gadgets and technology devices: iPod nano unboxed, camera gets tested against the mean streets of Manhattan

iPod nano unboxed, camera gets tested against the mean streets of Manhattan

We know you come here for the hard, gritty, “$2 slice” end of the gadget news spectrum, and we’ve got that in spades in our video hands-on of the new iPod nano. We start out shooting the iPod with our regular Sanyo Xacti rig, and then dive in to the nano’s shot — real movie magic at work. Granted, the nano’s camera isn’t that magical. Apple’s piled on a huge complement of effects to disguise this fact, and in truth, some of the Photo Booth-style filters and distortions really do make the video more interesting (cyborg and kaleidoscope were a couple of our favorites), but the basic video mode is much lower quality than the recent crop of cheap pocket video cameras, and a far cry from the iPhone 3GS’s quality. Motion is shaky, the video is pixelated and oversaturated, and the mic is horribly easy to distort, especially when you’re talking into the back while shooting. But really, we suppose we couldn’t expect much out of such an offering, and it certainly does spice up the traditional PMP formula. Video is after the break, with the second video offering up the few non-conformist videos that happened to be shot vertically (it’s a little difficult to tell how the video is recording, or even if it’s recording, since the indicator is pretty small). By the time they made it to Viddler they ended up stretched wide and inexplicably upside down. Magic, we tell you.

Gallery: iPod nano unboxing