iStik Hands-free 4th generation iPod Nano case and holder
Company: iStik
Price: $24.95 (US)
Also available for 2nd and 3rd generation iPod Nano
http://www.goistik.com

Ever not realize there’s a problem until someone comes up with a solution for it? If you own a 4th generation Apple iPod Nano and are physically active while using it (you know..the “E” word, exercise), then you probably have some kind of case with a clip or a loop or some other less than convenient way of securing it. Whether your thing is Transcendental Meditation or jumping out of perfectly good airplanes with nothing between you and certain death but a thin cloth, if you use an iPod Nano while doing it you’ve probably run into a situation where the iPod is just in the way. The iStik allows you to put your iPod just about anywhere you wear clothes.

Here’s what the iStik is; you have a clear case that the iPod fits into snugly with easy access to the click wheel and the hold switch. You also have a second piece of unattached plastic. What holds them together is four magnets on each located on the corners. WHAT?!? EIGHT FRIGGING MAGNETS NEXT TO MY ELECTRONICS! Relax, the iPod Nano does not use hard drives to store your content like the iPod Classic though you need to make sure you don’t get it too close to your computer unless it’s a MacBook Air. with an SSD drive for storage Also if you have a heart pacemaker or any other medical devices that can be affected by magnets this is probably not a product you want to get.

How does it work? Simplicity itself. Take the plastic piece that doesn’t have an iPod in it and position it inside some part of your clothes that is near where you want to carry your it. Then place the the piece WITH the iPod somewhere near it. The magnets which are very strong will do the rest. How strong are they? I placed the iPod with the iStik near the magnet base between two layers of a very thick sweatshirt and it held it firmly in place. Relatively thin sweaters were also no match for the holding power of the iStik.

The iStik besides being a holding case for your iPod on the go also protects really well. The only exposed areas are the iPod’s click-wheel, the hold switch, and the dock connector/ headphone jack. Naturally it adds some bulk to the device, but not so much to make a difference. Plus being a clear-case, it doesn’t take away from what still is a good looking iPod unlike many other cases that completely enclose the device.

One criticism I have about the product is be that it can be difficult to remove the iPod from the case. There is a small groove near one edge that you stick a coin into (these are the instructions as given by the iStik folks) and twist. There is the possibility of scratching your iPod if you put on and take off the iStik a lot. Putting the iPod back in and closing the two piece enclosure isn’t as easy as it could be. Also putting it back together can be somewhat problematic if the iPod is not inside. Some plastic guides or grooves would be a nice addition to the next version.

This is a great product if you jog, bike or have some kind of fitness program where you don’t want your iPod hanging down or in the way.

MyMac rating 3.5 out of 5

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V223-WBD 22-inch LCD Computer Monitor
Company: Acer
Price: Varies, around $170
Amazon link
Product link
Hardware Requirements: Any Macintosh with a VGA or DVI (or mini-DVI with adapter) port

What! An Acer product sullying the MyMac.com site with its PC foulness? Yes, this is a review for an Acer product. When a product that works with a Mac is a great value, then we should not automatically dismiss it just because it doesn’t have an Apple logo or that its parentage is from a company that competes in many of the same markets that Apple does. It should be judged by its merits not by who makes it.

The Acer V223-WBD 22-inch LCD monitor from Acer is one tremendous value. First lets get the specifications out of the way for those who cherish such things:

* 1680 x 1050 resolution

* 2500:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 300 cd/m2 brightness

* 170∞/160∞ horizontal/vertical viewing angles

* VGA and DVI (HDCP) connectors

* 5ms response time

Are these the kind of specifications that will make any computer user drool? Nope, and Acer doesn’t market their V-series monitors that way. The “V” stands for value and they have hit one out of the park with the v223-WBD display.

Apple sells LCD monitors and there aren’t all that many from others that are better. We shouldn’t however kid ourselves into thinking that these kinds of displays come cheap or that everyone can afford or even have a need for monitors like this or what comes at nearly the same type of price points from other manufacturers. I myself have an Intel 24-inch iMac and the display it comes with is beautiful. Not everyone with a Mac chooses such a model and of course many people with older Macs that don’t come with a display can afford the latest Apple goodness. Fortunately Apple is no longer using proprietary connectors like the old DB-15 monitor outputs that many Macs had long ago or even more recently the ADC (Apple Display Connector) that while were very convenient (only one cable for video and power) were never accepted by many outside of Apple. So they are free to choose from many different sources for a display.

When I recently repurposed my G4 PowerMac (the same one I used to review the FastMac Processor upgrade card http://www.mymac.com/showarticle.php?id=3149) so that my son Guy would have a computer of his own to use, I needed a monitor for it. I had a Westinghouse 19-inch monitor, but frankly I was kinda sorry I had ever gotten it. The colors were washed out and uneven and it was barely useable. I wanted Guy to have at least a 20-inch monitor since I was giving my other son Peter the 17-inch iMac G5 they had been sharing. I felt bad that I was giving him the slower computer, so to make up for it I was giving him more viewable space. I started looking online for a 20 to 22 inch LCD display and the Acer model came up while searching from low to high in price. When I saw the price I was very skeptical based on previous experience with less expensive monitors and decided to do a little research to find what other people had said about this display. Almost across the board the reviews were very positive so I took a chance.

The monitor came in very minimal packaging (a plus in these environmentally-aware times). A cardboard box barely big enough to hold it and just enough Styrofoam to hold it in place. I was pleasantly surprised to find both a VGA and DVI cable inside along with (of course) the AC power cord. The monitor itself was all black with little to differentiate it in style from any other generic LCD display but who buys a monitor on what it looks like? No USB ports or much of any other added value, but I knew this going in and was not disappointed. It also comes with some Windows software that’s completely unnecessary for the Mac.

I plugged it into the G4 through its built-in VGA output and fired it up. The monitor was relatively slow in acknowledging a video signal on start-up and I found that it was much the same when waking the computer from sleep. However once it was on it just looks great. Colors were about as accurate as I have seen with any other monitor connected to this Mac (64MB graphics card) and there was no washing out or variances in color across the display. I didn’t notice any large amount of stuttering and the refresh rate, while not great in comparison to other more expensive monitors, was good enough for any game I’ve tried so far that works with this machine.

You can look around and find better, more expensive monitors. What you won’t find is a better value or more bang for your buck than this. This Acer is aces!

Pros: Low price. Clear and good color.

Lows: Slow to wake up

Functionality: 3.5 out of 5

Value: 4.5 out of 5

MyMac rating: 4 stars out of 5

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iPod Nano (4th generation)
Company: Apple
Price: $149 (8GB)/ $199 (16GB)
http://www.apple.com

Requirements: USB 2.0 port, OS X 10.4.11 or Windows XP Home, iTunes 8.0

Doesn’t seem that long ago that Apple revealed the 3rd generation iPod Nano (affectionately or in some case derivatively) called the Fat Nano. Oh wait…that’s because it was just last year. Not counting the iPod Touch (since that’s more of a crippled iPhone than an iPod), the 3rd Gen. Nano was the first other than the classic iPod line to be able to play video derived from your own digital video collection (using HandBreak or similar software to rip DVDs or acquired from iTunes…LEGALLY) and at the time I just couldn’t see myself viewing video on such a small screen (measured 2-inches diagonally). Apparently I was one of the few with such issues as the 3rd Gen. Nano sold very well in 4GB and 8GB increments. What else could Apple do besides increase storage capacity? I mean, they certainly wouldn’t completely change the design just a year later? Or would they?

By the time Apple announced the “Let’s Rock!” get together in Cupertino for September 9th, there had been numerous fuzzy (patent pending) images on the web for the new Nano. Being the jaded semi-professional web journalists that we are, we had seen so many pre-product announcements for various pieces of Apple gear over the years that we viewed these with a grain of salt large enough to choke a horse. Much to our surprise the pre-release pictures were absolutely correct and just about everything Apple announced that day was already known. I guess even a blind squirrel gets the nut once in awhile.

The colors for the new Nano are very bright. I bought a red one for my son for his birthday. He had been using my 1st Gen. Nano for awhile and I had promised him that if Apple came out with new ones on the 9th (his birthday is on the 7th) that I would get him one. My younger son had recently passed his 3rd degree black belt Tae Kwon Do qualification test and I had also promised him something special so I got him the green one. Both are the 16GB models and they are delighted with them. So much so that we can use them as possible punishments as in to take them away if they don’t behave. Ah the joys of parenthood.

In pictures the new Nano looks much larger than the one it replaces. In real life it simply is much longer and skinnier. Imagine the 3rd Gen. put on a stretch rack and turned sideways. In more ways it resembles the 1st and 2nd generation Nanos than it does its predecessor. Let’s talk about what Apple did to make this Nano better.

The screen (320 X 240 with 204 pixels per inch) is actually almost the exact same size as before, just made a little different to allow for a wide-screen (kinda…it is only a 2-inch screen after all) perspective. The previous model when playing wide-screen would either clip the left and right sides or present you with black bands on the top and bottom depending on your video settings. The 4th Gen. screen is a little longer allowing you to view the entire image mostly without this banding or clipping. It’s covered in glass and while you might think this would cause glare issues, it didn’t seem like it was bad to me. The colors and contrast look great and other than the fact that it’s very small, the screen itself is very impressive. Considering that the video files the device is playing are extremely compressed, you probably wouldn’t notice it’s hardly High-Definition until you played the same files on a much larger screen. Which I have done with the new Nano connected through an Apple Composite cable directly to a 720p Samsung 40-inch TV and the same files (purchased directly from iTunes) were washed out and listless in comparison. I could go off on a tangent about video file quality from iTunes, but this is about the new Nano so I won’t. Let’s just leave it by saying that video on the Nano looks great with everything else considered. I know that doesn’t sound exactly like a ringing endorsement, but trust me when I say that you will be impressed with how it looks as long as you don’t expect a cinema experience.

Sound quality is just as good as previous models. Real audiophiles naturally will be aghast by compressed music whether it’s MP3, AAC, or Apple Lossless and wouldn’t be completely satisfied unless the iPod could have a holographic image on an imagined soundstage with the speakers perfectly tuned just for them and I feel real sorry for them that it seems so important. It’s a digital music player guys. Just get over it OK? There are some digital players that have slightly better sound, but most people wouldn’t be able to really tell the difference if their lives depended on it. Apple’s earbuds are … well … Apple’s earbuds. For some they’re just fine and for others, there’s a plethora of different headphones out there just screaming for your wallet to open.

The controls are exactly the same as almost every other iPod that came before it and the controls do not change when you turn it sideways. In either video or music, turning the screen sideways while looking at menus gives you CoverFlow to browse through your collection if that’s the perspective you want. It’s very smooth and pleasant to look at. There are other new control features as well. Apple has added an accelerometer to the 4th gen Nano, opening up a bunch of possibilities. Games for one. This is the type of technology that is in the iPod Touch/ iPhone and chances are most of those games will play on the Nano as well. The actual experience of playing those games won’t be the same because of the size of the screen. Another new feature is the shake to shuffle. Simply give your iPod a sharp shake and you’ll go on to another song. Chances are you won’t see this for the iPod Classic anytime soon since sharply shaking a hard drive is a recipe for disaster. For those that jog or exercise with their iPods, casual movement isn’t enough to move your mood from Mozart to Death Metal. The last significant feature in the controls to talk about is what Apple is calling Genius Mode. Simply put, it allows you to quickly make custom playlists from existing songs that have some similarity. So if your in a mellow mood, activating it while listening to say James Taylor might bring up whatever Jimmy Buffet songs you also have. On the other end, Ozzy Osbourne might also bring up Led Zeppelin or those 1980s hair metal bands you won’t admit to anyone you still listen to.

Battery life is probably about what you might expect. Apple claims 24-hours for music and 4-hours for video. Your mileage may vary. For extended trips in the car with the kids I would recommend a car power adapter or for long flights some kind of external battery. They’re out there if you look on Amazon and other retail outlets. Most other video and audio accessories that work with the iPod Touch/ iPhone/ 6th gen iPod Classic/ iPod Nano 3rd gen will work with the 4th gen Nano as well.

In keeping with Apple’s newly found advertised focus on being green, the packaging is about as minimal as it could be. Barely longer than the Nano itself, it also holds the USB 2.0 to iPod Dock Connector and standard Apple earbuds. Naturally Apple is boasting about it’s greenness by proclaiming that each iPod is Mercury-free, PVC-free, that the aluminum enclosure is completely recyclable and that the screen’s glass contains no arsenic for those that might want to lick it. Yea for us.

Zune fans will be delighted to know that there is still no built-in FM receiver in the Nano. I count this more as a feature than a drawback considering the state of radio in the US these days. No wireless syncing either which I find to be not that big a deal. If I’m in the same house as the computer that holds my content library, how hard is it to just go plug it in? I doubt it’s worth the battery life that a WiFi enabled Nano would use but to each their own. I doubt Apple will add on-the-go content purchases or remote syncing as this would possibly cut into the feature set for the Touch/ iPhone.

So where else could Apple take the Nano? I think it’s obvious that the iPod Classic with its big hard drive is eventually going to go the way of the dinosaur. Maybe Apple could expand the screen to 2.5-inches along with maybe 32 to 64GBs of flash storage? The danger there is that it might impede sales of Apple’s more profitable Touch/ iPhone line, but who knows? After being an Apple customer for over 20 years and a writer about them for over 8 years, the one thing I can safely say is that it isn’t safe to take a rock solid guess on what Apple might do next.

The 4th gen iPod Nano is a solid performer and as long as you’re able to look past watching video on such a small screen a good value and worthy successor to the previous model.

MyMac rating: 4 stars out of 5

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