iPod Nano (Page 2)

I had one of those for like 10 years until it just gave out on me one day. I was pretty upset when it died. That thing lasted forever! I'm not sure that I'll be able to get that long out of my iPod.

Has anyone had problems with scratching their Nano yet?

There was an article on Slashdot.org yesterday about how sensitive the Nano is and there is also a rather lengthy thread on Apple's site in their forums filled with complaints.

It's disappointing to hear that news because this is the first mp3 player that I've seriously considered getting.

And just as a point of reference:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/23/ipod_nano_scratching/

Ding ding ding dingdingdingding . . .

Let's see here, superfuzz . . . you have one slashdot reference, one link to el reg, and a Mr. Wizard avatar. I'm sorry, you've exceeded your geek quota for the day. Unless you're prepared to declare a general geekfest amnesty for the day, you'll need to refrain from all geeking out for the remainder of this 24 hour period. Any reference to XML, TCP/IP, Creative Commons licensing, GNU/Linux, Tolkien, processor specifications, Japanese animation or serialized science fiction television shows is strictly forbidden. You may of course regain the ability to geek out by diluting your previous geekspeak with new references to any regional or divisional rivalry in college or professional team sports, discussion of the relative merits of action film stars, or commentary on motorsports of any kind.

Thanks for playing, and remember: let's be careful out there.

LOL!

I LOVE the baby iPod sleeper. That is too, too cute. SOMEONE must be expecting a baby and need this thing. Fortunately it is NOT me.

the nano is cute -no question. But it's not big enough for me. Size, it seems, does matter.

Andrea

The Nano has the exact same functionality of the iPod mini (now discontinued). The shuffle is much simpler. I think as a sports device, the shuffle is a much better fit. It is really light. if you use the armband, it won't get sweat on it, and frankly, if you are exercising you don't have time to fiddle with a menu screen. From the reports about the Nno's LCD screen, it would appear that it is highly unsuited to being used as a sports device. The shuffle is up to the challenge.

BS. So why not ban car radios as well? They prevent you from hearing traffic. While we're at it, lets ban deaf people from the road as well. Hearing plays a relatively small role in traffic safety. At 17mph+ you cannot hear a car approaching from behind until it is essentially right on your ass. Physics. Ear bud headphones don't prevent outside sounds from also entering your ears. With my music set to a comfortable level, I can easily hear my HRM alarms, the chain rubbing on the derraileur, my tires over a patch of gravel, etc. The noise isn't the issue. Concentration is. If you can't listen to music and concentrate on the road, I suspect you have no business riding a bike on a public road in the first place. As for riding on paths and hearing cyclists wanting to pass, that may be a valid point, though I don't ride on them cause we have none locally, and when I have done, I'm doing the passing....

As for illegality, I think only Louisiana, Minnesota, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania have laws against driving a car with headphones, and there are no states AFAIK that ban it while riding a bike. Sunglasses alter your vision but no one wants them banned. I say use at your own risk, and accept the consequences.

Just saw this in today's Washington Post (article below) ... It appears that the screens for the Nano might be a little too delicate for sports activities. I have dropped my relatively cheap RCA Lyra many time while fumbling with it during exercise - shoot, it even got rained on in a torrential pop-up thunderstorm - and it still performs like the Energizer Bunny.

While much cooler, I am not sure that the Apple Nano has the same durability. Don't get me wrong - I want one , but am going to wait until they make 'em a little more durable. $250 is a lot of coin to drop on something that cannot take an accidental drop on the pavement.

Is Screen Glitch the IPod Nano's Fatal Flaw?
By Rob Pegoraro/The Washington Post
Wednesday, September 28, 2005; Page D01

Your iPod is not iMmortal. Someday, it will wind up a bruised, battered piece of electronic junk that collects dust in a closet until it finally gets tossed, hopefully in some environmentally sound manner.

But nobody wants to see his or her iPod Nano die young -- or hear about somebody else suffering that fate. For the past week or so, users of Apple's music players have been buzzing about a homemade site, formerly titled "iPod Nano = Flawed Product" ( http://www.flawedmusicplayer.com/), set up by Detroit-based financial consultant Matthew Peterson. He accused Apple of shipping a product that's doomed to meet an early grave.

The site offered an autopsy photo of the Nano that showed most of its screen obscured by black lines and blotches, damage that Peterson said it sustained on the fourth day of gentle use. After noting that the staff at his nearest Apple Store declined to replace the broken unit, much less admit any fault, Peterson predicted a dark future for this techno-bauble: "There will be more broken screens and more broken hearts," he wrote on the site.

Does the iPod Nano have some sort of fatal flaw?

I unwittingly conducted my own test for a review that was published less than two weeks ago: While shaking and spinning the device to verify that it wouldn't skip, it slipped out of my grip, flying loose with enough velocity to slam into the kitchen floor as if it had fallen maybe 15 or 20 feet.

The Nano kept playing and its case seemed intact, but the bottom half of its screen resembled a UPC bar code. Despite that ugly damage, however, the Nano has functioned perfectly since, and the only further distresses it's shown in a couple of weeks of use are hairline scratches on its surface, indistinguishable from what mars the screen of a full-size iPod that's done time inside bags and pockets.

Other reviewers have done more comprehensive research. The Ars Technica Web site conducted a suite of stress tests ( http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/nano.ars/3) that established that dropping the iPod Nano 9 feet onto a concrete sidewalk would leave the Nano's screen "seriously bugged out," but even driving a car over the Nano -- twice! -- could not stop it from playing. To kill it, they had to fling the Nano straight up, perhaps 40 feet in the air, and let it pancake onto concrete pavement.

Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said Tuesday afternoon that cracked or otherwise destroyed screens were "a real but minor issue involving a vendor quality problem in . . . less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the total iPod Nano units we've shipped." Neumayr said it was "not a design issue," and that anybody who experienced the problem should contact Apple for a free replacement.

As for surface scratching, Neumayr said the Nano is made from the same plastic as the full-size iPod and that a variety of cases were available to prevent that sort of cosmetic damage.

Other companies have shipped products with comparable problems before, but their issues don't draw nearly as much attention. Apple, however, regularly gets held to a higher standard -- perhaps because it keeps advertising itself as the think-different company, the one that fusses over the details to ensure that it won't crank out the same junk as everybody else.

For years, Apple couldn't make much of a dent in the computing market with that pitch. But with the iPod, it's broken through, even though it came to the music-player market years after its competitors and with products that initially cost more and offered fewer features than other players.

There's a habit in the tech business of thinking that a product like that must ride on nothing more than good marketing. Someday, the thinking goes, the device's flaws will surface, showing it to be the cheap fraud it was all along. And then won't all those bandwagon-hopping customers be sorry?

Apple's detractors may be hoping that Peterson's photo of his iPod's mutilated screen provided that moment -- just as some earlier seized on the fact that you must pay Apple to get an iPod's battery replaced (which two iPod users called the "iPod's Dirty Little Secret" on a Web site of the same title). But reality is often less melodramatic: IPods sells better because they are easier to use and look cooler than their competitors, and the "dirty secret" turns out to be a fixable problem or a basic misunderstanding, and customers have been making rational choices all along.

Even Peterson backed down a bit last night after learning of Apple's reaction, headlining the page "Apple does the right thing" and writing, "I am very delighted to see Apple take this issue seriously."

Do what you want. Stay off my roads and out of my way. I don't want any one wearing a headset riding near me. The end.

Find me the relevant part of the state law that says you can't ride a bicycle with headphones. I'm curious to see what it says and when the statute was invoked.

I don't have time to find the exact statute that says this, but this is lifted from a special PA State Police bike ride:

"Do not bring personal stereos with headphones— they are illegal to use while riding a bicycle and are not allowed on the Ride."

In PA, bikes are considered vehicles and except for certain differences have the same rights and obligations as a motor vehicle.  Headphones are illegal for a motor vehicle unless it is to aid hearing.

Colorado has a similar law. No specific statute against bikes and headphones, but one that says bicycles are vehicles, and headphones aren't allowed in vehicles. California says bikers can't have 'ear covering headphones' or' ear plugs'. so earbud headphones could be exempt depending on how good you are at arguing the law. I think Colorado allows one ear headphones for cell phones. PA might as well. Now with Motorola's music-playing cellphones, a statute like that makes interpretation up in the air. None of these would hold up, IMO. You cannot call a bike a vehicle = to a car, because it isn't. It is not required to have the same equipment as a car. It also has some specific laws regarding use that are much different than cars. They are clearly different in both intent, and practical application of the law. Some municipalities have more specific statutes that explicitly forbid headphones. I believe Boulder does. This would obviuosly put the kybosh on any headphone wearin' aspirations one might aspire to. My point is this: A. most cops really don't know the law very well. They often say things that just aren't true and of course won't back-down because they're cops. Really, many cops aren't that bright. Nice, but kinda stupid, so just cause a cop says so doesn't make it so. B. There are a lot of people who say something is illegal when they also have no clue. for instance, ask your friends if they think driving without shoes is illegal. Chances are a lot will say so, when it is not. Not anywhere. If you want to wear headphones, check your municipal law, and your state law. I live in NC, and NC law makes no statements about headphones on bikes. Then figure out if it's safe for YOU to ride with them. Act accordingly. I wouldn't wear them on a group ride, cause that's rude, but I make no judgements upon anyone who wants to ride alone anyway they choose. If it thrills you, ride naked (ok, I'm pretty sure THAT WILL get you arrested), or dressed as a chicken, with a giant boombox on your rat trap carrier, or whatever. Do it. do it often.

Haha ok my 24 hours is up. I'm a geek, I'll freely admit that.

So yeah, today Apple announced that they would be replacing the series of Nanos that had the faulty screens and were scratching and craking easily. Apparently they came from one manufacturing plant that didn't put them through the proper quality assurance testing that the others did.

I still want one

I think that the mainstream reviewers are picking up on the complaints about nano scratching, which I had previously dismissed as naysayers and kvetching.

So, whoever buys a nano, put it in an ipod sock or something. I've got extras if anyone wants one.

The Apple on-line store is now selling Nano socks for about $20. They weren't available Tuesday at the local mall.

This site also has some pretty cool designs for nano socks/sleaves. Unfortunately it doesnt look like any of them are in production yet, but they just look real cool.

www.speckproducts.com/for-nano.html


Edited by redbullgt337 2005-10-08 10:49 AM

Yeeeehah!!!!! DH got me a 4G Nano for our anniversary, and today had a thing installed in the car so I can play it through the car stereo. Secretly spent the last few weeks re-ripping our CD collection, too. He rocks!

He added in some screen protection labels you can get from decalgirl.com They have some cool looking skins, too.

I like listening to audiobooks from Audible.com - any of you do that?

Now to find a new home for my Creative MuVo, which replaced my Creative Nomad, which replaced a RIO 600....I love being married to an 'early adopter'!