We’ve covered the recent iPods extensively in the last week—including first looks at the 2G iPod touch, 4G iPod nano, iTunes 8, the iPhone 2.1 software, and reviews of the touch, nano, classic, and iTunes 8. In all that coverage could anything have possibly fallen through the cracks?
Not a lot, but I thought I’d offer a few tidbits that might have escaped your notice.
Cost per gigabyte
During the Let’s Rock presentation you heard quite a bit about iPod capacities offered for lower prices, but have you stopped to calculate exactly how much each iPod costs per gigabyte? No reason to. I’ve got it covered:
- 32GB iPod touch = $12.47
- 16GB iPod touch = $18.69
- 8GB iPod touch = $28.63
- 120GB iPod classic = $2.08
- 16GB iPod nano = $12.44
- 8GB iPod nano = $18.62
- 2GB iPod shuffle = $34
- 1GB iPod shuffle = $49
FireWire charging
The 2G iPod classic is the one iPod that still charges over FireWire. Everything else, USB.
iPod nano and classic audio recording
If you have an iPhone headset (or a mic-equipped headset compatible with the iPhone) you can use it to record voice memos on your 4G iPod nano and 2G iPod classic. These headsets do not record with the previous nano or classic.
iPod touch with iPhone headset
You’ve likely heard that quickly triple-pressing the microphone button on the iPhone’s headset causes the iPhone running 2.1 software to move back one track. Maybe you haven’t heard that it works exactly the same way with this headset plugged into a 2G iPod touch.
iPod touch audio recording
The 2G iPod touch will record audio from a microphone—someday. Although the feature is built in, Apple told me that developers will have to modify their applications to bring that capability to the 2G iPod touch, as enabling it for the iPhone doesn’t also enable it for the iPod touch. Should you try to install an application that includes audio recording to a 2G iPod touch, iTunes will tell you it can’t be done.
Watch the volume
If you plan to use your new 2G iPod touch’s internal speaker to blast your morning alarm bear in mind that if you turn the volume all the way down on your iPod, you’ll hear no alarm sound. Instead, the iPod will display an Alarm message, which is unlikely to awaken you.
Additional keyboard and region support
The iPhone/iPod touch 2.1 software update adds support for additional keyboards and regions. They are:
Keyboard: Czech, Estonian, Croatian, Hungarian, Icelandic, Lithuanian, Latvian, Romanian, Slovak, Turkish
Region: Greek, Hungarian, Turkish
You just know that when I start writing about keyboard and region updates I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel. Now that the new iPods have been out in the wild for awhile what hidden gems have you noticed? Feel free to discuss them in the comments area below.