Technology Corner

Posts Tagged ‘Apple iPod Nano’

Apple’s fourth-generation iPod Nano returns to the original long, light, and slender formula that put the series on the map. The Nano 4G feels impossibly light and thin, with a seamless metal construction that allows you to click, like a twig. Curved glass now covers the iPod Nano’s screen, with better scratch resistance. The shape have softened, measuring 3.5 inches tall by 1.6 inches wide by 0.25 inch thick at its center. Headphone and dock connections are located on the bottom of the Nano 4G, and a slide switch allows you to maintain the appearance in the top of the player.

Menu text size has increased slightly and album cover art takes up less real estate on the main menu. In an effort to increase the availability Nano for people with impaired vision, Apple has included a font size in the fourth generation Nano that makes its menus more legible. The Nano’s music playback screen now presents full-screen album art by default, and Cover Flow view is zippier than before, offering alphabetization letters below the covers to quickly navigate through your collection.

All of the features from last year’s Nano have migrated to the fourth-generation model, including music, video, and podcast playback, as well as extras such as photos, calendar, games, alarms, stopwatch, contacts, notes, and clocks. Apple has also added some features that make the 4G Nano more compelling than its predecessors.

The fourth-generation iPod Nano’s speed and usability is better than ever, but its sound quality and rated battery life haven’t budged. Apple rates the battery of the fourth generation iPod Nano at 24 hours of audio playback and 4 hours of video. Apple does not seem motivated to intervene in the iPod’s sound quality or any new audio enhancement settings beyond its traditional slew of EQ presets.

When Apple releases new iPod models, sometimes all they change is how much storage the model offers. Other times, all they change is everything. Now in its third generation, Apple iPod Nano gets a substantial redesign to accommodate games and video playback. Apple did a lot of iPod nano is still one of the smallest, most delicate and exquisite designed MP3 player market. It is also one of the most affordable, with a 4GB silver () model offered for $ 149, and 8GB (silver, black, red, green or blue) model for $ 199.

The redesign of the iPod Nano has drawn plenty of criticism. The Nano measures a petite 2.75 inches long, 2 inches wide, and 0.25 inch thick. In the bottom of the Nano, find your own iPod USB port, along with headphones and the hold switch that prevents accidental release of the player buttons. Nano keeps Apple’s ubiquitous Click Wheel design, although the Nano’s new Click Wheel is smaller in diameter–it’s only 1 inch–than the previous Nano’s 1.25 inches. The Nano’s most dramatic design change is, of course, its larger, brighter screen. The 2-inch color screen packs a dense, crisp 320×240 video resolution that looks richer and brighter than that of any iPod to date.

The Nano’s second-most impressive design improvement is its dramatically overhauled menu system. One of the biggest changes in a split-screen main menu that displays the menu on the right side of the screen and photographs relating to the election of the left. The Cover Flow system, to see your music collection with an emphasis on album artwork, finally makes its Nano debut, although Cover Flow I lose some appeal when not on screen, communication devices like the iPhone.

The third-generation Nano’s piece de resistance is its support for video playback. The iPod Nano supports H.264 or MPEG4 video in either MOV, MP4, or M4V file formats, with a maximum resolution of 640×480 at as much as 30 frames per second. The iPod Nano support for iTunes video games. Although the game is a very convenient way to take some time, do not expect a Nano to compete with Sony PSP in the near future.