Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Saturday, 13 September 2008 22:09
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 4
It makes me wonder just how they’ll shrink the thickness yet again for next year, for if they get any thinner they’ll turn into iRazors and iShavers too – but I guess we’ll just have to wait until next year’s models to find out.
As you’ve likely seen online and possibly in stores already, the iPod nanos come in a delightful range of bright colours, have an improved graphical user interface and look ever more 21st century.
I mucked around with the shake-to-shuffle feature and navigated through the menus, playing movies and tipping the unit sideways to watch the screen effortlessly turn, too.
I found myself wondering if I really needed an upgrade to my 2nd-gen iPod nano, which I rarely use these days thanks to having a first-gen iPhone and iPod Touch, while thinking that if I was able to tempt myself over the next few weeks, the eyecatching bright blue colour would be the one I’d get!
The new iPod Touch is also visibly thinner, not that the original iPod Touch is by any means thick, adorned with its new volume control buttons – but no visible speakers, unlike the iPhones where they are clearly visible.
So I played a track and sound poured forth, seemingly emanating from the iPod dock and headphone socket, with a very slight speaker vibration to be felt when touching the lower back of the iPod Touch, showing just what clever designers Jobs employs to hide a feature that otherwise appears to be absent.
Of course the new iPod Touch also has the Nike+ feature, which will be handy for those who love to run and keep track of it all, while the new (but as yet unavailable) $48 headphones with microphone and remote control mean that you can easily record voice notes and even take advantage of VoIP applications in the App Store, turning the iPod Touch into a VoIP phone...
So, what were the Apple store staff like, and what happened when the store finally opened at 10am? Please read on to page 3... you’ll see some photos on page 4, too!
