iPod Nation article

Written by yanglu September 28, 2008 13:39

I'm a huge fan of iPod. I've been dreaming about getting one for two Christmas's. Unfortunately, Santa (my wife) didn't fill my stocking with an iPod. : ( (She did buy me some cool accessories for my Viper though.) Of course, I could just go out and buy one myself, but I decided to blow my cash on a Viper upgrades instead. Tough call. (not really. Viper wins by 20 lengths). In one month's Viper car payment I could of course own 2-3 iPods, but I've got other bills to pay, including a new house mortgage payment. Every news story I read about the iPod just increases my excitement of owning one at the same time torturing my soul for not owning one. I came across this story from MSNBC that talked about the "iPod Nation" - the cultural impact of the iPod and how it has become a status symbol. The article also mentions how the makers of the "Lord of the Rings" movies used iPods to shuttle dailies from the set to the studio. Very interesting stuff. Check it out. One day I will own an iPod. I had seen the adverts on TV on how small the nano was but it wasn't until I held one in my hands that I fully understood how small and how impressive these MP3 players are.

Weighing only 42grams and a mere 90m by 40m and only 6.9m thick (or thin) these little units are not going to fill your suitcase when you go on holiday. Ideal for putting in your pocket, wallet or purse you can take them anywhere, except the pool of course as they are not waterproofs. The small size does create concerns for me with my children though. They can easily get lost if not looked after and outside of the home could be easy prey to pickpockets or thieves so beware. They come in two colours white and black and two memory sizes 2gb and 4gb, theses can hold 500 and 1000 songs respectively. For me this is more than enough songs but for those of you with large CD collections, who want to put their whole collection in one place, you may want to go for one the larger iPods.

The colour screen looks excellent and shows easy navigation throughout, you can download your tunes into files, albums, types of music etc. My only concern with the screen was, I felt it may scratch easily and some of the cases that you can buy for the nano still leave the screen exposed. My concern is when you put your nano into your pocket or bag and catches something metal. I had heard on the news there had been issues with the early nanos, I still feel this could be an issue. The main control in the centre of the unit was more touch sensitive than I expected, I use my thumb to scroll the menu, but it wasn't long before it was easy as pie, if fact working really well with the gel case I had bought to protect it. The sound is excellent, I can't tell the difference between CDs and MP3s and I often think those who say they can, can't either. You can download your music from iTunes, a legal way of owning music.

They are impressively boxed also, where you open the box like a book and see your nano inside. However you do not get any form of charging your nano except for the computer leads that come with it. This means if you wish to take your nano away from your computer for a period of time you will need to buy a separate mains charger. Which of course is larger than the unit itself? My final conclusion is that this little unit is a fantastic move forward in the music player industry. I was impressed by the larger iPods that my friends had, but it wasn't until the appearance of the nano that I was suitably impressed to put my hand in pocket to make a purchase. And I haven't been let down. One day...A recent study from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has found that 25% of people would be willing to buy their gadgets from Starbucks, 30% from Ikea, 40% from Bed, Bath and Beyond and almost 60% from Home Depot. "Electronics have become so pervasive that consumers are looking to buy these devices wherever they want," said Tim Herbert, CEA research senior director, adding, "No [retailer] is safe.

If you don't reinvent yourself, there are retailers looking to capitalize on the vulnerability of CE retailers." It's easy to see why as lines across the big box retailers blur and they look to capture more dollars from more (or, today, less) shoppers. And innovative and lower-priced products are also making it easier for these stores to stock them -- a $159 computer keyboard with a built-in scanner from Keyscan, one of the first notebook stands with built-in iPod dock and speakers from Lifeworks and an accessory that adds voice activation to an iPod (with an iPhone version in the works) from Innotek.

And while this is exciting, don't see too many flat-screen TVs moving out of Home Depot, but then again, who would have guessed that Costco could move these big boys in such large numbers? At the 2008 Intel Developer Forum, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak (right in photo) took the main stage to talk about his love of engineering and science, the process behind developing the Apple II personal computer, and what it's like to be "Employee No. 1" at Apple.