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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.'"
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.
it's smaller.
battery lasts longer.
its more dependable.
has more space than shuffle, but smaller size.
color screen.
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!
It's called a product review, dufus!
Sometimes Mossberg's reviews are negative. Sometimes they're positive. In this case, he obviously really liked the iPod nano.
He's a well respected journalist and doesn't just write puff pieces promoting any product he gets sent to him (not even if it's from Apple). I have no idea where you're coming from on this "embarrassment" angle. There is legitimate and valuable journalism in credible reviews, and you're nuts to say otherwise.
define "better"
SNR/THD/A2D/SPL/HZ/BR ?
You actually have a very good point, AC.
The portable audio world is long overdue for a serious evaluation of all the handheld players out there, with both subjective double-blind listening tests and electronically measured performance specs.
The ideal test would first compare all players using lossless playback (if available), and then compare them once again using the "suggested" compression format for each unit (128 AAC for the iPod, WMA for the Zen, etc.)
I've heard audio critics praise the lossless playback performance of various iPod models before, especially when using the line-out from the docking port instead of the headphone-out on the top, but to date I know of no serious audio magazine which has done the sort of comparison they would do when evaluating CD players or Tuners.
Has anybody seen anything like that, and if so, do you have a link?
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.