Ars Technica's iPod nano Dissection 532
starwindsurfer wrote to mention an Ars Technica review of the iPod nano in which they autopsy the cute little guy to find out what makes him tick. A more thorough review than the one we ran last week. From the article: "At this point we were astounded that the iPod nano was still working properly, albeit with a broken display. Because we had honestly expected the iPod nano to break by this time, we were forced to depart from our planned schedule of destruction and try and run over it with the car. Surely, we thought, it could never withstand the crushing power of German automotive engineering." Update: 09/12 14:58 GMT by Z : Changed linking words to previous article for clarity. Monday fuzziness.
What apple should do now (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:What apple should do now (Score:5, Interesting)
They're scratched, btw. In case you were wondering.
Re:What apple should do now (Score:3, Interesting)
I got scratch-proof coating on a new pair a year ago and not a single scratch. Dropped them, have had they fallen on concrete -- nothing. The only thing that's affected them is my puppy grabbing and chewing on a corner.
Re:What apple should do now (Score:5, Informative)
About $10/can, but it'll stop those scratches on the metal. I've used it on laptops more resently and seems to really help.
Re:What apple should do now (Score:4, Funny)
---
gyram gritru bocnor rofa
Re:What apple should do now (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What apple should do now (Score:5, Funny)
Small, rugged, scratchproof: pick any two?
Tell you what: if you buy an itty-bitty iPod nano and still think it's too bulky after adding a sleeve around it, I will personally come to your house and sew bigger pockets onto all your clothes.
Re:What apple should do now (Score:5, Funny)
I added the sleeve and it's still too bulky. I'll be expecting you at my house at 8am sharp tomorrow.
Re:What apple should do now (Score:4, Funny)
Re:What apple should do now (Score:2)
Re:What apple should do now (Score:3, Interesting)
What I would like is for them to add Firewire support to the Nano, instead of only allowing USB 2.0.
Re:What apple should do now (Score:4, Interesting)
Could someone out there with a intel dev box tell us whether there is a fw port on the dev box??
Does OSX/Intel support fw???
Re:What apple should do now (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:What apple should do now (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What apple should do now (Score:4, Informative)
Example: I like having my entire music collection with me when I'm walking around campus, driving in my car, etc. The size of a normal ipod isn't an issue for these activities. But for the gym (which I loathe) I need something smaller. I don't need huge capacities or a screen or a click wheel. Just something that plays enough music to get me through the 60-90 minutes of hell that is the gym three times a week. The shuffle fills this void, the nano is overkill.
Re:What apple should do now (Score:4, Interesting)
Shuffle = hit play.
Firewire compatibility... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Firewire compatibility... (Score:3, Interesting)
USB2 speed is only that high in burst mode. Here's a test, get an exteral HD and move 100G to it over both USB2 and 1394. You may be surprised at the difference. The moral? Don't rely on published numbers unless you know exactly what they mean and under what conditions. You'll see why in this simple HD test.
Re:Firewire compatibility... (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, and move your mouse around while doing the transfer
Hope you don't have USB speakers attached as well.
USB is a shared medium, and has some pretty neat traffic handling, but its still shared. Firewire is designed to be a dedicated host-to-host high-bandwidth data transfer medium.
Re:Firewire compatibility... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Firewire compatibility... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Firewire compatibility... (Score:4, Insightful)
The discussion is about Firewire performance WITH RESPECT to the Ipod (in particular, the Nano with flash memory). Tom's review tests DESKTOP HARD DRIVES with an order of magnitude faster transfer rates than Nano.
The benchmarks in that article show that Firewire 400 has about a 10% lead over USB 2.0 for larger, faster drives, and about a 5% lead for slower drives. Obviously, it is the slightly increased access time for USB2 which hurts it in high-performance situations...but as maximum media transfer rates go down, the small increase in access time becomes insignificant.
Given that the Nano is a flash-based device, and couldn't hope to have a write speed faster than 4MB/s (there's no way they're offering higher-speed flash at those prices), there's little gained in offering Firewire.
This is the kind of thing USB2 was intended for. CHEAP, UNIVERSAL connection technology that is "good enough" for most cases. Firewire 400, as popular as it has become, still cannot offer even half the total marketshare USB can. And for a device like this, where the size of the board is the limiting factor (instead of the size of the drive on other iPods), each additional feature (chipset, busses and external connector) makes the board that much larger.
YES, Firewire 800 is freaking fast. NO, you don't need it unless you have devices on the bleeding-edge of performance. Not to mention you can hardly take advantage of it anywhere because only Powermacs and a handful of PCs support Firewire 800 speed.
Re:Firewire compatibility... (Score:3, Informative)
If, however, you have a lot of USB devices and a lot of Firewire devices in a computer room which looks like something out of Serial Experiments Lain then the more devices you can get on the Firewire bus and unplug from USB2 ports, the better.
So the short answer is USB2 is fine for most people, which is why it makes sense for Apple to ship their iPods that way. So
Re:Firewire compatibility... (Score:5, Insightful)
riiiiight... because we all know that those leetle teeny hard drives are soooooo fast, much much faster than the data rate of a regular old firewire 400 connection.
Re:Firewire compatibility... (Score:5, Informative)
No iPod supports FireWire 800.
The ones with FireWire use FireWire 400, which is compatible with a FW 800 port the same way a USB 1.1 device is compatible with a USB 2 port, although in the case of FireWire you need an adapter cable to make the connection because the FW 800 port adds two extra pins.
Here's Apple's page confirming that the current full-size iPod has FW 400, not 800: http://www.apple.com/ipod/color/specs.html [apple.com]
Re:What apple should do now (Score:5, Funny)
Hell, I discovered with my calphalon cookware that if you hard annodize aluminum, and then stir-fry zucchini in it, you'll end up with an indestructable and permanent coating that could protect space shuttles during re-entry. Who the F*CK thought non-nonstick cookware was a good idea ????
Re:What apple should do now (Score:5, Funny)
* I high-school intern we had last summer wrapped his 20GB iPod in plastic wrap. When I asked him why, he said, "Because I'm Chinese. We wrap everything in plastic wrap. You should see the remote controls..." Flabergasted, I looked over at another intern, also Chinese, who was nodding in agreement. I thought nothing of it, ok that's a lie, until I went into the local Chinese take-out place the other day and saw their cash register wrapped in Saran-wrap.
Re:What apple should do now (Score:5, Funny)
Little wonder that China has such a large population.
Re:What apple should do now (Score:5, Funny)
You Chinese too?
Plastic wrap (Score:5, Funny)
I once knew a guy (who is Korean) who wrapped his remotes in plastic wrap. I thoughtfully took out the batteries and similarly protected them (being careful to cover the terminals too
I wish I could have seen his face when he found it. (He probably didn't think it was funny.)
Charles? Are you reading this? It was me -- I did it.
Back on topic -- The one thing I don't like about my ipod is its propensity to collect scratches. Could they not have used a more scratch resisant material? I guess not.
So does nano... (Score:5, Funny)
Geeks are like apes (Score:5, Funny)
Give somehting new and unknown to a bunch of apes and the first thing they do is smash it or rip it apart inquisitively.
Guess we ain't so superior after all.
Re:Geeks are like apes (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Geeks are like apes (Score:5, Funny)
Guess we ain't so superior after all.
But now we can also run things over with cars...so clearly we've evolved. No more pounding on it with large rocks.
Re:Geeks are like apes (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Geeks are like apes (Score:2)
To BOLDLY go where no Geek has gone before.
Re:Inquisitiveness Gooooood (Score:5, Funny)
Man, we sure have come a long way!
Re:Geeks are like apes (Score:5, Funny)
Summary (Score:2, Insightful)
I am not sold on this. It is too small and costs too much. But I guess if I was driving 55 in my convertible, I'd be able to hear the playback over my car stereo crystal clear.
Re:Summary (Score:2)
Re:Summary (Score:5, Funny)
What kind of complaint is this?
"I can't believe how small this thing that's supposed to be small is. Can you believe they actually made this small thing so small?"
Next you'll be comlpaining about Ferraris
"I can't believe how fast this thing is. Why would they want to make a car that's supposed to be fast this fast? Stupid Ferrari..."
Good Review (Score:3, Interesting)
Like another poster mentioned, it would be nice if they (any iPod, really) was more scratch-proof, but I suppose it helps drive the acessories market.
Re:Good Review (Score:2)
Apple Product Lifecycle (Score:5, Interesting)
Apple g33k pr0n? Check [slashdot.org].
Wow, this guy [misterbg.org] really DOES have Apple pegged... I mean, at first it was funny, but now it's just creepy...
Dead Cat (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Dead Cat (Score:5, Funny)
Where's the FM tuner??? (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, for me the downside of the Nano is the lack of FM tuner. Mp3's are great, but sometimes you just want to listen to radio.
I have been looking at getting an mp3 player for quite some time, and I thought the Nano was going to be my thing. But I will probably just wait until iRiver comes out with their clone with the FM tuner on it.
Re:Where's the FM tuner??? (Score:5, Interesting)
I think Apple intentionally doesn't include an FM tuner on purpose, as they are theying to replace radio, not just replace CD players, with the iPod. They're doing a good job of it, too.
Re:Where's the FM tuner??? (Score:5, Informative)
Are you crazy? NPR has given up almost none of its best shows to podcasting. This American Life, Car Talk, What Do You Know?, Morning/Weekend Edition, All Things Considered, and pretty much any other of their big shows aren't podcast. There's actually very few good NPR shows available through podcasting.
Re:Where's the FM tuner??? (Score:5, Informative)
This script records your podcast. Call it record_NPR.sh
=================
#!/bin/bash
PREFIX=$1
NAME=$2
LENGTH=$3
if [ -z "$3" ] ; then
echo "Usage: record_NPR.sh "
exit
fi
FILE_DATE=`date`
FILE_NAME=`date '+%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M.mp3'`
FILE_NAME="${PREFIX}_${FILE_NAME}"
cd
wget -nv -O $FILE_NAME http://edtv.opb.org:8000/radio.mp3 [opb.org] >
WPID=$!
sleep $LENGTH; kill $WPID
sleep 3
tagmp3 set "%A:${NAME} %a:NPR Records" $FILE_NAME
#update_RSS.pl "$PREFIX" "$FILE_NAME" "$FILE_DATE" "$NAME"
echo "$NAME was recorded"
===================
Stick it in your crontab, and you are done:
===================
0 11 * * 5
0 15 * * 6
0 10 * * 6
======================
SciFri Podcast (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Where's the FM tuner??? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Where's the FM tuner??? (Score:3, Interesting)
I went on vacation recently and started packing my electronic gizmos for the trip.
-PSP
-cell phone
-bluetooth headset
-digital camera
Now these seemed like a reasonable group of electronics for entertainment and utility on the trip, but then I started adding in all the power bricks and I realized the whole shebange weighed more than my laptop. I even packe
Re:Where's the FM tuner??? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Where's the FM tuner??? (Score:3, Insightful)
And the radio sucks anymore.
Re:Where's the FM tuner??? (Score:3, Insightful)
Please explain where the amplifier is in a crystal radio? It is possible to add an amplifier circuit, it isn't necessary.
Re:Where's the FM tuner??? (Score:3, Insightful)
This is why engineers != business people != marketing people.
--Robert
Re:Mod parent -1 Totally Incorrect (Score:3, Insightful)
Neglect to provide a way to rip CDs, and most consumers will walk away. Neglect to include an FM radio, and you'll lose a few sales, but not many.
If Apple thought they could sell a device that could only be populated from iTMS, do you think for a second they wouldn't do just that?
Re:Where's the FM tuner??? (Score:3, Insightful)
When you think about it, the only radio stations that provide useful information that an iPod can't readily provide (ie traffic reports and weather) are AM radio stations...yet I only hear people clamoring for FM.
You killed Ars! You bastards! (Score:5, Informative)
Coralized page 1 [nyud.net]
Coralized page 2 [nyud.net]
Coralized page 3 [nyud.net]
Coralized page 4 [nyud.net]
Zonk's article linking... (Score:4, Funny)
Bad Selection of stress tests (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Bad Selection of stress tests (Score:5, Informative)
Is that an iPod in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
As an aside, that's not a coin pocket, Levi Strauss designed it for matches when he created the jean for miners to keep the matches dry.
Re:Bad Selection of stress tests (Score:3, Funny)
Not with the iPod Nano, presumably.
"Is that an iPod Nano in your pocket, or do you just have a small penis?"
Re:Bad Selection of stress tests (Score:3, Funny)
Yes, I can see why Levi Strauss had the name of the small pocket changed. Imagine a 19th century TV ad for Levi's:
In the foreground an old man, played by Mel Brooks, is holding a pair of jeans.
"...and this small pocket here is great for holding matc..."
In the background, a miner is entering a coal mine. He has an unlighted cigarette in his mouth and is patting his pockets for matches.
Re:Bad Selection of stress tests (Score:3, Funny)
Hopefully, for your sake, it's an iPod.
[Notice Apple's comparison of Nano to a pencil... [apple.com]]
Funny this should come up... (Score:5, Funny)
I tried to convince him that he would break it via collision with rocks or maybe a tree. He claimed that it was a very durable piece of hardware.
To demonstrate, he dropped it to the carpeted floor and bopped it with his foot...
The display shattered.
I think I laughed for a good half-hour. I felt bad about it, but there's nothing you can do but laugh when something so perfectly comedically timed happens.
It wasn't all bad. He just used this as an excuse to buy the new Nano.
Re:Funny this should come up... (Score:3, Funny)
I love when people do dumb shit. Nothing is funnier.
I once watched a guy claim his new 4WD Subaru could climb up a huge dirt pile. So he did it to prove it, problem was once on the crest of a pile of soft dirt your tires sink in and your screwed. He had to pay the people who had the dirt pile to dig out dirt around it slowly so it eventually could be driven out.
I also watched a guy at an airport with one of those Panasonic Toughbooks stand on top of it (while clo
Car alarm test. (Score:3, Funny)
Systm (Score:5, Informative)
subSystm is a short version of the full episode Systm
How to Kill an iPod nano... (Score:5, Informative)
Basically the final cause of death for the iPod was to throw it up in the air as high as possible, about 40 feet, and then let it smack down on the concrete. That was the final nail in the coffin after dropping it from 9 ft., dropping it multiple times from a speeding car (10 MPH to 50 MPH) and running over it twice. Pretty durable for a little music player.
Re:How to Kill an iPod nano... (Score:2)
Re:How to Kill an iPod nano... (Score:5, Insightful)
14) Throw phone out of Fifth-story window
Darn thing didn't even scratch.
I dunno about the nano, but if it's anything like similarly-shaped solid state consumer electronic devices, the weak spot is gonna be sustained torque. Take that thing, and put it in a vice to simulate supertight pants. Apply sustained forces for long periods and see if the case deforms, loosening a critical connection. Put it in one of those paint-shakers for a couple hours to simulate it being worn by a pogo-mad punkrockers.
Blunt trauma kills, but most of my devices die from "a long illness".
Forget the Nano ! (Score:5, Funny)
Will you please please run a review on my Mother-In-Law ??? Gratitudes in advance.
Nerds (Score:5, Funny)
Put it within 50ft of water like my cell phone (Score:3, Insightful)
And now say this with a german accent (Score:4, Insightful)
And it finally gets funny!
Anyway: Thin objects tend to survive being driven over more than thicker objects. If the object is thin enough, the tire even stays in contact with the road, causing a lot less pressure on the object than you might expect.
Why bother with music? (Score:5, Interesting)
One for my Windows machines at work, one for my Macs.
You'd use up about 1GB for the OS, then have 3+GB free for data extraction. Throw a bunch of diagnostic utilities on there (usually a hundred megs or so at most) and you've got a kick ass clean system to test hardware with when you're troubleshooting. And since its got a batter of its own, it's not reliant on having a powered USB port.
Re:Probably not bootable (Score:3, Interesting)
Booting Linux, etc. with it on an x86 machine will probably give a much different result.
iPod Nano (Score:3, Interesting)
I liked the review (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I liked the review (Score:3, Interesting)
Other tests I'd like to see. (Score:3, Interesting)
But one test I'd like to see involves trying to damage it by flexing it. Sitting on a nano laid on a wooden chair or even running over it is different from putting it in a tight pants pocket and sitting on a hard surface.
How to buff out the scratches? (Score:3, Interesting)
Does anyone know of any mild abrasives or similiar that can be used to polish an iPod such as a Nano back to scratch and scuff free brilliance? I'd really like to restore mine to normal and then maybe invest in a protective cover.
Incidentally, what's Apple's problem with making it scratch proof? My mobile phone stays in my pocket constantly with my keys and has done so for a year now. It's scratched to hell all over EXCEPT for the glass over the screen. Go figure.
Re:How to buff out the scratches? (Score:5, Informative)
A few years ago I learned a trick from my local Swatch store. I had scratched the face of a watch given to me as a gift; a keeper mainly for its sentimental value. The face had several scratches, some looked deep. I steeled myself to pay $50 to replace the watch's face (an $80 watch) and headed to the store.
The clerk was very helpful and passed on one of the best tips ever: Put some toothpaste on the polycarbonate surface, rub softly with your fingers, and wipe off with a moist cotton pad or paper towel. Scratches be gone! I've used that trick on mobile phone screens as well, with excellent results.
I hope that helps,
E
novus plastic polish (Score:4, Informative)
Your phone doesn't scratch on the display because if you look closely, the display is covered by an hard plastic insert. The rest of the case is a softer (actually more durable) plastic. Apple doesn't seem to want to insert harder plastic over the screen because it would require a bumpy frame around the display. The Mini had the harder plastic, because it was made of metal elsewhere.
Also note that since Apple doesn't use an insert over the display, their displays show rainbows when viewed through polarized glasses due to the stresses resulting from injection molding. Again, the Mini didn't have these.
Nobody makes large plastic things like phones scratch proof all over because "scratch proof" plastic is more brittle and much more expensive to shape. If your phone or iPod body was made of it, the keys would chip the corners off it in no time.
Well, they don't make affordable things "scratch proof". It's usually only used in small areas like the inserts over displays on your phone. This means you don't use much of it, and making flat sheets is cheap and easy.
Non replacable battery??? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Non replacable battery??? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Non replacable battery??? (Score:3, Insightful)
ANCIENT WISDOM (Score:5, Insightful)
Sound quality better than Fullsize/Mini? (Score:5, Informative)
The article incorrectly states that the sound quality is the same across the iPod line.
This test and actually, just comparing by the ear, shows interesting results from a number of players:
http://home.comcast.net/~machrone/playertest/play
J
necropsy (Score:3, Informative)
Re:necropsy (Score:3, Interesting)
OH THE HORROR! (Score:2)
Re:Is autopsy the right word? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Is autopsy the right word? (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:iPod durability (Score:3, Insightful)
They might say they get complaints like that all the time, but they're not about to tell a customer (and a mom) that they're full of shit. You have to ask the staff whether those complaints are valid or not.
Re:iPod durability (Score:3, Insightful)
problems? (Score:3, Informative)
As far as I know, you can still (a) create a playlist or smart playlist of all the songs you want to have on your iPod, then (b) drag-and-drop all those songs onto the iPod icon in iTunes.
Better yet, set up Autofill in iTunes (this requires some actual thinking) to pre-shuffle some music every time your sync up. Apple's iTunes sync page [apple.com] covers it pretty w