Yes, yes we know these are two very different products. The Zune is a touchscreen spouting, 32GB touting, 720p outputting multimedia powerhouse. The new Nano is a diminutive sliver of plastic and aluminum with a VGA camera slapped onto it. But both gadgets were announced around the same time and both represent significant divergences for their respective companies. That’s why Mark McClusky and I sat down and sparred about the merits of each device. Don’t worry we’re not really pitting them head to head, just engaging in a friendly exchange of ideas. And besides, arguments are fun!
The spotlight may be on Microsoft’s newly released Zune media player but that didn’t deter Sony launching its thinnest Walkman players .
Sony introduced the NW-A840, a extremely thin device that has a 2.8-inch OLED screen, FM radio, noise canceling and TV-out features. The Walkmans will be released in Japan at the end of next month and are expected to be available in the U.S. later.
With the new super-slim media players, Sony hopes to sustain some of the momentum that it has seen in the last few weeks for its media players. Apple’s iPods dominate the U.S. market with more than 80 percent market share but internationally, they face a tougher battle.
Earlier this month, a study by Japanese electronics research company BCN showed that Sony Walkman outsold the iPod in Japan for the first time in more than four years. Sony’s market share for digital music players in Japan stood at about 43 percent, for the week ending August 30, compared to Apple’s 42.1 percent.
With Apple refreshing its iPods line, it was clear that Sony would launch new products.
The latest Sony Walkman is 7.2mm thick, compared to iPod Classic’s 10.5 mm thickness and Zune HD’s 8.9 mm thickness. It will be available in 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB versions. The company hasn’t disclosed the pricing for the products.
Sony claims the new Walkman will have a battery life of about 29 hours for music playback and 9 hours for video. There are a few features missing in the device. The lack of Wi-Fi connectivity and a touchscreen puts it behind the Zune HD. But the Walkman’s real competition comes from iPods and it’s Apple that Sony hopes to beat back with its latest products.
The new generation of the iPod touch, we’ve been told, is roughly 50 percent faster than the previous iteration. Well, the fine folks over at the iPhone Blog have done a bit of information collecting on just that topic — to see if Apple’s latest is actually that much faster. Both Macworld and TUAW did testing which showed a reduction in boot times from 31 to 19 seconds, web page loading (using the New York Times) went from 34 to 15 seconds, while app launching saw time reductions across the board. So — in essence — yes, the newest iPod touch is about 50 percent faster than the previous model in terms of performance. Hit the read link to hear even more tantalizing details.
The Zune HD’s lack of a compelling software market will make it nothing more than a repeat failure, according to mobile developers and an analyst.
Microsoft on Tuesday released its newest media player. Priced at $290 for the 32GB version, it’s packed with impressive hardware features, including a vibrant, touch-sensitive OLED display. Still, the hardware alone won’t be enough to make the device a success, observers say.
“They apparently had no idea the App Store was coming or was going to be big,” said Phillip Ryu, co-creator of the popular iPhone app Classics. “This all reeks of last-minute scrambling.”
The center of criticism is Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace, the Zune HD’s version of an app store. But it’s not really a store: Third-party developers cannot easily create apps to be sold through Zune Marketplace. In fact, no apps will be sold at all.
Instead, Microsoft has handpicked third-party companies to code apps that will be offered for free in Marketplace. The initial software available for Zune HD will include games, a weather app and a calculator. And in November, Twitter and Facebook apps and some 3D games will launch in the “store” as well.
Unlike other mobile stores, Microsoft’s Marketplace is essentially closed to outside developers.
That’s an unusual move in the mobile tech landscape. By contrast, Apple’s App Store allows anyone to submit iPhone and iPod Touch apps, although Apple exerts stringent (and often capricious) control over which apps make it to the public. Google’s Android Market is completely open to any developers who wish to offer apps for it. Research in Motion, Verizon, Nokia and Palm have also all opened mobile app stores to compete with Apple’s.
Microsoft’s Zune marketing manager Brian Seitz said the Windows Mobile Marketplace is being separated because the Zune HD has a different focus than smartphones. Seitz said the Zune HD’s focus is music and video playback.
However, Microsoft’s message is contradictory, because Seitz later said that since the Zune HD features Wi-Fi and not a constant cellular connection, the device would focus on gaming.
“The thing that Zune HD is made for is really rich music and video playback experiences for people,” Seitz said in a phone interview with Wired.com. “We know there’s other things folks want to do with these devices that are sometimes connected … and those apps are typically games.”
Seitz added that the Zune HD’s primary goal is not to compete with Apple’s App Store. However, he did acknowledge the Zune HD’s main competitor is the iPod Touch.
Matt Drance, Apple’s former iPhone evangelist and current owner of Bookhouse, an iPhone app development company, said Microsoft was wise to shy away from directly competing with the App Store, because the tech giant is already too far behind in this market segment.
“I’ll give [Microsoft] credit for acknowledging they’re not ready to compete,” Drance said in a phone interview. “They’re going to have to do something really special at this point. When you’re staring in the face of 75,000 apps in the App Store that have been downloaded 2 billion times, you can’t just say, ‘Hey, me, too.’”
There’s very little Microsoft can do with the Zune HD at this point, MKM Partners analyst Tero Kuittinen said, because the software that launched with the Zune is too underwhelming to drive momentum for the gadget.
Kuittinen questioned why Twitter and Facebook apps were not immediately available for the Zune HD upon launch, because practically every smartphone today supports this type of software. He added that Microsoft failed to communicate to the public, via marketing and media, what exactly the Zune HD would do other than play music and video. This added up to a poorly executed launch, he said.
“To get the maximum impact you have to have the software services the moment you’re ready,” Kuittinen said. “When you start bringing it out later it dilutes the impact.”
“We’re getting close to Christmas now, so if you don’t start now telling consumers what the device can do, it’s going to be kind of late to give them Twitter app in November,” Kuittinen added.
What, then, should Microsoft do? Lower the price, suggests Kuittinen, who believes the price difference between the iPod Touch and the Zune is not a strong enough selling point. Microsoft is selling the 16GB Zune HD player for $220 and the 32 GB version for $290.
Apple’s iPod Touch comes in three models: $200 for 8GB, $300 for the 32GB and $400 for a 64GB model.
The iPod Nano, by contrast, costs $180 for a 16GB version, making it — price-wise — another possible competitor to the Zune HD.
“What exactly do they have to lose at this point?” Kuittinen said. “Why not just go to $130 or $140? They’re going to lose money anyway.”
A teardown of Microsoft’s Zune HD digital media player revealed the secret to the device’s longer battery life when compared to the iPod Touch. The combination of the OLED screen, the Nvidia Tegra processor and a lightweight device has helped put the Zune HD ahead of the iPod.
The Zune HD weighs only 2.6 oz, almost 35 percent less than the similarly-sized iPod Touch. Zune has a Samsung-manufactured 3.3 inch OLED display, which is also probably its single most expensive component. At just 1 mm, the OLED screen is incredibly thin and seems more rugged than a traditional LCD panel, says iFixit, which did the teardown.
Microsoft Zune HD hit stores Wednesday and the device got a favorable review from Wired.com for its design and software.
As we have reported earlier, the Zune HD has a Nvidia Tegra 2600 processor. Tegra includes an 800-MHz ARM CPU, a high-definition video processor, an imaging processor, an audio processor and an ultralow-power GeForce GPU in a single package. In comparison, the third generation iPod Touch uses a Samsung ARM processor.
Betting on Tegra has paid off for the Zune in an unexpected way. The Zune HD’s battery capacity is 660 mAh, about 16 percent less than the 789 mAh battery in the new iPod touch. Yet the Zune promises a longer run time than the touch for both music and videos.
The battery on the Zune should also be easier to replace than on the new iPod Touch, says iFixit. The Zune’s battery has individual wires for the battery leads. In the Touch, the battery leads run through a single ribbon cable, making hand-soldering a challenge.
Unlike the latest version of the iPod Touch, the Zune HD does not support 802.11n Wi-Fi. Instead, it’s has a Atheros AR6002GZ 802.11g chip. iFixit’s teardown showed that a Toshiba NAND flash and Hynix SDRAM. But there have been reports that Microsoft is using a few different suppliers for these parts.
The Zune HD unit taken apart by iFixit carried an inscription ‘For our Princess’ on the interior casing–a tribute to a Zune team member who passed away during development.
Interestingly, Zune HD is manufactured by Foxconn, the same company that produces iPods for Apple.
It’s been well over two years since high-end audio outfit Bowers & Wilkins introduced the iPod-lovin’ Zeppelin, and evidently it’s time for a downsizing. Today, the good folks over at B&W slung out the Zeppelin Mini, which promises the same dirigible-inspired sound but in a form factor that fits in a wider assortment of areas. To be honest, this version seems toned down quite a bit on the design side, with the key differentiating features being an updated docking arm and the addition of USB connectivity. Said socket enables direct PC / Mac streaming if your iPod gets lost, and it also enables your ‘Pod to sync with your computer whilst playing back tunes. As for specs, you’ll find a pair of 3-inch full-range drivers, 36 total watts of power, a 3.5 millimeter auxiliary jack and a bundled remote. It’s expected to hit next month for £299 ($495), but you can get acquainted right now by jumping past the break and mashing play.
IFixit has, once again, managed to shove its way to the front of the Apple Store queue, buy the latest hardware and bring it back to the iFixit Lair, a workshop so efficiently designed and well equipped for ripping things apart that the owners constantly get sales queries from serial killers.
This time the mystery-meat on the slab is the new iPod Touch, the runt of Apple’s iPod upgrades last week and notable mostly for what it didn’t get: no camera, no FM radio (no that you’d want it) and no Nike+ pedometer.
But according to iFixit’s be-scalpelled surgeons, there are a few surprises inside. First, wireless n. We knew the Touch had gotten a a new CPU (a newer hardware revision than the iPhone 3GS, although the actual speed is still unknown), but it turns out that it also has faster Wi-Fi, with 802.11n joining a,b and g. The chip is the Broadcom BCM4329, and we reported back in April that this chip had been listed in a resource file deep within the iPhone 3.0 software.
Don’t get too excited yet. The faster Wi-Fi isn’t switched on, but remember that the previous iPod Touch shipped with a Bluetooth chip inside that remained dormant until the 3.0 OS update finally woke it up, and the original MacBooks also contained n-capable wireless chipsets which later got switched on with a $2 download. The same could happen with this faster Wi-Fi in the Touch, and it wouldn’t be the first time the Touch has had better hardware than the iPhone.
Also on this Broadcom chip is an FM transmitter and receiver. The transmitter will likely remain off forever, but the FM radio could certainly be useful for those in the US who can’t get Spotify, and could be switched on in software if there is an FM antenna inside there too.
Third, and most interesting, is the inclusion of a 6mm x 6mm x 3mm hole. What? A hole? In something as tightly packed as an iPod Touch, even a hole can hold meaning, and this hole could be where the camera was supposed to go. IFixit points out, and our own Brian Chen reported last week, that this hole isn’t big enough to fit an autofocus iPhone camera, but there is space for a new Nano video camera in there.
Could these be the “technical difficulties” which prevented Apple from including a camera in the Touch? A simple lack of space? It’s possible, and the leaked case designs showed a camera in the center like this. And after all, the Touch is a lot slimmer than the iPhone. One thing is sure: if Apple did include either the 1G iPhone’s crap-cam, or the 640 x 480 video camera from the Nano, there would be loud complaints. Apple needs to find a way to fit the iPhone’s camera into this tiny space. And if I had to put money on it, I’d say we’ll see one in a few months time, perhaps even as an attention-getting announcement during January’s CES.
That mysterious 6- x 6- x 3-millimeter slot found within the most recent iPod touch teardown? We were pretty sure it was the eventual resting place for a camera sensor, but now we’ve got mounting evidence with the discovery of a missing link. If you recall, there was an August-borne leak of an iPod touch with camera that showed said slot filled with a chip that, in hindsight, looks to match up well with the video camera sensor in the 5G iPod nano (check out step 17). This revelation doesn’t get us any closer to snapping videos with the touchscreen PMP, but we do have a few more questions for Steve to dodge.
The newest iPod Nano is incontrovertibly a step up from last year’s model, crammed with new features including a video camera. But can the Nano stay the same cool little player while simultaneously invading the Flip-cam market?
This new Nano—the 5th generation—comes in the same 8GB/16GB sizes as the last one (and the one before that, actually), though it costs slightly less than the original price of the 4th generation Nano (which was $150/$200). The $20 price drop is nice, but we’d have preferred a capacity bump with the same price. Correction: This section originally compared the 5G Nano’s price to the very recently discounted 4G Nano’s price( $130/$150)—but as that price was only in effect for a couple days, it’s more accurate to compare the 5G price to the 4G’s launch price. Sorry for the confusion.
Body
The new Nano has the same body as the 4th generation, but there are definite changes afoot. The screen takes a bump from 2 inches to 2.2 inches—a jump that may sound tiny but is surprisingly substantial. If you’re used to the old 2-inch screen you’ll definitely notice and appreciate the extra space for navigation. The resolution goes from 240×320 to the oddball 240×376. Though wider when viewed lengthwise, the new screen still isn’t 16×9; even widescreen videos will be slightly letterboxed due to the unconventional size. Aside from the added real estate, it’s also noticeably brighter and sharper than the previous model. It may still be too small to watch a two-hour movie on, but it’s a pleasure to use for everything else, including shorter video clips.
Unfortunately, that larger screen comes with a caveat: The click wheel is even smaller than earlier Nanos. If you found the previous Nano’s click wheel slightly thinner and harder to hit than you prefer, this will be even worse. If you had no problems before, then the slight decrease in size shouldn’t affect you much. I personally found it too small, and my thumb sometimes hit the area around the controls instead of the control itself. This is especially true when the Nano is docked.
The anodized aluminum finish is also a little different—there’s an added step in the process that makes it shinier and brighter than the previous generation’s comparatively subdued matte finish. Oddly enough, it actually feels slightly lighter than the last model, though no less solid—this is an extremely durable player. It doesn’t bend under pressure from any angle and a nerve-wracking fall onto a hardwood floor had no adverse effects. However, I found that sharp metal objects like keys will leave scratches, while the previous matte Nano showed no scratches under similar abuse. One bit of bad news: People who hated the sharp corners of the last Nano will have to put up with them for at least another year.
Features
Did I mention Apple crammed a bunch of new features into the iPod Nano 5G? And that the most notable—and most thoroughly leaked—is a video camera? Here’s the rundown:
Video Camera The big selling point of this Nano is that the video camera theoretically puts it in a position to compete with the Flip, Creative’s Vado, and Kodak’s Zi6 and Zi8. Steve Jobs said so himself. But is it true? Well, yes—and no.
Like the Flip-class cameras, there’s no optical zoom, and it can’t take still shots (very few of these new camcorders can). Also, there’s no on-device editing, just the option to delete what you shot. It too has video output, but only if you buy the right cable.
But the Nano is limited to VGA resolution—640×480—far less than that of current HD pocket cams which hover in the same sub-$180 price range. Casual videos meant for YouTube may not need more than VGA, and Apple sort of makes up for it by adding creative video filters, similar to those found in iChat and Photo Booth. These aren’t just for fun, they tend to cover up the limitations of the video itself. On the other hand, if you’re shooting your baby’s first steps, or anything meaningful, no matter how short, you might end up regretting that you didn’t shoot in HD.
That being said, it’s a remarkably high-quality camera, as good as standard-def pocket cams like the Flip Mino (which I used in the comparisons below).
When you hold the Nano, you discover that the lens is placed in an awkward location—the lower right corner of the device’s back. You can rotate it and the accelerometer will adjust, so it can actually be held in any way you choose, but the natural motion is to turn it 90 degrees counterclockwise (so the screen is on the left and the click wheel on the right), which leaves your fingers right in the lens’s way. You get used to it, though. It’s annoying but not a dealbreaker.
In video-camera mode, you can bring up those creative filters—cyborg, security camera, film grain, tunnel vision and more—by holding down the center button. They fit right in with the idea of the Nano as a quick-and-dirty camcorder: You wouldn’t want your serious short film to have a red, pulsing cyborg filter, but it’s really fun for 30-second clips. Speaking of which, the only limit on video length seems to be the remaining memory in the Nano itself.
Here are a couple comparison clips. This first is low-light, notoriously difficult for any budget camcorder to capture.
The Flip is far better here: You can actually make out the features of my kitchen with some certainty, and while it’s blurry it’s still watchable.
The Nano’s low-light video is pretty much pitch black until I hit a patch of light, and it’s extremely jerky. I should add that the kitchen wasn’t really that dark, but it looks like that tiny sensor is just no good for situations with less light.
This pair of clips is to demonstrate macro. The Nano is actually a little better than the Flip here, with a sharper closeup picture, although color reproduction is a little more accurate on the Flip. Still, closeup shots are difficult and I’m really impressed with the Nano’s clarity here. Here’s the Flip:
And here’s the Nano.
This last series is what most people will likely use the Nano’s camera for: Shooting with a decent amount of light, natural or artificial. It’s not quite as good here as the Flip—notice the tearing in the video as I pan, and again, color reproduction is a little darker and muddier than the actual object. But given that the Nano’s camera is a tiny little lens crammed into an already-tiny music and video player that you may be intent on buying anyway, I’m really pleased and a little surprised at how well it performs.
This is the Flip:
And this is the Nano:
The microphone does a pretty good job at picking up sound. Speech is totally audible and it’s sensitive enough to pick up a fairly quiet conversation 10 feet away. Wind shear can get really noisy, unfortunately, but unless it’s incredibly windy it shouldn’t be much of a problem.
So is the Nano better than a standard-def Flip? No, it’s not: Besides poor low-light performance, the straight video quality is slightly inferior and there are no features like digital zoom (which some people like). This is a PMP with a camera, not a camera that plays music. But should Flip be worried? Absolutely. If you have a Flip already, you may not be swayed to purchase the Nano because of its video, but if you buy the Nano, you don’t really need a Flip—and Apple’s going to sell boatloads of these Nanos for reasons other than video camera anyway. Speaking of which…
FM Radio Defiantly coming dead last to the FM radio party, Apple finally bestowed an iPod with a real FM radio, not some costly optional accessory. Why did Apple cave? Every single other mp3 player since about 2001 has had this. Your guess is as good as mine. The addition was announced without fanfare or explanation at the Nano’s unveiling, and the tuner itself doesn’t bring any new features like HD Radio, but it does come in with a suite of features proving, at least, that this wasn’t an afterthought.
The radio gets excellent reception, though you have to use your headphones—not just Apple’s white earbuds; I used my Shures—as the antenna. There’s support for RDS data (station name and song title). That song title data can be used to tag favorite songs so that you can, well, buy them later on iTunes. The coolest radio feature is “Live Pause.” You can pause a program for up to 15 minutes, and it caches it to memory. It’s really nice addition, and you can even fast forward through the cached content, though you can’t truly record and save radio.
Built-In Speaker That’s right, there’s a teeny little speaker on the bottom of the new Nano. It’s not particularly loud or high quality, but it’s damn impressive that Apple could cram it into such a thin player. It’s definitely audible in quiet rooms, although you’d probably want to use it for spoken word or video rather than music, as songs tend to get washed out and distorted. Still, I have a feeling I’ll take advantage of the speaker even more than the video camera—there was one on the Samsung P3 and it proved extremely useful for those times when you want to share a quick video, or don’t feel like plugging in earbuds.
Pedometer It works, mostly, though it’s not a substitute for Nike+. Even Apple says you can’t use it for running. I tested five sets of exactly ten steps, and it registered the correct amount twice, but it also registered nine steps twice and thirteen steps once. It’ll probably even out for longer walks, but you will never get perfect accuracy. It’s still kind of fun, though: Turns out my nearest coffee shop is only 278 steps away from my bedroom, and I burned 14 calories getting there.
Voice Recorder Using the built-in mic, you can record little voice memos. Sound quality is okay, but very limited by distance. I tested from different distances and found that while about one foot away from the mic, talking at a normal conversational volume (as in an interview or quick voice memo situation), sound quality was very audible and clear. From five feet back at the same volume, it was still clear but soft enough that the volume had to be upped quite a bit. From ten feet back it was still clear but only after I plugged it into my stereo and cranked the volume. When recording very loud music from a bit of a distance (sorry, neighbors!), the volume was fine but the recording came out way too distorted to be worth listening to. It looks like the recorder would be a good tool for memos or lectures, but forget about recording concerts with the Nano.
The Verdict
The iPod Nano is the best-selling MP3 player of all time, and this new model should keep that record alive. It’s still an incredibly small and thin player with intuitive navigation and popular software, priced competitively. The new features are really nice—the video camera is good in a pinch, enough to supplant standard-def pocket cams—and the bigger, brighter screen makes navigating through the added options.
The video camera is a major feature addition, but this Nano is still an incremental upgrade. Apple hasn’t changed the capacity or price in years—does it really not make sense to release a 32GB version? The 8GB version, only $30 cheaper than the 16GB, seems undesirable and outdated. But at this point what else could Apple add to the Nano? I’m just surprised everything they have added actually fits.
The iPod Touch and other full-featured touchscreen players like the Zune HD and Sony X-Series are the big attention-grabbers these days, and the Nano will surely be left behind as dedicated media players yield to convergence. The steady price and capacity of the Nano and the dropping price and skyrocketing capacity and functionality of the Touch signals the sea change better than anything: Soon the Touch will be top seller, and the Nano will slip into being a niche product for people who really prefer small form factors. There is much speculation that the Nano got the video camera—and the Touch did not—in order to slow this inevitable decline.
So the big question: Should you buy the Nano? Yes, if you want an easy-to-use, slick, full-featured and small PMP. No, if you just want an 8GB vessel for your MP3s.
If you’re in the market for both a PMP and a cheap pocket camcorder, it’s definitely a “yes.” But think it over. If you’ve got last year’s Nano and you have an interest in decent video quality, better to spend the money on a Kodak Zi8 (or the newly discounted Zi6). Or just wait for the iPod Touch to get a camera—now that’s an upgrade. The camera alone isn’t worth $150 or $180 if you’ve already got every other feature—maybe that’s the reason Jobs himself said it was “free.”
Retains stylish and durable form factor, with bigger and better screen
Camera is surprisingly good and really fun
Price is very tempting considering camera addition
Design, battery life and UI are unchanged, but still good
While the latest iPod Nano was only announced on Wednesday, we’re all agreed that it needs a kickstand. Now that it can shoot video, you need a way to watch comfortably, right?
Yesterday I blogged about Quirky’s Kickster, which was created in 24-hours by the Quirky community. Today I’ve got the Scosche kickBACK n5, which offers a kickstand case with a little more padding, as well as random capitalization.
The kickBACK combines clear polycarbonate screen protection with black rubber on the corners, the areas that take the most impact in a drop. The back includes a cutout for the new camera, as well as the kickstand. Grab it from scosche.com for $24.99.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
Retains stylish and durable form factor, with bigger and better screen
Design, battery life and UI are unchanged, but still good
Capped at 16GB capacity
