getting close to being red now! red is my favourite colour! Come on guys!
getting close to being red now! red is my favourite colour! Come on guys!
Member since:09.07.2007
Reviews:99
Members who trust:24
I am a technophobe. If you hand me a laptop, it will break. Give me a mobile, and I will drop it. Hand me an mp3 player, and I will not get it to work:-
UNTIL NOW!!!!!!!!
The pre-purchase decision.
We decided to purchase an Mp3, so as to at least look like we were hip, and happening. Of course, if you were to listen to the shambolic 80's tunes on the player, you would know that we are not!!! So, off we popped to our local Electrical store and talked to one of the guys there. After much banter, and sales talk, I decided that I would not purchase from this pushy seller, and I went to the net instead! Or, rather, my wife did as she is the clever one in the relationship. I did tell you I was technically challenged!
After researching the subject for some time, we decided to go for an iPod. Apple is the big name on the market. This meant that we felt we could trust them, and their products. Looking through the range, we went for a nano. In particular, we went for a 3rd generationiPod;
with 4 gigs of storage (did I say that right?). All we had to do now was wait for it to arrive. Delivery was stated at 2-3 days.
2-3 days later.
We broke into the box, with great anticipation. The one we got was the classic chrome looking affair, although you can get them in 6 colours. We just thought that the chrome looked cool. In the box was the iPod itself, an instruction book, usb cable and apple headphones. We plugged the iPod into our computer in order to get it charged up, and it kind of downloaded iTunes, and everything else it needed. It did it all by itself. I did not even get the chance to break anything!!! Hooray!!! So, we decided we would go ahead, and put some music on. We started off pretty basic, and took some music off cd. So, out came abba, queen and an array of other embarrassing music. When we popped a cd into our computer (again my wife in charge.), ITunes, automatically 'ripped' it from the cd in readiness for transfer to the removable device. Wow, I am getting good at this!!!
We ticked a few tracks, and clicked on sync. We were amazed at how fast they were transferred onto the device. It seemed to take no time at all. We continued to fiddle around, eventually learning how to 'download' music, and things that I never would have imagined doing. After a few weeks, our transformation from iPod virgins, to iPod junkies was complete.
User-friendliness
After we had got past or Neanderthal-like early days, we were able to rise up and walk on our own two feet, so to speak. We were able to take more notice of the functionality and style of the nano. The whole thing is controlled by a wheel on the front. It isn't really a wheel, more of a circle that you touch to move. If you push the bottom, it plays or pauses. If you push left or right, the track goes forward or back. If you push the top, it goes to the menu. If you move your finger around the circle in either direction, the volume goes up or down. Pretty cool really. There is a little switch on the bottom, close to where the headphones go in, that locks the controls so it doesn't change in your pocket.
The menu contains the various options for music, video, photos, podcasts, extras, settings and shuffle. For the purposes of this review, these are all fairly self-explanatory apart from settings, and extras.
Settings
Without going into too much detail, this allows you to read info on your iPod, shuffle songs, repeat songs, set volume, brightness, backlight etc. Pretty basic stuff, but you look really cool twiddling with it in public! One of the only times when 'twiddling with it' in public is not frowned upon!!
Extras
Clocks, calendars, contacts, alarms, games, notes, screen lock, stopwatch. It is set up pretty much like a mobile phone, in this respect.
I found the iPod in general very easy to use. The click wheel makes it very easy to navigate. Menus are well laid out, so you can find what you need. If you download tunes, you get pictures of the album cover. If you rip from cd, you can get these easily off the net. You can store and view your own photos on the iPod. This is nice, as you can set up little slide shows of us and the kids as our favourite tunes play. The big thing that's different from the other generation nano's is that you can download and play video. We downloaded the first episode of life on mars, which was great. However for the smaller memory nano's like the 4 gig, this is not ideal as it does suck up a lot of memory. It is still pretty good to have it though. Clarity and volume of the music is superb. If you want it to, it will deafen you. But, at the same time it loses no quality to the music. This combined with the various sound settings allows you to listen to your music the way you like to. The only real down side is that the funky chrome back to the iPod can get scratched rather easily. However, there are loads of covers and skins going about that are cheap and cheerful. If you are going to allow your kids to use this, you can limit the maximum volume so they don't deafen themselves. A full charge lasts for a long time. And you can have it charging from your computer anytime using the usb.
Overall I think that the 3rd generation, is by far the nicest looking of the nano's. It is fresh, funky and stylish. The chrome is fantastic to look at, and you will feel pretty darn good walking around with this. We paid £99 on this little baby, and I can recommend it to you whole heartedly. I am not one to part with my cash easily, but have never regretted spending a ton on this. The only downside from my point of view is that you can now get them slightly cheaper. I have seen them on Amazon for £89, and I am sure if you look about you can get cheaper. There are many accessories available, and if you look after it, it will look after you. It also made me get excited about new technology for the first time in my life!!!
Recommended. G
Technical Specifications:-
• 4GB flash drive • Holds up to 1,000 songs in 128-Kbps AAC format • Holds up to 3,500 iPod-viewable photos • Holds up to 4 hours of video • 2-inch (diagonal) liquid crystal display with blue-white LED backlight • 320-by-240-pixel resolution at 204 pixels per inch • Skip-free playback • Size: 0.7x5.1x7cm • Weight: 454g
P.S. I have published this review elsewhere on the net.
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Advantages: Stylish, Cool, Easy to use, Clickwheel, Light, Small, Watch videos on it Disadvantages: The back mirror finish scratches really easyily, No chrarger, Cheap metreals used
Aug 15th, 2008
exceptional by (3%):
very helpful by (97%):
