Last week, Apple introduced two new products - the new and very sleek & slim iPod Nano
and the so-called "iPod Phone" (officially the Motorola ROKR) that will debut in the US and other areas in association with telecom giant Cingular Wireless.

First, here's the dope on the device that is in all likelihood be more useful to me than the other - the iPod Nano.

An ultra-thin style and a height not more than that of a regular pencil make the Nano stand out from the rest of the pack. Apple devices usually look better than most, but his one also pushes performance. It's designed to be the replacement for the iPod Minis and will be available (at first) in two colours - white & black and in two capacities - 2 GB (500 songs avg.) & 4 GB (1,000 songs avg.). Now that's a lot of music to be carrying around!

The battery life is rated @ 14 hours of continuous playback, although initial reports from the gadget gurus peg it at just under 13 hours, this being a more realistic figure.

The Nano sports a colour screen which sets it apart from the older Minis and the screen-less iPod Shuffle. The iPod Nano also includes the default docking port allowing you to add on any of the almost hundreds of accessories available for iPods today. Other plus points include but aren't limited to:

=photo viewing capability

=can a wider variety of music although there still isn't any WMA support (never expected any, anyway!)
AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Music Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3 and 4), Apple Lossless, WAV, AIFF

=faster charging time - only 3 hours to charge it fully// 90 mins. to charge it to 80% [haven't been able to confirm this, although it does sound plausible enough!]

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iPod Nano Official Page
Google Search for iPod Nano
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Interesting new products. Just when you think that Apple made all that it can, then they just invent something new, smaller, better and faster. Apple once again confirms it's status of no.1 in inovation and making new popular products. I think it's a power of commercials.

I heard about the iPod Nano, my friend wanna buys one. I've not heard about the phone. What can the phone do? The iPod nano seems like a really cool music player, but the average songs are only average. Look, if you play music at a 196 bitrate. And the songs are 4 min average, you have 5880kbyte per song. That's 5,74mb. Nog you have 2 gig, that's 2048mb, when you calculate that, you could only put 356,79. And at one of 4 gig 713,58. Of course that's enough for me, but on all sites and things, this is always a little high, so be carefull what you buy.
Like I have a 128mb mp3 player. It said there could be 2 cd's on it. That's true, but only at a bitrate of 112.

I really want to get my hands on that slim ipod... ive been needing one for a long time now.. my cd player just isnt cutting it anymore haha

I dunno if i should hold out for one of the new ones, or if i should go find a cheaper older model at the store or something.. i dont think i need all the fanciness, just something that can hold a bunch of songs and play them whenever i tell it to haha

Arrgh - STILL no WMA support? I'm mildly disappointed. But the Nano looks insanely cool - can't wait for prices to come down so I can think about getting one. But then again, the fact that this thing is roughly the size of a pack of gum (maybe a little larger) and about as thick as two sticks of said chewing gum, makes it really, really likely that i'd either a) sit on it or lose it. Or both.

Oh well.

Nice move Apple! Optimizing the iPod is what many people expected them to do. It being $200 also makes Apple a genius when you realise it is WAY cheaper than the iPod U2. Just think: $200 for a little less than iPod U2 - thats telling alot about Apple's capability. It obviously totally knocks the socks off HP, Compaq, IBM (indefinitely), and last but not least Microsoft. Well at least now i can afford it because i was saving up some extra cash for the U2 but now the Nano just pops out of nowhere!

For the Motorola ROKR, i can tell by its looks and featuers (and cost!) that Cingular isn't going to make much out of it. Firstly, its style is totally off compard to styles designed by Nokia or Sony Ericsson (Gotta love this one!) Secondly, Apple should have a phone program designed for certain capable phones to support itunes. Because having itunes in your phone with only a 100 songs to put in like Motorola ROKR is pretty ok by my standards a year back. But is not what i really wanted - which is one huge album stored in one phone/iPod. Doesn't this pose as a great idea for Apple to innovate?

definetly a step up from the ipod mini! im impressed does the ipod nano have a crome back so you can admire yourself?? hehe i like to do that

Moody - I suggest that if you want better quality audio while at the same time keeping the file sizes small, you look at alternative codecs. AAC which the iPod supports is an up and coming format. The Open Source Ogg Vorbis codec also provides much better compression ratios for equivalent audio quality when encoded in MP3.

Of course, this is all moot when you have tracks already encoded in MP3 format. In an ideal situation you ought to convert to these alternative codecs directly off your CD. Converting from an existing MP3 to another codec might shrink the size but it will most definitely compromise the audio quality !

In that case I'd recommend that you have a look at the Creative line of players. Some of them even have FM radios built in and can even play WMAs

Also, they're much cheaper, have a decent build quality and pretty intuitive and easy to use.

Was looking into getting one of those ipod nanos, but im really down the middle between that and the psp. If im right they are both the same price, but you can play movies and games on the psp.........

Well i guess thats my mind made up.