First nano thoughts

Saw one today. It's gorgeous. Martin Tibbitts

The problem with Colorware's process on iPods, iMac G5's and iBooks is that the paint covers the transparent plastic coating that make it unique. So think twice about doing this because it ends up looking like most other product plastic surfaces. Also, last time I checked, the prices were a little extreme. (and you can be that I'm not the one working for Colorware) Another thing, I'm almost %100 sure that the video out circuitry is not in the nano, as the video out chip in the current color iPods would probably take like half of the nano motherboard. The best you could do is plug the audio-out into a composite video input, then play a specially crafted sound that more or less matches the NTSC format. You would only get a grayscale animation at 4x240 though :)

for anyone who likes the idea of a colored (non-white) ipod nano check out colorware for 21 color choices http://www.colorwarepc.com

I bet a third party gadget will come out that lets you output to a TV like the regular iPod Photo.

I am going to pick up a white 4gb tommarow, my local apple store only just got them in late today, so i havnt acctually had the chance to see it in person, but from what ive heard it seems really great. i have had one of every generation ipod on the market aside from the shuffle, and my 2g 4gig pink mini is my favorite so far-only because of it's size. so, smaller is better in my book.

Something that gave me pause was the photo capabilities. It shows pictures on the built in color screen, but you can't play them on a TV like a regular iPod Photo. Bummer.

It will charge via firewire because the voltage comes over the same two dock connector pins of a firewire cable as it does on a USB cable or powered dock in a set of iPod speakers, etc. That hasn't changed. Also, the size of a 6-pin firewire cable is irrelevant, because that's not the end that plugs into the iPod, the dock connector does... the firewire plug goes into the computer itself, not the iPod. (At least, since they dropped the full blown FW port on the iPods around 3G or so in favor of the bottom dock connector.) What has been dropped from the nano is the internal chipset that "speaks" firewire in order to transfer data as a firewire device. Apparently, space was tight in there, and faced with a choice between a firewire chipset and a usb chipset, obviously the usb was going to give them compatibility with far more people than firewire, so thats what they went with.

To answer questions: Honestly I'm not sure if you can charge it via firewire. I'd bet that you can't, cuz I've seen pictures of nano screens that display a message when plugged in stating they can't work over firewire and that you should plug in USB. The color screen is absolutely gorgeous, right on par in my opinion with the larger iPod color screens. Pete: I gave up the 60 partly cuz I was tired of having an iPod that big, and also because I just don't trust a hard drive spinning thousands of times in my pocket with a magnetic head suspended mere millimeters above the drive. I feel flash drives are a bit more safer and trustworthy. Cory Krug: the wheel is easy to get used to. If you've owned nothing but regular iPods I think your finger might have to get used to a smaller rotating radius, but after a day of poking around I feel right at home on this smaller wheel. And yes, I think the black nano's are selling like crazy, as we reported earlier that the 4 GB black model is already #4 on amazon's list, the white 4 GB I think is around #22. The 2 GB versions are down around 180-220, but the black models are still ahead of the whites.

I havent seen a wide 6 pin FW port yet have you? The 30 pin USB2 exists... but I haven't seen something like that for FW. A regular FW cable plug end is itself about as wide as the nano is thin.

How hard is it to use that tiny click-wheel?