Apple IPOD NANO (4.GEN.)

Excellent Little Gadget

I love to listen to music. 7 months ago, I bought my Apple iPod Nano 4th generation.

Design

Apple iPod Nano is amazingly thin and light. It has seamless metal body. It has curved design just like Apple’s 2nd generation iPod Touch and Apple’s iPhone. Among all generations of iPod Nano that I have seen, it is probably the most comfortable to grasp.

I can only presume that the curved body is scratch-free since I haven’t seen scratches on my iPod yet. The curved glass cover of the screen attracts light reflection easily, but even then, the visibility of the screen is amazingly clear with its 320 by 240-pixel resolution at 204 pixels per inch. The light’s reflection doesn’t hamper with my viewing of its screen in any way.

The dimension is almost identical to its 2nd generation version which measured 3.5 inches in length, 1.6 inches in width and 0.25 inches in thickness when measured in the center and that makes it the thinnest iPod ever. It weighs only 1.3 ounce.

What remained unchanged from its previous generation models are the 2-inch screen size (measured diagonally) and the 1-inch scroll control wheel.

At the bottom of the iPod Nano, the dock and headphone connection are located and at the topmost portion of it, the sliding hold switch is located.

Availability

Color: Silver, black, purple, light blue, green, yellow, orange, red, and pink
Price: £106

Features

CLASSIC FEATURES

The features of past-generation Nanos are present in this 4th generation iPod Nano. It has music, video, podcast playback, and other helpful extras such as calendar, games, stopwatch, alarms, contacts, clocks, notes and photos .

GENIUS FEATURE (Personal Playlist)

The Genius feature is added to this 4th generation Nano which makes it more convenient to use. This feature lets me select a 25-song playlist in an instant. To create my personal Genius playlist, I just have to choose the songs that I like and I hold the center button of the Nano to display the ‘Start Genius’ option of the menu. I just enable the automatic synchronization in iTunes and save my selected Genius playlist. This feature doesn’t work if the Genius feature is not enabled in PC’s iTunes software.

SHAKE-TO-SHUFFLE

If ‘Shake-to-shuffle’ option is enabled on the settings, a vigorous shake on this iPod Nano sets it to ‘shuffle’ mode. I just have to make it clear that casual shaking like jogging, running, dancing or exercising doesn’t actually trigger the ‘shuffle’ mode. Only vigorous shaking does. This feature can be turned off in the settings.

TILT-SENSOR (Good news for the Lefties)

This is a great feature of the iPod. I can view the videos vertically or horizontally, though watching the screen horizontally makes it hard for me to correctly scroll the menu through its click wheel. It makes me confused most of the time.
Another good thing is that I can view it horizontally the other way around, therefore positioning the click wheel on the left. This is great for the lefties for not having to worry accessing the click wheel menu.

SPOKEN MENUS (Visually-impaired-friendly)

Another excellent feature that Apple included in this 4th generation iPod is the synthesized voice that reads information on the menu for users. Even the visually impaired users can actually access the menu by listening to the voice that reads the options of the menu while they scroll the clickwheel. This feature can be enabled while synching the iPod with iTunes in the computer. The iTunes software generates the synthesized voice and transfers it to the iPod Nano. This feature allows the user to hear the song titles and artists and the options of the menu without looking at the screen.

VOICE RECORDING

With Apple iPod Nano 4th generation, it is possible to make voice recordings as it allows microphone input through the headphone jack located at the bottom of the iPod. Unfortunately, the package doesn’t include a microphone and the headphone that comes with it doesn’t have an inline microphone.

The iTunes factor

The iTunes software is the inseparable twin of iPod Nano. When iTunes is not installed in your PC, most major features can't be enabled. Genius playlist can be activated while synching the iPod to iTunes. Privacy is an issue here. By activating Genius playlist, you give consent to apple to monitor your listening habits by having the site monitor the songs you personally select in creating a playlist. But I really don't care much about that.

Installing iTunes in PC is very easy. You just need internet connection and download the software. The moment the USB cable of the iPod Nano is plugged in PC, the computer automatically detects the iPod then iTunes is ready for download. There are times though when I have already synched the ipod with iTunes when I wanted to download songs, yet the iTunes didn't recognize my iPod. However when I tried to download the songs, I got a successful download. That was quite confusing.

iTunes is a reliable online music library tool. It has vast collection of songs. What bugs me most with iTunes is its frequent demand of software updates.

Battery

Apple iPod Nano 4th Generation has built-in lithium ion battery that is rechargeable. The battery is mounted on the iPod so fixing or replacing it by yourself is risky. It has been announced to have a 24-hour music playback time and 4 hours of video playback time when full-charged. Before writing this review, I did a test on its battery life and I ended up with a 22 hours and 30 minutes of music playback time and 5 hours and 30 minutes of video playback time.

Recommendation

If you are still using the 1st and 2nd generation Nano, it is good to upgrade to 4th generation Nano as the features have been upgraded to high level with improved user-interface. If you own the 3rd generation Nano, there’s only a little reason to upgrade to 4th generation. However, upgrading is still good. The 4th generation Nano is Apple’s best yet.

Conclusion

I have been using my Apple iPod Nano 4th generation for 7 months now and I haven’t experienced any major problem with it. It may be quite hard to eliminate the glare on the curved LCD cover due to its shape, but the screen is still very clear to view.
The design and size is simply great and is very handy. The colors to choose from are excellent and stylish. I may have slight issues on the iTunes software with its frequent demand of software updates but it is mandatory for me to use iTunes while I use this iPod.

The features of this 4th generation iPod Nano is excellent so far with its shake-to-shuffle, tilt-sensor, voice recording, synthesized voice menu which makes me access the menu without even looking at the screen while I drive, and a lot more.

(also posted on dooyoo)