I’m sure a few of you people out there have one, I was thinking of asking one for a christmas gift.
The 5GB is fine for me, I was just more curious as to:
-How durable it is
-What buttons are on the face
-all the different functions that come along with it
I went to apple.ca (for I am Canadian) and it left much to the imagination. I have a vague idea from Tech TV, and the apple.ca site. Something about a phone book? Scheduler?
What else?
So, lets hear what you have to say!
I don’t know about durability, but it does have a hard drive so I’d be careful not to drop it on the floor.
The front panel has 5 buttons and a “dial” which is actually a ring-shaped touch pad. The interface is a simple menu system which you navigate using the dial and two buttons, one to select and one to go back to the previous level. You can use it to choose a pre-defined playlist or browse the entire drive to look for a specific album or song. The 3 other buttons are used to control playback - pause, forward and reverse. These work the same as on any CD player. Holding down the pause button turns off the unit, and the select button turns it back on. There is also a sliding “hold” switch which disables all the buttons. It should be used every time you put it in your bag so it won’t turn on by accident and drain the battery.
The functionality is a bit limited - I don’t think you can even edit a playlist on the iPod itself. It has to be done on the host computer. But the iPod is only intended to be a playback device, and works very well.
One thing that bothers me is that you need propriatory software to transfer data to the iPod. They advertise the fact that it works as an external hard drive, but the two functions are separate - if you treat it as an external HDD and simply copy MP3 files to it, those files won’t play. Only files transferred with the propriatory software can be played back, and those files are hidden so you can’t organize or edit them by treating the iPod as an external HDD. And worse, the iPod can only sync to one host computer. Not a big problem, just something I didn’t expect.
I’ve also used an Archos Jukebox and that one doesn’t need special software. It’s a simple external hard drive, and it plays back any MP3 file copied to it. But the iPod is so much more pleasent to use - the interface is far simpler and more refined. The screen is larger, the buttons easier to push, and the whole unit feels much more solid.
By the way my experience is with the Windows version. I’ve never used the Mac version of iPod.
Hey, thanks pal.
Describing the buttons so well was very nice of you.
I’m glad there is a hold switch too.
Yeah, I think I will get one, but could you tell me about the other features built in?
http://www.apple.com/ca/ipod/specs.html
http://www.apple.com/ipod/extras.html
This page shows you the Contacts screen. I don’t think you’ll be able to use iCal calendars on it if you have a PC, though-- that’s Mac only.
A review:
http://www.macaddict.com/issues/0202/rev.ipod.html
A utility that may help:
Check the reviews here:
I love my iPod!
Just got a 10gb Windows one for my birthday. I’ll add a few comments.
It seems to be very solid and well constructed, with a nice heavy (but not too heavy) feel. The back is stainless steel and while that’s very cool, it shows fingerprints very well and I am constantly weary of stratching it. It should fit nicely in your hand and the nifty scroll “wheel” (which is actually a trackpad ala laptops) works very well and caters to one-handed operation.
If you’re getting a Windows one, MusicMatch sucks, don’t bother. Either use XPlay or EphPod (Google them…)
But it’s oh-so-pretty.
iPod lover checking in.
I have a 20 gig winpod I take absolutely everywhere. The pod rules, no doubt about it, but its not perfect. I wish they had hard buttons reserved for power and shuffle. Holding the play button for 5 sec to turn it off gets to be a pain in the ass. Also, the remote is sorely lacking an lcd screen. $150 md players have them, but not this quite expensive gadget. I would recommend a good case also, I use the iskin, a silicone cover that is really cool. Other than that no problems, the playback is 100% skip free and excellent quality, ive even djed shows with it. 500 albums crammed into something the size of a deck of cards, its any music lovers dream come true. 
It plays back MP3 files, and that’s about it. Depending on how you select the song it’ll play all songs in an album, all songs by one artist, all songs in a pre-defined playlist, or all the files on the drive. You can shuffle by song or by album, or disable the shuffle mode.
By the way I don’t think the 5GB version comes with a remote.
I only have a few minor complaints. Besides the necessity of propriatory software (which I already mentioned), I find the backlight to be too bright. It was blinding when used in the dark cabin of an airliner. Also some laptops have 4-pin FireWire ports which don’t supply power. On those computers you have to run the iPod on its internal battery while you transfer files. (Or buy a PC Card FireWire interface which has a 6-pin connector.) Anyway those are very minor nitpicks. It’s the first Apple product I’ve bought but if their computers are as nicely designed and built, I can understand why Apple users love their computers so much.
I know the ipod only synchs to one computer in terms of preventing music piracy (bet there are firmware hax for that already though!) but can’t you attach it to other computers as a hard drive?
I personally saw its beauty as being a bootable hard-drive, by which you could boot up your home system on anyone else’s Mac.