The out-of-box experience was nothing less than expected from Apple: excessive, high-end, and oh-so-delightful. When purchasing our 2GB black iPod nano for this review, it even came in a ‘commemorative’ iPod nano bag. Opening the slim nano box was pretty much the same as opening any other iPod, and the contents were laid out in a similar manner—simple, elegant, and organized. It’s when you take the iPod nano out of the box that the true experience begins. That thing is really, really nano! Photos don’t even convey how small and light the iPod nano really is. In fact at first, at 3.5″ x 1.6″ x 0.27″ and 1.5 ounces, it almost seemed too small and too light for me in my hand. The thinness is marvelous from an aesthetic and engineering standpoint, but my first thought upon holding it was don’t break it. We’ll get to exploring that thought later, though,” Jacqui Cheng and Clint Ecker write for Ars Technica.
“What does it take to destroy an iPod nano, and what’s inside this tiny package? We wanted to answer both questions and strangely enough answering the first allowed us to answer the second. We could take our turns at purposely rendering the iPod nano broken, and then when it had endured more damage than it could handle we’d end its misery with a respectful autopsy,” Cheng and Ecker write. “To break the nano in the most scientific manner possible, we would need 5 or 6 nanos and a high-tech laboratory built for this purpose. Unfortunately, all we had was a single 2GB black iPod nano and a giant parking lot, so we had to make do. What we get is a great idea of how much abuse this little guy can take.”
Ars Technica goes so far as to run over an iPod nano with a car (twice) and throw it 40 feet into the air to land on pavement in their full review, complete with photos and autopsy, here.
Advertisement: Apple iPod nano. 1,000 songs. Impossibly small. From $199. Free shipping.
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“Apple iPod nano takes a beating and keeps on beating”
Can’t say the same for Mighty Mouse, he’s dead
http://homepage.mac.com/hogfish/PhotoAlbum2.html
All completed with heart monitors and IV drips on hand at all times.
Nice. Quite the testament:
“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…
What were we to do now? Baffled, we did the only thing we could think of at the time: we ran over the nano again! This time the screen went totally blank, but the band played on.”
dopipod- backwards-dopipod
That is one tough little device but boy were those pictures hard to take. So cruel…
Ron
woh bmud fo uoy ot esu ym eman ni niav
The first one the swallows one and then waits until it drops in the toilet, then sees if it works gets the prize…
I can imagine hundreds of nanopods on a store display Christmas tree (are they allowed anymore in the USA?). With their colored sceens showing family portraits or Christmas scenes. The problem would be recharging them every night.
ARS Technica says the Nano isn’t compatable with the dock. Features says the following:Accessory-compatible Dock connector. That to me says it is compatable with the dock and uses the included dock connector adapter to make it work. Other than that I would definately give it really high marks for durability.
i’m glad they can affort to buy and destroy the nano. cause that’s just crazy. don’t destroy the nano, love the nano.
All this “compatible” with the dock talk is retarded.
The nano works with any dock out there– apple, third-party speakers, FM transmitters like iCarPlay, etc. All that you don’t get is the tight plastic piece to make the insertion idiot proof.
I’ve had no problems inserting my nano.
Destroy a brand-new iPod?!?!?
Oh, the humanity!
No, wait…
Oh, the iPoddity!
doPi.
When the Queen makes me a knight I’ll be Sir Ron Norris (read backwards)
My phone No. Address no. and bank account no. are all palindromes.
Ron,
We don’t believe you. Show us the numbers.
Once he is broke maybe he will quit this bullshit.
I could show you the no’s. except the bank no. You choose not to believe, so why do I care? The numbers are true and numbers don’t lie.
It’s ron BTW.
The results of this “experiment” are confounded. That is, we can’t tell whether the iPod nano’s eventual total malfunction was the result of an accumulation of insults with the 40′ toss being the “final straw”, or was it the 40′ drop alone that caused it to quiit. How about carrying out each experiment on a new, pristine iPod nano? Only then will we know which single injury can make it malfunction.
I would never be able to do that.
Maybe to a Zen or DJ or something, though.
What a stupid article. Anything can be destroyed if one tries hard enough.
“Maybe to a Zen or DJ or something, though.”
Have the Zen or DJ play the audio of Ballmer’s “Developers! Developers!”. There’d be no “maybe”. ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
MW: waste, as in what a waste of time and money on a pointless test.
This article is BLASPHEMY!!!
MW: stand–I can’t stand to look!
WOw, this sounds like a great cooking class/vacation! Anyone gone and want to share their experience on here?
traffic accident compensation