Apple iPod nano 4GB (2nd Generation)

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Anthony Fiti
Kurtis
N/A
Sep. 19, 2006

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Testing

Given that Apple's iTunes software is the gateway to your iPod MP3 player, it's important that it work well and be user friendly; otherwise your iPod is just an expensive paperweight. The iTunes interface has been mediocre for the past few years, in my opinion. However, it received a facelift, and more importantly, a reorganization of the left panel in iTunes version 7.

The revamped iPod device system in iTunes 7 is a welcome feature. The software does a better job at telling you what is on your device using a color coded bar at the bottom. Though for the nano, since it isn't as feature rich as the iPod, the bar is really only useful for telling you how full your device is. All the options for managing your iPod device are on the first tab and each type of media which your iPod can use (music, podcasts, photos, movies, games, etc) are tabs across the top to manage those individual media types. From the library it's easy to click and drag music into your iPod device. Most notably, the new coverflow interface allows you to scroll through your CD collection, and even drag entire albums at once from the coverflow area at the top to your iPod device.

Once all your music is on the unit, the most important thing is how long it will play. So after an overnight charge of a barely used first generation iPod nano and the brand new second generation iPod nano, we set them up to play. I selected one album, A Beautiful Lie by the group 30 Seconds to Mars, and set it on repeat and walked away. Every 10-15 minutes I would check on each iPod nano to see if they were still running. After about 12 hours the first generation iPod turned off, and after 24 hours and 47 minutes the second generation iPod shut itself off. Now remember this is ideal conditions - I didn't touch the iPod nano after I turned it on and set it to repeat, so the LCD screen didn't turn on (which would use more power). So I wouldn't go so far as to say you should expect over 24 hours of battery life from normal usage, but you should see nearly double the battery life. In normal conditions it may not be quite double since the new nano has a much brighter backlight which surely sucks more juice, but you get the point. Of course, it is reasonable to say that in brightly lit environments, you don't even need the backlight to view song titles, volume, etc.

The quality of the audio seems identical to the first generation iPod nano. I was unable to discern the difference between the two. One of the new audio features with iTunes 7 is gapless playback. To test this out, I configured some of my songs as gapless (in the options tab of the Get Info context item on a song or songs), and played them on each iPod nano. iTunes 7 can also automatically detect gapless playback. Gapless playback worked as expected, flowing from one track into the next without any gaps or crossfading. Finally, justice can be done to Dark Side of the Moon on a portable music player.

As I already mentioned, the LCD display on the new nano is significantly brighter than the first generation. In addition, Apple has added some new user interface tweaks. The first I want to mention is the quick scroll. When you scroll through a long list of items, quick scroll will kick in and scroll faster and display the first letter of the name of the item (song, artist or album) as you scroll through it. This makes it easier to scroll to where you want, since you tend to stop closer to where you want to be. On small devices (1GB, 2GB) it may not be that big of a deal, however on one of the new 80GB iPods which can store 20,000 songs, it would take a while to scroll through all the items in one category. Quick scroll can get you through longer lists quicker and you can stop with more precision.

The next feature is the new search functionality. I personally didn't think it was all that useful since on the 4GB model I can remember what music I put on there, and the hierarchical style (artist > album > song) navigation fits with the way I think. It does work as advertised though. You can scroll through the letters, entering what you're looking for and it will match albums and songs (the albums have a little CD icon next to them). You scroll all the way back to the left and click done and it will allow you to scroll through your search results. And while the display only shows the top four search results, you can just click on the DONE option, check out your results, and then hit menu to go back and adjust your search criteria as needed.

Finally, the iPod nano can display your CD covers while the song is playing. It gets the covers from syncing with the iTunes software, of course, which requires you either getting the covers when you purchase a song via the iTunes Store, providing them yourself, or having an iTunes Store account (which is free, you just have to link it to a credit card) and downloading missing cover art from within iTunes.

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: First Impressions
Page 3: Taking a Closer Look
Page 4: Testing
Page 5: Conclusion

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18 User Comments

1 - Posted by tony3010 on September 19, 2006 - 11:56 pm

Very informative article. Thanks for all the pictures (especially the ones showing the new and old earphones side by side... I was wondering what they looked like!).

2 - Posted by Nathan on September 20, 2006 - 7:25 am

"The placement of the hold switch, 30-pin connector and headphone jack have not changed between the first and second generation iPod nano."

Sort of incorrect, depending how you read the above. The 30-pin connector HAS CHANGED in location (placement). It has been moved to the outside of the unit ... making some accessories for the 1st gen not usable for the 2nd gen. And the placement of the headphone jack has also changed.

Just look at this picture to see the difference:

http://images.appleinsider.com/ipod-second-gen-sho...

3 - Posted by Nathan on September 20, 2006 - 7:36 am

Another comment (my last, I promise).

I see another improvement. The earbuds are improved in the area of sound quality. Personally, they sound A LOT better than the earbuds that came with the first gen nano.

Some further reading in this area:

http://www.maccast.com/2006/09/19/sleek-yet-still-...

4 - Posted by handrail on September 20, 2006 - 8:03 am

yep, great review anthony. i was sad to see that you didn't have any pictures of yourself dancing in the dark with the nano though.

5 - Posted by edoug on September 20, 2006 - 9:23 am

Another key improvment in my opinion is the button in the center of the scroll wheel. It is not convex to the touch and provides a much clearer press and keeps you better aligned on the wheel when you're not working than the old, basically flat, button did.

6 - Posted by edoug on September 20, 2006 - 9:25 am

excuse me...i meant NOW as opposed to NOT:
Another key improvment in my opinion is the button in the center of the scroll wheel. It is NOW convex to the touch and provides a much clearer press and keeps you better aligned on the wheel when you're not working than the old, basically flat, button did.

7 - Posted by Nick on September 20, 2006 - 11:48 am

Please brad, dont encourage the ipod dancing thing. It doesn't really apply to the nano being flash, but imagine the marketing stupidity behind those commercials showing people swinging their HARD DRIVE based ipods around. Anyone who finds themselves with a dead drive should call in and say, i was just dancing with it like in the commercials!!!

8 - Posted by handrail on September 22, 2006 - 1:39 pm

maybe i want all the iPod drives to crash....you ever think of that, nick? evil pods.

look how they've invaded TTL! three articles in a row of iPod related reviews...

they all say i'm crazy...you'll all see! wait for the sign. then all prisoners will be released. you will perish in flame!!!

9 - Posted by Kurtis on September 22, 2006 - 1:44 pm

don't anger them brad. they may see it fit to silence you.

10 - Posted by handrail on September 22, 2006 - 2:01 pm

they've gotten to you too, kurtis!!!

11 - Posted by BCSchnei on September 22, 2006 - 3:26 pm

The review mentions that the new Nano is a slightly different size. Has anyone tried to put it in an aftermarket protective case?

-- Ben

12 - Posted by Kurtis on September 22, 2006 - 3:34 pm

it's almost exactly the same size. just a hair difference. shouldn't be a problem but i didn't have any cases to verify.

13 - Posted by blackjet on September 26, 2006 - 9:12 am

they look pretty sweet, good article!

Will they ever put a radio in the dam thing? That is one reason y I still haven’t bought an i pod, that and I’m broke.....

14 - Posted by Michelle10607 on December 26, 2006 - 7:16 pm

The new one does fit into the case that I had. It was a little snug but it was ok. It does not however fit into the speaker & charger thing that I had for my old one because of the headphone jack movement. That made me a little angry.

15 - Posted by herbus on August 1, 2007 - 5:50 pm

should i buy and ipod nano now... or will they just get updated???

16 - Posted by Kurtis on August 2, 2007 - 12:49 am

There should be a new iPod or iPhone coming out this fall. I'm guessing it will be a slimmed down version of the iPhone with just iPod capabilities, maybe some OS X stuff too. But it could just be another, cheaper, iPhone.

If you'll be severely disappointed if there is a new model released in a few months, I'd wait just to be safe, otherwise I'm sure you'll be happy with the iPod nano current version, it's a great little player.

17 - Posted by Pepsi Man on January 3, 2009 - 12:23 am

yeah, i waited for the new nanos to come out. it was worth it!

18 - Posted by MrMolezz on October 3, 2009 - 8:08 am

The iPod Touch Is Almost Exactly The iPhone Just Without The Phone Part Im Getting One At Crimbo!!!!!

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