iPod Nano

Well, I’ve been wanting to buy something for my walk/ride to work in the morning.  At first I was tempted to just get a miniSD card for my phone, but I never really went through with that, especially since 1GB miniSD cards are expensive and hard to come by. 

And then we all saw the release of the iPod Nano.  I definitely admired the size and cost of the device, but I wanted to see it in person.  So, on Friday, me and a couple of guys from work headed to the Apple store to check out this new iPod. 

What’s funny is that they didn’t even have any on the floor.  The only way you knew it exists was because a floor salesman was carrying one around showing it off.  We were all impressed with the size and the screen.  However, I was really grooving the black one online, and the guy was showing off a white one.  I asked if he had 4GB black ones, and sure enough, he said they had all of the in stock.

One of the guys bought a 4GB white one for his wife, and I asked about the 4GB black ones.  The guy at the checkout said they didn’t have 4GB black ones.  Well, I wasn’t going to settle for something that wasn’t even what I really wanted.  I mean, I’ve waited this long.  Turns out they did have one, so, well, I bought one. 

The thing is awesome.  It shows up as a removable harddrive, has an awesome screen, and the sound quality is pretty darn good (for mp3s).  However, iTunes, sucks.  I’ve got around 55GB of mp3s, and they’re stored on a network attached storage device.  I had some time on my hands, so I decided to add all of these mp3s to iTunes library.  Wow, was that a mistake.  First of all, it took forever, and then to select songs, or even to sync a CD to the iPod, it took forever

I’m looking at anapod to use with it.  At least I can use drag and drop, and even have a shell explorer “send to.”  Plus, I can actually sync albums easily, unlike with iTunes.  I can tell that iTunes is definitely built around single songs and not full albums.  It’s just a shame though, but at least there are other alternatives to it.

Now, I just need to get it to work in my car correctly.  There are many options.  However, for the best bang for the buck, I’m looking at the VW02/PC-POD.  This way it will work with all of my radio controls (don’t have to use the iPod at all), and it charges for those long trips.  The plan would be to wire it to the center arm rest.  But that’s another purchase and project.  Maybe if I actually used my car more than 3x a month.