Outrage!

Normally I would use this blog to do amateur reviews of the games I play so I can send them to some friends who may get a chance to play them right away or want to know how good they are before taking a full-price plunge.

But, 'tis MY blog so I'm extending it to tech as well. In reality, it always was and will be tech-related.

Today I'm speaking about the iPod Nano. I've always been a big fan of the Nano. Great product. I remember when the first gen Nanos were announced and I was pretty much all-in right there. However, I'm pretty rough on my stuff so I wanted to be sure it was a wise purchase. That's when I read a review by either Tom's Hardware or Andantech.com where they put it through the paces and it survived being dropped out of a car, run over by a car, all that. So I bought it.

The Nano, for me, has been synonymous with a tank of a product. Pretty close to indestructible, the Nano line has been awesome to me. I've never had a failure, but probably should have time and time again. At one point I decided to buy the first gen iPod Touch to replace my Nano but missed it's small size and versatility... and buttons. I now have a 4th gen Nano (just before the camera model came out) and couldn't be happier with it.

I've been looking forward to the next line of Nano's and was floored by what happened to them. Perhaps I should make a list of things I love about my Nano.
Durable
Simple buttons (to press when you're not looking, tactile feedback)
Fits in my hand
Music
Video
Battery life
The first two being the main reasons why I own the Nano and not a different player, the rest being perks.

Okay, now here's what Apple is calling the 6th gen Nano...
WTF?!
Okay, what I see is an iPod Touch -mini/nano...thing?

So now the 'Nano' is a tiny screen. That's what you'll notice first. Many people may love that, but it says to me that it's no longer durable. iPhones and Touches are notorious for their fragility. Drop it on its side and it'll shatter.
There goes Durable... We're down to five.

The second thing I notice is there are no buttons. Which is outright idiotic for a device like this.
1. A lack of buttons removes any tactile feedback. I now have to view the device to interact with it. This is no longer a workout device. I'm not strapping a screen to my arm or chest during a long ride. When I had the touch, I could never just skip songs, I had to stop what I was doing.
2. With it's small size any time you interact with it, you won't likely see what you're doing. iPhone and Touch barely get away with this now. Perhaps it will work out for the better, but I'm not sure.
3. It's just barely large enough to hold. Clip or no clip, it looks like it's just awkward to use.
Now we've lost Buttons... We're down to four. And at this point, I probably wouldn't consider this purchase at all. Being a long time Nano lover, I am now pretty well alienated, so I don't really need to go into the other things I don't like about this... but I will in case you're not interested in those two points.

After poking around a bit I found that Apple has decided that Nano users aren't interested in small screen video. So they removed that. Along with the camera. Admittedly, I never saw the point of the camera before, since everything ELSE has cameras, but I actually DO use my iPod to watch video from time to time. It goes everywhere with me and it's a great way to whittle away the time. Now Apple is selling a small screen with pretty compact resolution (220ppi) and they have taken off the video. That's be all it had going for it!

Aside from those gripes I'm glad to see that Apple includes a radio with recording (like those fancy DVR's), a clip on the back, and the dock connector (unlike the Shuffle, which charges and transfers files over the stereo jack).

Apple has lost me on this one. I'm not interested whatsoever in a shuffle (since I do like to pick out my music) so they could sell them for $5 and I wouldn't bite. There are doubtlessly others in my camp here, but not likely enough to reboot the old monolith shaped Nano I knew and loved. I hope this 4th gen continues to serve me well because I don't want to have to experiment with any of the other guys any time soon...