Apple announces iPod nano with camera, FM tuner, pedometer - Page 3

FM is just commercials. They don't play music on FM.

That is hilarious! The iPod Nano with a camera that doesn't even take still pictures! FM Radio? Who the hell listens to FM radio? I guess if you have an interest in commercials. Funny how most of you believed all the false rumors, and then get pissed about it.

Now all iPod Nanos will be banned from fitness centers because devices with cameras are being banned, especially pocket video cameras!

YOUR silly words will stick in your craw
the ipod nano video model will sell millions.
the flip cam corder just died .
and the added fm is a nice touch for news and music and other cool stuff
WTF do people expect from apple ??? The nano is a great ipod music player with 2 great added features for no extra charge .

So if you buy one it is possible to record in video color something cool 24/7 . No one carries around a cam corder all the time . So this will become yet another  sensation. In fact it will invade our life before long . Anytime we shop we can shoot and save stuff we like to show wife later on . ETC ETC.
Anytime something bugs you in your city you can make a quick video and send it in to the mayor .Before you could complain all day and shit happens but with real video proof things can't be ignored.

9

Well, you would need a network connection to send the sample music file required by Shazam to do the song identification so that's not how they are doing it as there is no Wi-Fi connectivity on the Nano. Are you referring to RDS data used in cars to provide the metadata? If so, RDS is really unreliable and broadcasters typically provide other information other than song metadata. So, I'm curious to see if it indeed is RDS where they get the song metadata.

Any bets on how long before the first reported incident and/or lawsuit related to someone posting a video they took in the gym locker room using their new nano? Some gyms already ban the use of cell phones in the locker rooms because they can take pictures. Some even go so far as banning phones from the gym floor itself. Wonder how they'll deal with the ubiquitous nano?

I think it's eventually going to be a losing battle, and banning devices outside of a changing room isn't going to help convince people to play along with the rules.

It's hard to find a device that doesn't have an audio or video recording feature, and as the nano shows, they're going to continue to get ever more discreet and it will be easier to capture things that will be embarrasing to those in the shot. I don't know how things will settle out, there are too many variables.

Agreed. But the one thing practically everyone at the gym has is an iPod, and nano is the most popular one. A person with a cell phone stands out in the crowd, relatively speaking, because far fewer people carry them around or out of their bag, either on the floor or in the locker room.

But as you say, it's inevitable. We'll see what happens. I forget who, but one lawmaker has proposed a law requiring all camera phones to make a audible sound whenever a picture is taken to alert people nearby.

There are a few stations on the left side of the dial in some cities that actually still play music, and good music at that! Don't expect it on any major corporate-owned station, though...

Videos are going to be very small on the Nano..

The new Video Nano and the Stainless steel 4GB Shuffle are making me move from my 1st gen Touch to them.. which should I choose?

A good idea but if someone was really serious they could disable it somehow or another. There are those working so that everything we see will be recorded, what then? The majority of crimes cannot be prevented through any means except knowledge of the consequences. If people are prosecuted for the behavior it will set an example. Of course, there's nothing stopping you from taking a video for personal reasons, as it is very unlikely you will be caught. Frankly, if someone keeps it to themselves and I don't know about it, I really wouldn't even know to care, and if they are caught taking or distributing the video then they can suffer the consequences.

For FM, I would assume they are using RDS. Apple says that some stations will allow tagging, not all. I think if it tags a song and there is extra metadata, like the popular "Now Playing on BLAH FM Walk This Way by Aerosmith", hopefully iTunes is able to use the power of the iTunes Store and parse the relevant information, or maybe that would be one of those unsupported stations.

FM radio?! What the hell was Apple thinking

Seriously, the nano is turning into a clutter of gadgets. It's a great feat to Apple's usability team to keep it organised.

But honestly, I think the nano wants to be too much.

I am also worried by the odd position of the lens? Is it thumb proof?

It's position is very odd to me IMO. I'm very pissed with the ''new'' iPod Touch. I'll be either keeping my 8GB 1st gen Touch or buy a new 160GB Classic to pair with my 32GB 3GS. Thoughts?

If you don't want to use the camera then don't, but some people will.
Apple make devices that appeal to many, not the few.

As for FM radio, try and thing about other places that the USA, they do exist you know.
Here in the UK we have many FM radio stations with out advertising, for instance the BCC stations. Our biggest radio stations are Radio 1 and Radio 2, both FM. So we will love the FM Radio.

FM radio - useful for gym people. There's nothing on FM radio, especially in the UK where it's all inane programming for teenagers and bored middle-class housewives, talk and sport is on AM and that's all that anyone cares about.

Video camera - could mean the device is banned from gyms. I presume the built-in speaker is to notify video recording so victims can take evasive action.

I'd rather the device was $10 cheaper and didn't have the camera. I think it is a poor value-add proposition.

The 32 and 64 GB touches are fail. Reasonable price, but these are the devices that should have adopted a high-res camera module, FM and GPS. They're boutique products! I can only imagine that a camera-enabled version will come along shortly. Might get a 16GB nano to tide me over, but that means I won't get a touch when the fixed version is available because I won't be able to justify it.

dunno
i can't choose either
but fm and video  nano looks unbeatable . the  shuffle is only good for a backup when your battery charge dies on your main pod

fm is great in america
a simple cool added feature

in america's gyms or work out spaces cell phones like devices are everywhere and been for 5 yrs .

in truth the video over load these days means most of whats shot is un watched so have no fear about us seeing you in the raw

So lets just design a product specifically for you, forget the rest of the market, what do they matter.

If you don't want the radio then don't use it. Many others will, it is always being asked for here.

As for the camera. First you says it should not be on an iPod as it will be banned then you ask for it on another. Do you presume that people don't use iPod touch at the gym? If you do then you are wrong.

If you are such a great product designer and know how it 'should' be done then why don't you set up a company and make a better product than Apple rather than just shooting then down. I guess it is because the second option is easier!

Apple know what they are doing, perhaps more than you do.

Apparently that's how Apple designs new products - what would Steve Jobs want?


I didn't say to remove the FM radio - it's probably a free addition anyway, with the logic available as a bonus feature on one of the integrated chips. It's also useful for people in the gym who want to pick up the TV feeds, as I wrote, and which you seem to have ignored.


I think it should be removed from the nano as it's crap and it's a poor value add. A 3.2MP camera on the Touch is actually useful. It's a physical unit that costs money, which makes the nano more expensive than it needs to be, which isn't ideal for a mass-market device (the Touch is different, it's a higher priced higher-value offering). It's not just a matter of connecting pins on a chip to the headphone jack, and writing some software like the radio support is.


Did you get out of bed on the wrong side this morning?

True that. But looking at the Stainless Steel iPod Shuffle makes me wanna get one.. Oh well.. decisions.. Guess I'll get a 160GB iPod Classic.

I wonder how all of this will affect Apple's Christmas sales. It seems to me the touch w/cam not being able to reach the hollidays is a big lost. Steve must be pist!!

I agree - the 160GB Classic looks like the real winner yesterday. Viva la Classic!!

What about DAB? Would you buy a Zune if it came with DAB support? It's possible I hear.

Or drill the lens out. I understand your concerns as I work under the same restrictions, but you have to acknowledge that you have some control here.

As to all the negative Nano squaking, would people just let it rest. It is a nice update even if you don't like all the features. Who here uses every single feature on their Touch or Nano these days anyways?



Dave

The new iPod nano has a few good, tempting new features that should please business professionals and graduate students when they commute:

1- An FM radio receiver to listen to news and talk radio, or discover new music playing on radio stations. In Canada, most radio stations have completed the move from the AM band to the better sounding, stereo FM band;

2- A voice recording feature to dictate letters and memos.


Here's what's still missing and should appear in future editions:

1- A better, higher quality camera for still pictures and video. Make the iPod nano thicker if you need to, but a better camera is a must;

2- iTunes decoding of all the major lossless audio formats, either natively by Apple or through a plug-in architecture for third party support. At present, iTunes is a storefront, playing mostly what Apple sells, instead of being the general media player it should be.

At present, Apple supports natively the Wave and Apple lossless formats, where it nedds to add support for the ubiquitous Monkey's audio .ape, open source Free Lossless Audio Codec .flac, and Wavepack .wv.

It's important that Apple caters to every segment of the music listening public, not just teenagers and students listening to dumbed down rock and roll at 128 kbps or 256 kbps.

Make iTunes the media player it should be.

Apple has an unparalleled ability to scale down the quality of its products, to remove components or features that cost next to nothing, but would increase sales by pleasing new segments of the buying public.

The iPod nano is very impressive. Now, make it perfect, the best media player money can buy. I am sure that Apple engineers can live up to the challenge.

Alex Lindsay has posted a quick sample video clip recorded using the nano:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebJ68ZkSX2M

It looks pretty nice for a video from such a tiny camera. The biggest issue is the rolling shutter.