Review: Logiix Optic Alloy Case for 2nd Gen iPod Nano
For the last year and a half or so, I’ve had a black Logiix silicone skin on my 2nd generation iPod Nano, and I’ve been more than impressed with it. iPods have a tendency to scratch fairly easily, although I hadn’t seen much of this with mine, thankfully.
But it was getting to be time for a new skin, as the Nano was starting to slide out the bottom of the skin and I had visions of it bouncing off the floor sometime. Not something that you want to have happen.
So I decided that I’d see what I could do about picking up a new silicone skin, preferably something other than black, as it was time for a change. Headed to the store where I’d purchased my last one, and they didn’t seem to have any for the 2nd generation Nanos. Lots for the 3rd gen, but I didn’t feel like buying a new iPod just to get a skin for it, y’know?
As I was getting ready to leave, I saw that they were on a different rack, kind of out of the way, so I spun the rack around looking for something that caught my eye. That turned out to be the price. Silicone skins were marked down from $12.99 to just 99 cents. Cool. Sometimes obsolescence can be a good thing. I wound up buying three, a Logiix clear silicone, a black iSeal skin, and a Logixx Optic Alloy case, which was the expensive option ($1.99)
I put the clear Logiix skin on after I bought them and it worked out about as well as its black predecessor had. The one complaint that I have about silicone skins is that you lose a fair bit of sensitivity in the click wheel. The center button will be fine, but dragging my finger on the wheel has been sluggish or even non-responsive at times.
So this morning I opened up the Optic Alloy case to see if it was any different. First thing I noticed was that, being a hard case, the screen protector is built in. I don’t have much in the way of scratching on the display of my Nano, and it’s nice to see that I won’t be getting any more in the foreseeable future.
I slid the Nano into the case, and gave it a spin. The whole thing feels a lot more substantial, and not quite as ‘delicate’ as the Nano felt when it wasn’t encased in the silicone skin. The Nano doesn’t slide around inside the case like it did with the metal one that I bought for my holidays last year. The wheel isn’t covered, so it’s as responsive as I would expect it to be if the device wasn’t encased. The edges are rubber coated as well, so I don’t feel like it’s going to slip out of my hand when I’m trying to find something else to listen to.
Had I known about this case a year and a half ago, I’d have picked one up and used it all along. Of course, then it was probably $39.99, but it would have been worth it.
If you’re not ready to be upgrading your 2nd generation Nano to a 3rd gen, or even a Touch, this would be the case I’d recommend picking up for your device, and quickly if at all possible - I wouldn’t imagine that too many retailers are going to be stocking 2nd gen accessories for too much longer.
I’ve emailed Logiix to ask them if they’ll continue to make the cases available for order online, but the response from them was that the case was no longer available, but new designs were being worked on.
If you’re able to pick up an Optic Alloy case from Logiix for your 2nd gen Nano, I highly recommend doing so. This the only case that I’m going to be keeping on mine until it’s time to upgrade it to something newer.
Dealing with the Overload
Since moving to a different department at work, one that requires me to be away from my desk for a good portion of the day, I’m finding that I’m being far more selective about how I get my information.
Where it used to be common for me to get all of my feeds caught up completely, I’m finding that I’m more likely to just check one or two feeds and then move on. My primary point of contact now is Twitter, and maybe FriendFeed, although if that gets to be too much as well, I’m going to have to cull the number of feeds that I’m subscribed to there as well.
This is not the way it was supposed to be.
RSS was supposed to be something that made it a lot easier to get access to the information that you wanted, on your terms. Right now Google Reader has 45 subscribed feeds, including the Friendfeed one, which pulls in about 5 feeds on its own. And I can’t keep up. So I’m going to cut even more, although I don’t really want to.
Don’t get me wrong, though. I’m not saying that I always have to get completely caught up with my feed reading in order to feel like I’ve accomplished something. Hardly. But I feel like I’m missing something if I don’t at least make a bit of an effort.
Evidently I need to lower my expectations, and look for more quality stuff. Twitter won’t be cut back at all, because that’s just a matter of starting the client and starting fresh. But for feeds, I’m going to be dropping quite a few, and just keeping the stuff that I consider to be crucial to bringing me the information that I want.
So, how do you deal with the overload?
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