Customer Reviews

Apple iPod nano 4 GB Silver (2nd Generation) OLD MODEL

5 star:		(865)
4 star:		(320)
3 star:		(94)
2 star:		(53)
1 star:		(114)

 

 

I've had a chance to play around with this for a few days now, and while I am a huge fan of the iPod Nano, it will not be replacing my 20GB iPod Photo anytime soon. It's Apple's own fault, really; they gave me 20GB (or 40, or 60) of space first, and now they want to take 90% of it away? Don't think so. I've come to believe what Apple's been telling me for a few years now: I NEED to take my entire music collection around with me everywhere I go. It's as essential as my cell phone and Metro Card. So for the storage reason alone, I can't chuck my 20GB model just yet. But the Nano really is a cool machine, and I imagine it will overtake the higher capacity iPods in popularity shortly because of its size, price, and cool factor.

Here's what I consider the improvements to be:
1. First and foremost, the transition to flash memory. This enables the Nano to be smaller and operate quieter than iPods that are hard drive-based. Make no mistake, flash memory is the future of digital music players;
2. The size, duh. Apple has made the Nano smaller without compromising much of the bright colorful screen. As we all now by now, it is thinner than a number two pencil (my 20GB iPod Photo, on the other hand, is probably three pencils thick). But it's still too large and delicate to jog with, without an optional accessory or two (arm band, lanyard headphones); and
3. The Apple-brand accessories that have been released concurrently with the Nano are affordable and well-designed.

...And what's not-so-great:
1. The price drop isn't that substantial, especially for what you get. For an extra $100, you can upgrade to a Photo that has ten times the capacity; and
2. The headphone jack is on the bottom of the Nano. I'm not sure what the logic behind this is-it seems like making a change for the sake of making a change to me.

Some wonderful things about the color iPods in general: they're very easy to use; their demure size could hardly be improved upon; the color screen is beyond adequate for viewing photos and album art; the battery life is exceptional; making playlists and controlling iTunes are simple tasks; all are compatible with Mac or Windows; and if you use a Mac, you can sync your iPod with your address book, to do list, and calendar (this has come in handy for me a number of times when I'm traveling). Also, if you're a college student or an educator at any level, the Apple Store (both the b&m and online versions) gives discounts on just about everything. For iPods it's about $20, but for computers it's up to $300

The bottom line on the Nano: it's a great entry-level MP3 player that will probably suffice for most listeners. However, if you're a music warrior who listens for many hours a day, many days a week, then 2-4GB is just too small to suit you--but of course you've had an iPod for three years now, and you already knew that.

I bought a 2nd Generation 8 GB Nano to supplement (and probably eventually replace) my 20GB Color iPod, which has been developing signs of old age, getting stuck at innopportune moments. I decided that 8 gig is really big enough to listen to the music I actually listen to every day at the gym, and I wanted to replace my disk-based iPod with a solid state device.

My first reaction upon opening the box was astonishment at how small the Nano is! I had never seen one before. It is very slick.

Itunes is pretty smart about letting me update the 8 GB Nano from the music library I had accumulated for my 20 GB iPod. It creates a special playlist for the Nano to define what songs are specifically downloaded to the smaller device. I had actually thought I would have to set up a completely new music library, and go through the tedium of reloading all those CDs.

One extremely important note of caution for PC users: this is the first USB device I have owned (and I own a lot of different USB devices) that really requires a USB 2.0 port. I didn't even realize that my 3-year-old home-brew Windows machine didn't have USB 2.0; it was never really an issue before. Apple says that USB 2.0 is highly recommended for the 2nd generation Nano, but it really should be a hard requirement. The behavior of my PC while trying to talk to the Nano over a USB 1.1 port was truly bizarre. The Nano basically brought the PC to its knees. I was able eventually to start updating the Nano but after 24 hours had only loaded about 400 songs. The response time of my PC during this ordeal was utterly ridiculous. During the day I bought a USB 2.0 PCI card, shut down the PC, installed the card, and was able to finish updating the Nano in a matter of minutes.

Let me start by saying that I'm coming to the iPod Nano from the world of flash MP3 players, this is my first iPod because I was waiting for Apple to make a decent flash MP3... and they've finally done it! So here are the things I love about my iPod Nano after about a month of use:

1) Making playlists on iTunes, this is a wonderful feature that you just don't find outside the iPod world!
2) Beauty, the iPod Nano is without doubt the sexiest MP3 player alive today. Apple really knows how to make beautiful products.
3) Sound is great.
4) Love that click wheel thing, another great idea by Apple.
5) Beautiful big color display makes navigation easy and fun.

I know much of that is old hat to the iPod world, but for me coming from a world of Muvo's and iAudio these are wonderful features. Now for the bad news, why I didn't give the Nano a 5:

1) Fragile!! Doesn't Apple understand that part of the appeal of a flash player is ruggedness? I'm scared to take this thing outside or even put it in my pocket without protection.. I immediately went out and spent another $30 for a decent case which leads to
2) Where are the accessories? My iAudio's and Muvos came with cases and lanyards and armbands. iPod Nano: nothing!! The most expensive player I've bought to date and the one most in need of a protective case and I have to go and spend an extra $30 for what should have been included!

In summary, this is a wonderful product and a delight to use and behold. However, Apple does need to get a clue about durability and accessories imho!

Ok... This might be the first iPod that I've owned but I've been an admirier of Apple's work for some time. I have several friends with various generations of the original iPod and always loved the combination of art and technology that goes into them.

I had been the owner of a Sony mp3 player for about 2 years and until this summer had no reason to think about replacing it. 256meg of memory seemed enough for me and it was small too. What more did I need really ?? However, over the summer my trusty sony got washed and so it was time to look for something to replace it.

In the run up to my birthday Apple launched the Nano and I instantly fell in love with it. I have no real need for 60 gigabytes of storage but knew that 256 meg was limiting the amount of music I could carry around with me. Even the 2gig version which held 500 songs would be fine for me. I added a Nano to my birthday wish list and waited !!

Last Friday I opened up the sleek box to feast my eyes on my Nano for the first time. Even though I'd read pages of reviews about the player, I was still amazed at the size (or lack of size) of this unit. It's just tiny !! Not so small that you'd lose it but small enough that when It's in your pocket you can forget its there. The screen is so bright and clear and the sound !!.... WOW. For such a small player, it certainly packs quite a punch in the volume department. Full volume would certainly lead to hearing damage after a short time.

The iTunes software that comes with it is easy to install and easy to use. I was soon burning my CD's onto my PC with ease. A 10-12 track CD takes around 2-3 minutes to load onto the PC but uploading those same songs onto the iPod takes a fraction of that time. Infact on day 1 I loaded about 450 songs onto my player and it can't have taken more than 5 or 6 minutes. The product specs say that the 2gig version will hold 500 songs. Well I've got about 560 on mine at the moment and there is still about 250 meg free. I'm sure that the actual storage capabilities depend on the length of the songs you're loading.

I'd read lots about the problems with early versions of the Nano with regard to failing screens and scratches etc. but guess what ??... stuff gets scratched and damaged, thats just how it is. if you;re silly enough to think that anything will stay as pristine as the day it was bought, then you're bound to be dissappointed. I will be buying a case for mine (probably an Agent18 hard case) because I want to keep it in the best shape possible. I'd reccommend others do the same, not because it will fall apart if you don't but because when you're spending $200 on something, you want to look after it !!

I'm not going to tell anyone that the iPod Nano is the best value mp3 player on the market. There are plenty of others that have it beat hands down in terms of storage and price. However, I am willing to say that It's probably the sexiest mp3 player around and has the competition beat when it comes to looks. Add to that the fact that 500+ songs is probably more than enough for most users, that the quality of the sound is excellent and that (sor far) battery life has been up there with most of the others on the market, this really is an awesome piece of kit and well worth considering if you don't need the ability to carry around 25,000 songs !!

Bottom line... if you want a great looking player that is very capable and also has some neat additional functions that most of the others don't have then get out there and get yourself a Nano. If you want something thats gonna hold thousands and thousands of songs and withstand you throwing it around all the time, look elsewhere !!

I love mine

Mark

I am 48 years old and have never owned an MP3 player before. Prior to this, I saw the MP3 player as one of those gadgets that teenagers were always fiddling with. I finally learned that with an MP3 player I could just buy the songs I wanted and not the whole CD, so that is why I decided to look into them. I could not care less about "brand names" and did not have any preference towards any of the players as I knew nothing about them. I was looking at Zune, Ipod, and creative (the three main ones that I could find) and did a lot of reading up on of them before I bought the Nano. All three sounded good and it was a tough choice. In the end, I bought the Nano because:

1. I did not like the sound of the $15 dollar "rental" fee that Microsoft charges for the Zune. If you want a song permanently, you have to buy it in addition to the rental fee. I don't like the sound of the points system, either.
2. Ipods come different models and sizes. The Nano was the size and price that best suited my buget.
3. Ipod Itunes has more music than the others, and music is my main use.
4. I already had a satellite radio boombox that also doubled as an Ipod player, saving me the expensive of buying an additional player for one of the other MP3's.
5. The Creative was harder to find in my area.

I just began using the Nano today and am thrilled with the purchase. I bought a prepaid music card and used it immediately. I had no trouble at all with installing software, purchasing, or downloading the music. The Ipod sceen is somewhat small, but easy to see and navigate. The click wheel is also nice, a little hard to get used to, but very fast. There is a "hold" button that you can use to prevent the device from accidently turning on. There is a clock and calender included. I cannot believe something this fun comes in such a small package!! (But I guess that applies to all MP3's) I wish these were around 30 years ago! I am now a older person fiddling with a gadget.

I found the Apple web site to be very helpful with tutorials etc. The information included with the Nano was not very helpful. I also bought the Ipod and Itunes for Dummies book and have been very pleased with it.


I can see myself buying another in the future, but will also still consider Zune if I want to upgrade.

Much has been written about what makes the new iPod Nano great, so I won't repeat all of those reviews here. Instead, I'll focus on the flaws that have slightly marred my experience, though not enough for me to regret my purchase. I'm still glad that I bought it.

As soon as I read about the new iPod nano, I ordered one straight from Apple. I liked the Mini with its all-metal body, and have been wishing I could get a Nano like that since the Nano came out. However, I'm somewhat disappointed with the diminished quality of this new iPod compared to the previous iPods I've owned -- the a 20GB 4G (I've owned two) and the first-generation Mini.

A lot has been written about the great new features of this new iPod, so I won't get into those much. Other than the nice small form factor and the 8 gigabytes of space, I like the new volume lock feature the most.

This list is grouped into several categories.

Design Flaws:

The center button is now slightly recessed instead of being slightly raised like in previous models. When the button was raised, it was a lot easier to follow around the scroll wheel with my thumb.

The screen is hard to read without backlight. With older monochrome screens, which work just fine for reading what song I am listening to, I could read it without the backlight in all but the darkest environments.

The GUI is often jerky. My hypothesis is that previous iPods used separate chips for the GUI and for the audio decoding and the GUI, while this one uses the same one.

The "Now Playing" screen displays some titles center-aligned, some left-aligned. I haven't figured out what the deciding factor is.

The headphone jack being on the bottom is very inconvenient. This is obviously a personal preference when you are talking about just walking around with the iPod. But this also makes it virtually impossible to unplug the data/charging cable without first unplugging the headphones.

Software Bugs:

Apple has already released firmware version 1.1.1 for this iPod. I have installed this firmware. Despite this, I have already discovered several bugs in the software:

Album sorting seems to happen based on several factors other than the track number. In one nine-track album, the first track was actually listed and played last. I was able to remedy this by clearing all the tags other than artist, album, year, and track number for all tracks in this album.

It seems to choke on certain files that play fine in other players. I have yet to figure out a pattern.

Quality Flaws:

The screen in my iPod is slightly crooked. This is, in my opinion, unacceptable from a "premium" music player. I admit that this would not bother everyone.

The hold button has some play, and often the orange hold indicator shows through despite the hold switch being off.

The center button (and the entire scroll wheel area) also has a lot of play. I imagine that, beyond communicating a lower quality level, this would also invite dust and dirt inside of the iPod.

I used to have the ipod shuffle but was frustrated that I couldn't dictate which songs to play. The nano is the perfect solution; I can play by specific song, artist, specific artist's albums, playlist (music folder I create), or genre. This ipod gives me the flexibility I want! Although I mostly just play music, the stopwatch feature has come in handy a few times. I haven't tried downloading games or anything else, though.

I recently went on a 24-hour road trip. I used my ipod the whole trip, and I still had battery life when I got home. The thing is very intuitive, which was nice trying to choose a song while driving at night on strange roads. I've heard people complain that it is too simple, but who wants to spend a lot of time surfing the thing when all you want is to play music NOW! The backlight was REALLY bright at night, but I like that I can determine how long the light stays on after I'm done (10 second, 5 or less after last touch).

Negatives: The earbuds are just OK but not bad enough to make me buy new ones. I would love to reorder the thing so I could get the 4 GB instead of just 2; I have A LOT of songs I want to put on it, and the 2 GB is just a little bit under what I need. There is no carrying case or anything, so you have to put it in your sweatshirt or whatever while transporting the thing. By doing this, you can accidentally increase the volume or change songs. However, I think you can lock the controls to avoid this. My shuffle has a lanyard, which is nice.

I researched mp3 players in depth, and the nano sounded like the player with the least problems (in this price range). I'm glad to know that I made the right buy.

I wrote extensively here because I truly benefitted from other people doing the same.

NEW:
-Aluminum Casing
-Double battery life
-Thinner/Taller
-Search option in menus
-Brighter screen

GOOD:
-Excellent sound quality
-Excellent software (recently updated iTunes 7)
-Can charge through USB
-Oodles of accessories
-Competitive price
-Apple brand
-Durable casing
-Search feature is very intuitive
-Very decent battery life
-40% Brighter Screen than predecessor

BAD:
-Still no FM tuner, voice record, or line-in record
-Still no video playback
-Expensive accessories
-Crappy headphones
-Not that you really need it, but there is no software included i the box (you have to download it at apple.com)

COLORS:
Silver - 2GB/4GB exclusive
Pink/Green/Blue - 4GB exclusive
Black - 8GB exclusive

(This is my mom and dad's account, I'm really only 14, and named Kaylee) I have wanted an iPod for sooooo long. I saved my money and bought one myself, my parents did NOT pay for it. They color is even better than in the picture, which was a pleasant suprise. The earphones are really nice, not like the crapy ones all my friends have on their video and first generation nanos. The outside non-scratch is awesome. I got my iPod on Sept. 29 of 2006, (a friday) and left to go camping less than 4 hours later. Ofcourse I took my iPod with. We camped on DNR land in the middle of no where in our trailor. So I ran around, rode my dirtbike, climbed trees, and a whole lotta other stuff while carrying it in my pocket. I dropped it a few times, and it doesn't have a scratch!!!! The only bad thing is it's so small, and easy to loose. I recomend getting a screen cover though. But you really don't need a case to keep it safe, cuz that would just hide the color of your iPod. It has 4 great games on it, and stores a ton of photos. It loads super fast, and is easy to update. The color screen rocks to the fullest. It's definatly worth the money. Besides, it's a 4g which in my town niether Wal-Mart or Cosco carry, only 2g. I'd buy it again in a heartbeat.

Having zero experience with iPod-type devices and with purchasing music online, this grandma put music on her grandchildren's Christmas gift of the Silver 2GB Nano in only half a day with only 2 calls to customer support. If I can do it, anyone can. The Apple support are incredibly patient, helpful, have a sense of humor, and you don't have to wait long to get through to them. I just wish the iPod Nano came with a written manual. I did go online and print the 60-page feature guide and it didn't help me with my problem with getting the audiobook out of the music category. Once I did the "Manually manage music" option, the audiobook went in the correct category. A 2 1/2 hour book took minutes to download from the iTunes store (that's the Apple online site where you can purchase books, music, etc.)and minutes to transfer to the Nano. I loaded about 50 songs and 1 book and used 0.1 GB of the available 1.7 GB capacity using a DSL connection and a pc with a USB 2.0 port. The best part was listening to the music. It's stereo sounding, clear and the best I've heard coming out of a radio/cd player in ages. I just laid back in the recliner and listened for an hour. I bought the Tough Skin Nano holder which does have screen protection, because the Nano's are going to a 6-year old and an 8-year old. The Skins come in colors which will differentiate silver Nano's going to the same family.