I must say this is a strange review for me
(I'll get some pics when my batteries are charged).
But, in all seriousness, I'd like to say before I begin, that there are MANY types of digital music players out there, and this happens to be one in a ocean of products. With that said, let's move on.
Size
First off, this latest generation of the Nano is comparatively sized to a Mini DV cassette, except thickness wise. It's slimmer than a closed Motorola RAZR.
Interfacing
Secondly, probably the most important for some, is that it uses Apples proprietary iTunes software. This means you will be able to use this and only this software for putting songs on ANY Apple iPod. (However, there may be software that can get around this, but I know of none to date.)
The good news, is that if you are thinking of getting an iPod, you can download iTunes for free (about 50 mb) and try it out for a while. Particularly look for the podcasts, as sometimes the content in them can be more interesting that music and video in some cases for some people. Just a hint
iTunes can import your existing music library, CD wise as well as media on your computers hard drives/flash drives. I've imported mp3's as well as a few WMA's and it works. However, a WMA will need to be converted to AAC, so keep this in mind. At this point, after conversion has been done (if needed) the files will show up in iTunes and you can (hopefully, most of the time) acquire the album artwork. If not, but you have the artwork, you can drag and drop the picture into iTunes, and it will set it up for you.
As far as buying, everyone knows that Apple has a plethora of content. Did I say the best? No, because some people like getting music from other places, and they think that "Place A" is better than "Place B" or "iTunes". Aside from that, there is a lot of content for music, video, and mainly FREE podcasts (I have yet to see a podcast to pay for... at least me.) If you buy music from another site (like Wal-Mart, or Amazon) I'm certain you can import it. If it's a mp3 or WMA, you can pipe it in like you would something existing on your computer. The difference is that album artwork may not automatically be there upon importing.
I will say that iTunes is not beginner friendly... from a certain standpoint. I'm not a computer novice by any means (just ask Seth, it's actually my life), but getting the iPod going was a bit of a head scratch. It's not difficult by any means getting up and going, but it does require looking around and poking at a few menus to get the hang of it. I've certainly seen worse music management software (think Sony MiniDisc).
Overall, the thing is put together pretty slickly. I'm not sure if it has a SSD or mechanical drive in it (but considering the size and price, I'm sure it's SSD), but none the less, it holds slightly under 4GB (due to formatting differences). The screen is crisp and bright, and handles video very well for a small screen. The Nano does tend to bog a little bit when scrolling through a lot of artwork, or when adjusting the volume/time in a video, but the audio and video operation never stutter or bog (at least when I'm using it.) Audio wise, using my best set of headphones (Sony MDR-V3's which by NO means are a slouch) is clean and crisp, surprisingly. The supplied ear buds are actually decent, but make everything sound normalized/compressed in the midrange. The earbuds, however are loud, whereas my V3's couldn't get enough juice (and yes, I took the volume limiter off
). For those who wish to make things sound differently, it also has a Equalizer and Volume Normalization.
The touch wheel is still a slick design, in my opinion. Just by touching lightly and moving your finger around the middle button allows you to scroll and adjust volume easily. (I won't go as far as saying the touch sensitive wheel can do everything, because it obviously won't get me free songs
) The ring also has 4 normal push button contacts below it, for Menu, Back, Forward, and Pause/Play (which when held shuts the iPod off.)
Not only can the Nano play music and video, it can also hold pictures, contact lists, alarms, and games. It has a few other features like a stopwatch... but most of the other features can be read on Apples website.
Overall, I've been looking at portable digital music players for a while, and none have actually really impressed me until now. If you asked me what I thought of iPod 2 or more years back, I would have turned them down. But since they have allowed Windows support, importing different formats, the ability to use your iPod as an EXTERNAL drive, and a few other things make it recommended by me now. By all means, this is not right for everyone. You still need to look at what you want from a music player, and determine if you can live with it.
Not one player on the market can do everything; until then, people need to look carefully and weigh every option for portable media players.
