New iPods
September 5th, 2007Apple certainly pulled out all the stops today with a full new line of iPods. But realistically speaking, it’s all moot to me since I have an 8GB iPhone that I love (and I mean a lasting love, a love that grows over time) and a 60GB iPod Video for longer trips. Plus, I’m locked into AT&T for the foreseeable future, so it’s a good thing I love the iPhone as much as I do. Here’s my take on Apple’s new sexy (but useless to me) gadgets.
iPod Shuffle
If I were to get any new iPod at this point, it would be the shuffle. However, I have absolutely no use for a shuffle, so even that one is a long shot. The new colors are nice, if a bit muted. Actually if I were to get any shuffle at all, it would be the green one. Maybe I’ll pick one up off eBay if I’m overcome with gadget lust this year.
iPod Nano
I love the new features, but I’m not loving this design. They could have called it “iPod stumpy”. But the ability to play games and watch videos on the new nano means this thing is made for killing time in grocery store lines, airports, doctors offices and anywhere else you find yourself stuck in life. Personally I only use my nano at the gym (with the Nike gadget), and I don’t suspect I’m enough of that lately to warrant an upgrade.
iPod Classic
160GB of storage on a sliver of a device is hot. But these days I’m not really using my iPod for much other than longer road trips and occasionally playing games (I should really spend some time and master soduku). But it would be nice to carry a third of my music collection at all times. But then again, have you ever had to erase your 60GB iPod and then spend the time choosing music to refill it again? It seriously a full day process. If I had to do that with a 160GB iPod, I’d probably spend all weekend and then have to take a personal day on Monday to complete the selection.
I also like how shiny the new interface is for the iPod Classic and Nano are also, but I’m not sure about the big photo that takes up a third of the screen as you’re navigating. It looks like an homage to AppleTV, but it just looks out of place.
Speaking of the interface, Cover Flow is fun eye candy but does anyone actually use it to find anything really? I tend to break out Cover Flow to show folks how swank the iPhone is, but I don’t think I’ve used it to actually find an album or song ever. I can’t imagine how much less useful it’s going to be on the Nano and Classic.
iPod Touch
It’s a thing of beauty to be certain, but i’ll stick with the iPhone. I love only having to carry one device these days. My only question is – why does it lack an e-mail application if it can do wi-fi? I suppose it doesn’t really matter since you can hit Yahoo Mail or Gmail with Safari, but that’s still less than optimal.
I think the most interesting thing about the Touch is the relationship with Starbucks. With the iTunes/Starbucks tie-in, they now have something resembling a brick and mortar national music chain (kinda). Things are only going to get more interesting for the Touch and the iPhone now. I’m reminded now how glad I am that I didn’t start a CD store in my twenties like I wanted to.
By the way, now that browsing the web the Safari way is now built into every iPod Touch as well as every iPhone, I think things are going to get more interesting on mobile faster than ever. Which is great news, since the mobile web still largely stinks.