TECH SPOTLIGHT : Apple’s reworked music players all good, but redesigned Nano a joy to hold (and shake)
Posted on Monday, October 6, 2008
Just when I thought it was safe to leave the music world behind, three music players showed up.
Granted, these aren’t ordinary music players. These happen to be the latest in the family of players with the largest market share. So I figured I’d better take a look.
The iPods recently got updated by Apple Inc. with new sizes, new colors and some impressive new features.
Let’s start with the easy one: the Shuffle. This is the most basic of iPods. There’s no screen, just a click wheel for controls. The whole player is built into a clip that can attach to clothes, backpacks, whatever. The Shuffles, originally available in silver, now come in blue, green, pink and (Product ) Red designs. The (Product ) Red is so-named because a portion of the proceeds benefit the Global Fund to fight AIDS in Africa. The Shuffle comes in 1 GB and 2 GB models.
That same red can be found on the new iPod Nanos, along with a slew of other new colors. The cutesy pastels of the last model are gone, replaced by several bold new colors: purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and pink, in addition to black and silver. The Nano comes in 8 GB and 16 GB models, and includes free engraving on the back when ordered from Apple’s Web site.
The Nano has been completely redesigned from the previous model. Instead of the squat little player, it’s back to being a long, slender device, curved and tapered at the edges. The top half is dominated by a rich, 2-inch screen. That may seem small, but it’s big enough to display videos, movies, television shows and games.
The new Nano now includes accelerometer technology, which allows it to respond as it’s being tilted or moved in certain ways, similar to the iPhone or the Nintendo Wii controllers. With this, tilting the Nano on its side will bring up Cover Flow, which slides covers of your music albums across the screen.
There’s another new feature in the Nano thanks to the accelerometer that I really enjoyed — the shake to shuffle. You simply shake the device, and it randomly pulls a song from your library and plays it. Give it another shake, and it brings up another song. It’s just a fun little feature. For the traditionalists, you can also just set the regular shuffle feature to hear songs in random order. You also can turn off the shake-to-shuffle feature if you’re going to move the iPod a lot, such as during a workout.
The Nano also takes advan- tage of the accelerometer in its games. The device comes with three sample games, and more are available through Apple’s iTunes software. Games such as the included Maze can be controlled by tilting the Nano. It takes a bit of practice, but it sure beats trying to use that wheel.
I’m used to working the controls by holding the device vertically, so it took a bit of practice to work them while the device was turned horizontally. But when the device is turned on its side for games, movies or photos, the controls are turned on their sides as well.
The Nano’s redesign is a great one. It fits into the hand better, the screen is sharp and colorful and the new controls make it much more convenient to use.
Finally, I checked out the new iPod Touch. I like to describe the Touch as the iPhone without the phone.
The Touch utilizes the same iPod 2. 1 software as the iPhone, so it has most of the same features.
Using a wireless Internet connection, the Touch can access the Internet for Web browsing or checking e-mail, accessing the iTunes Music Store and downloading small programs and games called “apps.” The Touch comes in three models, the 8 GB, the 16 GB and the 32 GB.
Like the iPhone, the Touch is controlled by a touch-screen. The screen makes it easy to navigate, especially if you end up with a ton of apps like I have. Since the screen covers almost all of the front of the device, it makes it a lot easier to see the video and play games.
The new Touch is thinner than the old one and now includes volume controls on the left side. The screen is slightly sharper than the previous model, at least by my observation.
The Touch now has an external speaker, which is nice if you need a little wireless sound or an alarm clock. But the speaker isn’t outstanding. In fact, the iPhone speaker sounded a bit better, though I’d assume they were the same. But the richness of the included headphones more than made up for the anemic external speaker. The speaker is fine for the alarm. Otherwise, use the headphones.
Overall, Apple has made some nice improvements to the popular iPod line. Of the three, I would call the Nano the most improved.
The Shuffle stayed about the same, and while the new Touch has some great new features, a lot of the software changes can be obtained by previous Touch owners by upgrading to the iPod 2. 1 software. The software is available for download from iTunes for $ 9. 95.
That should be it for the music devices for now. At least, I think so... Melissa L. Jones can be reached via e-mail at mljones 72 @me. com.
Where it’s @ Each Apple iPod model requires a Windows or Macintosh computer with iTunes software. Each model comes with a USB cable and headphones. The iPod Shuffle retails for $ 49 for the 1 GB and $ 69 for the 2 GB. The iPod Nano retails for $ 149 for the 8 GB or $ 199 for the 16 GB. The Touch retails for $ 229 for the 8 GB, $ 299 for the 16 GB and $ 399 for the 32 GB. More information is available at www. apple. com / ipod.
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