Back in mid-November 2011 Apple announced that there was a potential faulty battery in the iPod Nano. When I first glanced this earth shattering news I just assumed (remember, never assume) that it was referring to one of the new ones, which would make sense. But no, it was the ORIGINAL iPod Nano, the first iPod Nano, the first Apple product I ever bought! So I checked it out, entered the serial of my still working (but more a museum piece) iPod Nano (white 1GB).
"YES", Apple said, "Your iPod is in the batch with the potential faulty battery. Fill out your details in our gorgeous customer service website and trust us, the next few steps will just work".
Everything I read online at that point said it would be a like for like swap, were Apple secretly hoarding tonnes of every old product they produced, just in case there was a factory recall? It didn't make sense.
Anyway, I wrestled for many minutes about taking the risk of losing what is a design classic to getting one of the 'new ones'. But then thought back to good old Steve Jobs. The whole 'death is natures cleaning agent...", it made sense to just go for it, but my nostalgia for this product was oddly strong. It was the first Apple product I bought and it's safe to say it had the 'halo effect'. I remember around that time (2005) I was editing PGA Golf in Soho (that's what film school is for) on an edit suite called Discreet Edit. I was starting to get heavily interested into tech/gadgets, reading the blogs and taking time to understand what was actually good or bad in the world of tech. I think it was the first Apple keynote I followed on a live blog (probably engadget), and I just got completely caught up with it all. And when the photo's came through of Jobs' preso, you know the bit where he pulls the nano out of that weird small pocket you get in jeans, it's just genius showmanship - and the product was just beautiful. For me it's one of their best designs - so simple, clean and right.
Needless to say I was hooked. And when it was released I went to the Apple Store in Regent Street to grab one, and proceeded to sync it up with my crappy £300 no-name laptop. I think in about 6 months I'd bought the top end black MacBook - which I still use. Now, nearly every electronic product I use is from Apple - both for work and play. The only thing out of that equation is the TV and media centre - I'm sure that may change soon.
Anyway, I received the new iPod nano (6th Gen) yesterday - in a completely efficient process from Apple - and it looks amazing. The touch interface makes great use of the iOS style of UI, so much so I'm constantly looking for the Home button.
I'm still quite nostalgic for that old nano, but the new nano is great and might even make me run with it. So I guess the morale is embrace the new and put the old in a museum.
(I still prefer the original though).
