iPod Nano - 8 GB Review

I ran into an old friend at the gym the other day and he asked me how I liked the new iPod Nano and I told him. Afterwards, I realized that I should blog about what I had told him in case anyone cared about what I thought of it. 

Earlier this year my iPod Shuffle (Pinky) finally decided to crap out on me after 3 years of running/traveling companionship. I was heart-broken. Yes, I am one of those people who hates having to replace things. I especially hate replacing electronics because I'm not tech savvy and the thought of having to relearn to use something that I was already comfortable with, makes me want to cry. Plus, I had won that Shuffle as a door prize from my company and it was engraved. It was sad, the Shuffle died a slowed death. One day, I was out on a long run and it just shut off 3 miles into my run on a full charge. I pressed on the play button and nothing happened. I pressed it again but this time harder and it turned back on and everything was fine. I knew something was wrong but I was in denial and continue to use it. Then the stopping became more frequent and there were times that I was not able to turn it back on no matter how hard I pressed that play button. Then one day I took it out for what would be its last run with me and it turned off 1 mile into the run and I could not get it to turn back on. It was at this point that I realized that I had to move on. I was really sad for a few weeks and actually ran without any music. MC offered to lend me his iPod but he had the really big one that was not so good with running and I realized that I would rather just not deal with it.

Then on my birthday this year, MC got me the iPod Nano 8GB in blue because it was almost the size of my now broken Shuffle and it had more features. I call it Blue, yeah I am so creative with names. The 8GB unit retails for $149 while the 16 GB is $179. This thing really is small and it IS very cool but...

Some reasons why the iPod Nano is not so good for runners:

1) The touch screen feature is neat but not so good when you are running and want to change songs. You actually need to un-clip the device and look at it to change songs. It is very difficult to do this without un-clipping the device which is such a pain.

2) This second reason is somewhat related to the first one in that the touch screen is very precise. This means that if you do not hit the next or back song button right on the arrow, it will not change. Imagine having to do this while you are racing.

3) All this can be overcome by setting up a playlist. But I don't do this.

4) I guess more features doesn't always mean that it works better for some. My old Shuffle was very simplistic. There was only a play, stop, back and forward buttons and if you want to get fancy it had a shuffle function. I guess I am just behind on the times.

5) Finally, maybe it is just me but every time I try to use the FM radio function, I can never get a clear signal of the stations I want to listen to and I normally just listen to the popular music stations here in LA.

Using my Nano on the plane ride to the Chicago Marathon. This thing is awesome when you are not running.

Look at all the pretty colors. Just like candy!