Apple’s iPod nano “was publicly revealed yesterday at a razzle-dazzle marketing event orchestrated by Apple CEO Steve Jobs. But I have been testing a nano for the past few days, and I am smitten. It’s not only beautiful and incredibly thin, but I found it exceeds Apple’s performance claims,” Walter S. Mossberg reports for The Wall Street Journal.
“In fact, the nano has the best combination of beauty and functionality of any music player I’ve tested — including the iconic original white iPod. And it sounds great. I plan to buy one for myself this weekend, when it is due to reach stores in the U.S., Europe and Asia,” Mossberg reports. “Available in classic iPod white, or a lustrous black (my favorite), the nano is not only small, it’s stunningly skinny — about the thickness of five credit cards stacked on top of one another. That means it can be carried easily in even the snuggest of clothing and the smallest of purses, and worn comfortably during exercise.”
“The company says this slip of a player somehow packs in a large enough battery to play continuously for 14 hours,” Mossberg writes. “In my tests, I found that the nano’s battery lasted a bit longer than Apple claims — 14 hours and 18 minutes. And I was easily able to pack around 1,200 songs, plus a couple dozen photos, into the $249 model, because most older pop and rock tunes tend to be shorter than the notional song Apple uses to calculate capacity.”
“There are dozens of small, flash-based music players, but I haven’t seen any that combine the nano’s size and features. These features include the relatively large, 1.5 inch high-resolution color screen; Apple’s famous iPod navigation wheel; and the standard iPod connector port, which links to numerous iPod accessories. Most flash players have tiny screens that are hard to read, lousy navigation and few or no accessories,” Mossberg write. “All I can say is: It sure is small and it sure is cool.”
Full article here.
About Walt Mossberg: Newsweek magazine calls Mr. Mossberg “the most powerful arbiter of consumer tastes in the computer world today.” Time magazine calls him “the most influential computer journalist.” And Rolling Stone calls him “the most powerful columnist in technology.” The Washington Post declared Mr. Mossberg “one of the most powerful men in the high-tech world” and “a one-man media empire whose prose can launch a new product.” And the New York Times calls him a “protean critic of the new economy’s tools and toys.” Mr. Mossberg was awarded the 1999 Loeb award for Commentary, the only technology writer to be so honored. For seven years in a row, 1995-2001, he was named as the most influential journalist writing about computers, in the annual ranking published by Technology Marketing magazine.
Advertisement: Apple iPod nano. 1,000 songs. Impossibly small. From $199. Free shipping.
Related articles:
Apple’s iPod nano will make competitors whimper, Motorola’s ROKR inexplicably bland – September 07, 2005
Tech pundit Enderle: ‘iPod Nano is a hit,’ Motorola ROKR ‘simply doesn’t have enough Apple in it’ – September 07, 2005
Jupiter analyst Gartenberg: ‘the market is going to go for Apple iPod nano in a big way’ – September 07, 2005
Analyst: iPod nano ‘could be Apple’s next home run’ – September 07, 2005
Video of Steve Jobs introducing iPod nano, ROKR iTunes phone now available online – September 07, 2005
Apple’s Steve Jobs predicts ultra-thin iPod nano ‘will become the highest volume iPod in the world’ – September 07, 2005
Apple introduces iPod nano – September 07, 2005
Over 1,000 accessories now available for Apple iPod – September 07, 2005
“It sure is small, and it sure is cool.” – Hahah, oh yeah…
I was just really sad yesterday, that after the cingular phone debut Jobs didn’t get up and say “Well, thanks for coming to our presentation, I hope you enjoyed it– oh wait, there is one more thing…”
But oh well
Wow this guy had one for a few days prior to being released. This is a great writer by the way, and should be praised, I am gaining a lot of respect for him.
Is this a first post?
The nano certainly does look awesome with some sweet features.
But is it not some kind of infringment with Creative having the Zen Nano Plus?
I have two 3rd gereration 40gbs ipods and I think I’ll sell them both for the nano. I tend not to use my ipods because of their size and I think this will work wonderfully for me. Hopefully I don’t break it while skateing.
The Nano is a really neat piece of work. I don’t need one, but I want one. I can’t wait to get a look at the service manual on that thing.
i wish i knew about the nano before i bought my 1 gig shuffle. i think a lot of folks are going to fork out the extra bucks for the nano over the shuffle!
Somebody must REALLY trust the guy!
I like cheese…
but not the moldy kind.
MW: “hold” as in “Here, hold my cheese.”
The nano rocks, while the ROKR doesn’t. Nuff’ said.
BTW, “Reality, unchecked” didn’t have a SINGLE thing to say related to Apple, much less the topic of this thread, in his posted gibberish. It’s guys like him (I’d bet good money it’s not “her”) that result in conservatives continuing to win elections. My public spirited side is pleased, but the rest of me thinks: who can stand such a turd?
Did Mossberg get to keep it?
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”LOL” style=”border:0;” />
———–
I heard yesterday that USA ´s military budget is 750 000 000 000$
ie 750 billion dollars.!!
War industry profits are up to 25%! That means that war industry makes pure profits this year 187,5 billion dollars!
Military budget takes more than 50% of the federal budget!!
War industry + oil industry loves Georg W Bush
What is even more ridiculous is that USA spends more money in to it´s army than EU, Russia and China together. (Still they can´t get any results)
PS: BTW This has nothing to do with socialism. It is only question of stupidity.
Walt has the enviable position of having Jobs and Gates on speed dial. Probably their home numbers, too. He’s the guy the tech world likes to go to first, for no other reason than investors will read him before anyone else.
Of course, you’d better be ready when you call him about a new product, because a bad Mossberg column can ruin your chances of success with a product…
“Did he get to keep it ?”
I reckon this is the secret of keeping the secret. Sing an NDA that give you the test product at the end if you don’t break the NDA (plus the sue you for every last penny clause). An NDA with a carrot as well as a stick.
RTFA
He did say he would buy one for himself this weekend.
Funny, when Mossberg panned the Mighty Mouse MDN was all over him about it:
link
But when he glows over the Nano the hypocrites that run this site can’t wait to highlight all his journalistic accomplishments.
This place is so full of hypocrisy you can almost taste it.
Hey Finland Guy. You only wish your country could spend that kind of cash. Finland’s total GDP is only $151 Billion, compared to $11.75 Trillion for the US. Plus, our unemployment rate is is almost half of your’s. 5.5% versus 8.9%. Why don’t you stick to keeping MDN to Mac news, and keep the political BS on your side of the Atlantic. Euro-snobs…
Good Job, I mean sometimes you can’t agree with everything one says can we?? lmao only kidding but I hear what you are saying, if you are going to highlight his journalistic accomplishments when he says something good, you should do the same when you don’t agree with him. @ least that way you don’t look like you have a you know what up your, you know where.
Finland Sucks!!!
Americans don´t have that kind of cash either.
USA lends huge amount of money from China and other countries.
Chinese already own USA big time.
It is true that we have little higher unemployment rate than in the USA.
Then again you have SO much job that people have to have 2 or 3 or 4 jobs at the same time and no holidays.
I would not change my 5 week summer holiday for that.
Suck That.
I hate when these posts devolve into pseudo political haranges and borish name calling. Leave it at home or take it to a polictical web site or blog. This is a Mac board. Keep to the topic.
One Guy from Finland. STFU, you’re an idiot.
Sincerely,
Everyone at MDN
1) It dudn’t play .wma’s.
2) Billy wants one terribly but he dudn’t want to be seen with it.
3) Everyone else in Redmond have already placed their order.
4) It dudn’t play .wma’s.
It dudn’t get any better than this.
Good Job, the fact that Mossberg was not impressed with the mighty mouse only makes everything that he says pro-Apple more powerful. This guy calls em as he sees em and doesn’t play favorites.
May the best technology win.
Hey Jack, that’s my point. I am in no way knocking Walt. He is a great tech journalist, whether he likes an Apple product or hates it. My point is the reverence that MDN lavishes on him should be present even if he has negative things to say about an Apple product.
Read the article I linked to above. The condescending tone that MDN has regarding Walt’s opinions on the drawbacks of the Mighty Mouse are laughable when you consider how much Walt has done in terms of awareness for the Mac community as a whole. But the hypocritical writers here at MDN thought it was worth it to pan Walt’s take over a $49 mouse that was over thought and under executed by Apple? Come on.
One glowing article from Walt in the WSJ does more than all the one sided and closed minded takes from MDN for the last year combined. MDN should keep that mind when they offer their “take” on one of his pieces.
MDN’s Mossberg Mighty Mouse Take is perfectly fair and hardly can be considered “condescending.” It’s called a fscking difference of opinion and MDN is certainly not shy about stating theirs. For reference:
MacDailyNews Take: Mossberg writes that he “found that right-clicking with the Mighty Mouse was unpredictable. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t,” but we’ve had no such problems with our Mighty Mouse units; our right-clicks work every time. Mossberg also writes that with his Mighty Mouse’s scroll ball, he “could never get it to work diagonally,” but our Mighty Mouse units scroll diagonally just fine with things that can be diagonally scrolled; you can’t scroll diagonally if there’s no point to which to scroll, of course. Mossberg also seems to think that the Microsoft mouse’s “magnifier” function is the best part of Microsoft’s mouse, but states that Windows-only function won’t work for Mac users anyway, so how is the Microsoft mouse really better for Mac users than Apple’s Mighty Mouse?
One-button mouse Mac users haven’t been living in a cave. They’ve been using the best personal computer operating systems and applications for over two decades; operating systems and applications, we might add, that don’t have functions and features destroying the user interface by being orphaned only to a second mouse button. The one-button mouse concept has proven to be very sound and it kept the Mac UI elegant and clean. The Mighty Mouse, because it comes as a one-button mouse by default, preserves the integrity of the UI and keeps developers from mucking things up for users as they’ve done with Windows.
I own a Mighty Mouse and I agree 100% with MDN’s Take. Mossberg’s review of the Mighty Mouse seemed rushed. IMO, he didn’t spend enough time with the mouse before reviewing it.
Finally, MDN probably included Mossberg’s brief bio here to keep the “Apple owns Mossberg” fools at bay. It’s not needed when Mossberg criticizes Apple.
Good Job: I reviewed the article you linked and have no clue what the hell you’re talking about. MDN’s take was respectful disagreement and never once attacked Mossberg in any way. If you disagree, please post the exact part you think shows MDN “all over” Mossberg.
Now, it’s certainly true that many of MDN’s juvenile knee-jerk READERS attacked him in the comments, but that’s nowhere near the same thing. And compared to the reaction when Enderle or Thurrott says something negative, that response was muted as well.
So in other words: ya got no leg to stand on. Give it a rest.
Game set and match to Apple – summed up by the number of posters and myself who say: “I don’t need one, but I really really want one!”
Oh and Finland – leave out the politics won’t you?