iPod nano Audio Player

Introduction

Can 27 million people be wrong? This is the approximate number of iPods sold by Apple since October 2001, and, until two weeks ago, my answer was yes. I couldn’t understand all the fuss for an audio player exactly “like any other”. I had the opportunity to play with an iPod mini before, which I found quite amusing, but nothing more than that.

Despite all that I ended up buying an iPod nano for myself and things immediately started to change. When I opened the box, the first impact was caused by its minuscule size: whoever thinks the mini (3.6x2x0.5 inches; 3.6 ounces) is small enough will be surprised by the sleek nano (3.5×1.6×0.27 inches; 1.5 ounce). It looks like those tiny cellphones shown in movies. By the way, the iPod nano officially took mini’s place in Apple’s product lineup.

Figure 1: 2 GB iPod nano and earbuds.

Figure 2: iPod nano compared to a cork.

Figure 3: iPod nano thickness compared to a matchbox.

As soon as I had installed the iTunes software and charged the battery, I started transfering some songs. At this point, it should be noted that the nano, for now, is only available in 2 GB and 4 GB capacities. It is only a fraction of the storage offered by the standard iPod (4.1×2.4×0.43/0.55 inches;  4.8/5.5 ounces), which has just reached 60 GB, but still enough to carry up to 1,000 songs in one’s pocket (in the 4 GB model).

The difference in capacity is due to the fact that the nano uses flash memory, while the standard iPod has a hard drive. Flash brings some pros – like being more resistant to impact – and at least one big con – price – which Apple minimized striking a friendly contract with Samsung. The iPod nano’s suggested retail prices are USD 199 (2 GB) and USD 249 (4 GB) in the US.