that are cool as well. The big selling points for me were that it plays FLAC and Vorbis, progresses to the next track gaplessly, and has wonderful analog output (and true line-out on the dock.) Other features like its 5-band Parametric equalizer are exceptional.
Personally, I'm very happy with it. That being said, it might not be anything close to what is good for you. If form-factor is "VERY" important to you, the Nano clearly beats it. If you don't care about FLAC, gapless, etc. - then those are pointless features. There are features that the Karma does NOT have, that most DAPs do. The biggie here is MSC, which I really wish it had.
I'm not saying that the Nano isn't perhaps the best device for you or others, it very well may be! For myself, I don't mind the larger size and weight for the features which I find important. I'll probably try and find a deal on a refurb Karma to use as a backup device. Just research the different options on all the players out there. Check out http://dapreview.net/news.php and other sites.
The Nano could be exactly all you need. My post was just criticizing calling any iPod the best player.
it seems to me that apple doesn't think in terms of the hardware - software
dichotomy where what goes on the screen has nothing to do with what is
going on in the hardware -- with apple, the form and function become synonymous.
the scroll wheel becomes 'part of' what you see going on with the menu structure
on the screen, and it happens so that what you see on the screen is visually continuous
from the hardwired controls.
this seamlessness of form and function works really well with a WHITE ipod
using a WHITE UI background colour -- but when you look at the BLACK nano,
it still uses a white UI -- which breaks the total 'blackness' in a way which doesn't
occur with the white ipod (which has white case AND white UI).
it seems that to be consistent, they should also be able to set the screen's
UI colours such. that way, the white ipod uses a white bkgnd with black text,
and the black nano uses a black bkgnd with white text -- then the screen
UI for both versions would remain continuous with the outer form-factor.
probably the easiest form of implementation for this would be in the setttings,
to offer a selection of UI colour -- to match the colour of UI to the colour of
the case -- e.g. you could have a red and black UI for the U2 ipod.
2cents.
j.
I'm hoping that iTunes treats it like a regular iPod and doesn't cripple it for Podcasts. Unless I'm missing something, there's no way to automatically sync podcasts to the shuffle, why? If anything, the shuffle is even more appropriate for podcast listening.
It's a great, great device. Sure, the 2GB/4GB limit is frustrating, but this is a really a first gen device. I'm imaging the future where I'm buying one of these when it hits 10GB, because now there's going to be a huge, huge demand for flash memory. The Apple store I went to, they were almost out of stock 8 hours after selling them.
http://www.thosebastards.com
Thanks! I will remember that for when ipods are no longer cool and i can buy one for £10 and run it off external AA ni-cads sellotaped onto its back.
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
I was reading too quickly and took it to say "cut from the long end", not "cut along the long side".
Now it does make more sense though it gives me pause as it sounds almost too small to be true.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
FYI, all the larger iPods (all of them except the Shuffle and the new Nano) use hard drives to store their info. The regular iPod uses 1 and 2-platter 1.8" hard drives on various models, and the mini uses 1" hard drives. The Shuffle and Nano use a pair of solid-state flash chips for storage.