iPod Nano

I asked my sis returning from US to get me an iPod nano. Though I did not own any apple product, I have been tracking them all. I told her to get me a black one, she said for 2 MB that was not available and brought a white one. I had had not seen one earlier.

When she opened that after she came, everybody at home was stunned by it sexy looks. Though nobody knew what it exactly it was they loved its sleek looks. Even my colleagues who knew about iPod were mightily impressed by the design (good looks) and size. For me, I fell I for its looks, I had expected it to be smaller that it was, because its photos always came in a white man's large hands.

It is a very fine piece of engineering, that the reason I was willing to pay the premium over other players. It is so easy and instinctive to use you don’t need a manual to use it including the click wheel. No wonder there is no bulky manual that comes with it. Apple's user manual is slimer as its player :-). I just connected the iPod to laptop and charged it. Copied all the songs to iPod, but when I tried using the player, I could not songs. Then I realized I needed iTunes. OK, but wasn’t iTunes a online shop for buying songs? So I called my friends, Sridhar said iPod requires iTunes software and I have to buy songs. What the hell, I had read on Apple web site that it plays mp3, now the f*$#!@ does not play it. I was wondering how to sell it. I could not afford to pay 99c for a each song. But back of my mind I knew this could not be possible. I checked the apple site in detail, I realized that iTunes was a software that I had to download. I downloaded it the 36 MB s/w, took me about 4 hours using the dial up connection. Next day I explored the s/w, it was pretty user friendly, I realized that I had to convert the mp3 or any other format to AAF format using iTunes. I also found organizing it into the folders was a problem had to do it using the itunes by naming each song based on its details. Had to give details of each song. It is pretty painful, but the originals did not have these details. The sync up worked very well.

Coming to the quality of music it really beautiful, it would have been better if equalizers are given. But the given the simplicity of design it made sense not to complicate usage. I can easily make up the quality of recording of each song. One big problem with ear phone it is designed for a bigger western ear. The bass is on top of left ear phone, when I normally plug it into my ear, the bass is muffled. I have to place it at an odd angle, which is bit uncomfortable.

One thing that I see is the total lack of features. It needs a FM player atleast. Whenever I see the recording feature from FM on other players, I really envy. Apple probably did this to sell more songs which was a win win for apple and record companies which made sense.

Overall, I don’t regret its lack of features, it makes up with its looks and simplicity. You need a comp to use, download or upload music. But looks like it may not last for long because the mobiles with mp3 feature is going to overrun it. Very few people would like to carry 2 gadgets. Well apple it seems has already lined up iPhone nano, cant wait to lay my hands on it. What happens to my iPod nano. I will live with nano for sometime.