iPod, uPod, we all pod for iPod

So the other day, my iPod, a 4th generation 20 GB model from a few years back, started flaking out on me. It froze up, which didn't worry me, since it had done that before, and all it took was a quick reboot¹ to bring it back to life. This time, however, that procedure sent the poor device into an endless cycle of rebooting - a cycle I could do nothing to break.

Fearing the worst, I ran a few diagnostics² to reveal the problem: hard drive failure. Excellent.

Well, I'd been thinking about getting an iPhone for quite some time, because they're so damn cool and stuff. If this wasn't an excuse to go out and nab one, I don't know what was...except that, according to the rumor mill, a new version of the iPhone, one supporting 3G network connectivity, is due out sometime this year - possibly within the next few months - and I truly hate buying expensive equipment only to have it become second-rate immediately afterwards.

Anyway, I needed an iPod to tide me over until I was ready to take the plunge into iPhone-land. I could have gotten an iPod classic for about $250, but then I'd have felt like a chump if the next iPhone model came out a month later. The Shuffle was another option, since I mostly only use my iPod to listen to a single playlist in shuffle mode while working out anyway - and at about $50, the price was certainly right. On the other hand, I knew I'd get frustrated with it if the new iPhone took more than a few months to come out.

So, for about one-fifty, I went and bought myself a nano.

Dear, sweet Lord, is this thing tiny. I put it in my jacket pocket for a little while, and I had to keep touching it to make sure it hadn't fallen out. It doesn't come with a clip, so I bought a nice little incase sleeve/belt clip for it, so that I don't have to hold it in my mouth while I work out, which I could easily do, by the way.

The model I bought was the cheaper, 4 GB model, which is fine; not enough to hold everything in my iTunes library, but certainly enough to hold what I generally feel like listening to in this phase of my life. The screen is gorgeous, bright, and colorful - it's my first color iPod, so I'm still not used to that.

I was skeptical of the whole "watching videos on a two inch screen" thing, so I spent a couple bucks on a TV episode at the iTunes Store. I'd have expected my eyes to be hurting after forty minutes of staring at that tiny little thing, but I was perfectly comfortable the whole time. I'll chalk that up to the nano's sharp, vibrant image. Seriously, I'm impressed.

Oh, yeah, and it plays music good, too.

So, in case you can't tell, I like it, and I highly recommend it to anyone who's looking for a music player in that particular specific price and feature space. I think it will tide me over until the iPhone 2.0 comes around beautifully. :)


¹ To reboot a 4th-gen iPod, simply hold both the center button and the Menu position on the clickwheel simultaneously for several seconds.

² To enter diagnostics mode, reboot the iPod so that the Apple logo is visible on the screen. Then, hold both the center button and the Rewind position on the clickwheel simultaneously for several seconds.