Apple iPod nano 4GB (2nd Generation)

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Anthony Fiti
Kurtis
N/A
Sep. 19, 2006

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Conclusion

The battery life was astounding. In our somewhat scientific test we achieved over a 100% increase from the previous generation iPod nano. Even if you were to run a more practical situation and cut 20% off battery life, you're still looking at almost 20 hours of battery life available. To put that in a useful context, that's a two hour commute each way (4 hours per day) five days a week before you need to charge the unit again. (Ed - If I was on Apple's marketing team, I might tell you that if you had an iPod nano for every second of battery life, they would circle the Earth 4 times! Who comes up with that crap, anyways?)

The bright LCD is a nifty improvement too. That can make the difference if you have your iPod unit docked in a vehicle and you're driving at nighttime. (Note: TheTechLounge.com encourages you to keep your eyes on the road while you're driving, and not talking on your cell phone, fiddling with your radio or iPod, or anything else that distracts from attentive driving) The album art is neat, although it really doesn't do anything for me. Also remember that those images will take up space on your iPod, reducing the number of songs that can be stored.

And then of course there is the matter of colors! The ability to show your "individuality' by picking an iPod color that's just for you is something that helped make the iPod mini Apple's most popular iPod - until it was replaced with the nano. After a generation of black and white, Apple has breathed new life into the nano with vibrant new colors. Completely remastered, they say.

If there were any doubts due to wavering iPod sales figures, this should put them firmly to rest. Between the $50 price drop on the regular iPod, and the aesthetic and technical improvements on the iPod Shuffle and nano lines, Apple shows they're not about to roll over and let other portable devices grow in market share. I really think Apple has another winner on their hands with the second generation iPod nano. Sporting a tremendous increase in battery life, up from 12 to 24.75 hours, and now in five colors, Apple is ready to take the holiday season by storm. Apple's new iPod nano gets our Recommended award.

iPod nano 2nd Generation

Pros

Compact size and lightweight
At last, colors!
iTunes integration
Awesome battery life
Durable aluminum alloy casing
Brighter LCD
Double the storage compared to 1G nano at same price

Cons

Price premium (40-50% according to analysts)
Search feature isn't terribly useful on small capacity iPods
Still no built-in FM tuner
Color selection is limited by capacity (see below for details)

iPod nano 2nd Generation Color Availability Chart
Capacity	Colors
2GB 4GB 8GB	Silver Silver, Pink, Blue, Green Black

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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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16 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.

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