Just as last year’s Nano, this fourth-generation also plays video. Unfortunately, files need to be converted to MP4 prior to being transferred to the iPod. We used DVDVideoSoft Free Studio. It’s easy to operate and has low, medium and high-quality video settings.
It has the same battery capacity of the second-generation (24 hours while playing songs). Although a whole day to play songs is a nice lifetime, we cannot say the same about videos. Apple says that it can last up to 4 hours when the battery is fully charged. According to our tests, it lasted about an hour, which was a good surprise. Therefore you’ll probably end up with a powerless iPod when you are traveling or waiting at an airport for your flight and, suddenly, the battery dies on you in the middle of a movie or a sitcom.
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Figure 2: Upside view.
The screen is large, considering the size of a Nano, but maybe you’ll find it pretty small to watch a whole movie – not to mention the battery waste. But I think it is useful to watch a couple of sitcoms or TV shows while on-the-go. Image quality is considerably good and audio quality will not disappoint you.
With capacity for playing videos and an adaptable screen design, which can be turned on its side to a wider view of videos or photos, the music appears to take a backseat. That’s not true.
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Figure 3: Downside view.
Apple has improved the music search, making it easier to find songs browsing the album art in Cover Flow or pressing and holding the Center button to see album or artist list. When you find the right song, press the Center button to add it to your on-the-go playlist.
Apple has also shaken the shuffle feature, literally. To surprise themselves with the next song, users just need to give iPod a shake to change to a different song of your music library. Once you do that, iPod changes to shuffle songs, even if you were listening to a specific album before shaking it. A good thing is that we need to give a real shake to change songs. I went jogging listening to a playlist and I was not surprised with an uncalled for change of song.
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Figure 4: Flip feature.
But the most talked about new feature is the so-called Genius function, which makes playlists of songs that, in thesis, go great together. In the next page, you’ll find a topic just about Genius.
Apple has also improved the games feature, with new titles that can be found on the iTunes Store. iPod Nano comes with Maze, “which lets you work your way through vast mazes by tilting and moving”, as explain by the manufacturer.
All the other features from the third generation have migrated to this new model, including podcast playback, calendar, alarms, stopwatch, contacts, notes, and clocks.
