I love my black Nano!

It is remarkably small, so I also purchased a Speck Products TouchSkin to protect it.

Since I enjoy running and walking, I often use it with a Nike+iPod thingie to measure how far and how fast I'm going, and how many calories I've burned.

Typically I use the Nano when I'm walking, running, and driving.

It is *so* much better than my old MP3 player!

:-)

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Nano--Dressed in Black

What a beautiful, well made casing. Feels substantially more sturdy than the 1st generation. It is more eye-catching, too. I like the brighter screen. Also, the colors offered for the 4GB models are fun and I would liked to have seen the same offered for the 8 GB--or even, a new color.

Even in black, or another color, this Nano is gorgeous! It works well and the longer battery life (up to 24 hrs) is a delightful treat! That makes a huge difference to me as I listen to books--when I listened to them on the 1st generation Nano I found that I had to juice the Nano up during lunch, and/or, every night--or carry an extra power supply. With the 2nd generation, I don't have to worry about that, and, boy, does that make a difference.

Use of the click wheel and the features within are many and easy! Navigation through the various menu options is simple. Unfortunately, you get a short, quick help, booklet on how to use the Nano, giving the merest of basic instruction. I recommend going to Apple's site and downloading the manual. It is a quick download and the manual is well written.

There is a Red Nano, 2nd Generation available through Apple. It is in the 4 GB and 8 GB version, and it is beautiful--if red is your color, go have a look.

The old generation earphones and the newer earphones still hurt my ears. I have tried to get used to them, hoping my ears would toughen up, but it was a no-go. I now use behind the head headphones and I managed to find a brand comfortable and light enough to wear all day. I love them.

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Perhaps the most proprietary player

The good: Amazing small size and better battery life and sound (using good headphones) than I was expecting.
The bad: If you purchase iTunes songs, they will ONLY play on Apple equipment (they are AAC format but with proprietary Apple copy protection). Personally, I would pay $2 per song if it downloaded in a non-proprietary and higher bit-rate format. iTunes software wants to manage the music on your computer without really telling you what it's really doing to your files. This is good for a novice user, but not for someone who already has their MP3's organized on their computer. When MP3 songs are copied to the Nano, iTunes keeps them intact, but renames them to random letters. I prefer players don't don't screw with your music! Their intention is to commit you to using iTunes software. The supplied earbuds give a very tinny sound that hurts your ears. With some descent larger headphones, the sound quality is very good. Transfer rate of MP3's to the Nano is VERY slow - it takes about 6 hours to transfer 8GB of music to the player. Windows media player is much better at letting you manage your music on the hard drive manually (i.e. using the Windows Explorer to add/edit/move/delete MP3's) - it automatically scans and updates the library and playlists. With iTunes, if you do something manually (using Windows Explorer) to your MP3's, you have to delete your library and playlists and rescan (another hour) and rebuild your playlists. Conclusion: Apple is extremely proprietary in its operation. This is o.k. if you want to let iTunes take over your music experience, but not good for a power user who wants the option to manually manage their music.

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