Hardware: September 2005 Archives

Some in the technology community can't help but take things apart to see how they work. This seems especially true on Apple related tech blogs whenever some new toy is released. At Ars Technica, they took this to new heights. In their review of the new iPod nano before tearing the music player apart, they performed the following tests:

• Sitting on the iPod nano
  
• Dropping it while jogging (4-6mph),
  
• Dropping at various speeds: 8-10mph (slow bicycle), 15-20mph (fast bicycle), 30mph (slow car), and 50mph (fast car)
  
• Dropping the nano from various heights.
  

At this point we were astounded that the iPod nano was still working properly, albeit with a broken display. Because we had honestly expected the iPod nano to break by this time, we were forced to depart from our planned schedule of destruction and try and run over it with the car. Surely, we thought, it could never withstand the crushing power of German automotive engineering.

... and it still worked! Further abuse did finally kill it and allowed them to perform their autopsy.

BTW, I’ve held the nano in my hot little hands and it is very cool.