17 out of 17 people found this review helpful.
Finally, an Apple product that isn't all frills, no substance.
Date of Review: Jun 12, 2003
The Bottom Line: If you can justify the cost, this little beast is the best MP3 player on the market. Makes a great, great, great Christmas present. *hint hint*
I am a graphic designer, and I have lived in the world of Macintosh and Apple for a great many years. Back in the day, when Macs came in gray boxes and shipped with standard SCSI drives, they were faster, more stable, and generally better for graphics work than any PC on the market.
But they were so expensive that the company was quickly going out of business. Well, Steve Jobs came in again, created the iMac, lowered Macintosh standards, and took the focus off of power and put it onto PR.
Macs went from ugly, powerful machines to pretty, behind-the-times machines almost overnight. Since Jobs' return, the percentage of Apple's gross income that has gone into TV, magazine, and online advertising and PR stunts has more than quadrupled.
I found with the release of Windows XP that the PC world was cheaper, more practical, more powerful, and more reliable than the current Mac world. OS X is still not up to snuff, and the technical specs of the fastest Macintosh computers is still lagging FAR behind the PC world. Apple spent millions of dollars on their "Megahertz Myth" campaign, only to start pumping up their clock speeds faster than the PCs were. Hmn.
Anyway, long story short, I use a Mac at work because I have to, but when I go home, it's now to a PC, not a Mac. A pretty box does not a solid machine make.
Now, why am I talking about the Mac/PC debate, you ask? Because the iPod is the first product that Apple has released that successfully combines form and function. It is, hands down, the most easy-to-use, well constructed, feature-rich MP3 player you can buy.
The 30GB model I used for testing shipped with the usual Apple flair, pretty box and chrome/clear plastic wrapping on everything. You can now intuitively connect in just about every way you could want. Plug in directly to a PC or Mac, and the appropriate software will start uploading to the iPod automatically. The provided base stand is very useful for taking the MP3 playing load off of your computer while you work. I was able to import my entire 950 song library directly to the iPod, maintaining all my playlists and every bit of information, which can then be scrolled through via the touch-pad. By the way, uploading over 5 GB of data to the iPod took only 20 minutes over a firewire connection.
There are no moving parts on the iPod, except the tiny 1.8 inch hard drive.
My version of iTunes did need an update to avoid causing a strange problem where the iPod, when plugged in, would not leave the "do not disconnect" screen, even when there was no activity between the computer and the iPod. An on-screen warning told me to expect this when I plugged in the iPod.
To recharge without plugging into the computer port, you simply plug in the power adapter and hook up the firewire plug into that port. The iPod starts recharging automatically.
Battery life seems to be pretty good. Not amazing, but comparable with the best of today's offerings in this field. The battery is also non-removable, so the only way to charge it is to plug up either to the wall or the computer.
The remote control has a clip for your shirt or sleeve or whatever you want to clip it to, and you can lock out the unit's controls so that you don't accidentally press a button while running.
The unit weighs in at under 7 ounces, which is amazing considering how much storage room there is at your fingertips.
The menus are intuitive and fast-scrolling. You won't have any troubles with this little beauty.
Now, earlier, I commented on how unhappy I was with the focus that Apple has taken in the last few years with regards to their quality/price philosophy. To my tastes, it doesn't so much matter how "cool" something looks if it doesn't get the job done well.
The iPod manages both, without feeling particularly frail or dangerous to use. You can put it in the carry case and go for a run without worrying about it falling and shattering into a thousand pieces.
That said, it is quite small, and if you did drop it onto a hard surface, I'm not certain you wouldn't do any damage.
The shiny chrome-covered back of the unit is pretty, but gets finger oil buildup very very quickly. an hour after you take it out of the box, you'll want to clean it off already.
But it's pretty. And if Steve Jobs has taught us anything these last few years, it's that you can sell a pretty pile of poo more easily than you can sell an ugly pile of diamonds.
The one big problem with the iPod is that for the 30GB size, which comes with all the goodies, you have to shell out a whopping 500 dollars! I'm working on a new PC at home, and I'm barely going to spend more than 500 dollars on the entire system. And it's going to be quite a powerful system.
Anyway, at least in this one case, Apple has made something pretty and functional.
Finally.
Now if only the G5 lives up to their claims....
~~UPDATED~~
Since writing this review, I've had ample time to come to appreciate the iPod. It's definitely a good little machine.
But It's Not Perfect. In fact, when I take it on a run, I've found that it will sometimes stop playing after a few minutes (presumably after the memory buffer runs out) and nothing short of turning it off will get it running again. Obviously, that can kill a run pretty easily.
This is a fairly common problem for me, and it's too bad. Because one of the major benefits of an MP3 player is that you don't have to worry about it skipping, this is disappointing. I'm going to have to lower my overall rating because of this...
