Me and my tunes.
Written: Jan 25 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: easy to use, holds lots of songs
Cons: needs accessories.
The Bottom Line: Great product- I love it, it is easy to use, stylish, and great sound. Itunes has every song imaginable.
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| bradshawcl's Full Review: Apple 4 GB iPod nano Blue 2nd Generation 4 GB iPod... |
Alright, the computer novice is back, trying her hand at another electronics review. Not the most technical person out there, but thought I would give you my take on my ipod.
So, I got an Apple 4GB ipod nano 2nd generation (in blue) for myself for Christmas. I bought it off eBay for $187, but in stores they are priced at about $197 or so. I calculated that eBay would be the cheapest route, even with shipping, due to the 9.75% sales tax here in Tennessee, so I still came out about $19 cheaper with shipping on eBay.
What did I want this for? Well for me with young children, I don’t have many chances to jam to my own music out loud, so I figured this would be a good way for me to be able to listen to my music privately at night.
This particular ipod is 4 gigabytes, and holds approximately 1,000 songs. Do I have 1,000 on mine? Nope, not yet, I am on my way to it. The ipod itself is about 3 ˝ inches long, and 1 ˝ wide. The screen is 1 in. wide and 1 ˝ inches long. It is really thin, I mean thin- so thin that I can’t measure it with a ruler. It is also very light. I went out and bought a case for mine that covers the entire unit, because it felt so fragile that I thought I was going to break it just by looking at it, even though the outside itself is aluminum.
What you get in the box:
Your ipod nano, ear buds, USB cable, and quick start up guide. I was really surprised not to find a phone book sized manual along with the ipod, since I have gotten one with every other electronic device I have ever owned. (More on the quick start guide later).
Charging:
Let me say that you have to charge your ipod through your USB port on your computer and your computer has to be on, which is sort of a pain. Of course, you can buy chargers, alarm clocks with chargers, blah, blah, blah separately to charge your ipod. The battery life is pretty ok, I don’t use mine just continuously.
What the buttons do (basic operation here):
Let me note that this can hold photos as well as music, but I just use mine for straight music, that’s all I wanted it for- I have plenty of photos on my camera phone.
To turn on your ipod, press any key, and to turn it off, press and hold the play/pause button (which is at the bottom of the circular shaped dial). To skip forward, hit the right side of the dial, to go back hit the left part). Enter, or what I call enter I guess you could call it select, is the center button, which is colored whatever color your ipod is, blue in my case. To adjust the volume, or scroll, you will move your finger from left to right on the top of the button and you will hear a clicking noise. On the top of the ipod, there will be a hold button, if you turn it on, no key can be pushed at all. On the bottom, this is where the cable is hooked up, and your earphones plug in.
Functions in the ipod:
Menu function-
Under menu, you will find several different ways to get to your music-
Play lists- here you can pick which play list you would like to listen to, those you make yourself or those already created.
Artists- an A to Z list of all the artists on your ipod
Albums – an A to Z list of all the albums on your ipod
Songs - an alphabetical list of all songs on ipod
Genres- songs will be alphabetically listed in there particular genre
Composers- alphabetical listing of who wrote the songs.
Search- to search for your song you are looking for.
Photo function (not something I use)
Here you can select different options to create your own slideshow of your pictures. I have totally no experience with this; I am just straight up music on this deal.
Extras:
Extras includes clock, games, contents, calendar, notes, stopwatch and screen lock. I did set the clock, but other than that I really have no use for these.
Settings:
Here is where you can look to see how much space you are using/and is free on your ipod, and how many songs you have on it. You can also change how long you want the backlit light on, how loud you want the volume, and this is where you can turn on/off repeat songs.
Shuffle:
Select shuffle and you will hear all your songs in random order.
Now that you are familiar with all the buttons, let’s get it set up on your computer, shall we?
Quick start guide:
Go to apple.com/ipod/start & download the current version of iTunes. Very easy to do here, took all of 5 minutes. Then, after everything gets downloaded, connect your ipod, then follow the setup assistant, that will get everything set up and get your ipod recognized by iTunes and get you registered to their service to purchase downloads.
You can upload your own cds to iTunes as well. Let me note though, if you have any music files on your computer that are in the Windows Media format, iTunes does not accept that format, yeah that sucks too- I had a lot of my stuff already on my computer in my Windows Media Player, so I had to go back through all my cds and upload all my stuff into iTunes one by one. But, at least they are all there, even though it took me about 2 days to get all my stuff there.
Making play lists:
Making your own play lists is simple, just go to Control + N while in iTunes, and you are there. I have my music categorized into 㣴’s, Rock, Country, and I even have a play list call uuuhhh, because I had no idea what category some of my music goes in. In iTunes, you can have it set up where you can have only certain play lists downloaded onto your ipod, which makes it easy for a household that has 2 ipods.
To sync everything up, just plug in your ipod, and your computer will recognize it, you can choose to do this manually, but I just have it on automatic, I want nothing standing in the way of me and my tunes.
Purchasing music:
Easy, easy, easy. Get all signed up at Apple, then start downloading songs you want for 99 cents each. Then, just sync up your ipod.
But what if you get tired of having a song on your ipod, can you get it off? Yep. In iTunes, you will see an alphabetical list of all of your songs with a box beside it. If you get tired of one, uncheck the box, and the next time you sync, it will take it off your ipod, but not out of iTunes, so if you ever want it back on there, just check the box and when you plug in your ipod, it will go back on there.
Experience
I think this thing is great, it’ really attractive, light, does not take up a whole lot of room. I really like it. I found it really easy to use; I really did not even need an instruction book. I bought my husband a silver one just like it. I did have to use Apple’s website to figure out how to use 1 computer and 2 ipods, but once I read on there how to do it, I found it easy to do.
The sound quality is good, but I did find that the ear buds are a little large for my ears and they fall out a lot. Also, the plug in for the ear buds being at the bottom means you have to put it in your pocket upside down.
But, as I said earlier, I found it to be a little fragile, I went and bought a case for mine, I was so scared that I would scratch the screen or injure the thing. Also, if you don’t want to charge it via your computer, you have to get a separate charger- I am going to look into getting one of those alarm clock/docks for it. It’s like a dog- it needs accessories.
Highly recommended for those that want technology like this in their lives, but not technologically advanced, it is really easy to use, and very enjoyable. I love it.
Recommended:
Yes
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