Lol, I’m a working boy now. Making t3h 1337 lettuce now. 8)
I actually don’t make a whole lot, but seeing as I don’t have to pay for a car or a house yet, I can spend my money on the cool stuff.
I personally would choose to go with a 20gb ipod, which is only a little more expensive, but so much better. The nano, i wouldn’t get, i would wait for the second edition, it will be better and more scratch resistant.
just my thots.
If it matters, Amazon.com is doing a sale on all Creative electronics right now, Zen Micro included.
I personally would choose the Zen.
Since this thread has bumped up, I’m searching for some reallife experience with the Ipod stuff. Here I came up with a link saying that the Ipod nano screen can easely being scratched:
Osxrules: About the battery pack. It not that I want to replace the batterypack with another one that’s totally different. But the Zen batterypack can be replaced with another new zen batterypack easely. You can do it all yourself. And since everyone has something at home on battery’s we actually know how to replace them, or is Apple threading us a dumb childeren?
The thing I have seen in experience is, that build in batteries are a hit with a hammer if it comes to replacing them. Always problem come up, companies that replace them don’t take responsebilty with it.
2 years ago I had a 400 euro diving computer, sealed but battery was empty. (normally it takes 5 years to be empty) anyways, a company replaced it, 2 days later it was ruined by saltwater because they didn’t put a new rubber ring inside it. Company told use give the bill you got, we said, no we didn’t get one (we asked it, but they said, noo you get a new one if something happens) so afther all we had to pay 600 euro for a new one. My ass.
So since then I’m a little carefull with such things. :-?
About that PSD, well sure I can use something else, It just some eyecandy, but dumb that when they have something, they make it OSX only, while the psd file can be opened on all platforms if it comes from a pc, and the apple one only on Mac :x
It seems the Nano is so flimsy that the LCD screen can break under even the slightest amount of pressure, and the case is so scratch-prone it can render the screen unreadable in a matter of weeks anyway. In light of this story I don’t think I could recommend the Nano. I’d suggest considering the iPod Mini or even a full-sized iPod instead. The Mini may lack the colour screen but the ali case is tough and will still look good a year or 2 from now.
The full-sized iPods are somewhat scratch-prone, but in my experience not to anything like the degree the Nano is. Plus there are plenty of cases to choose from. I use a Contour Showcase with mine, and it’s done an excelent job of protecting my iPod from scratches.
wow this is a pretty close poll sofar. I am still open to either one. Convince me guys. 
If you’re worried about the nano screen scratching, just put a clear adhesive tape over it… it’s not a complicated problem, even though it’s a huge oversight on Apple’s part.
A lot of people have fixed their scratches by polishing with brasso too.
Yeah, they do that a lot. But they are an American company so I think they’ve analysed the market quite well :P.
They are well known for dumbing down stuff and some people have said the one button on their laptops looks like it’s made for disabled kids.
Still, they don’t make it impossible to get round:
After all, their engineers have to open the things too.
^ edit, I just found out that they don’t open the Ipod themselves either. When you pay to get a new battery, they actually give you a new Ipod so in effect, you are paying for a brand new machine, not just a battery.
Yeah that sort of thing sucks. I hate that too. But you often find the most successful companies are the ones that screw you over because that’s how they make money. I haven’t been to my mechanic for months because my car is running great but that’s not very good for him.
As it happens, Apple’s service record is very high standard and they do admit when there is a problem. The ibook logic boards for example. If Apple hadn’t mentioned it, I would have thought my laptop had just died after the 2 years it took to fail. It was outside its warranty but they replaced it free of charge and paid for the postage.
This makes me wonder about:
You always find a number of people with defective products. My Mac Mini hard drive broke within 2 months. There was me complaining on the Mac forums asking if people had the same issues and there were. So, naturally I accuse Apple of shipping their machines with dodgy hard drives. But then I get it replaced under warranty for free again and all is well.
I’m not saying there aren’t mass defects in the ipods because hardware isn’t perfect just because it comes from Apple. It’s all made by the same minimum wage workers in any other factory. But surely there would be more people complaining about it.
Also, people have stress tested it a lot more harshly:
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/nano.ars/3
It could be revenge. How many products do you see “Windows-only”. Mac users have been filled with silent rage for decades. Every DVD, the computer extras are Windows only. Every game demo that comes in my cereal is Windows only. I go into a local PC store to find an endless barrage of “not Mac compatible” messages. Heck poor Linux isn’t even given a mention.
If the situation is to be rectified, it needs to come from everyone. I don’t understand why Apple did it either nor why they make Shake and Logic Mac only too but it’s not like they’re the only ones doing it. It just gets said more because now the majority of the computing world are complaining instead of an easily ignored 3%.
A lot of reviews come to the same conclusion that it’s largely a tie between them.
The best thing to do would be to weigh up which features are most important to you using a fair number system and find out which gets the most points.
For example:
…nano…zen
size…1…0
weight…1…0
looks…1…0
fm radio…0…1 - zen gets the point because it’s built-in
recording…0…1
reliability…1…0 - if the nano screens are defective then zen is better
battery…0…1 - same battery life but zen can be replaced more easily, though ipod might charge quicker.
software…0…1 - ipod can support other software but it’s easier for zen. Although as I understand it, Zen just acts like a hard drive doesn’t it? The ipod does that too but you just have to enable it. You don’t even have to reformat the nano unlike the bigger ipods.
sound quality…1…1 - I think they have about the same sound output. This one might go to zen but the nano has no skip audio.
overall 5 5
Oh crap :x. Like I say though, you just need to decide what is better for you. I’d actually prefer you went for the zen 'cos then all those hot girls who won’t give you a second look will come round to my house :).
Haha, yea. Well that is a good reason. 
Thanks for all the info though. Very helpful. That stress test link was pretty cool. You could never do that with a HD based player I’m sure.
One thing that scares me about engraving the iPod is that on the site they say that engraved iPods can’t be returned. This could be a problem if it breaks. Although I think it would awesome to have it personalized. :-?
I would have to go with the nano just because it is the most sexy mp3 player i have ever seen. Apple sucks though, the way they markey theire products, they are evil, smart, but evil. The battery is directly soldered to the board. You have to use that itunes garbage. HAHA eat it apple eat it
http://www.jinx.com/scripts/details.asp?affid=-1&productID=456
Plus the fact that there mp3 players are absurdly over priced, you can get a 40gig creative for the price of the nano 4gig, but its all about size, PLUS YOUR GONNA LOSE IT XD.
damn it looks so sexy…ahaqasdfwehpuranhsdjkcvnasdi i want one
Ipod Nanos?
When I was a lad the nearest we got to Portable Audio was one of these:
Nothing worse than getting sand in your valves.
You youngsters don’t know you were born etc etc.
(Think I’d go for the creative Zen though)
–
Brian
No, it’s all about flash. A 1GB flash Zen nano costs $149.99 from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0009F4OR6/104-9999379-9507138?v=glance
A 2GB flash ipod nano costs $199.99 from Apple:
But the ipod has a colour screen.
Yes, that’s probably because of what I said before about them giving you a new ipod when your battery goes dead. If it’s engraved, they can’t use the back plate again whereas they might be able to polish it up and re-use it if it wasn’t engraved.
You could just get one of those toy labelling machines :P.
Lol, that player looks pretty sweet. I can’t believe someone would even carry something like that all the way to the beach. Still, it looks like they are having a whale of a time trying to find a radio frequency that actually works.
He obviously brought the thing to impress his girlfriend. The conversation would go something like:
Johnny: Hey baby, do you like my radio
Helen: Sure Johnny, it’s so big
Johnny: That’s nothing, listen to this. fiddles with the knobs
Helen: I can’t hear anything
Johnny: hang on, I think I got something there. *crackle, crackle, sssss… “Jawohl, mein fuhrer”… crackle… “mayday, mayday”… bzzzz
hears a big splash in the background
Helen: I love you Johnny, now come and fiddle with my knobs - my ankles are right here waiting for you.
Johnny: You got it baby, but take that pudding bowl off your head first.
yea, so it is sort of a gamble if you get it engraved. I think it is stupid that they can’t replace an egraved iPod though. They probably encourage people to engrave them because it’s free, hoping that people will do it and then they will not be responsible if it breaks.
I found this online. Looks like I can use Musicmatch with the iPod after all.
well guys. Thanks for all your help. I just ordered me an iPod nano!
Its beauty was too much for me so I gave in. I think I will be very happy with it. I have never owned an iPod before, but considering all the great things I have heard about them, I wanted to give one a try.
nooo!
did you not read all that crap about people’s nano’s scratching a breaking easily?
please say you bought a case too!
Seems Apple acknowledged some Nanos had problems with easily-broken screens and have corrected the problem, so go for it! The iPod interface is great
lol guys.
I am aware of the problems. I do intend to buy a protecting case just to be extra careful. That is why I didn’t get it engraved. If it breaks, I want to have the option to return it. But I do plan to be very careful with this thing. I don’t think I will have any problems.
Also, you have to remember, these kinds of problems happen all the time to all kinds of MP3 players. They are very apt to break with unpropper use. But you only hear about it when it happens to an iPod because there are so many users out there. That is why Apple is often held to a much higher standard than the rest.
But I am not going to simply ignore these problems. I will order a proctecive case very soon. I want to make my first experience with an iPod a good one. I’ll let you guys know what I think when it arrives.