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Apple Launches 1 GB nano, Slashes shuffle
minus_273 writes "Apple has has released a new nano and also slashed prices on the iPod shuffle. The lowest end iPod now goes for $69. The 1 GB shuffle is $99 and the 1 GB nano is $149." From the article: "'The price of components have come down more than 70 percent, especially flash memory for the shuffle,' he said. 'And the price of the shuffle hadn't changed, so they were making a ton of profit off the shuffle. So they're passing some of those savings on.'"
Could it be... reasonably priced high-demand items from Apple? I though I would never see the day. Nonetheless... I want one :)
There are no uninteresting things. There are only uninterested people.
Wow, they're so cheap, I'm gonna buy two!
No, six!
No, twelve!
BAKER'S DOZEN!
I told you that I'm crazy for those iPods, cousin!
WARNING: If accidentally read, induce vomiting.
iVomit
Oh that Jobs, just in time for Valentines Day...
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." ~The Honorable Daniel Patrick Moynihan
I cant wait to get the .5 gig nano for $99, oh wait... that only holds 3 techno songs...
Why would people buy this?
-hawaiiinsomniac
who gives a fuck. and first post.
This is a good thing. It will make the iPod more accessible...
Apple will definitely do well with these, given the current reputation of iPods.
Now, if I had just waited until now to buy the kids their 1GB iPods...
A Passionate Independent Musician
I got a 2 gig Nano for Christmas (no complaints mind you), but I already filled it up on the day that I started moving files to it Even then I am constantly scratching my head trying to figure out what songs I can delete so I can squeeze in another favorite song I just picked up.
I could only imagine what the 1gb would be like, but I suppose if you wanted to give someone an iPod on the cheep or had a small music collection then it would be the best route to go.
I had thought about returning it and getting a 4gb nano, but I think that would be rude to the person who got it for me. And come to think of it, I would want around 10+ gb to satisfy my musical needs anways.
Maybe we'll see higher memories by Christmas this year or next.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
...but right now Apple is selling a refurbished 20GB iPod for $189. I think I'd rather go for that one (if I was in a market for iPods).
I thought that was only economic utopia, not reachable in the real world.
Ptah, passing savings on to customers? as if!
So they should. The Shuffle is a flimsy, easily damaged product (I have owned two 512 MB units). Its advertised as a unit to use when exercising, but my experience has been that it is not robust enough to be used in any situation where you and the Shuffle are in motion... Both of mine experienced a steady degradation of the rear slider switch after getting a little damp, to the point where the first one does not power on at all, and the second only works in "sequential" mode - it will no longer shuffle, and I have to cycle the switch on/off many times to get it to start playing. The only reason I persevere with it is due to its small form factor. At $99 a pop I felt ripped off, at $69 it would be border-line acceptable...
... shuffle off its mortal coil. Which is kind of a shame, because it's by far the best iPod model for running and gym work. I may take advantage of the lower prices to pick up a couple of spares...
I made a post like this on digg, and was promptly moderaded to -3 (actually, all my comments start at -3 there since I told Kevin Rose to go fuck himself, but that's not the point here)... I don't get the obsession with the nano or the mini. I just purchased a 60 gig iPod. I upgraded from a 40 gig 4g pre-photo and can't even look at my 4g without wondering how it lasted a year. My music collection was limited to 40 gigs, and now is slowly growing again. I have 15 gigs of videos and 4 gigs of space left on my iPod... without it, I don't know how I'd go a day at work. I can't see why anyone would want to bring only 240 songs with them. When for $250 more they can bring ALL of their songs. If your budget says "$150 is it for mp3 players" go to eBay and find a 3rd or 4th gen iPod. Hell, I'll sell my 40 gig 4g for $200 + shipping if you're interested. My point is, why get something as small as a gig, when you can get 60 gigs for a little bit more?
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
The headline, "Apple Launches 1 GB Nano, Slashes Shuffle", makes it sound like Apple has stopped selling the Shuffle, especially considering the recent coverage of all the reasons Apple has for cancelling the Shuffle.
I have an original 5 GB iPod. I really want a new nano, but I just can't justify spending all that money for one that holds *less* of my music than my 5-year-old one.
When there's an 8 GB nano, I'll be at my Apple store the next day.
Sort of offtopic, but if you are looking for new music for you nano, try to by near a round number. Apple is doing another countdown contest as they approach 1 billion songs. The person who gets the 1 billionth song gets an iMac, 10 iPods, and a $10k gift card.
The NANO never made sense for its cost compared to regular iPods. What made sense is having a screen as well as no moving parts. $149 is almost an impulse buy these days in this market.
I can easily make a play list or two to for times when the nano is more relevant than the full blown iPod. Any truly physical sport comes to mind. I have had my iPod take unplanned jumps to the ground that made me flinch (and reboot it more than once). I would feel much better knowing there isn't something that might suffer serious damage in a fall in there.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
...from the way we're droppin' Hamiltons!
You know where you are? You're in the $PATH, baby. You're gonna get executed!
Funny post, now I know why people like digg better, you can moderate someone beyond -1 !
I bought my suffle the week that Jobs announced it during his keynote in January 2005. About a month later I discovered it wouldn't play anything purchased from the iTunes Music Store. I was told there was a bad batch of the first shuffles and Apple replaced it immediately. Since then I've enjoyed the heck out of it up until this past month. The USB connector on the bottom of the shuffle came loose and popped out one day when I took it out of the USB port on my computer. Apparently one of the two the plastic latches that holds the shuffle came loose due to wear and tear. With expert hands I applied two fine lines of Crazy Glue and my shuffle is back in the saddle again.
And then I drop the white headphones on the floor yesterday and accidentally step on the right ear bud. So now it only plays in the left headphones.
So it appears this shuffle was only built to last about a year, perhaps two. And no, I did not fork out more cash for AppleCare for the cheapest freaking iPod they offer!
Nano? Maybe, I think I might just wait until this shuffle dies completely and spring for the biggest iPod.
Send an ipod to your senator to fight against the broadcast flag and audio flag
But Senator Stevens, the 82-year old committee chairman from Alaska, surprised the audience by announcing that his daughter had bought him an iPod.
Suddenly, Stevens had a much greater understanding of the many ways innovative technology can create choice for consumers. Content industry representatives at the hearing found themselves answering much tougher questions than they typically receive.
http://Lenny.com
So... All they did to the Nano was shrink the memory? There's no mention of whether there were any other "improvements". I've been holding off on getting a Nano (despite how much I want one) because of the rumors about the screen getting scratched easily. (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/23/ipod_nano _scratching/)
Were those rumors overblown? And if not, I wonder why Apple didn't promote a solution to that along with these changes.
looks cool and everything, but what is it for?
i have a full fledged ipod (g5 w/ video) and that works great for keeping my total music collection. its fragile, but that's fine, because i don't use it to work out nor otherwise place it in situations of physical danger.
i also have ishuffle, and i use it for jogging and i know it'll never break. there's no hard drive, no display, nothing. and its light as a feather. no extra protection or care needed. plus it doesn't scratch (and even if it did, i wouldn't care).
so, i have these two niches filled and just see no room for nano.
or what am i missing?
Given the popularity of PC's, Microsoft will do well with Vista. Who knew?
I have a 1GB Shuffle. The 1GB & 2GB Nanos won't be much different.
The point of having/using a small-memory player is not to put your whole collection on there, or to have lots of "if I want" music on there, it's to store those dozen or so albums you are ACTIVELY listening to (or a random mix if you really don't care).
In no way is it meant to hold one's collection; you keep the whole collection on the computer & pick a few things you know you'll want. Small & large storage spaces require very different usage behaviors.
---
The biggest loss from terminating the Shuffle is the built-in USB plug - one less cable to drag around. The Nano doesn't even have a USB socket; instead there's another specialized cable to fill up bag/briefcase space with. The "thumbdrive" format was just so very convenient, both for data transfer and recharging.
---
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
That is an amazingly cool idea for a very deserving cause.
Just like clockwork! When they got rid of the iPod Minis it was just after my wife purchased a refreshed one, so she took her receipt back and got a price adjustment. Cha-ching! Wouldn't you know it she has just purchased a refreshed iPod Shuffle! This time she's taking it back and getting a 1-gig nano. We're cheap,but not that cheap.
-- Boycott Shell
I wonder if they have done anything to address the display scratching issue that many nano owners have complained about?
'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
Apple's been very shrewd since Jobs's return about presenting consumers with simple, tiered pricing arrangements. Across most of its product lines you're looking at something like a "good - better - best" set of choices to start with.
In the case of iPods you have more steps in the ladder, but it works about the same. The golden rule there is something like "fifty bucks for the next one." For around $50 more, you can always get to the next step in the ladder with more storage or more and better features. In that sense this move makes loads of sense -- even if the 1 GB nano doesn't have what you personally need. The lowest shuffle moves down, the 1GB shuffle hits a $100, adding the nano's screen is another fifty, and so on.
I'm kind of relieved to see Apple not losing its pricing discipline. It's a pricing model that plainly works. The new intel boxes have come out with only a couple of basic configurations, though, and somehow that's ringing false for me...
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Apple needs to reinvent the Shuffle. People like having an LCD so they can choose songs. Bring back the Shuffle with all its features plus a three-line LCD and you'll have a bigger hit than the 1 GB Nano.
Call it the iPod Micro or (as someone else suggested) the iPod Pico. There's just something to be said for an MP3 player with the ease of use of a USB drive. No cables, just drop it in the front/top USB port and load it and go.
(I'd still like it better if it took a standard battery...my Samsung uses AA and it's nice to be able to swap batteries off a charger in a matter of seconds and to just take a handful of spares when going on a long trip)
120 characters for a sig? That's bloody useless.
A screen isn't necessary, but it might be nice. I'm most concerned about durability, battery life, and sound quality.
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
Since I've recently started going to the gym regularly, I've been thinking I might finally have a use for a portable music player (other than my laptop, which has been as portable as I needed). So, I'm interested in whether or not an iPod would work well for me. A significant constraint, however, is that I don't run Windows, and althouh my wife has an iBook, I don't want to have to use her machine to manage my iPod.
So, how effectively can I manage my iPod from Linux?
Anyone have any recommendations on alternative players? I don't need a lot of storage (1GB would be perfectly fine), but cheaper is better. The ability to play vorbis files would be good, too, though I know that's pretty unlikely. I can always whip up a script to convert my hiqh-quality OGGs to lower-quality MP3s, if need be. If my player doesn't have a huge amount of storage, I'll probably have to convert my OGGs to lower bitrates even if the player does play vorbis files, and that's not much less work than converting to MP3.
Another bonus would be a player with an FM tuner (another feature I believe is unavailable with iPods).
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
My grocery store is asking $3 a pound for most of its apples. Now if Steve Jobs could only figure out how to make these cheaper!
Okay I'll bite.
Yeah, an lcd is great. but not at the expense of what the shuffle is targeted at. Basically indestructable, simple (did i mention simple?) player that can be operated without looking at it. Think at the gym, out for a jog, cycling, or even on a motorcycle. During those activities, i don't want a device that i have to worry about breaking, or have to divert my attention to operate. not to mention, the lanyard is pretty handy for said activities.
if you want a screen and all the gizmos, just get one with all the gizmos. There's plenty of variations. But don't assume that there's no reason on the planet someone might *not* want the gizmos.
Han shot first.
When I first read the headline I thought Shuffles had been slashed, as in removed from existence. Too bad they were talking about prices "slashing"...
-William Brendel
I hate lanyards :)
The Shuffle was an experiment that didn't go the way Apple hoped. Sure it's useful for certain applications, but do you think the typical buyer thinks "hey, I'll get this iPod Mini for when I'm waiting in line at the DMV and this iPod Shuffle for when I'm working out"? I get how not everyone wants/needs the gizmos, but there just aren't enough people who can justify buying two iPods, or want to buy just one without an LCD.
A 1 GB Shuffle will hold 160+ songs if you don't rip them at too high a bitrate. Your average consumer would be more than happy with that as their primary player...but 160 songs without a screen to preview songs might prompt someone to look at another product. Like maybe something not made by Apple.
My Samsung is solid. It's been dropped, thrown, even chewed on by a toddler. I have it with me when I'm doing yardwork, working out, et cetera. It also has an LCD...so it can be done without making the device delicate.
Apple's the one killing the Shuffle, not me. I like the form factor and some of the features of the Shuffle, but the lack of an LCD turned me off from it. They're aborting the product pretty early, which would indicate to me that they're not getting the sales numbers they wanted. They could bring it back as a new iPod without the Shuffle "you nver know what will play next" gimmick that I think really put a lot of people off...I think it would be a lot more effective at grabbing the SFF/budget corner of the market and having the iPod line completely dominate the arena.
(not that I think that iPod gaining marketshare is a good thing...I'm tired of "iPod" being the generic term for MP3 player these days)
120 characters for a sig? That's bloody useless.
I have a 512 MB shuffle and I am very happy with it. I would like to get a Nano, but its not in the budget. I have not even filled half of my shuffle, but having a screen would be nice.
Fascism is the greatest political ideology ever conceived. Sorry.
Apple needs to reinvent the Shuffle.
They just did. Didn't you read the headline?
Hmm.... Most flash I've seen is rated for 10,000 - 1,000,000 rewrites per sector (NOR flash). Newer flash (NAND flash) tends towards higher rewrite counts--about 10x what NOR flash offers.
So, let's say you erase/reprogram the entire thing every day, and that that constitutes 2 rewrites. (One for the erase and one for the write, although that's unlikely to be the case.) If the flash is good for 10,000 rewrites, that still gives you 13 years worth of daily updates. Chances are, though, all the flash-based iPods use NAND flash, in which case you're good for 130 years of daily updates.
Granted, the filesystem control structures get written more often than the file store, so perhaps 130 years overstates it somewhat. Still, flash-oriented file systems do try to "level out" the writes that happen to the filesystem's control structures, based on the premise that reads are cheap and seeks are free. Thus, I imagine the unit itself (or its owner) wears out before its flash does.
--Joe
Program Intellivision!
Getting a decent music player that does OGG and normal USB mass transfer is still not cheap or easy. The Xiph list is informative. Iriver players are one of the few ogg players widely available. They don't do USBfs out of the box, and I suspect most "works for sure" players suck that way and you won't find a good cheap player down the street in the US. This leaves you needing to copy your music to mp3 in order to enjoy any of the bazillion cheap portable music players out there but available music managers don't deal with this very well. Even then, finding a player that also works with USBfs is hit and miss.
PDA's running Familiar, OZ or whathave you may provide a better route to music than music players do.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Judging by the number of shuffles I see at the gym and on people who run/cycle/etc... they are quite popular with that segment of the market. Of course you also see other types of iPod and the odd "other player" or two. The new lower shuffle price will probably clinch the sale for me. I've been eyeing them ever since they came out, but as the owner of a 3G 20 GB, Its been hard to justify $100+ for another player. The nano fits the market for those who want more functionality. Apple probably considered a small LCD for the shuffle and decided they couldnt do anything other than "clunky" with it. Apple dosent do "clunky".
>not that I think that iPod gaining marketshare is a good thing...
I have mixed feelings... as a Mac and iPod owner, I want to see Apple do well. OTOH, a near monopoly is never a good thing. Its nice not to be marginalized for a change (something *BSD, linux and Mac users can understand).
We don't need a motherfucking story anytime they release a slightly different product. Holy shit man.. this story is about how they are offering a 1gb player in a slightly different package. There are TONs of products that don't get any coverage that could actually spawn some, you know, discussion. Editors must all be massing Apple stock.. this fucking shit is getting stupid.
One of my co-workers got a nano for xmas, & so i finally got a look at one. (up till then i'd never seen one outside of a store display) My first question was what kind of flash memory do you put in it? Wheres the slot for the SD card?
I was astounded to find out that there is none. No way to expand it, no way to switch out cards & have a whole new collection. No way to use a card-reader when you cant find the (proprietary) USB cable.
Leave it to apple to take a great idea, put it in a slick package, and fuck it over entirely by lacking a simple inexpensive feature.
I believe ill stick with my cheap generic mp3 player. Sure its only got 32mb built in, but ive got 5 lil 1 gig cards i can switch out whenever i want.
From a business undergraduate standpoint, I hope they do one soon. I personally feel that the iPod products compare poorly to competing products when it comes to 'functionality' features. For example, if you compare the nano to say, the Sandisk Sansa m200 series, they are both approximately the same weight and size in volume (both the same height, nano is wider, sansa is thicker). The nano has a rechargable, non-replaceable battery (a functional feature, but making it non-removable also reduces it's appeal) and a color screen that supports pictures (a partially functional, partially asthetic feature). The Sansa lacks a rechargable battery and goes without a color screen, but in it's place is an FM tuner (functional) and comes with an armband and vinyl case (functional and specific feature to it's target market), and is priced in the range of the shuffle, which compares so poorly to the Sansa that it's not worth mentioning.
Despite being beaten by both features and price, the Nano continues to outsell the sansa at a rate of about 8-1. I don't know if it's some kind of fad thing or if it has something to do with the fact that the iTunes music store in terms of catalog and interface/functionality is considerably to vastly superior to competing services, or that downloaded iTunes music is designed to only work on iPods. Regardless, committing their resoruces and research to a study on it would be a good read.
It would seem that the masses have come to the realization that the batteries are replaceable. Your sad attempts to spread misinformation is no longer being acknowledged. Get over it, your lies have no effect on people anymore.
You clearly work for Sandisk and have a very specific agenda. The market is flooded with poor imitations and none of you manufacturers seem to get that it's not about the iPod itself, it's the whole package. The device, the store and the software which makes it all work together flawlessly. Until you people get it through your thick heads to do some real work and get a real product you're going to continue to fail miserably.
Is it flash or a small hard drive? Please say it's flash!
Hmmm... Pie...
People calling for Apple to kill the Shuffle -- or who simply shake their heads, baffled as to why Apple continues to make something with such little obvious appeal -- should keep in mind that the Shuffle makes a very good "starter" DAP for kids. Short of dunking it in a juice glass or leaving it on the bus, there's darn little a kid can do that will trash it. I know several kids who got low-tier MP3 players this past Christmas: two of them got Shuffles, and two others got SanDisks along with an explanation/apology that they would've got Apples, they were just "too expensive." With these price reductions, that will no longer be a factor. Each kid, as they get older and accumulate pocket money, is going to want to upgrade, and while the SanDisk kids could go either way, the Shuffle kids are almost certainly going to want to move up to another iPod (if for no other reason than to protect their iTMS investment); my niece, in fact, was promised a Nano for the summer if she took decent care of her Shuffle. As long as Apple isn't losing money on them, the Shuffle acts as a very good "gateway" into the iPod family, and it makes sense for them to keep it going as long as is feasible.
You could try using Rockbox for your nano - they've just managed to make the sound driver work. Rockbox supports FLAC, Ogg, mp3, Musepack, etc. It's still a bit rough on the edges, but it's pretty cool - plus customisable play screens rock!
After a few months of carrying my white nano in my pockets together with my cell phone and other stuff (no keys, though, they're in the other pocket :-), it looks similar to how my second-gen iPod looked after that kind of abuse. Sure, there are visible scratches, especially if you hold such that light reflects off it, but that's to be expected. There's really no actual problem with the white nano, as far as I can tell.
The problem may be that these scratches are more easily visible on the black iPods. I don't know, since I don't know anyone with a black iPod.
Mr. Pibb + Red Lace = CRAZY DELICIOUS
Red Vines
You know where you are? You're in the $PATH, baby. You're gonna get executed!