I’ve been playing with my new toy all day. New toys are fun. Up until now I’ve been the sometimes-proud owner of a 4th-gen iPod, which the husband got as a Christmas gift for me in ’04. That was before color and video. The iTunes Store is a whole new world now that I have a device that can play video. The funny thing is, I never wanted video. I had planned to purchase a Nano months ago as my next MP3 player. I need something I can take to the gym with me, that is smaller and more portable than my current iPod (funny, right, that I want something more portable than an already very portable player). I wanted a flash drive. I figured I’d get sick of display-screen-less Shuffle. So, I figured, Nano for music, and maybe a Zune for video.

When Apple announced a press conference for this week, I decided to wait and see (as I mentioned in my Nintendo DS Lite post. More on this in a bit). When I saw the Nano, I was like, um, I don’t know. At first glance, from the images, it looked kinda ugly. I loved the slim and narrowness of the old. They also got rid of pink (they had pink for the old Nanos, didn’t they?). I love pink. I am a girl. 

But. They added video. I suddenly became very intrigued. I finally decided that, if at the Apple Store the Nano looked better than how the pictures seemed to show them, I would get one. In the minty green.

The husband and I arrived at a crowded Apple Store. I made a beeline to the Nano counter. Played with it for a few seconds. Asked one or two questions to the sales guy. Then said, I’m getting it. I figured I had to act fast with less over-thinking or else repeat my Fry’s episode (see aforementioned DS Lite post. Again, more on that later).

So. I’ve been playing with it. I had to upgrade iTunes which took a while. After restarting Windows, iTunes found my iPod and immediately began synching up with “Tina’s iPod Playlist” which contained nearly 2,000 songs from iTunes. How they decided which songs to upload I wasn’t sure. Just kept uploading. Unfortunately, the husband and I share the Library. So, you’ll find stuff we both enjoy, like the Beatles, Police, U2, Billy Joel. You’ll find my Madonna, Kelly Clarkson, Justin Timberlake (yes. I own Kelly and Justin. I’m not afraid to admit it). You’ll also find his Steely Dan, Doobie Brothers and Psychedelic Furs. So, it synched for the longest time then when it was done I went in and removed over a 1GB worth of tunes. Sorta wished I was able to choose the playlist to add to it. On the other hand, it was pretty neat that Apple’s intention is to get music on the new device ASAP.

I then went to the iTunes Store to check out the Movies and TV Shows. Searched for, what else, Firefly. And it carries Season One (the only season, of course). I will have to download an episode. You never know when you have 43 minutes to spare. And for $1.99 … what a bargain.

Here’s the kicker. After re-organizing the playlist and tooling around iTunes, I checked out the games. The Nano comes with a trivia quiz game, solitaire and something called Vortex. I ended up playing Solitaire for like 30 minutes. iTunes has several other games, some of my favorites including Bejeweled. Funny. I turned away from the DS Lite because ultimately my favorite types of games are pretty limited. I don’t need a powerhouse gaming device to play Tetris. But the Nano, it’s perfect for that kind of game. My kind of game. It was the right decision to leave the DS Lite on the store shelves. Sometimes my overthinking does its job.

Right now I’m listening to Snow Patrol, enjoying that “Cover Flow” thing. I mentioned my previous iPod (which I was using all the way until yesterday, seriously). A few improvements that I love (that, for all I know, have been on each and every iPod generation since mine). One, you don’t have to keep the pause button pressed down for ages to turn the device off. Also, the screen goes black when it’s not being used, but very lightly it shows the time and battery life. Perfect, as those are the main reasons I activate the screen. The letter of the alphabet appears that matches the alphabetical artists list as you are quickly scrolling down, a la the Zune. I can play games and still play music at the same time. As I’m in different screens and modes I can still hit ‘pause’ to pause and play the tunes.

There is much more I’m sure I’m going to love about this thing. I’ll keep you posted.

Hooray!

(and hooray for the 6% discount I received because I am an employee of the firm!)

The new iPod Video Nano, which Apple announced earlier this week.

One quick observation. When I saw the press coverage and photos, I thought, “Boy, I hope it looks better in person than it does in the pictures”.

Fortunately, it does. Will report more later.