Last updated: 5/10/10
Most people make the decision based on two major factors:
- The amount of music they want to load onto their iPods® in addition to the bird songs and photos, and,
- The size of the screen that will work best for them.
If you do not plan to load a lot of music (the human-produced kind!) or only want a few human-music songs and perhaps one movie, the 8GB iPod Nano or iPod Touch is more than sufficient for birdJam songs and photos.
If you are concerned about eye strain, the Nano screen, being the smallest, might be a concern. However, the latest Nano uses a larger text size for the main song display, so it should work fine for most people. Also, the new Nano (Fall 2008 and later) has a large enough screen to view the photographs adequately.
If you are worried about the screen text size, you might want to look at a Nano before buying one. Make a visit to an Apple Store or somewhere like Best Buy that also carries iPods. (Though we prefer the Apple Store: It has many more sample iPods to view!)
The iPod Touch and the iPhone have large screens and larger text and the photos take up a large portion of the screen. If you really want nice photos, you'll want to consider the iPod Touch or iPhone.
The iPhone and iPod Touch also have the benefit of built-in speakers. The iPhone speakers are good enough to call birds in, though perhaps not the lower-pitched birds such as a Barred Owl. (Simply because the speaker size limits the ability to produce lower-pitched sounds.) The built-in speakers in the iPod Touch and iPod Nano, on the other hand, are tiny. They are useful for personal use (song confirmation) but usually not loud enough to call in birds.
(Note: Please see our recommendations for ethical use of bird songs in the field.)
If you are interested in an iPhone, we recommend that you visit an Apple store to check them out. If you want an iPhone, you'll need to buy that from Apple or from an AT&T store. You cannot purchase an iPhone from us. We can load the bird songs for you, but that means you'll have to do without your phone for a few days!
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iPod is a registered trademark of Apple, Inc. birdJam is not in any way affiliated with Apple.
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