After a half-a-month usage in Europe trip

Ever since the first release of the iPod I had been drooling over the prospect of owning this little gem, yet the price had always eluded my means. When finally the graduation gift money added up, I went to the nearest Best Buys to cop me the new 10GB version of the iPod for $299. It was a tough decision and I had reviewed a lot of the technical woes expressed by users in Apple's iPod support page, which gave me a taste of the worst case scenario. Any doubt left in my mind was dispersed the moment I dismantled the iPod box which, in itself, was very stylish. I had to restrain myself from squealing from this moment forward.

Battery
The battery is supposed to be charged upon purchase, and it was, yes, but it is advised you give it a full charge before usage. So sadly I hooked my new iPod to the power cord (which is the Firewire cord plus an adapter) and watched it charge. If I remember correctly 80% of the battery can be charged within an hour, but a full charge takes three hours. A side fact that can appease this quirk is that while connected to your computer via Firewire, the iPod will also be recharging.

And so I began my transfer of music. Each song took on average one second to download into my iPod and so the process took very little time. Because the mp3 player (iTunes in my case) is synced to the iPod, I was encouraged to update the individual informations for each mp3 so that they would appear correctly on the iPod.

I had been forwarned but I was still disappointed at how easily the metallic back of the iPod was susceptible to oily fingerprints. They are easy to wipe off with cloth, but it's nearly impossible to avoid designing the back with oily designs. The machine feels very sturdy. No moving parts means less worries.

Lets get on with this trip.

Backlight
The backlight is wonderful and can be activiated by holding down the Menu button to toggle that switch. It is very visible in dark and serves to induce the extra "whoaa" from colleagues.

Usage, Peer reaction
During the trip I became more liberal about letting anyone else touch the unit, and eventually became comfortable with even lending it to friends for periodic enjoyment of my sublime musical library (:

What I learned was exactly how easy it is to pick up on its usage. Self-proclaimed idiots of computer literacy found the hang of the iPod within seconds and could be seen zooming through menus and adding to the On-The-Go playlist like they had owned the iPod for months already. At the end of the borrowing session there would always be the "How much was this?" inquiry, and while I would expect my answer of "300" to cause them to raise their eyebrows or cough out their drinks, I realized that their first encounter with the iPod was so impressive that 300 was reasonable enough an answer to provoke their consideration. At one time someone asked me if it was compatible with PCs (being the unenlightened PC users these people are) and being the hardcore Mac-buff that I am, I had to jokingly answer, "No, you actually gotta get yourself a Mac for this."

Surprisingly the questioner seemed to be considering this response.

Battery
My flights were 10+ hours and often the bus rides were 4-6 hours. The iPod battery is theoretically supposed to last over 8 hours according to the official website, but I found that 6 hours is a reasonable answer for battery life. To get the most out of the battery you probably want to set yourself a playlist beforehand and play it, and not touch the iPod again. The backlight will also probably cut into that battery time, as pretty as it can be. One thing I noticed was that for two days I had not used my fully-charged iPod but on the third day I was surprised to find the iPod drained of its battery. I had read this on the forums on Apple Support page as well, and people answer with the likes of "Well, it's ok because I usually keep my iPod plugged in when it's not being used anyway" deal, but for travellers and such, it may be more than a little quirk.

On the Go
The On-The-Go playlist is one of my favorites. As you're listening to a song, selecting another song will put a stop to the first and begin the second. This can be avoided by holding down the select key (center circle) over the new song until the selection blinks. This is indication that the highlighted song is added onto the On-The-Go playlist. If the playlist is activated, the songs will play after one another smoothly.

Hold switch
The hold switch on the top of the unit functions much like the hold switch on any CD player which prevents any button from working while it is on hold, preventing accidental pressing of buttons. As in other portable devices, this is a must-have, but I have occassionally noticed that taking the unit off hold would not release the keys, and I would have to put the unit back on hold and then off again to reactivate the keys.

Sound Quality/Headfones
Sound quality is decent, but friends would advise me to get those big DJ earphones that double the size of your head, and while this would definitely boost the quality of your musical experience, it also defeats the purpose of iPod's portability.

Maintenance
I carried around the iPod in my jean pockets most of the time because putting it in my shirt pocket was sometimes heavy and made my shirt sag on one side. I was disappointed to find that within a couple of days into the trip I had scratched up the case which used to look so smooth and shiny... It wasn't anything intentional, of course, but the simple result of placing anything other than my iPod in the same pocket. The scratches were visible during usage, as a constant reminder of my stupidity, but when used during darkness with the backlight, the scratches could not be seen.

Thankfully I just learned of iCleaner which is a solution that polishes away these kinds of scratches on iPods and iBook (both of which I have and both of which are scratched) and is very affordable at the price of 9 bucks a bottle.

I also had the unlucky opportunity to drop the iPod from about a foot off the concrete surface, but it survived scratch less.

I must also say the unit did freeze on me once or twice or thrice, which is always kind of odd, like seeing your cell fone freeze, but it's easily resolved by rebooting the iPod by holding down the play and menu keys simultaneously.

You can also feel the harddrive working once in a while as it is being held in your hand, especially when you're cycling rapidly through songs using the Next-song key, because once in a while there will be a 2-3 second pause before it would switch between songs where the harddrive is seemingly working with its cache management or somefin.

Overseas
I have to add that I was very worried about plugging the unit into walls when in Europe but learned that I do not need any voltage converters to avoid frying the unit. I simply got the plug adapters at Radio Shack and slipped one over the iPod power adapter, and it was all I needed to keep the iPod charged up.

Extras
The unit has three games, but none are enticing enough to be the reason for you to buy the iPod. the Contacts function can be sync'ed with your desktop applications, but I have not used this yet. A cool function I enjoy is that if you drag a text file into the iPod unit on your desktop, you can read it on your iPod unit as well. I used this to store quick notes and numbers needed for my trip. I experimented by putting in a large text-file (an e-Book) but while the iPod accomodates a lot of text in its Notes function, it would not load the entire text. The alarm clock function also exists and I used it once, but I have to wonder what kind of person would sleep with an inactive iPod unit plugged into their ears as they await the preset time when the iPod will suddenly start to play music.

I would highly recommend any iPod buyers to get a carrying case, or you will regret it. I also don't see any need for the iPod Dock which comes with the 15/30 Gig models, and would have to say that this 10 gig version will suffice for your average user.