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Show Monday, Sept, 26,200521 • The Utah Statesman Apple wins big with Nano BY ROB PEGORARO The Washington Post When Apple unveiled a new batch of digital music gadgets this month, the major release was supposed to be an "iTunes phone" that could play songs downloaded from Apple's ffiines Music Store. But its big news turned out to be something a lot smaller-the iPod Nano. This tiny digital music player, barely 1/4 inch thick and weighing a scant 2 ounces with its headphones, is roughly the size of a candy bar and about as hard to turn down. It packs in almost all the functions of the model it replaces, the iPod Mini, while adding a bright, sharp color screen and a few extra programs. The Nano comes in two colors, white and black, and two sizes: a $199, 2-gigabyte model and a $249, 4-gigabyte version. (A 4-GB unit actually clocked in at just over 3.7 GB.) Its ingenious "Click Wheel" control lets you select commands and whirl through hundreds of tracks-tunes ripped from CDs or purchased from iTuhes Music Store, as well as podcasts and audiobooks downloaded from iTunes-with a tap or wiggle of your thumb. The Nano's flash-memory storage, unlike the hard drives used in regular iPods, has no moving parts to suffer from skips. The Nano even kept playing after suffering a fall hard enough to cause half the iPod's screen to go blank. Apple advertises the Nano s battery life as 14 hours, but my test unit ran one hour longer. This gadget's color screen, 1.5 inches diagonally, reproduces enough detail to make viewing album cover art or your digital photos-automatically copied to the iPod by Apple's iTunes software—pleasant. Unlike full-size iPods, however, the Nano can't plug into a TV to show your snapshots on a larger screen. The iPod Nano carries a bag of other tricks beyond music playback. Like other iPods, it can store addresses and appointments (although the test Nano took its time opening a calendar that spanned several years), plus text notes. It also includes a world clock and stopwatch/timer programs and a nifty utility to lock and unlock itself. People who see and touch the Nano tend to fall into something of a swoon. But some may not find as much to like--and not just the executives of Apple's competitors. For one, music can be transferred to a Nano only via a USB connection—which means that FireWire users or those whose computers have only the older and slower USB 1.1 ports will spend a long time waiting for their music to transfer from computer to Nano. (Apple was still shipping computers without the faster USB 2.0 ports in spring 2004.) It took most of an hour to copy 1.5 gigabytes of music via an iMac G4s slower USB 1.1 link. The iPod Nano is also pickier in its stated system requirements, Windows 2000 or X*P and Mac OS X 10.3 or 10.4. Older iPods also accept OS X 10.2. (Note that the Windows iPod software defaults to sharing your e-mail address with Apple.) Because the Nano lacks a remote-control jack, many iPod accessories won't work with it-although it does use the same dock connector as other iPods. And the iPod Nano's rechargeable battery, hidden inside its sealed case, can't be easily replaced by users. Apple charges $59 for battery replacement-although by the time any iPod Nano will need that service, after a few hundred discharge-and-recharge cycles, Apple will probably be selling versions that store 20 or 30 gigabytes of music. The longevity of the Motorola Rokr El, the iTunes phone Apple showed off, isn't nearly as certain. This fusion of Apple's software and Motorola's hardware—sold only by Cingular for $250, with a two-year contract-is a mobile mediocrity, phenomenally unworthy of the hype built up before its arrival. The Rokr isn't even the first phone to play songs downloaded from a major online music store-phones with Microsoft's Windows Mobile software already do that. It is the first to support iTuncs, but it does so about as awkwardly as possible. Copying music from your computer—either Windows 2000 or XP or Mac OS X 10.3 or 10.4—will take about an hour, thanks to the phone's poky USB 1.1 plug. (Although Motorola couldn't be bothered to add a USB 2.0 connection, it did find the time to put in speakers that provide all the thump of a clock radio.) The iTunes software in the Rokr accepts only 100 songs, even if the phone's 512-megabyte memory card can hold more. And you can't download songs over the air to the Rokr, should inspiration strike while you're away from your computer. To go with the iPod Nano and the Rokr, Apple released iTunes 5, the latest edition of its digital music program, (The old 4.9 version also supports these new models.) Beyond offering a refreshed, slightly more angular appearance, iTunes 5 can group playlists inside folders, allows more ways to focus a search and shuffle songs for random playback, provides parental controls to block access to explicit songs in the iTunes store (or to the store itself), lets you store song lyrics, and adds a more efficient "variable bit rate" advanced audio coding format to its menu of CD-importing choices. Some Windows users have reported serious, systemwide issues with installing iTunes 5; Apple announced last week that it was working on a bug-fix update to the Windows version. Since the first iPod, Apple has maintained an impressive winning streak in the music business. Sloppy releases such as iTunes 5—not to mention outright duds such as the Rokr—can put that in jeopardy. But as long as this company can invent products with the art and utility of the iPod Nano, it should continue to be •• ; - • successful:-' . . . . • . . • EXPANSI0N.PIKAPP.ORG ons TO LEAD ;'l?f TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR COLLEGE EXPERIENCE < TO BE A FOUNDING FATHER _ Anyone can join a fraternity, bur it takes a leader-full of passion, ambition and conviction-to actually start something new, to be a founding father. Pi Kappa Phi isn't looking for just anyone. We are looking for the best. We are lookingforleaders-men with integrity and discipline who want something different, who want something more from their college experience. What will yon choose? To find out more about this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build your own fraternity, visit us at the Taggart Student Center, attend one of our informational sessions below, or contact Ben Phelps at (704) 807-6527 or bphelps@pikapp.org. 7:03 p.m. Wednesday SEPTEMBER 28 taggart student cento' 335 thursday SEPTEMBER 29 '" 7:03 p.m. taggart student cento- 335 PI KAPPA PHI FRATERNITY - .. : . i 'Chris'takes UPNto new heights episode, it's still gobs better than "Joey's" 7.8 million. Which means Leslie Moonves, the guy who runs both CBS and UPN, now has both feet firmly planted on the neck of the NBC peacock Thursday nights at 8. But that was only the beginning of NBC's bad news. At 9 p.m. "The Apprentice" starring Donald Trump logged just under 10 million—the first time the franchise failed to break double digits (except for one clip show that aired on a Wednesday last December). In his first half-hour, the Donald didn't attract as many viewers as had ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" dance-off results show, which posted nearly 10.5 million. And, speaking of "Dancing With the Stars," John O'Hurley finally won the Really Ugly Trophy he so richly deserved in that competition, dethroning that little daytime hussy Kelly Monaco, who, when the surprisingly successful reality series aired over the summer, had been declared the winner, causing many viewers, and some TV critics, to cry foul. Thanks mostly to the announcement of O'Hurley's win, ABC enjoyed its most watched Premiere Week Thursday in four years. Against Trump, CBS's "CSI" kicked off its season with about 29 million watching. That's down compared with last year's kickoff crowd of nearly 31 million, but still about as many viewers as all of the show's time slot broadcast competitors combined. BY LISA DE MORAES The Washington Post WASHINGTON — Some say the exits of Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings and Dan Rather from the evening newscasts they had anchored for around two decades marked the end of TV as they knew it. For the rest of us, the end came this week when NBC, the network that owned the biggest night of television for two decades, got beat at 8 p.m. Thursday by a UPN sitcom. The premiere of the ballyhooed Chris Rockcreated "Everybody Hates Chris" clocked 7.8 million viewers--the biggest comedy number in UPN's history. In the same half-hour, the second season of the NBC "Friends" spinoff "Joey" logged 7.5 million viewers. "Joey" was a one-hour debut and attracted more viewers in its second half, finishing with an overall average of 7.8 million. While better than 7.5 million, that is still the show's thirdworst performance—not great for a season-kickoff episode. "Joey" did manage, among NBC's target group of viewers 18 to 49 years old, to do about as well as it had done in May before taking the summer rerun break. (Hey, it's not great, but it's something.) Meanwhile, the second episode of CBS's "Survivor; Guatemala" snagged just under 17 million viewers in that first hour of prime time. While that's one of the series' smallest audiences ever for an original, regularly scheduled •*." •-. V' '* r.:^• v - • •'• . • ' • '.1 ' 1 ^ , ' i • .* ' •'. • ' , . • MOUNTAIN SHOWN, MOUNTAIN HOASTED TRIPLE CERTIFIED: SHADE G I O W N OKGANIC FAIR T R A D E ^ LaBeau's of t I F f [ t I | I I I | I [ 11 F E I E I l l I I E I K • II.Cllftllll.EII IIC1I Hamburger Pattie Bacon Lettuce Cheese Tomato Ranch CLASS ADS GET READ. TSC 105 to- * : i'*^' ^ • * • * ' . . . i1.- • hi.--.. l "p'i?** - • - » . . 9 ySi. • * ' . • , r. • • • '•• • > ' ' ' • « ? ^-•"•?*^li;.,1'. 1 - : : - i » ^ ^ * : , : M i l l Your source for socially responsible coffee • . i"-. 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