So I did it. I broke down and bought a 8GB iPod Nano yesterday.
And now, less than 24 hours later I can say that I hate my iPod Nano. There’s nothing wrong with the device, exactly. In fact, it stores and plays music just like it promised it would. But I’m still left feeling cheated.
First let me point out that I am not qualified to review personal audio players. I have used very few of them and do not really know what to expect. However, I do know what to expect from software and electronic devices in general, and I base my opinions on that knowledge.
Before I start sobbing uncontrollably, I’d like to remember why I bought the iPod brand in the first place: iTunes and recommendations.
Let’s start with iTunes. From what I’ve been told, if you want to use iTunes to its full capacity you have to have an iPod brand player. And, from what I’ve been told, you want to use iTunes to its full capacity. But, in practice, it doesn’t seem to offer anything that other media managers don’t offer and, in many cases, falls behind. Maybe I don’t know how to use it and maybe I’m just an idiot, but I couldn’t even get it to sync up. iTunes locked up every time I tried to uncheck all of my media so that I could select only a subset of it to send to the iPod. I’ll admit that I didn’t read any kind of manual, but I didn’t read a manual for Media Monkey either. “Media Monkey”:http://www.mediamonkey.com/, however, worked flawlessly and it is what I ended up using to load music on my iPod. Furthermore, even when it was working, iTunes was slower, more difficult to navigate, and less feature-full than Media Monkey.
Now about those recommendations. While I read millions of recommendations for the iPod, I think part of the problem is that technology is no longer reviewed only by technologically inclined people. Everyone uses this new technology and, therefore, their statements cannot be assumed to be educated or experienced. Further more, an iPod is a fashion statement. This makes many of these recommendations merely a review of what’s cool and not what actually works well.
I remember back in the early 90s when people used to swear that Doc Martens were the best boots ever and that there was no comparison and that they were totally worth the extra cost compared to other brands. The truth was, many of the people making such claims had never owned any boot other than Doc Martens and only purchased that brand because it was the “in” thing. Now, I’m not saying Docs weren’t the best. I don’t know, I never owned a pair.
As far as the iPod Nano is concerned, yeah it works. It plays music. I can press some buttons and get the device to play a song and I can recognize the song being played as music that I intended to be played. So it certainly meets the base criteria required for a personal audio player. But that doesn’t make it stand out. Almost every player on the market meets this criteria.
From what I can see, the iPod Nano offers few extra features, is constructed in a way that begs it to be scratched, scuffed, and destroyed, is guaranteed to need to be replaced eventually, and serves to lock me into its technology and buying more ipods. Furthermore, in my opinion, it isn’t all that nice looking.
First and foremost, is the battery. The iPod Nano’s battery is locked in place. It’s not “user replaceable”. Yes, it can be replaced, but it hasn’t been designed to be. One day the battery will die and I will be in a situation where I have to decide between having it replaced and buying a new one. Can you guess what Apple is hoping I’ll do?
As if this wasn’t bad enough, the iPod doesn’t even include a wall charger. Without a USB port on a computer that is turned on and powered up, you can’t charge the iPod without buying more equipment. Want to charge your iPod in your hotel room? You’d better have your laptop with you or you’ll need to buy some extra equipment. How silly would it be if laptop vendors only provided a means to charge your laptop from your desktop?
Regardless of these things, the iPod Nano supposedly has a vast array of superior features when compared to other players. Now,We’ve already discussed iTunes and its failings in comparison with Media Monkey. So any feature that is only available due to that software is moot considering that Media Monkey is free and works with many compliant media players, unlike iTunes which will only fully lock and load with an iPod. So how about the features of the device itself. Well, check this out! It offers a calendar! And notes! And you can look at photos! And it has a clock!! Of course, all of these things do nothing for me. Oh, and yeah, it plays music too.
As far as music playing features goes it has all the normal things you’d come to expect from any music player: it plays music, you can skip tracks, you can pause the music, and you can turn it off. In addition, it has the following features that you’d expect from most advanced players: you can select a specific song to be played, you can seek in a track, and you can play an entire Album, Artist, or Playlist. The only special features is has is that it will display album art and you can rate the track you are listening to. That’s it.
To me, those two features alone are not worth the increased price. On top of that, to me, a Nano feels too breakable, seems easily scratchable, and isn’t all that nice looking. When I consider that there are other players with *more* features, wall chargers, a user replaceable battery, and a nicer look and feel for *less* money, buying a Nano seems downright stupid.
Take, for instance, the Creative Zen V. It plays music and has the same basic and advanced features that we’ve come to expect from a full-featured music player. This is basically where the Nano stops. But not the Zen V. In addition, it has a line level input, built in microphone, and FM radio. The battery is user replaceable and, for those who need more battery life, several can be purchased, pre-charged, and replaced when needed.
In addition to these things the Zen V offers some extra features in the music playing department, the most important of which is on-the-fly playlist building (known as DJ mode). To me, building a playlist on the fly is a crucial feature that all audio players should have and the fact that the Nano does not is just silly. I found myself listening to one song and wanting to hear another song next. But, having no way to “queue” it up, I’d have to wait for the song I was listening to to finish, stop the music, browse to the next song, and then start it up again. Some time back I was playing with someone else’s audio player I remember that I used on-the-fly playlist building more than anything else, queueing up song after song and arranging my newly built playlist to my heart’s content. I found this feature to be so crucial that I figured the Nano must include it and actually broke out the manual which is as short and simple as the Nano is featureless. Nope. It doesn’t do it.
So, the price tag on the iPod isn’t for its features, construction, reliability, or interoperability. It’s for the brand name. It’s a fashion statement.
Will I be buying a Creative Zen V? Maybe. Will I be taking my iPod Nano back? Most likely.
If anyone would like to recommend a product OTHER than an iPod, I’d love to hear it. Please state which other audio players you’ve used and when you use words to relate your product to others (like easy, best, better, awesome, and sucks) please indicate what experience or education in this arena you have to allow you to make these qualifications.
