iPod Nano

After holding out for way too long, I finally broke down on Friday and ran to the Apple Store to purchase the new iPod Nano.


Although the line was quite long, it moved quickly - and I was able to practice my math. In the 15 minutes it took for me to get through the line, I estimated that with 8 registers in the store, they were selling about 4 of the babies every minute. Talk about a cash cow! The process was the following:

Step: up to the cash register.
Say: (in my case) 2 GB white, please (always remember to be polite)
Swipe: credit card
Sign: credit card receipt
Accept: bag containing the cute, yet powerful, box of music-listening-goodness.

Do not (I repeat, do not): ask if headphone are included. It just confuses the process, slows things down, and makes everyone laugh at you. (Hey, it's my first iPod, how would I know?).

Upon arrival home, I was a bit horrified to find out that the iPod nano really doesn't work very well with USB 1.1 (which is, of course, what my computer uses given that it's over 2 years old). Although the tech specs on the apple site imply that USB 1.1 is fine (USB 2 is recommended), it's been kinda slow ... and I'm not even transferring a Deborah Cox remix!

Luckily, I have an extra PCI slot on my G4 tower and have purchased a USB 2 PCI Card for around 10 bucks. Even though I'm not thrilled that I have to buy new equipment for my computer, I've come to realize that it's not that bad. Update: OK, so the card didn't actually work (i.e., don't buy that card to use with your nano).

Now, I just need to decide if I'm going to get the lanyard headphones


or the red armband

... or perhaps both! Time to rock on ... after I get a song loaded onto the iPod, that is.

Update: The above USB 2 card works in my G4 Mac ... but doesn't work with the iPod nano. You'd think that Apple would at least let us know that the nano doesn't work with all USB 2 cards.