iPod nano quick impressions

Just picked up a blue iPod nano today at the Little Mac Shoppe on my lunch break.

The service there was exactly what I want a store to do for me, quietly explain the differences between the models, know the product inside and out, and not be pushy or try to upsell me at all. I could have been in and out in two minutes if I hadn't stopped to chat. Clerks at other electronics stores will probably try and push you towards buying some korean knock-off piece of garbage because they get $0.50 more of a commission from it than an iPod.

As for the gizmo itself, taking it out of the package is just as pleasurable as unpacking any other Apple product, i.e., pure sex. Everything fits in its little home so perfectly you feel guilty about disturbing it. Every end of every cable has a little plastic cover, cables are clipped together, not tied, and the box doesn't rattle even a little before you open it up.

4 GB is about enough for 600 songs, which will more than do me for the walk to work or Jussy's place. The new earbuds are more comfortable than the previous model's, but I'll likely go back to my don't-bother-mugging-me black earbuds that I bought before going to Toronto in the Spring.

The photos feature is a cute toy but why on earth can't you zoom in even 2x or 4x? You could load the zoomed image separately from the thumbnails to preserve the stupidly fast picture browsing, and it would let you actually look at what the picture is supposed to be of.

Maybe it's just because it's what I'm used to, but I'm going to have to go into the menus and figure out how to get this thing to start up in shuffle mode. I know all my music, I don't necessarily want to listen to it in the order it was put on the iPod every time.

And finally, the fact that audiobooks and podcasts are now doable, I think I might really start to listen to more of these. If anyone can point to a site to download some that aren't in fucking Swedish that'd be peachy.