Apple 4 GB iPod Nano Black

 Absolutely nano-rific
This is by far the BEST flash-based MP3 player I have ever used. It is incredibly user friendly. Great sound and picture with all the bells and whistles. If you are consider and iPod or an MP3 player, definitely get this one.

 almost great...
I upgraded from my first generation 20GB iPod because it was a little too bulky for the gym. My Nano is great. I bought the armband. It's comfortable and safely holds the Nano. The only problem that I have with my Nano is that it scratches much too easily. I only use the armband for the gym. I have a special pocket for MP3 players in my winter coat. After only a few times in this pocket the plastic on my Nano had visible scratches. These were not deep, but certainly detract from the look of my Nano. I would highly recommend buying some type of case for the Nano. Alternatively, the white Nano may not show scratches as easily as the black Nano. Finally, in terms of performance and sound quality, my Nano is outstanding. I would have given the Nano 5 stars if its face were as scratch resistant as my original iPod.

 Almost perfect
I just got back from a trip to Europe and I must say I love almost everything about my nano. The battery lasted the entire 12 hour journey with room to spare. The size is terrific for travel--no larger than a small stack of business cards. Sound is great and the flash allows for near instant response and mega durability.

The only negatives are that it scratches a tad easily and I wish the screen was a bit bigger or it had video out...next version I hope. All in all, I'm really happy I bought my nano.

 ALWAYS use Amazon! Bad Apple of the bunch quickly replaced...
I placed an order for the White Nano on Amazon. When it arrived I could not properly install the device on my PC. I received several "file is corrupt" messages. Throughout the many installation attempts the nano kept powering on and off. I gave in and called Apple Support; I was stunned to find out that nano owners are only 'allowed' one free support phone call- that's definitely a sour apple. I was walked through the installation process and the nano seemed to be behaving itself. After charging and transferring songs over to the iPod I disconnected it and headed out.
*The nano was defective-music would play for somewhere between 14seconds-to 60seconds then power off!!

Much swearing and several temper fits later I called Amazon. I did not want to call Apple again as I have read several times that all replacements from Apple are formerly defective iPods that have been refurbished; for my $250 bucks I didn't want to inherit someone else's CrApple! Amazon cheerfully agreed to send me a replacement(black nano-white was not available for 1-2 weeks) at no additional charge, and even refunded my original shipping that I paid. Best part is, I received the replacement THE NEXT DAY...

Replacement works flawlessly, iTunes and iPod work together seamlessly. There has been much chatter about scratches, I've left the original plastic film on it and have had no problems-even the metal back has not scratched.

I will definitely continue to use Amazon..

 Amazing gadget and I got it free!
I would recommend getting a PDA screen protecting film to avoid scratches. Overall, I really love my new iPod nano, and recommend you to buy one if you have the money. Or you can just get it Free like I did at this web site: http://notlong.com/ipodnano4

 Amazing technological leap doesn't even look real!
You have to physically handle and hold the new iPod Nano to believe it is real. It is approximately 1 ounce in weight, so almost unnoticable on your person - whether it's in a pocket or an armband. The small color screen is stunningly brilliant in brightness and color definition.

The black iPod shows fingerprints more prominently than the white version - but ooh la la, it is most sexilicious to look at! I'd personally love to see one of these in red as well.

Because they are so new, third party vendors haven't had much of a chance to make cases and other products for the Nano.

There are only a handful of already existing products out there that are already compatible with the Nano...

Available FM Transmitters:
Forget the iTrip and those of that ilk - current versions won't work with the Nano. Your choices for now are the Belkin (which is buggy) and the Monster iCar Play Plus. The Monster version isn't cheap, but it's an integrated charger and FM transmitter and is one of the best out there.

Available Cases:
The Apple branded armband - looks like a glorified bandaid in the case, but looks decent when you wear it
Apple branded Tubes - good luck finding one, most Apple Stores still haven't gotten any in stock
Apple branded iPod Socks - designed for the older iPods, they work fine with the Nano - but can cause minor scratches

Available Speakers that Charge:
The JBL OnStage - fits fine, sounds great
The Bose Sound Dock - is visibly off-center, but fits fine, sounds freakin' awesome
Altec Lancing's IM3 for full and mini - fits but sound is lackluster
Klipsch - sounds great... Nano is greatly dwarfed, however by such large equipment... akin to building a superdome around a book of matches.

By the time you read this review, 10 other vendors will have probably already submitted their patents and copyrights to lawyers for new gizmos.

Apple has announced that the new configuration of how the Nano connection is set up will be the NEW standard for all forthcoming iPods... this will help vendors make products more quickly and without quaking in their boots that by the time they get something to market, it will be outdated - and should encourage lots of new development like we have yet to have seen thus far in the iPod accessory industry.

The Nano adds a World Clock, a stop watch and a combination lock to the "extras" menu. The famous silver back collects scratches and fingerprints exactly like its counterparts - but this is a known - get a case to protect your investment. Contrary to what another reviewer posted, the Nano is not "fragile" - far from it. There are no moving parts - so you could probably use this as a hacky-sack for an hour without fazing it.

At least one consumer has published their own abuse study of the Nano, running it over with a car and throwing it from a moving car at 55mph before finally rendering it useless after a 40 foot drop onto cement. The screen makes it a tad more vulnerable than the shuffle... but it's a sturdy piece of industrial art.

My less than perfect rating is for the following:

1.) No firewire support - even if you have a dock connector to firewire cable, you won't be able to use it - it is USB 2.0 only. What is Apple thinking? Hello! Remember your loyal Mac users who prefer FireWire?

2.) Sole earphone jack is too close to dock connector - using a splitter probably precludes charging it at the same time.

3.) No extra jack or connector on flipside so remote can be added while it charges... so if and when the vendors make recorders, remotes and other goodies for the Nano, you won't be able to use them in tandem with a charging solution.

4.) No bluetooth. Why is this an issue? More and more items are becoming BT enabled. One application I can think of right now is a Nano finder. The Nano is almost weightless and very thin - if you misplace it, how are you going to find it? If it had BT and you had (for example) a Nano finder on a keychain, clicking it could send a signal to your Nano to make audible clicks. Just an idea. This review loses a star for the other reasons, however, not this one... but come on, Apple!

5.)Still no way to get custom logo engraving via Apple unless you're a corporation with a large order... third party vendors are now doing laser engraving so you can put photos of pets, kids, yourself, your logo, etc. on the back of your iPod - but Apple offers no such solution. Considering that stamps.com allows you to make your own legal US postage with a photo of your pet, and they are able to prevent porn and other objectionable imagery through, there is no reason why Apple cannot make this accommodation.

6.) Limited (still!) photo capabilites. Compact Flash cards are like diamonds - the bigger they are, the more they are per carat (or rather, per MB). The iPod Photo camera connector connects a camera just fine - but not to the Nano! There is no explanation for this - it still uses a dock connector, but won't work w/ the Nano. The camera connector isn't that great to begin with, because you can ONLY use it to connect an iPod to a camera, not to a compact flash or multi reader... so if you're out in the field taking photos, you can't take them until your photos download and you waste your battery in your camera. If you could attach a card reader to the connector and download photos for storage on your iPod while simultaneously shooting more photos with your camera using a different card so you can swap without losing precious shooting time. Camera connector shortcomings notwithstanding, it doesn't work with the Nano. I know I already stated this, but I'm still frustrated.

The part of me that loves Apple's innovative technology and design wanted to give this incredible gizmo 5 stars - but there is still overt room for improvement and I know Apple can do this!

 Amazing technology!
First the good, then the bad.

After using this for a week I still cannot believe the incredibly tiny size!! I know it's hardly any shorter than the iPod Mini and not that much narrower, but believe me... the thinness of the device REALLY makes it feel small and it is incredibly lightweight. I can have it in the shirt pocket of my SILK shirt and it isn't even noticeable!

As for durability, I haven't had it long enough (or tried dropping it) to find out, but I read an online review of the iPod Nano recently and they put it through all kinds of abuse and it still worked. Anyway, even though it is so tiny and lightweight, it actually still feels like a well constructed, solid, good-quality device. It doesn't feel cheap at all.

Just so you know... THE SCRATCHING ISSUE IS NOT A PROBLEM anymore. I was told that it was just the first run of iPod Nanos produced that had this issue. The one I bought is fine. I've been carrying it around for days now and there are no scratches. There are, however, a multitude of fingerprints all over it (they are most noticeable on the silver back) but no scratches yet (knock on wood!) At least the fingerprints are removable!

Now, I can't really comment too much on the battery life because I never use it for more than a couple of hours before I connect it to the computer again (and of course, this charges it). But just as a test I tried setting the screen backlight to "always on" and setting it on repeat play, and it still took several hours to drain the battery. And I usually have the backlight turned off (set so it only turns on when I hold down the menu button) because the color screen is actually still reasonably visible under average lighting conditions (like on the bus, etc.) without using the backlight at all. This should extend battery life significantly.

But... there are a few things I don't like about the iPod Nano. First of all, I find that if I use any of the EQ effects (especially Bass Booster), over half of my songs are distorted. And I know that this is not a result of the MP3 files being ripped improperly because they have always played fine on any of my previous MP3 players (non-iPods), with various sets of headphones. I bought a 20GB iPod about 2.5 years ago which had this same problem so I took it back and decided not to buy iPods for a while. When I bought the iPod Nano I was assuming that they would have fixed this problem by now, but I guess not. But, since I REALLY love the tinyness of the iPod Nano and can't resist it, I've decided to live with keeping my EQ effects "off" to avoid the distortion. I'm going to see if I can get some better headphones with more bass.

Another thing I don't like is that the iPod Nano cannot play regular AAC files that were created with another program. It will only play AAC files (.M4A) that were either purchased online through the iTunes store, or ripped from a CD using iTunes. This normally wouldn't be such a big deal except that I had prepared the AAC files ahead of time. Since I had to wait a couple of weeks for a 4GB iPod Nano to be in stock, and I had read that the iPod Nano could play AAC files, I spent a lot of time converting all my 128kbps MP3 files to 64kbps AAC files (so I could still fit most of my music collection on the Nano). After all this work, I discovered that the iPod Nano couldn't play them and am in the midst of re-encoding them from CD. And to make matters worse, since all my original CDs are in storage since I moved, for each album I have to burn an audio CD-RW first, then label all the tracks manually and rip it again through the iTunes software. I would think that for any previous iPod owner this probably won't be an issue if you've already got your AAC files, unless you want to change to a different bitrate. Personally, I can hardly notice a difference in the sound quality between my 128kbps MP3's and 64kbps AAC's, so having this option is a definite plus for me.

One thing to keep in mind if you purchase an iPod Nano: it will still cost you more money after you buy it! First of all, the battery will only charge through USB or an optional $30 accessory adaptor so you can plug it into the wall. So, you're either going to be spending $30 to buy the adaptor to charge it from the wall outlet, or spending more money on your monthly power bill for having to keep your power-hungry PC turned on all night while the iPod Nano charges off the USB.

Other minor problems:
- volume can only be adjusted from the "now playing" screen (a dedicated volume control wheel on the side would be nice!
- you need to connect it to a PC (and leave PC on!) to charge it
- most songs have distorted sound if you use the EQ effects

Anyway, it's still a good player and I still can't believe how TINY IT IS! I still recommend it as long as you can get past the minor shortfalls I mentioned above.

 Amazing!
Arthur C Clarke once said "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic", and my reaction to this little device encapsulates that. When I first got it, I would often just peer at it as I used it, utterly uncomprehnding of how something so tiny could contain such storage capacity, a screen, a click wheel, *and* a long-lived battery.

I have yet to encounter durability issues, but this is a new aquisition, and I've handled it gently in light of that. I also won't waste time re-capping what other reviewers have said.

I will, however, add that the click-wheel is a bit too sensitive for my tastes. When kept in a pocket, fabric brushing against it as you move can cause sudden and uncomfortable increases in volume.

However, that aside, it's a great little gizmo.

 amazing!
i love my ipod nano, i cant get 5 feet away from it. this is a great ipod and its worth the money. u may have read my review for the Rio Eigen, and the ipod nano is nothing like it! this ipod is very small, but strong. many people have said that it broke in their hand. they're just jealous that they don't have one any more. so dont' listen to the people who said: well, my brother's freind's mom's second cousin's great uncle's grand daughter broke it in her hand. its worth every penny.

 Amazing, but terrible sound...
Everybody knows how great the Nano is as far as navigating it..as far as the screen, How Cute it is...However I HATED the sound so much..I actually sold it at a $100 loss to a friend just 2 weeks after buying it. Actually the Nano sounds fine, UNTIL you add any bass, or eq with bass. It is NOT my headphones as I've used Etymotic 4's..Koss Portapros, and nice Sennheiser phones. As soon as you add eq that also adds bass you'll hear a tiny bit of distortion EVEN at the lowest volume.It's not terrible,...but somebody should LISTEN to this thing. Forget about I-Tunes, Forget about the pretty screen..forget how cute it is. The sound is AWFUL(with eq)..and 4 that reason mine is now sold. I got a lesser known brand Iaudio U3 player and it sounds 100 times better overall plays video, has FM, records. Nothing will match the GREAT navigation of the Nano...but almost any flash player WILL sound better...I also own an Iriver, and Sony Flash mp3 player..Both truly sound WAY better than THE ipod!
Apple really ought to fix this eq problem...and nobody notices this???