iLounge

1

Although I still think this pseudo iOS touch screen UI they’ve picked for the nano line is butt ugly, the device itself is the most impressive “new” Apple design I’ve seen from them for a while. It’s everything the 6G nano should have been instead of the overgrown shuffle that it was.

Posted by Code Monkey in Midstate New York on September 12, 2012 at 12:00 PM (PST)

2

Looks like a Zune. What happened, Apple?

Posted by Mollari 2261 on September 12, 2012 at 1:44 PM (PST)

3

@2: Really? Did you wake up this morning and think, “self, I really hope I say something completely unsubstantiated and ignorant sounding before I go to bed tonight”. Because if that was your goal, congrats

The external design is practically the “iPad nano” if such a thing existed, and the general UI has been around more or less identically since the sixth generation nano that came out in 2010. And since Microsoft hasn’t made Zunes in years and they looked nothing like the above, again, really?

Posted by Code Monkey in Midstate New York on September 12, 2012 at 3:49 PM (PST)

4

All I can say is “FINALLY!!!” Bluetooth is the thing I’ve been waiting for before I would jump back into the iPod world. I absolutely HATE working out with wires dangling from my ears, and therefore have been using my iPhone as my one and only music player for years, paired up to some Bluetooth headphones. It’s small enough, sure, but I’ve really been wanting something smaller and tougher for awhile. The lack of Bluetooth has just been keeping me away. With the iPhone growing in size, this new iPod Nano is the new perfect workout companion.

I Love the new design, the home button, the track select buttons… Couldn’t care less about the color; I’m a basic black kind of guy, but overall I think Apple hit a home run with this.

Posted by Moshpit37 on September 12, 2012 at 8:14 PM (PST)

5

@#3,

Well, the white outline around the screen and differently colored body is unusual, and reminiscent of the complementary-colored screen borders of the first generation Zune. Other than that, though, this is just another rectangle with rounded edges and a rectangular screen in the middle, just like a billion other handheld devices, including all previous iPods. I think people are looking for any small distinctive traits to tell one device from another these days, and companies are getting a bit desperate to differentiate their designs since they’re all looking so much the same. There’s a similar situation currently with FPS games, which has resulted in increasingly odd space marine helmet designs.

Posted by Jerome on September 13, 2012 at 9:30 AM (PST)

6

@5: Oh my gosh, how cool! You must be from some parallel universe because the Zunes from any generation in mine look nothing like that

In my universe, the first gen body was all one color except for a thin grey border around the screen and button. The border was more like a hand mirror in its shape, and I guess grey can be said to compliment everything :D

The second generation ditched the flat grey and hand mirror shape for a thin metallic grey border around the screen, and a separate thin metallic grey border around the “squircle” (again, I guess grey compliments everything)

And the third generation looked a lot more like an HTC phone than anything Apple has ever made.

So, again, very cool to meet some people from a parallel universe where, apparently, the Zune did look like the above

Posted by Code Monkey in Midstate New York on September 13, 2012 at 10:41 AM (PST)

7

Apple should have never designed the nano into that clip on style from the previous generation. They seemed to be going the right direction until that thing. Now, it seems like they are going back to a similar style to what it once was. Slim, tall, with a decent sized screen. A hybrid between the touch and nano.

Posted by Jonathan on September 13, 2012 at 8:04 PM (PST)

8

@7,

I mostly agree, though I think a player like the previous nano would have been worth having as a separate product line if redesigned a bit. Given Bluetooth, a lightning connector, and a smaller design with a detachable clip, it could have been a great MP3-playing watch. Instead, Apple seemed to flirt with the idea for a while, then instead of fully developing it, they just dropped it.

Posted by Jerome on September 14, 2012 at 10:00 AM (PST)