Living with a video nano

When video first made an appearance on the ipod I could see how some might want to watch videos on them, but not me.
So when Steve jobs launched the video nano a few weeks ago, saying "It's amazing, we have packed in as many pixels as on a larger ipod, but into a smaller screen". I thought: So what, It's is still a small screen. I'm sure many people will love it, but still mainly for listening to music. And this was pretty much the attitude I had when I opened the box on my black, 8GB iPod nano.

It is very small, and feels like a skimming stone. It has enough weight to not feel like a toy, and to remind you of the solid materials it is made from. It exhudes quality. There is something very satisfying about the meeting of two very different materials where the glass and aluminium run flush to each other. Jonathan Ive and his team have once again made a device which feels right and natural, as if it has arrived at that shape effortlessly.

Turning it on
Turning it on you get a hint of how great the screen is. Everything has a sharpness and smoothness which is difficult to describe (but more of that later). I am not wholly converted to the new interface. Text is sharp and clear, and in the familiar iPod style of sliding menus. The screen is vertically split in two, which gives the sense of a desktop with a floating window. However I have never been a great fan of images slowly floating by - and that is what you see next to the menu window: a random image from your music, videos or podcasts.

The interface works well, though I have not had a chance to use coverflow (where you scroll through your album covers to make your selection). When I've tried it in the Apple store it has seemed a little sluggish, but here has just been an update posted for the ipod nano, so I am sure that will iron it out.

Now showing on the little screen
I was dying to try some video so I bought an episode of Lost and a couple of tv shows for my 3 year old, Luca. The iTunes store does not sell full lenth features for the UK yet, but I'm sure there will be changes and more TV content available before Christmas.

The first video I watched turned out to be a pop video by one of my favourite artists Kanye West. I was amazed! Steves comments about the amount of pixels was dead right - there is so much detail packed into that small space that it is a pleasure to watch. Milions of people happily watch fairly low resolution video on YouTube every day, because it is the content they are interested in and that is compensation enough. With this ipod the small size, great content and great resolution combine so you can watch video on a small screen without sacrifice. In fact colleagues and friends I have shown it too have been so impressed (and most of these are technology skeptics) that they asked the price and stared mulling over a pre-christmas purchase right away!

This little 2.5 inch screen is full of subtlety, minute detail, and the delivery of motion is smooth and has no blurring. It is great for animation, as well as for live action. It turns out the epidsode of Lost I bought was a pivotal episode which i missed when it was on Channel 4, where two characters discover a video tape which shows them that they are in a old psychological experiment - so I watched it with a critical eye and genuine viewer interest.

And there is one more thing... I am writing this review in Northern Ireland where we are visiting family. We flew, and have done a fair bit of driving since getting here. Luca has sat in his child seat in the back totally absorbed in watching Dora the Explorer or American Dragon - occasionally calling me to help get the earbuds (not really made for little ears) back in. The size and weight and limited controls are perfect for him, he can see it clearly and loves it. it's more convenient than a back seat DVD which are farly commonly seen now, and the battery life is excellent, so it can be used in various ways for days without a charge being required.

A few weeks before the new nano hit the market, there were photos leaked on the web - and screams of pain from some about the proportions, how it was badly designed etc. There is an old saying: seeing is believing, and I think that from every detail of materials, design decisions about space shape and size, and finally the screen and software this device proves that truism.