The rumors were both right and wrong. Right because Apple did release an iPod nano with a built-in camera during the special media event held on September 9. Wrong because rumors placed the camera near the top of the nano and the camera is video only, not still AND video (also, there was no iPod touch with a built-in camera).
Apple just announced the release of the fifth generation iPod nano which now has a larger 2.2-inch screen, a polished aluminum finish, a video camera, a mic and speaker, VoiceOver, a pedometer, and an FM tuner.
Probably the most exciting new feature is the built-in video camera which can shoot H.264 VGA video (640 x 480 pixels), up to 30 frames per second with AAC audio. It also comes with 15 real-time special effects: Sepia, Black and White, X-Ray, Film Grain, Thermal, Security Cam, Cyborg, Bulge, Kaleido, Motion Blur, Mirror, Light Tunnel, Dent, Stretch, and Twirl. The camera cannot do stills, however, since the mechanism, as some have surmised, that allows the camera to autofocus might be too big to fit into the nano.
Videos taken with the fifth generation iPod nano will automatically sync with iPhoto when the nano is plugged into a Mac. iPhoto can then be used to manage and edit videos taken with the 5G iPod nano, as well as used to upload to YouTube or Facebook.
The new iPod nano now also has VoiceOver, a feature that lets users know the title and artist of songs by having the iPod nano speak the information to the user. VoiceOver first appeared as a feature in the 3G iPod shuffle. The VoiceOver Kit supports 20 different languages such as Chinese (Cantonese), Chinese (Mandarin), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian. Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish.
The one new feature that got my going “Eh?” is the FM radio. I don’t care much about this since I’ve stopped listening to the radio years ago. Apple did put a twist with the new Live Pause feature. Live Pause lets users pause and resume a live radio broadcast with up to 15 minutes of buffer.
Other new features include using the nano’s built-in accelerometer as a pedometer which can sync with the Nike+ service, and using the built-in microphone with Voice Memo to capture any audio recording.
Playback time when fully charged is up to 24 hours for music and 5 hours for video. Fast-charge time, or that time it takes for the battery to reach 80% of capacity, is about 1.5 hours. Full-charge time will take about three hours.
The fifth generation iPod nano comes in nine colors: silver, black, purple, blue, green, orange, pink, yellow, and (Product) red. Yellow and (Product) red are labeled as “Apple Store Exclusives”.
The 8GB model sells for ₱8,790 and the 16GB sells for ₱10,490.00 and is now available at the online Philippine Apple Store. Estimated shipping time is between 2 to 4 business days. All new iPod models bought from the online Apple Store is eligible for free laser engraving.
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