Customer Reviews

Apple 1 GB iPod Nano

5 star:		(91)
4 star:		(44)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I must be the last person in the world to acquire an iPod. I mean, at 57, do I resemble the rhythmic human silhouettes gyrating to iTunes on the billboards? Be that as it may, however, I found myself laboring on the crosstrainer at the Y bored to death having to stare at either the cartoons on the wall-mounted TV or the wobbling flesh of the person running on the treadmill in front of me. (Contrary to popular myth, there seem to be few beautiful hardbodies at the gym, my bod included. And, those few present are dressed in shapelessly disreputable togs. Where's a lightly sweat-sheened Demi Moore in a thong and mini-tank top?) So, as an alternative source of mind fodder, an iPod nano seemed just the ticket.

Excitedly ripping open the box delivering the nano (1 GB, black finish), my first thought was what men dread to hear, "But, it's so small!" I must be careful not to drop it, or I might lose it down the grill of the central air floor vent. Accompanying the iPod were the de rigueur headphones and dock connector cable, plus a cheap, plastic thingy that apparently serves as a dock adaptor and a useless soft vinyl (?) sleeve - useless because it covers up the screen and click wheel controller, though you can use it to stuff the headphone into. There's also a Quick Start guide that can best be described as minimalist. Luckily, the installation disk, which effortlessly installs iTunes and iPod software onto your computer of choice - PC (Windows XP Home) AND Mac (OS X) in my case (I'm eminently flexible) - includes an extensive "iPod nano Features Guide" accessible through Adobe Acrobat Reader. Registering the serial number of the device on the Apple website presents the only challenge as it's engraved in impossibly tiny characters on the back of the casing; I needed a magnifying glass.

The click wheel controls are intuitive and easy to use. Touching any part of the wheel turns on the gadget and lights up the color screen, after which there are four relevant control points located at 12:00, 3:00, 6:00 and 9:00 on the wheel: Menu, Next/Fast Forward, Play/Pause, and Previous/Rewind respectively. In case the user has Chubby Fingers Syndrome, "play" is also activated by poking the wheel's center button. Volume control and menu scrolling is cleverly accomplished by running one's digit in a circular motion around the wheel's circumference.

Tether the nano to your computer and an iPod icon will appear in the "Source" pane of the iTunes window, to which icon you can drag individual songs or playlists. Once loaded, the music can be selected (with that twirly finger motion) by playlist, artist, album, song title, genre, or composer.

But how, you ask, does the contraption perform? Ok, ok, so it's not Sensurround Sound. It does to near perfection what it's supposed to do - provide a great sounding, portable music archive to the sweaty masses that even the most intellectually challenged can navigate. The greatest peril is perhaps getting tangled up in the headphone cord.

For the iPod to withstand my exhausted collapse off the exerciser at the gym, I thought it prudent to buy a snappy sport armband to which the skin-protected nano attaches. That was an extra expense, but worth it. Boy, will I look cool as I hit the floor!

Today, as I listened to my toy for the first time, I was able to ignore my immediate surroundings to the beat of Cher's "If I Could Turn Back Time" and focus on the physical pain of my self-inflicted ordeal. Of course, I still keep an eye open for Demi.

Postscript: If you're looking for a set of portable speakers for your iPod, consider the mm50 by Logitech. See my 3/7/07 5-star review entitled "Bodacious."

When one finds the iPod line hasn't changed much in a while, just wait a few days, and you are likely to be blown off your feat. Apple is constantly innovating, and pushing the limit, in order to bring you the world's greatest products.

Size - I did not even fully comprehend how impressed I would be, when I held the Nano in my hands. The iPod Nano's size is its greatest attribute. Its depth is slightly less than a number two pencil. In fact, the iPod Nano is thinner than the iPod Shuffle. Of course, it is also significantly less wide and tall, than the original iPods, and the iPod Mini it replaces. The iPod Nano is almost four times lighter than the iPod Photo 20 Gigabyte player.

It seems and feels even smaller in person, but everything fits together beautifully as well. The seems around the edges are very neat and nearly impossible to notice. When holding the iPod Nano, you really get the feeling that you are holding something of appreciable quality.

Reliability - The iPod Nano will prove to be incredibly reliable. Why? The Nano uses solid-state flash memory, which means there are no moving parts, in the player. The original iPod and iPod Mini used miniature hard drives, while still a good solution, they were bigger and could become damaged, when taking a hit. A lot of people who were upset that their iPod with a hard drive went out, would likely not have any problems, with the iPod Nano.

Storage - This is the new 1 GB version of the iPod Nano. Apple released the 1 GB version, to have an entry-level nano priced at only $150. You get all the features of the 2 & 4 GB models, but simply less storage for songs. If having less songs to carry around is ok with you, save some money with this player.

Display - The display on the new iPod Nano is fantastic. It features a nice resolution, and color. You can view your photographs, or the album art, from your music. There are also the standard iPod games to play, in color.

Click Wheel - The click wheel continues to make iPod the most convenient and easy-to-use music player around. Being used to the slightly larger click wheel, on the full size iPod, I was concerned the Nano's smaller click-wheel would be less functional, but that concern was quickly dismissed, when I saw it works as easy and efficiently as ever.

Battery Life - Battery life is always an important feature. After all, what good is it having 1000 songs in your pocket, if you can't listen to them? The iPod Nano lasts 14 hours, on a single charge, under ideal conditions. Ideal conditions are allowing the playing to play on its own, without accessing menus regularly, which turns on the backlight and drains the battery. Even with regular fiddling, you should last well over ten hours.

Overall, Apple truly hit a home run, with the iPod Nano. Some companies follow, and some companies innovate and change the world. Apple is one of those companies. I love the nano, and my music can no go with me to even more places, with a player that is lighter than ever. The iPod Nano is destined to become the best selling music player in the world, and it will be for good reason.

When one finds the iPod line hasn't changed much in a while, just wait a few days, and you are likely to be blown off your feat. Apple is constantly innovating, and pushing the limit, in order to bring you the world's greatest products.

Size - I did not even fully comprehend how impressed I would be, when I held the Nano in my hands. The iPod Nano's size is its greatest attribute. Its depth is slightly less than a number two pencil. In fact, the iPod Nano is thinner than the iPod Shuffle. Of course, it is also significantly less wide and tall, than the original iPods, and the iPod Mini it replaces. The iPod Nano is almost four times lighter than the iPod Photo 20 Gigabyte player.

It seems and feels even smaller in person, but everything fits together beautifully as well. The seems around the edges are very neat and nearly impossible to notice. When holding the iPod Nano, you really get the feeling that you are holding something of appreciable quality.

Reliability - The iPod Nano will prove to be incredibly reliable. Why? The Nano uses solid-state flash memory, which means there are no moving parts, in the player. The original iPod and iPod Mini used miniature hard drives, while still a good solution, they were bigger and could become damaged, when taking a hit. A lot of people who were upset that their iPod with a hard drive went out, would likely not have any problems, with the iPod Nano.

Storage - This is the new 1 GB version of the iPod Nano. Apple released the 1 GB version, to have an entry-level nano priced at only $150. You get all the features of the 2 & 4 GB models, but simply less storage for songs. If having less songs to carry around is ok with you, save some money with this player.

Display - The display on the new iPod Nano is fantastic. It features a nice resolution, and color. You can view your photographs, or the album art, from your music. There are also the standard iPod games to play, in color.

Click Wheel - The click wheel continues to make iPod the most convenient and easy-to-use music player around. Being used to the slightly larger click wheel, on the full size iPod, I was concerned the Nano's smaller click-wheel would be less functional, but that concern was quickly dismissed, when I saw it works as easy and efficiently as ever.

Battery Life - Battery life is always an important feature. After all, what good is it having 1000 songs in your pocket, if you can't listen to them? The iPod Nano lasts 14 hours, on a single charge, under ideal conditions. Ideal conditions are allowing the playing to play on its own, without accessing menus regularly, which turns on the backlight and drains the battery. Even with regular fiddling, you should last well over ten hours.

Color - The white nano is my favorite, for its the traditional iPod color. The black nano looks beautiful too, but scratches show more easily.

Overall, Apple truly hit a home run, with the iPod Nano. Some companies follow, and some companies innovate and change the world. Apple is one of those companies. I love the nano, and my music can no go with me to even more places, with a player that is lighter than ever. The iPod Nano is destined to become the best selling music player in the world, and it will be for good reason.

I have had some bit of troublt with MP3 players in the past. I started out with a 128 MB mp3 player which ran on AAA batteries. It broke in 2 months. then it was a black Creative Zen Micro - stay away nothing but trouble. Then I went out and baught my Black 1 GB iPod Nano. In this I learned that the iPod's were everything but overrated. I loved it, though it was a little small in capacity for my growing music collection.

Pros:
Flash Memory: Flash memory is amazing it is like the RAM in a computer but it holds the information when it is off. This "Flash Memory" won't erase songs with a jolt (like the hard drive players) and it gives smoother playback.

SMALL: This item amazed me by it's size. It is tiny. Perfect for jogging, though its almost too small; when i first got it I forgot it was in my pocket and almost jumped in a river. I just shows its lightweight.

iTunes: iTunes is great. It is easy to sync. I really don't know what people are talking about when they say sync-ing is hard. Its as simple as loading your sonds into the library and buying songs and then selecting all of the one's you want by holding down "ctrl" or "shift" then dragging to the sidebar where your iPod is listed.

Cons:
Scratches: I have given up on the constant battle against scratches, it is inevitable. So I have given up with my case and determined that I'm fine with scratches.

Capacity: I did not realize when I bought this that 1 GB is as small as it is. I need more.

Final analasis: 4.7/5

I think I may buy the 2nd Gen. Nano 8GB.

NOTE: When buying anything with capacity (especially MP3 Players and Hard drives) get it with a capacity that is more than you need. The sizes aren't exact, and the companies round up. The 1 GB iPod is actually .90 of a GB.

Do not let the size of the Apple iPod Nano fool you! This MP3 player is packed with goodness!

#1 Crystal Clear Display
#2 Awesome Audio Quality
#3 Calendar
#4 Address Book
#5 Games
#6 Stopwatch - awesome for walks!
#7 Stores Pictures
#8 Charges via USB not an outlet!!!
#9 Podcast - Free news, information, etc.

This iPod is great, I take it everywhere, the only draw back is that if you use the Calander, or Address Book feature you have to enter the information in your program - becuase you cannot do it with the iPod. I enjoy that fact that is is so thin and little I can slip in my back pocket and not even know it is there! Excellent buy!

I purchased the iPod Nano about 4 months ago and have been very pleased with it. If you have the money, I definately recommend the Nano. I also strongly recommend getting the 2-year replacement plan with it for two reasons...

1. The battery will typically only hold a charge for 12-18 months. It costs something like $80 to replace the battery. Paying the additional $25 is worth it in the long run.(I have a sister that works at BestBuy who advised me of this)

2. My nano quit working after about 3 months. Because I had the replacement plan, I was able to have it replaced for free. I have heard that Nanos will often times do this, so its better to be on the safe side, especially when spending that amount of money.

I NEVER thought I would ever be writing a review for an ipod, but here I am. I have done my research for mp3 players and though I found what I was looking for, only to be dispointed again and again UNTIL I bought an ipod!!

Although I do listen to a small amount of music I was looking for a mp3 player to listen to audio books. I am in awe of this little thing.

I have gone though a Sandisk (is not EVEN book friendly!) and a Samsung (load 3 cds from the same book, it plays track1 track1 track1 , track2 track2 track2 and so on, so you have to ff 2 times what a mess)

Not with this ipod. I have 6 discs of one book on it right now and it will play the first one all the way through and then start with the next cd (what a concept!?) Feel like listening to music for a while? IT BOOKMARKS! Want to shuffle your music but dont want to hear your book, right well it knows the difference and does not shuffle the books! Wow smart and cute!

I had to do a small amount of trial and error to get around in itunes but it was pretty easy. I was suprised with the amount it will hold too. I had heard that ipods dont hold as much as other players but right now I have 7 full cds on there and I have not even used up 200mb! I have to admit it is kinda fun to use too. All I heard about ipods (the bad stuff) I thought the last thing I would like is an ipod but I LOVE IT! I dont just fork over affection for devices easily either! If you are looking for an mp3 player that does it all BUY AN IPOD! TRUST ME! I started looking at the price and with all the others I had (not that much less, but not worth the pain at ALL!) and wish I would have bought this one FIRST!

Update: Well my LCD has a line in it and has made it useless! Apple does not cover the LCD screens even when the outside screen is NOT cracked. I am now looking for another MP3 player and I am not going to pay Apples big bucks for something that only lasted less then a year! I was told that it MUST have been from abuse.. It was working fine when I had it in my pocket while taking a walk I even paused it a couple of times to talk to my neighbors but when I took it out of my pocket to turn it off as I was walking up my drive way it looked funny, yet the glass part was NOT damaged AT ALL!!!! I would rather give my money to a company who does not make shotty products and then blame it on the customers!

Just got my mine in the mail from Amazon.com, plugged it in for a battery charge, loaded all of my favorite songs at the same time. And now, I am listening to each one of them. The quality of the sound is very clear and loud if you wish it that way. It's got a shuffle functionality which works perfectly if you go to the gym and don't want to listen to only one album. The little device is so light too. I mean. 5 stars is well deserved for it. Lastly, the 14 hours of battery is true. :) Enjoy!

Whats good about the I-pod nano is that its so small. You can fit it in your pocket with a slide. (unlike the big one witch you need a case for) I have been doing some research and i have found the i-pod nano is the best 1gb (2gb or 4gb) mp3 player. The mini has no color,the others are very expensive and arn't that portable as the nano. This is a great MP3 player to carry around. I recomend you buy it.

I love my iPod nano it gets 5 stars but the thing that brought it down is iTunes it's so complicated to use and it takes to long to load but i love the look and features of the nano tip: when you first buy your nano it's a good idea to buy a case because it takes up dust and scratches if you don't and it will make the sleek look of your nano go away also buy a service plan because for the battery because it is ireplaceable