So, I have now owned two iPods in my life. First I bought the iPod mini. Awesome piece of machinery. I had many hours of sweet music listenin’ and many a days at the gym sweating my butt of whilst listening to the mini. The mini was great for one reason. It differed from the regular iPods in it’s surface material. It seemed like a sort of anodized aluminum and didn’t scratch easily at all. I loved that iPod.
Then, came the nano, the second iPod I’ve owned. In terms of technology, it far supercedes the mini. Color screen, crisp visibility, thin as heck and much lighter. Also, with the ability to display photos, the nano definitely delivers. The nano has one downfall. It’s surface material is the most scuffy material I have ever worked with. It reminds me of the surface that the PSP uses. It is very glossy and seems to scratch so flippin’ easy, I can’t believe it. In addition, the background chrome material is fingerprint city. Sorry Apple, humans will never lose their oils, so I think you oughtta come up with a different material for your iPods.
So, nanos are a step in a great direction, but Apple needs to either step back to the mini material or start making iPods with carbon fiber or some other sort of fingerprint-resistant and scratch-resistant material. Shame on you Apple. You were doing so good. Anyhoo, on to the meat of the discussion. Apple did do one thing by making its uber scratch and fingerprint showing iPods. They have driven me to find the perfect nano case.
I’ve looked up all sorts of cases on belkin and apple to try to find a case that is worthy of the technological prowess of the nano. I think that I have found it, but I want to see if you can find one better. I get kinda snobby about human accessories, so this bad boy might be a wee bit pricey. The case is made by Vaja Cases and they look phenomenal! They are custom form-fitted leather cases and you can choose any color you would like. They’ve got em anywhere from a sleeve to a folding leather cell-phone type case and they are going to release the iVolution case in the near future hopefully. The iVolution is this sweet case that is to a nano as a glove is to the human hand. I can’t wait for that sucker to come out.
Anyway, if you find a better case, let me know. But for now, the Vaja Case is for me. :)
Ooh, they make cases for the Zen Xtra. That’d be nice, seeing as the included case is rather bulky.
Props to Creative for including an actual leather case with their MP3 player (which has a nice brushed aluminum, but a very scratchable raised screen), but minus points for it making the player twice as thick. Right now, I keep it in a drawstring pouch made for sunglasses, but it’s not quite an ideal solution.
NIce nem0. The zen is sweet. I currently keep my nano in the PSP chamois, except right now it slighly resembles a used hanky. Did you check out that PSP case by vaja cases. That is soo hot. Also, the new preview for AEONFLUX is absolute hottness. If you haven’t seen it. Do it. DO IT.
Why don’t you join the class action suit against Apple for their inferior product design? There is one going on right now about the screen on the Nano and how easily it scratches.
Dude, yeah, Aeon Flux looks awesome. I was a big fan of the cartoon when it was on Liquid Televison. Looks like they’re actually doing a good job on it. :x
http://www.yumlum.com/articles/99/1/
New drool
Wowsa, thats hawt apple stuff mang. Sweet drool.
Just a little update for the bots. I went to vaja cases after they kindly sent me an email regarding the release of the ivolution for the iPod nano. I was sooo jacked! I have been waiting for this case for months and it finally came out! Not only was it out, but it was very cool. I gotta hand it to vaja cases for a job well done on this thing.
Now, with all this ranting and raving, you’d think I bought one. Well, as soon as it came out I went to the site with my handy dandy blingo gift card that I just won. My jaw dropped. $55 for this thing. But fine. I’ll do it. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time and it is premium quality. As I customize away, I get to the checkout. $17 for shipping and handling! Extra money for the belt clip addition! So, I decide to go without the belt clip. My order comes to $72.00!. Thats ridiculous. And thats the end of that. I never bought the case. Meanwhile, my iPod gets scratched at a ridiculously fast rate.
I have 2 pieces of advice for VAJA. One: Drop your shipping cost. I was willing to pay the high price. Two: Make your website non-frame based so that other sites can link to individual pages, without removing the nav. :)
Glad ya found a case for the ‘pod there. I was about to send you one, but didn’t know your aesthetic desires concerning such case-age.
:)
Actually, daniel, I ended up not buying the case. The Vaja case turns out too be way too expensive for my taste and my budget, especially with Christmas in sight. Ahhh, the glory of way-too-expensive taste.
how much would one pay for a carbon fiber ipod case
I work in a carbon fiber shop, and we have been thinking through the idea of making a case for the nano. We were thinking that the suggested retail would be around 80-100 dollars. Would that be something of interest? prototypes are on the way
There is a market for high priced components and accessories for iPods, especially since a lot of iPod lovers like Apple now. As we all know Apple is not cheap :( . Obviously Vaja is staying in business and they sport $180.00 PSP cases. So, to answer your question directly, yes, I think that carbon fiber iPod cases would sell.
My question to you is, one, do you need someone to demo the prototypes? :) Two. What sort of website are you building for the introduction of your product?
Hey man, I think I’ve found the perfect case. It’s called Microshield and you can find more on it on It’s an amazing case which lets you keep the beauty of the ipod without letting it get scratched. I bought one for my 30 gig video ipod! Plus, I have another suggestion, go to and look at the screen guards! They are pretty cheap and you can garuntee that nothing will get through it! I decided to buy both! I am going to put the screen guard under the microshield and garauntee that my baby will be as good as the day i put it in the case! Total cost: ~$45?
check out the new carbon fiber case for the ipod nano, its beutiful and costs only $40 !!!! it’s made by c6mfg.
The MicroShield directly contacts the IPOD 5G screen and it creates visible abrasions on its surface. I’m mad as hell as it does exactly what I bought it to prevent. **AVOID**
even though i said buy the microshield (look above for my post) I also offered a place where you can buy a plastic film like shield which hardly costs anything!!!! Epodshop offers the film case so you can just stick it on and forget about any case!!!!! and for 6 dollars! NOw you may put any case over it without having to worry about abrasions.