Apple iPod Nano Silver (8 GB) MP3 Player

Once I received this for my birthday, I thought that I was going to have a blast with the item. That was then, and this is now. For starters, this product lacks convenience. Sure, we have the free ear buds, innovative games, and sleek hardware design, but also note that this product's pretty limited compared to other mp3 players. Regardless of what nth gen iPod you buy, the features are pretty consistant.




The Good
Let's start with the hardware first. Despite its small size, the 4th gen iPod nano comes with a sleek hardware design, yet it still bears the scroll wheel design. The shell's so hard that it can resist several drops to the floor and show off no extra marks on the surface. And even if you did drop it, the glass would stay in place, no cracks,  signs of bulging out, or weakness. The scroll wheel itself is very sensitive to the touches of your fingers, which can be beneficial if you want to raise the volume on your song/video without putting stress to your finger. Buttons on the iPod nano are somewhat responsive, especially when doing simple tasks like rewinding, going to the next song/video, or confirming a choice. The iPod's usb-charging feature allows the item to charge straight from any usb-associated item, from PS3s to computers!



Next comes software! Just like the hardware, the interface is smooth, bright and monochromatic, and easy to access with the scroll wheel. Once you get your iPod from any retail store, it comes with a few nifty games to play with while you listen to your music, which is rare amongst a few mp3 players. Apple claims that you can play up to 24 hours worth of music while only 4 hours watching a video, but if you use the most minimum settings on the iPod, you'll be able to conserve a pretty decent amount, maybe a few hours or more, but it satisfied me. You can even use the Sleep feature in order to save up more battery power when music/video/games are not in use.

The Bad
Despite all of these good features, the 4th gen iPod nano isn't all that convienient. For example, the iPod isn't the one to play different audio tracks in a variety of formats, and the same can be said for the video. There's not a lot of video files that are in .mp4, or in .m4v format. Remember when I said that the buttons are semi-responsive? Well, most of the times, when you press the buttons on the iPod nano, they're responsive. However, when you want to do complicated things, like resetting your iPod, enabling disk use, or going to the recovery menu, all that requires you to press multiple buttons at the same time, the iPod doesn't register the command at the first few times, so it may take you a while until you either master pressing those small buttons on the iPod nano, or you may have ten minutes wasted on doing two simultaneous button presses. Also, like Sony's products, the hardware itself suffers from inconvenience. USB charging is fine and quick, but once you don't have any product with a usb, you're going to be forced to go different places and stay there for a while doing something while letting the iPod charge. Apple's USB Power adaptor helps you charge the iPod from your power outlets, but that should've came with the iPod package or at least have that feature built-in the iPod nano before shipping it out on stores.



Software-wise, iPod nano REQUIRES you to use iTunes. The reason why you need iTunes for iPod is so that you can delete your songs, manage your playlist, convert .mp3 to .aac, and transfer files. Compared to other mp3 players, this is too inconvenient. First of all, why should iTunes convert your .mp3 files to .aac and then automatically transfer them to your iPod? Why can't I just drag and drop the files from my music folder? Also, you can't just use any file from your music folder. First, your songs/videos needs to be in the iTunes library first, then once the iPod syncs with iTunes, it can be converted then placed in your device. So basically, you're actually shoving songs into the device, yet it takes a hassle to actually place them in the iPod, plus you're adding more space to whatever hard drive you're using which could prevent you from doing other things that could require much more hard drive space!



The Conclusion
To end the review, I'd say that this is alright, but personally, it's not worth the one-hundred dollars plus warrenty unlike the other mp3 players that can cost less and provide you more beneficial features and probably better support. Still, the good stuff could probably convince you to buy this product.