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Ars Technica's iPod nano Dissection
starwindsurfer wrote to mention an Ars Technica review of the iPod nano in which they autopsy the cute little guy to find out what makes him tick. A more thorough review than the one we ran last week. From the article: "At this point we were astounded that the iPod nano was still working properly, albeit with a broken display. Because we had honestly expected the iPod nano to break by this time, we were forced to depart from our planned schedule of destruction and try and run over it with the car. Surely, we thought, it could never withstand the crushing power of German automotive engineering." Update: 09/12 14:58 GMT by Z : Changed linking words to previous article for clarity. Monday fuzziness.
Size of the iPod never really mattered to me, the 30 GB photo is small enough. What they should consentrate on is making it scratch proof, I can't stand so many scratches. Cases do not work so well, they still scratch and add lots of bulk.
also refer to the outstanding battery life?
Seriously, I find it funny how as soon as we get some new piece of technology our first instinct is to break it. Honestly think about it. I can't tell you how many things I can't wait to take apart as soon as I buy it. There has to be somehting unhealthy about this.
:)
Give somehting new and unknown to a bunch of apes and the first thing they do is smash it or rip it apart inquisitively.
Guess we ain't so superior after all.
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
Treat hardware really roughly and it will break.
I am not sold on this. It is too small and costs too much. But I guess if I was driving 55 in my convertible, I'd be able to hear the playback over my car stereo crystal clear.
Jesus saved me from my past. He can save you as well.
Nice to know it is so durable.
:)
Like another poster mentioned, it would be nice if they (any iPod, really) was more scratch-proof, but I suppose it helps drive the acessories market.
That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
As much as I love iPods, every generation of iPod has broken in one form or another. Being hard drive based, they're not durable at all. I don't abuse my products but these things can't take anything. The first generation had its problems with the scroll wheel going loose, I had returned it and gotten another one. Typically the Apple warrantee is crap, their customer service is also crap. You walk into an apple store and they typically treat the customer in the most condescending manner possible. This was in the Tysons Corner, VA Apple store. It's gotten better more recently, but when they started out it was like pulling teeth to get them to listen to any form of reason. Thankfully, the iPods were replaced fairly quickly, I'm sure that it was a common problem for them to have treated it as such. The one thing about the iPod nano that I've been worried about it durability. Apples history with physical durability is pretty crap, IMO. By the way, for the nay sayers, I now go to AbsoluteMac for my apple needs, nearby Rockville, they're great guys. When my mom mentioned how crappy the staff is at the apple stores, they responded with 'Yeah, we get those kind of complaints all the time.'
http://www.auritribe.net/
Won't someone please think of the children! Anyway it's a gruelling sight if you can't afford one, but an interesting experiment if you think about getting one (or get one for free).
Article on the new iGadget being a failure? Check.
Apple g33k pr0n? Check.
Wow, this guy really DOES have Apple pegged... I mean, at first it was funny, but now it's just creepy...
Maxim: People cannot follow directions.
Increases in truth directly with the length of time spent explaining them
If you open up a cat to see how it works, the first thing you have is a non-working cat.
What I don't understand is why, oh why hasn't apple incorporated an FM tuner into their iPod line yet?? Creative and iRiver have it on their models, it can't be that hard to implement. They are priced competitively as well so i can't be a cost issue.
Seriously, for me the downside of the Nano is the lack of FM tuner. Mp3's are great, but sometimes you just want to listen to radio.
I have been looking at getting an mp3 player for quite some time, and I thought the Nano was going to be my thing. But I will probably just wait until iRiver comes out with their clone with the FM tuner on it.
I got nothin'
Server's running slow with less than 60 comments, so:
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3D Printing Tips and Tricks at Zheng3.com
Well after reading the review and the few comments posted so far, I have decided to purchase one of these on my lunch break at the local Apple store. Although, I do need to agree with everyone else... when will apple make this bugger scratch proof? I would be royally annoyed at scratches on my IPod.
-- Josh
"Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me!" - Pete Conrad
That was a bit confusing on a Monday morning... You linked the words "more thorough review" to point to the less thorough review.
- what is the definition of simultanagnosia?! I've been meaning to look it up!
Their choices for stress tests were less than ideal. I'm never going to drop my ipod out of a moving car. What would have been good was some tests that would tend to bend the ipod rather than just impact tests. Instead of just sitting on it, put it in the back pocket of some tight jeans and sit down. For that matter, putting it in the coin pocket of some tight jeans and sitting down seems like it would put some stress on it.
Just the other day, I was planning a mountain biking excursion with my flatemate. He'd never been mountain biking before, and he somehow got it into his head that bringing his Ipod Mini would be a good idea.
I tried to convince him that he would break it via collision with rocks or maybe a tree. He claimed that it was a very durable piece of hardware.
To demonstrate, he dropped it to the carpeted floor and bopped it with his foot...
The display shattered.
I think I laughed for a good half-hour. I felt bad about it, but there's nothing you can do but laugh when something so perfectly comedically timed happens.
It wasn't all bad. He just used this as an excuse to buy the new Nano.
GeekNights!
Late Night Radio for Geeks!
subSystm has a video if the inside of the nano for anyone who is interested
subSystm is a short version of the full episode Systm
All spelling mistakes are due to solar flares...honest
The article should really be entitled How to Kill an iPod nano as I think that's the real purpose of the article. It must be fun to buy the latest gadget and then find creative ways to destroy it.
Basically the final cause of death for the iPod was to throw it up in the air as high as possible, about 40 feet, and then let it smack down on the concrete. That was the final nail in the coffin after dropping it from 9 ft., dropping it multiple times from a speeding car (10 MPH to 50 MPH) and running over it twice. Pretty durable for a little music player.
infested with jello like fishes no melotron wishes
--> we were forced to depart from our planned schedule of destruction and try and run over it with the car. Surely, we thought, it could never withstand the crushing power of German automotive engineering --
Will you please please run a review on my Mother-In-Law ??? Gratitudes in advance.
"Give somehting new and unknown to a bunch of apes and the first thing they do is smash it or rip it apart inquisitively."
...
Yeah, and that's why we're sitting in our ergonomic leather-padded swivel chairs, taking apart complex consumer electronics with cheap mass-produced durable metal alloy tools, in our centrally-heated/air-conditioned house, writing up the experience on our cheap yet powerful computing devices and posting the results half-way around the world (at light-speed, or thereabouts) to be hosted by other computers in a completely different country.
And why other mammals are being hunted for food, or lounging around in a tank at seaworld squeaking stupidly and begging us for fish.
Well... that and opposable thumbs....
Everything in moderation, including moderation itself
"autopsy the cute little guy"
I believe the term is "vivisect" unless the subject is already dead.
E pluribus unum
While overall I thought the article was informative, amusing, and well-written, I don't know why Ars brings up the issue of compatibity with FireWire as a reason to downgrade the nano's score (except perhaps for Apple's perennial refusal to put more than about 3 USB ports on its machines). The throughput on USB2.0 is 480Mbps as opposed to Firewire's 400MBps, and USB compatibility is all that's really needed to make the nano work with both Macs and even older PCS (although such models might not have USB2.0, they probably won't have IEEE 1394 ports either. Heck, I've got 3 on my desktop that I don't think have ever been put to good use). It seems like adding Firewire would essentially be redundant from a data transfer perspective and potentially increase the size of a devize of which part of the appeal springs from its ability to fit in a coin pocket. I'm not saying it's a bad review by any means, I'm just somewhat confused as to why Firewire--which has now been eclipsed by USB2.0 in terms of throughput--should remain a point of contention.
"For our second test, one of us held on to the iPod, jogged about 20 feet" ...which is the average distance a nerd can jog
size really doesn't matter. Stuff that in your pipe and smoke it, ladies!
It will break with 100% certainty.
Oh yea.. Join the pyramid - you may get a free nano
Pilots don't like radios in the cabin because radio reception involves producing radio frequencies - yes, it's a small transmitter - which could interfere with vital navigation radios.
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
Surely, we thought, it could never withstand the crushing power of German automotive engineering.
And it finally gets funny!
Anyway: Thin objects tend to survive being driven over more than thicker objects. If the object is thin enough, the tire even stays in contact with the road, causing a lot less pressure on the object than you might expect.
My wife's sketchblog Blob[p]: Gastrono-me
were they running the webserver on another nano?
Honestly, seeing as these are $100 cheaper than the next flash alternative I could find, I'm tempted to just pick up two as boot devices.
One for my Windows machines at work, one for my Macs.
You'd use up about 1GB for the OS, then have 3+GB free for data extraction. Throw a bunch of diagnostic utilities on there (usually a hundred megs or so at most) and you've got a kick ass clean system to test hardware with when you're troubleshooting. And since its got a batter of its own, it's not reliant on having a powered USB port.
Don't worry... it's covered under AppleCare!
http://www.rayn.net . Funny. Stuff.
I actually have an iPod nano and I will agree, that it really gets scratched up fairly easily, even if you keep it in a sock you still get those little scartches. It really mucks up the nice finish that it originally came with. Ive had my nano for 2 days now and it looks like Ive had it for a couple months.
GL HF!
The itunes phone was a retarded decision. Having an FM tuner would make sense but the analog hole argument is probably why Apple continues to make sure their bottom line comes first over that of the end-user's experienc.
iRiver not only has a tuner, it can rip MP3 from the audio-in jack. Now THAT is thinking about the consumer.
My series 32 Palm can play MP3's and comes with SD cards. What makes sense is for there to be iTunes for Palm. While I can live with not being able to rip new songs (would be mighty nice though) I deplore the inability to manage my collection on anything besides the freaking desktop computer. If I want to delete a song, I want to delete it off my Palm (insert ipod if you want) and when I sync, for that delete to get propagated back if I want it to. Anybody who's used Palm knows how to do this.
I want to be able to change play lists, rankings and such and have that data sync BACK to the PC. Apple for some silly reason only syncs stuff one way. That's nuts.
After they ran it over with the car....
...the iPod's display was not cracked but was showing some nasty vertical lines. Shockingly, the nano was still playing music and the controls still operated as expected, as we were still able to skip ahead, go back, pause, and play music!
So basically, VW + Nano = Shuffle?
This sig rocks the casbah.
Made the mistake of leaving it hooked to my belt. Of course the iPod decided it wanted to fly instead of play music. This was a 15gb model and it exploded... I have 5 pieces instead of 1!
A flash based player would have probably survived better because of the weight.
I have had friends lose their minis from the arm bands while jogging and one did it on bicycle so I have little issue with some of their tests.
Then again my neighbor down the street lawnmowered his, I can't believe Apple didn't account for that possibility!
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
My reason for buying a nano was to get a flash based iPod so I could take it skiing. I have taken my 20Gb 3G iPod skiing several times, but I was always concerned about scrambling the hard drive in a badly timed fall. Also, the battery life was not good enough at low temps to last a full day of skiing. The nano should be perfect for skiing, and the Ars Technica review seems to confirm its durability.
But one test I'd like to see involves trying to damage it by flexing it. Sitting on a nano laid on a wooden chair or even running over it is different from putting it in a tight pants pocket and sitting on a hard surface.
If Chaos Theory has taught us anything, it's that we must kill all the butterflies.
Radio == "A way to get music on your iPod without buying it from the Apple Store(tm)" ... by intentionally eliminating that way of "leaking music" into your headphones, iPod owners are that much more of a captive audience when buying music online
WTF? CDs == "A way to get music on your iPod without buying it from the Apple Store"... by intentionally supporting (with iTunes) that way of "leaking music" into your headphones, iPod owners can buy music the same way they always used to and listen to it on their iPods hassle free.
This "captive audience" stuff is just FUD thrown around by a few other online music vendors. The vast majority of songs people listen to on their iPods do NOT come from the iTMS (the numbers from Steve Job's announcement of the nano make that very clear).
You are either completely ignorant about iPods, or are trolling on purpose.
Of course, we know that it's SILICON heaven.
Ob-quote:
There is no such thing as "silicon heaven."
Then where do all the calculators go?
Q:I was listening to a CD in Grip and it sounded horrible! What's up? A:Perhaps you are listening to country music
I find my iPod Mini to be extremely resistant to scratches.
I abuse the hell out of my Palm, but I treat my iPod with kid gloves.
Could someone who's already gone out and bought a Nano comment on the fast forward / rewind performance?
I ask because I own a Shuffle and I find its performance in this area to be somewhat dissapointing. Mainly the fact that it fast forwards about 1 second for every second that you hold down the button.
I realise that this will be modded troll due to the outrageous suggestion that an Apple product may be in some way imperfect, but an answer would be appreciated anyway. I expect that it's all my fault for being stupid and uncool enough to actually want to use this feature occasionally.
Man, I'd so lose an iPod Nano. They're so tiny. I have a hard enough time not losing my cell phone and it's not tiny.
:-) and my roommate had a problem with his iBook where the keyboard would actually leave little indents in the screen. My roommate used the piece of foam that came with his laptop to prevent it, until he lost the piece of foam.
Having a little postage stamp photo album, it's no so useless as the article makes it out to be. You have wallet sized photos right? Just think of it has a smaller digital wallet. You could use it for "Hey guess what this is" type games, you know where you take photo of something really close up.
Oh and scratches...you know I had a problem with my Dell laptop (runs Gentoo
I don't know if the iPod screen is the same way, but that is annoying. I'd hate to have keys up aganist my iPod and then see a key impression in the screen.
I have seen a few iPods where a connector is what broke the iPod. The headphone connection does not flex and that will put stress on the case as well as the connector inside. Same for the remote's connection.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
According to this review, it can not be used as a bootable drive.
Bert
He who breaks a thing to find out what it is, has left the path of wisdom.
http://revision3.com/systm/
"to find out what makes him thick"?
So I bought one of these yesterday and the first place I put it was in my pocket that I also keep my keys in. Big mistake. 1 iPod Nano, less than a day old, scuffed and scratched.
Does anyone know of any mild abrasives or similiar that can be used to polish an iPod such as a Nano back to scratch and scuff free brilliance? I'd really like to restore mine to normal and then maybe invest in a protective cover.
Incidentally, what's Apple's problem with making it scratch proof? My mobile phone stays in my pocket constantly with my keys and has done so for a year now. It's scratched to hell all over EXCEPT for the glass over the screen. Go figure.
I only own a small pocket sized radio and that's all I need - it has FM and AM but I never listen to FM radio (live in Toronto, listen to AM 1010, 640 and 680.) There is no small MP3 player with an integrated AM radio and so all MP3 players are useless to me since I don't listen to music. I would buy an MP3 player that can be used as a data drive if it had an AM radio. Since there is no MP3 player with integrated AM radio, I have an AM/FM radio and a seperate device for data transfers.
You can't handle the truth.
I have a confession to make: my USB keychain storage device has gone through the wash about 3 times, including three intensely hot dryer cycles. The case finally broke open, but unbelievably, the device still works.
Would anyone care to comment on whether their iPod shuffle has survived a trip to the cleaners?
I bought one on Saturday. I went into the Apple store just to look at it & I ended up buying one after playing with it for about 5 minutes. Now that I've had it a couple of days, that cool new toy haze is wearing off. The postage stamp photos are kind of pointless. I'm wondering now if making it 1/4" or 1/2" wider to accomodate a bigger screen might not have been a bad idea. Maybe it was shaped that way precisely to fit in a coin pocket on your jeans. It's a natural place to put it, a nice soft/semi-padded place that's usually empty so it won't get scrtached by other things that happen to be floating around.
Did you watch the keynote last week? With the exception of the part where Jobs talked about OS X native applications, it was spot on. He went on and on about how many iPods were sold. He introduced lots of little things.
Then, at the end, "1,000 songs in your pocket, impossibly small!" the iPod nano -- an afterthought!
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
*rolls eyes*
when will people learn that apple is behind in capacity, features(as in playable formats), and batterylife..
Did anyone else notice that the battery is SODERED ON. You can't even replace this one if you WANT to (unless you have your own soder kit and all).
- tristan
I noticed that in the review, Ars said the battery was soldered directly onto the mainboard instead of using the a clip. I wonder why this was done? IIRC previous iPods have used clips, making it fairly easy to replace the battery (albeit voiding the warranty in the process) without using apple and their $99 charge.
beware the jabberwock, my son! the jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Well, floating is accomplished by weighing less than the water a device displaces. Since the contents of the device are pretty much fixed (flash, CPU, display, etc.), the weight of the contents is fixed too. So in order to make it float (if it doesn't already) that means you have to make it bigger.
Apple isn't much of a "make it bigger" kind of company.
It'd be easy to make a case for the nano that contains enough empty space (well, air) to make it low density enough to float. And you could use that space for one of those connector systems that lets the main box remain sealed while still allowing headphones to be connected. This would be the best of both worlds, the device would be small when the case isn't on, and when you go near water, you put the case on and it's now waterproof and floats, but perhaps a little bigger.
Most GPS units are not waterproof and do not float.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Are things much better? I'm not asking if iTunes has improved, as I've used it more recently and still not been impressed. I'm asking if there's sane ways to just dump mp3s and AAC files onto the Nano and other recent iPods and make them play with minimal pain-in-the-assedness.
If not, I'd go with the Wal-Mart Special. A proper, intelligently designed mass-storage device/mp3 player should Just Work.
Let me know the next time you need to stress test anything.
This is a boring sig
Search for it. It's used for this exactly. It's great on CDs/DVDs too.
Your phone doesn't scratch on the display because if you look closely, the display is covered by an hard plastic insert. The rest of the case is a softer (actually more durable) plastic. Apple doesn't seem to want to insert harder plastic over the screen because it would require a bumpy frame around the display. The Mini had the harder plastic, because it was made of metal elsewhere.
Also note that since Apple doesn't use an insert over the display, their displays show rainbows when viewed through polarized glasses due to the stresses resulting from injection molding. Again, the Mini didn't have these.
Nobody makes large plastic things like phones scratch proof all over because "scratch proof" plastic is more brittle and much more expensive to shape. If your phone or iPod body was made of it, the keys would chip the corners off it in no time.
Well, they don't make affordable things "scratch proof". It's usually only used in small areas like the inserts over displays on your phone. This means you don't use much of it, and making flat sheets is cheap and easy.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
I'm so sick of people moaning about the scratches.
It's called the "travelled" look. Learn to love it. My iPod sits in my pocket with keys and change and whatever else, and it's scratched to hell. And it looks good.
Battle scars, if you like. My phone is the same.
As long as it doesn't impair function, it's all good. Hence my owning a Clie TH55 - no chance of damaging the screen.
Interesting story, however I did get a bit well pissed! I don't have one yet and some idiot is destroying the one he got. I don't know about you, but I don't feel like throwing 250 bucks away.
Gorkman
And that site has the best picture ever
Boo Hoo
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Silicon heaven is where the implants go. I can't help you with the calculator heaven.
SearchIRC - Now with live chat directory!
Wow, a geek who believes size doesn't matter. Who would have guessed.
Little scratches on the screen or wheel -- get a palmpilot screen protector (I use http://www.vsps.com/ -- warning, big patent pusher) and stick it on. Little-to-medium scratches on the body -- shrink-wrap the whole thing. Shrink-wrap bags are available on ebay for USD10 per 500 bags or so.
Just cut the shrinkwrap to shape, tape it closed around the ipod, cut small airholes around the corners, and train a hairdryer on it. If you're at an event where you want your ipod out of the plastic, just take it off and throw it away -- and put a new bag on when you get home.
From TFA:
Wasn't this solved last April with the Apple iPad?
I'm asking if there's sane ways to just dump mp3s and AAC files onto the Nano and other recent iPods and make them play with minimal pain-in-the-assedness.
As far as I know, you can still (a) create a playlist or smart playlist of all the songs you want to have on your iPod, then (b) drag-and-drop all those songs onto the iPod icon in iTunes.
Better yet, set up Autofill in iTunes (this requires some actual thinking) to pre-shuffle some music every time your sync up. Apple's iTunes sync page covers it pretty well.
Lack of support for OGG.
Now, here's the kind of 'dupe' I like: a followup.
USB2 is plenty fast to handle a Nano and a disk drive even if they happen to be on the same hub.
Also, since you are convinced that FW is so great, just get a FW disk drive and the fact that Nano runs on USB2 won't affect you at all.
Not so - all of SciFri is podcast each week. They do cut the program into 2-6 segments though depending on how many topics they're covering - so you have to make sure you get all the parts.
As the Old Wise labrats say: if you want to reduce the reliability of something, add a connector, if it is still too reliable, add sockets.
Don't moderate flamebait as Troll. Know the difference or you will be Meta-moderated.
The article incorrectly states that the sound quality is the same across the iPod line.
This test and actually, just comparing by the ear, shows interesting results from a number of players:
http://home.comcast.net/~machrone/playertest/play
J
the reason you want firewire instead of usb for the doc connector, (at least with the full size ipods,) is that the charge time for the battery drops dramatically.
3+hrs. (usb) to 1 hr. (6pinFirewire) in my experience.
-- it's ridiculous how many people misspell ridiculous... (damn, damn, damn...)
Just another stunt by apple to make more money by having the people who are less tech savvy buy their "care plans" plus they save 1 cent per nano by not using connectors! Look at that superior decision making capability. Its all the same glamor and glitz on the outside, when it comes to long term usability the average user gets screwed.
unless other nano pods are employed by ars-technica to dissect another nanopod, this would be a necropsy, not an autopsy.
ôó
That's what Apple should do now. If they do this, they'll have the best portable music player, bar none. As it is now, they have a great player with a critical flaw. I won't buy it until they fix that.
Stop ignoring the music lovers, Apple!!
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2005/0908/nano. htm
And there, they do use the Samsung.
All products should be tested like this. I was all ready to buy me a nano. This is much better. I have experience more then if I broke the original packaging seal myself and I don't have to worry about loosing something smaller then my set of keys.
They were used to place rubbers.. didnt you ever see that commerical?
I suggested this to a friend who works at Apple. The lightbulb went on in his head that with all the contacts/data on his iPod it was be a good idea. I wonder if that's why the nano has it?
I wonder if they'll upgrade the other iPods with a software update.
Awesome furniture, accessories and cabinetry in Santa Rosa, CA: http://humanity-home.com/
It's true
:-), and put them back in the remotes.
I once knew a guy (who is Korean) who wrapped his remotes in plastic wrap. I thoughtfully took out the batteries and similarly protected them (being careful to cover the terminals too
I wish I could have seen his face when he found it. (He probably didn't think it was funny.)
Charles? Are you reading this? It was me -- I did it.
Back on topic -- The one thing I don't like about my ipod is its propensity to collect scratches. Could they not have used a more scratch resisant material? I guess not.
Ian Ameline
" Well, personally, I don't want to listen to the radio, ever. That's why I have an iPod. I used to listen to the radio for NPR shows, but with most of the "good stuff" from NPR being available as podcasts, well, my car radio stays on "Aux Input" all the time now, and I don't own another radio reciever at all.
I think Apple intentionally doesn't include an FM tuner on purpose, as they are theying to replace radio, not just replace CD players, with the iPod. They're doing a good job of it, too."
What about when you're in the gym, and you want to tune into the room FM broadcast of the audio for the tv's. SOL with iPod.
Vote for Pedro
I have to disagree with you on the customer service and warranty. I got my 20 gig 4G iPod last October, and about two weeks ago I got the "Folder Icon with Exclaimation Point" (Drive Crash). Since I didn't drop it or treat it badly, I didn't feel bad at all about submitting a service request to Apple. I filled out the form online, and they gave me the info:
$30 includes shipping and handling all 3 directions (they ship me the box and foam, I pack it and ship it back, they look at it and ship something back to me). I handed the box to DHL at 6pm on Tuesday. Saturday afternoon I had a brand new iPod delivered to me (could be reconditioned, but there isn't a scratch on the back - it was still wrapped in plastic).
Not sure what the problem with the iPod was caused by, but it's back in its leather case and hopefully it will last a little longer. $30 is not bad at all for shipping and service I say.
" Pilots don't like radios in the cabin because radio reception involves producing radio frequencies - yes, it's a small transmitter - which could interfere with vital navigation radios."
It's only a transmitter in the sense that all electronic equipment broadcasts radiation at frequencies related to what's going on in the circuitry. So your CPU broadcasts some junk at it's clock frequency, for instance.
Vote for Pedro
What you should concentrate on is getting therapy, maybe upping the dose. (in case you're already in therapy and on medication)
You could also try placing a rubber or two over the nanoPod. That's probably why they made them that size.
What review did slashdot run last week? The link goes to
the WSJ review.
Exactly what I was going to say. The Constainer Store has some. Use the #2 polish, then buff it shiny with the #1. The #3 is probably too abrasive!
Doesn't matter that iTunes hasn't improved, because you're still an idiot. Seriously, iTunes is a lot easier to use than Creative Mediaplayer. There's a preference setting in iTunes so you can export and import mp3s by default, instead of AAC (which is a useless format anyways) I've drag n' dropped mp3s from PCs and macs directly to both Creative music players as well as iPods as removeble disks with no problem. I've also used the trial edition of Anapod, http://www.redchairsoftware.com/anapod xpod and vpod on Win98. But iTunes is just so easy to use, I found I don't need a replacement, free or otherwise. You're Geek card is revoked! Go buy a portable CD player, kid.
You've hit the nail on the head. A mobile device goes through an awful lot. It will not last as long as something you leave on a shelf, period.
If a standard iPod that costs $360 lasts two years, your music has cost you $15 a month. That just isn't a high price. Most consumers replace this kind of device every two or three years even if it doesn't break.
Life costs money and that's all there is to it.
As an iRiver h340 owner, I can probably answer the question of why they do not include FM tuners.
reception. It's terrible. It uses the headphone wires as the antenna and no matter what you do the reception is horrible. There is basically no way you are going to pull in a solid signal unless you actually find your favorite radio station, climb up their tower, and sit on top of it. And even then you might have to wrap your headphone wires around it a few times to get stereo instead of mono.
I love my iRiver, I really do. I considered an iPod but ultimately went with the iRiver because I did not want to be tied to iTunes to put my music onto the unit. With my iRiver I plug in, click and drag, disconnect and go. Even works nicely in Linux without hacks.
In all honesty, the FM tuner is the least used feature of my iRiver. Even at the gym where I can SEE the transmitters (they transmit the audio feeds from several TV stations over different radio frequencies so you can watch whatever channel you like while you work out), I STILL can't pull in the signal. It just doens't work well.
http://www.otterbox.com/products/ipod_cases/index. htm
Otterbox makes a nice line of cases for iPods (and others) that make all of these feats possible. You can drive cars over these cases and they'll be fine.
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
In high school I was showing off my new car alarm to my buddy. I said see you just barely hit it and the alarm goes off. I lightly hit it... no effect. I hit it a little bit harder... and dented the car. The alarm never went off. He laughed his ass off. I didn't find it as amusing at the time.
TODO create witty sig.
My speculation would be that maybe there was not enough room for a standard connector. They could have made a custom connector, but that would be expensive. Or, possibly, they eliminated the connector altogether to save money. I don't see this as preventing replacement of the battery, but you need to have some skill with a soldering iron or pay someone to do it for you.
Now you've done it! It will be 10 minutes until someone does a 2001 style obelisk (surrounded by dancing cave men) commercial for the black ipod nano!
But, it would be funny to see a Nano Parody Commercial of the Snickers 'Hunters' Commercial...
(lots of hunter guys in the woods tossing Nanos at a Buck, the deer runs away, the men look sad, the voice over says 'iPod Nano - It's only fun if you listen to it.', a hiker picks up a nano and starts listening to tunes...)
And a while back there was a story about an ipod user who used his 20GB iPod to beat up a mugger, so what's the hit point damage for the Nano?
The nano comes with a shuffle function....
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Somebody using his brain to distinguish hype from need.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Technocrat #1: My iPod is so small, I can fit it in my ear!
Technocrat #2: MY iPod is so small it fits in a single cell IN MY BRAIN.
Technocrat #3: *My* iPod is so small that it actually uses coding added to my own DNA, letting me use all my cells for storage!
Technocrat #4: (Wearing huge black gloves connected to a metal backpack) *My* iPod has negative mass. It requires a magnetic containment field to hold.
Turn the damn thing off while in a dnagerous situation (skiing, no matter how sloe you are, is inherintly dangerous).
For bunnies sakes, can't you unplug yourself from your gadgets and listen to the real world for 5 minutes?
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Oh, by about the time your built in battery no longer holds power, your scratched up iPod will look like crap...
And about that time, Apple will have come out with at least 1 if not 2 new iPod product revisions...
You'll look at your sad, wounded iPod and take it back to Apple to get 10% off a brand new shiny iPod.
If you don't like to buy new stuff all the time,
Buy a thick protective leather case, or something even stronger to protect your iPod in the Same purchase when you buy the iPod.
Take the iPod directly from Box into its new Case, then charge and load with music.
It seems Apple has just released their nanoLith.
^^
No phone will survive falling 5 stories to concrete, especially without a scratch. It's just plain physics.
Now, if I threw it and it hit a few branches, or landed on some soft ground, lots of devices could survive.
Paint shakers aren't very stressful. Unless it already had something loose inside, it isn't going to break it. Putting it in a vise (correct spelling) isn't that useful, it spreads all that force out, it'll take a shockingly large amount of force to break it if you do that, since you're spreading it out.
What you really want to do is use it as a bridge, that is, build two minature piers with a gap between. Lay it over that gap, then press down with force in the middle. See how much force it takes to break it. This is a pretty standard test, and it is relevant to being in tight pants when you sit down.
Then compare the force to how much it's likely to get. This is probably a lot less than you think, since skin gives, it can move in your pocket to minimize force, and if it is pressed on something solid, like bone, you'll feel pain at relatively low levels.
I personally think that throwing the thing up in the air 40 feet and having it fall on concrete isn't playing to its strengths. That'll destroy nearly anything that isn't massively deformable, as it did here.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Uh oh. I was doing a web search for "Nano voice recorder" and found a merchant selling a Creative Zen Nano. Do I smell a law suit?
The Apple Nano + Creative Zen Nano = Nanonano
There are deaf skiiers on the slopes. You never noticed this before because hearing well really isn't necessary to ski well.
If someone crashes into you passing you on your left and they yelled at you that they were coming up on you to pass you have no one to blame but yourself.
Slower skiiers have the right of way. Yelling is never a reasonable substitute for passing in a controlled manner in such a way that you can avoid the other skiiers no matter what they do. If somebody crashes into you from behind, it's their fault for not slowing the frick down to a safe passing speed, it's not your fault for failing to hear their muffled yell over the wind noise through your earmuffs or over the sound of your iPod Nano. You shouldn't need to hear anything in order to ski safely.
If a beginner is blocking your way, don't swish right past them and hope they (a) hear your warning, (b) understand what you want them to do, (c) have the necessary control to do it. Instead, slow down and wait for an opportunity to pass that gives them a wide enough berth so as to avoid all chance of a collision.
I play Nerd-Folk!
n/t.
I play Nerd-Folk!
Both apple.com and employees at the apple store tell me not to expect to find a case for four + weeks. By that time it will look like someone sandpapered the thing! No thanks.
Cheers yo,
Bill
bamph
Soon, there will be a follow-up on what excuses they had to give to the AppleCare representative to get them to replace their "accidentally" damaged nano.
"Uh... well... it looked like that when we took it out of the box. The sales rep must have put it down on the counter too hard."
One thing I've wondered, is that if you can recharge it through the same connection it uses to transfer files, doesn't it end up "recharging" every time you hook it up? And doesn't that help kill the battery (developing a charging "memory")?
Modern Lithium Ion, Lithium polymer and even NiMH batteries don't really suffer from a memory effect. Not like the old NiCd batteries do.
... and then they built the supercollider.
In fact, with any modern (lithium-based) battery you're significantly better off if you avoid completely draining the battery. You can maximize the life of lithium cells if you keep them fully-charged when not in use.
From Battery University:
± 29 dB
Unlike the 20gb and 60gb "Photo" iPods that feature a TV Out option, the Nano does not. Although all the other features pertaining to the photo capabilities are essentially the same. I thought that might be of interest to some, as it is not mentioned in the product's specs.
It is precisely a question of control on the part of the person who is passing. The person in front of you has the right of way. Always, always, always -- because you can see him better than he can see you. If he has to make a sudden turn or chooses to make one, that's his right. You don't have the right to be "coming up from behind FAST" anywhere that a person in front of you might turn. If the slope is crowded enough that that's an issue, SLOW DOWN.
Here are the standard seven safety rules of the slope, usually printed prominently in various locations on the mountain:
- Always stay in control and be able to stop or avoid other people or objects.
- People ahead of you have the right of way. It is your responsibility to avoid them.
- You must not stop where you obstruct a trail or are not visible from above.
- Whenever starting downhill or merging into a trail, look uphill and yield to others.
- Always use devices to help prevent run away equipment.
- Observe all posted signs and warnings. Keep off closed trails and out of closed areas.
- Prior to using any lift, you must have the knowledge and ability to load, ride, and unload safely.
(Both my parents were ski patrollers. I love to ski fast too, but I do so where and when it is safe, not on crowded bunny slopes. If somebody has to hear you yell "on the left!" to avoid you crashing into them, you're not skiing safely.)I play Nerd-Folk!
Video of (non abused) Ipod Nano disassembly http://revision3.com/systm/subsystm/ipodnano/media
(Torrent links included)
Remember to take off your diamond wedding ring when you go to rub your eyes.
And maybe you should carry pepper spray, in case supermodels try to kiss you.
Ah, cool. Thanks.
Bah. Easy to use.
You're saying iTunes is easier to use than other media library manager type things, but I'm saying that the whole concept is icky compared to mass-storage devices being able to handle whatever you dump on them without proprietary software.
The only major question in my post was this:
Will the iPods play what you dump on them with bash, Finder, or explorer, or are they dependant on the iTunes-generated playlists?
Furthermore, as I said before, I have used recent builds of iTunes, and have still not been impressed. It'd be nice to be able to connect an mp3 player to a computer that can't handle iTunes well, i.e. the old Lombard G3 I'm typing this on.
On the topic of CD players, the mp3-decoding variety are very, very useful. I can't hardly live without my mp3-decoding boombox when I'm in the country or my MP3 aware dash unit. They suck for portable uses, though.
PS: "You're" English-speaker card is revoked.
Its only 2/4GB. its not like it take a long time to fill it over USB2
I'm waiting for the nano to get full FW support, too. My late 2004 G5 balks on the USB 2.0 port but FW runs clean. It could be my set-up, it could be the USB 2.0 interface in the late 2004 G5s, or something else or some combination. Whatever the case, the nano is not something I can use until it has full FW support.
Apple knows that its iPod user base is overwhelmingly on Windows, and suddenly, they are beginning to act like every other Windows developer. Macs are becoming the red-headed stepchildren of the iPod family.
blog
d00d, do you realize you just identified yourself as the "proud" owner of a small penis?
I guess it's a problem with the way I have iTunes configured since the last two weeks I have only got about 10 minutes, but I checked and you are right there are other parts online, just not in my iTunes Library.
Thanks!
B
This text is found at the bottom on the iPod Nano site:
"Rechargeable batteries have a limited number of charge cycles and may eventually need to be replaced. Battery life and the number of charge cycles vary by use and settings."
Considering the size of this battery and apples track record I would expect simmilar or worse problems that the earlier iPods had....but this time Apple has its ass covered. I like how they don't tell you anywhere how many charge cycles once can expect to get.
- Think for yourself, question authority.-