My Gear Part 1 - Music

Whether I'm going for a run or a ride I almost never go without some way to listen to music.  Up until recently that was a 1st generation iPod Nano.  For close to 10 years it was the way I would carry my music around with me.  It was dropped countless times and once in a while required a reset, but it just kept working.  That is until a month or two ago the wheel on it stopped responding.

Now, I'm not some Apple fanboy, but I do like it when something works well for what I need.  The original iPod Nano fit the bill for me.  It was pretty much the perfect size for a take anywhere music player, including for the gym or a run.  So when I need a replacement I obviously looked at the latest generation.

But since it is $140 I did take a look online at what else is out there.  The one that caught my eye was the Sony Walkman 4GB MP3 player (NWZB183F).  For $40 it is at a great price point, but does not have a very big screen and only supports MP3 and WMA file types.

For me since I have been using iTunes to buy music for a long time it made sense to get another Apple device.  I also wanted to get something with a screen so that I could easily browse my playlists.

So far the new Nano has worked great.  It even comes with a built in accelerometer which you can use to measure steps walked or to track a run.  It is integrated with the Nike+ fitness website, although it only appears to upload run information.  The step counter info is only accessible on the Nano itself.  I will play around more with the run tracking and Nike+ website and post a review of it at a later date.

For now here are a few more pictures comparing the original Nano with the 7th generation.  You will notice that the new Nano has a different connection than the old one, so it will not work with old accessories.

One last thing, I didn't like the ear buds that came with the old Nano and I don't like the new ones either.  They fall out of my ears very easily, I much prefer in ear buds.