Hasta La Gadget!

For the first year ever, Apple held no special media events for any of its iPod line of products. Since its induction in 2001, the iPod has received some form of public promotional treatment every year. It also underwent some hardware changes–sometimes major, sometimes minor–every year, but not in 2013. This could signal an eventual […]

It would appear that a reboot of each of the iPod devices graced with color have been given a shade change this week thanks to the iPhone 5s. The iPod touch, iPod nano, and iPod shuffle have been given “Space Gray” to match the iPhone 5s’ newest tone. This suggests that while past years have […]

An iOS 7 concept imagines what the upcoming version of iOS would look like running on the 6th generation iPod Nano.

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The photos of the iPhone 6 you’re about to see do not tread lightly with those of you who aren’t all about keeping their phone safely packed away from the concrete ground you tread on. It should also be made clear that the images you’re seeing are mixtures of reality and concept rendering, using a real finger to make you see the rest of the device as real – dust and reflections as well. Once you understand that, hear this: the iPhone 6 you see in less than a year may very well look exceedingly similar to these artist’s renditions.

Designer Martin Hajek was the illustrator of these images while NWE‘s Steve Hemmerstoffer helped with the concept design work. What you’ll find here is a collection of influences, starting with the iPod touch and the iPad mini. With both of these devices we’re seeing a bit of a return to round, and though the concept images here don’t show it, we wouldn’t be surprised if a design like this saw more than just black and white.

The biggest deal with this device is the fact that it’s got more of an “edge to edge” display than we’ve ever seen in the real world. Here with some form of what we understand to be next-to-impossible display casing technology, the iPhone 6 sits in a chassis with no border but the metal that holds the front display’s glass down above and below.

You’ll also notice the lack of a home button – a piece of hardware that’s been a staple in every iPhone and iPad to date. Here these forward-thinking minds have decided that, like the touchpad on your MacBook, you’ll be able to push down the bottom bit of the front of your iPhone 6 to get that same home button functionality. Intrepid iOS 6 users will know that a quick visit to Settings – General – Accessibility – AssistiveTouch will bring you the ability to skip the home button altogether on any iOS device you like. Perhaps it’s a pre-cursor to the absence of the button in the hardware as well?

The designers of this device have actually gone ahead and made another break in the way Apple releases mobile devices – or has over the past several years, anyway. They’ve created the iPhone 6, then for an added boost in space, they’ve created the iPhone Plus as well. Though the display sizes don’t much matter here in this completely unofficial concept stage, you may enjoy knowing that they’ve decidedly placed a 4-inch display (just like the iPhone 5) on the iPhone 6, and the iPhone Plus totes a 4.8-inch display.

That means that the iPhone 6 could potentially be thinner and lighter than the iPhone 5 with the absence of a bezel on the right or the left. The larger model then is set to open up a whole new larger window for Apple with a display that’s large enough to take on the more beastly Android devices on the market – along with the absence of a bezel keeping the device small enough not to look absurd when used as a smartphone.

And it’ll all connect perfectly well with the iWatch – or the iCompanion, as it was suggested earlier today by your humble narrator. Have a peek at the timeline below to see more iPhone 6, iPhone 5S, iWatch, and everything in-between. We’re coming up on a rather strange and exciting season for Apple one way or another – stay tuned!

iPhone 6 concept renderings beg for borderless displays is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
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I remember my favorite Sony Walkman. It was yellow. And bulky. And slow. And ugly. I loved it. It played cassettes. Cassettes! I took it to Australia one summer. It’s still something I think about from time to time. Just me and my music in this yellow player thousands of miles from home.

So when Apple asked if there was a particular color of the new iPod nano that I wanted to test out, naturally, I said “yellow”. The difference is that this thing is like 1/20th the size of my Walkman. That’s not scientific. In fact, I think I’m not exaggerating it enough. It’s like 1/2000000th the size. Sure, let’s go with that.

It’s really freaking tiny. I think back to the days of the Walkman and the portable CD player and the first iPod and even the first iPod mini, and I’m amazed we’ve come this far. This thing can hold and playback thousands of songs?! It’s so thin and light that it seems like it barely exists. And yet, its wonder is relative. We have devices that can do so much more now.

Is this device — that is, the stand-alone music player — long for this world?

I actually thought the iPod would have perished a couple years back. It just makes sense to use your phone as your music player, right? It’s crazy now to think that the iPod was once Apple’s biggest money-maker. But it wasn’t even that long ago — just five years ago, the iPod was Apple’s biggest source of revenue. These days, it ranks fourth in the revenue pool behind the Mac, iPad, and of course, the iPhone.

The truth is that the stand-alone music player market is decaying. While everything else has been up and to the left for Apple the past several years, iPod sales have been steadily declining year-to-year. But Apple clearly feels that there’s still something left to squeeze out of the market as they not only keep pushing iPod updates, but complete product redesigns. Enter, the new iPod nano.

I’ve spent the past few weeks testing out the new nano. Truth be told, it’s been a while since I’ve regularly used a stand-alone iPod. I think the last one I wore down was a third generation nano — you know, the “fat one”. I really liked the last version of the nano, but more as a watchface than as a music player.

I once again find myself thousands of miles from home with a yellow music player. I’m in Europe right now and rather than destroy my iPhone battery as I walk around a city, I’ve been using the new iPod nano as my music player. The battery seems to last forever. It’s tiny. It weighs almost nothing. And it’s fast.

Long story short, it’s great. (You’re going to have to wait a bit for the “but…”.)

Whereas the last nano was a touchscreen-only device (aside from volume and power buttons), this new one features a touchscreen as well as a play/pause/skip button (in between the volume buttons). This makes it a much better music player for your pocket since you can use it without looking at it.

The new nano also features a “home button” for the first time. Yes, this is derived from the home button that’s now standard on the iPhone/iPad/iPod touch. It’s slightly different in that the center of the button features a perfect circle symbol rather than a square with rounded edges. You’ll notice this matches the difference between the icons on iOS devices versus the nano functions.

Clearly, Apple wanted to emulate some of what has worked so well for iOS, but wanted to make it clear that this wasn’t an iOS device. While it does feature “app” icons displayed in a grid, the nano is not running any variety of iOS. Instead, these rounded icons are meant to make the touchscreen obvious and usable.

The only “apps” are ones made by Apple (and a Nike Fitness one that has been standard on nanos for a bit). They’re the ones you’re used to: Music, Videos, Podcasts, Photos, Radio, Clock, Fitness, and Settings.

And while the home button does the obvious thing — taking you to the homescreen from anywhere in the device’s interface — you can also still go “home” by swiping to the right on the touchscreen, as was the case with the last generation nano.

Perhaps the biggest upgrade of this new nano is the larger 2.5-inch screen which reinstates the video-watching functionality that was stripped from the last nano. This makes the nano itself larger (and slightly heavier) than the last generation, but I believe it’s a good trade-off.

Previous generations of the nano also had larger screens, but this is the first one of this size with multi-touch. Using the screen to control media playback is a delight — it’s very condusive to using with your thumb. And you can do things like pinch-to-zoom in photos (though it’s not quite as smooth as it is on iOS).

This nano also features the new Lightning connector that Apple debuted with the iPhone 5. This undoubtedly helped Apple make the new nano as skinny as it is (5.4mm). Like the new iPod touch, the thing stopping this device from getting skinnier now seems to be the size of a standard headphone jack. When the headphones are plugged in, the plastic around the connector is ever-so-slightly thicker than the nano itself. Crazy.

As previously mentioned, this nano also comes in a variety of colors. (Apple even matches the background wallpaper to the color you choose.) And the unibody anodized aluminium looks and feels great.

Wait for it…

But.

There’s no question that in some situations, I’m definitely missing my iPhone or the iPod touch — even when it just comes to music. It should be fairly obvious why. Because those devices can connect to the internet, I can use services like iTunes in the Cloud or Rdio or Pandora to access music that I don’t currently have on my device.

Such cloud-based playback is clearly the future — and really, it’s already here. The syncing of music files between your computer and your device seems downright archaeic. Because that’s exactly what it is.

To be fair, there are still millions of iTunes users with music files on their machines who still can and will appreciate the “offline” aspect of the nano. For example, in Europe, it’s great not to have to use any data to listen to music. And while I’m sure the U.S. carriers would love to gouge unsuspecting people in situations like that, there are still times you won’t be connected.

But those times continue to fade away. A much better option for the future is syncing your cloud music with your player for offline playback. And again, Apple already does this with iTunes in the Cloud (though Rdio and Spotify are better at it). This is the way it has to and will work in the not-too distant future — yes, even for regular old iPods.

I would not be shocked to see all but perhaps the cheapest iPods (the shuffle) come with at the very least iTunes in the Cloud support by next year. I’d say it will happen in two years max. Again, it’s just so obvious.

One issue right now is the hardware. This nano does include Bluetooth for the first time, but it lacks WiFi. I suspect it was a design/battery life issue, but it’s a little perplexing. Bluetooth is great if you want to stream your music to something like a Jambox or a wireless headset. But as a feature, WiFi would make more sense.

While we’re on the subject of physical syncing, how annoying is it that you still have to “eject” iPod hardware, even with the new Lightning connector? As in, you have to click the little eject button next to the iPod nano icon in iTunes or you’ll get an error message that you failed to eject the device properly. You don’t have to do this with the iPhone or iPad, just these small guys.

One more slight annoyance/oddity: while the new nano comes with the new EarPods (which I love, though some still complain they don’t fit their ears), they’re different than the ones you get with the iPhone 5. They don’t have in-line volume and pause/play/skip controls. I have no idea why except that I believe these earphones are slightly different since the nano’s radio funtionality requires them to work.

Essentially, I’m spoiled. I’ve already moved to a music streaming world, so this new nano — a pretty incredible device in just about every way — leaves me wanting more. My main point would be that I suspect many will feel the same way. And everyone will feel this way sooner rather than later.

But Apple must know this too. They see the iPod sales continuing to slide downward. They know why. They’ll squeeze a little bit more life out of the manual sync iPods and then they too will go skyward, into the cloud — or they’ll cease to exist.

Still, it has been nice to tap into my nostalgia for a few weeks. Me and my yellow music player. A device where I have to pick which songs I want to bring with me on a trip because I can’t instantly access them all. There’s something sort of romantic about that. But it’s a romance not long for this world.