Saturday, May 8, 2004

iPods away! Well, I'm finally using my iPod. It took two weeks, but it's worth it. As I mentioned in a previous post, I had to buy a special USB/Firewire Dock connector from Apple. And I think I mentioned that I'd write a mini-review of the iPod on here -- if you are considering one, maybe my comments will help you out. Afterall, it's a lot of money to spend and it'd suck to waste that much money on something that you don't really want. When I first opened the iPod's packaging, I simply noticed how well presented everything was. I mean, you even open up the "cube" that it comes in and you come across a flap with the words "Designed by Apple in California" printed across it. Everything is beautifully simple and elegant; why haven't Dell and other computer makers taken the hint here? I'm amazed that nobody else has the guts to produce products that not only function well, but that look like pieces of modern art. Maybe the general populace is a bit too conservative to get the message though. Who knows. In terms of how it actually works, I was a bit daunted by iTunes at first, if only because it tends to do a few things by itself -- like reorganizing your music libraries. But this is simple enough to get around. You can choose to do it manually. I've been using a really simple method for putting music on the iPod. I just put a disc in, click "Import", copy the MP3s to the iPod...and then delete them from my hard drive. Technically, I guess you're supposed to just copy all your music to MP3 and leave it on your computer, so that your iPod can automatically synchronize. But even that kind of annoys me -- I don't want my iPod to do anything without having received instructions from me first. As it turns out, the "manual" route is still very quick and easy. And the iTunes CD database is very good; every track gets named, every album and artist gets named...and when you actually go to select songs on the iPod, you can sort under all sorts of categories. So in the end, it's very organized and useful, without requiring a lot of attention from the user. In any case, I had heard some complaints about iPod. In particular, there was the complaint that the sound quality wasn't amazing -- and not as good as other players. The truth is, I can't compare it to other players, because I've never used an MP3 player before. However, I can say that questions about iPod's sound quality have been just a little exaggerated. I can definitely believe that there are players with better sound quality out there -- iPod is great, but definitely not the very best. I think that can be said with certainty. However, it must also be said that the standard iPod speakers aren't that great. In general, I am pretty choosy when it comes to sound quality -- I have about four or five different pairs of headphones/earphones, all of which were reasonably expensive. And I bought them all because I couldn't find ones that I felt were really comfortable and high quality. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who have paid a lot more attention to sound than I have, but I think I am probably more concerned about sound quality than the average person. But with different headphones, the iPod sounds noticeably better. I think 50% of the problem is definitely related to the standard Apple earphones. In terms of memory...I've put something in the region of 16 full discs on there, and it's taken up less than 2GB. So I'm not worried about memory space; those 16 discs might represent maybe 15 or 20% of my CD collection. So I feel that I can comfortably fit everything on here, with room to spare. And that's nice. I also bought some fairly thick rubber skins for the iPod...because frankly, I'm paranoid about it getting damaged. That mirror-like rear face is so prone to scratching and finger marks. It's actually just a little annoying, despite the fact that it looks wonderful. In general, I'm very impressed. Sound quality is just fine, transfer of songs is incredibly quick and easy (USB 2.0+ is pretty darn fast, much faster than I was led to believe) and the unit itself is insanely easy to use. I really love the touch wheel too; at first it was a bit tricky, but once you get used to it, it feels very intuitive and natural. It's a well designed machine, in every respect. The only truly negative issue about it would have to be the battery. Apple apparently downgraded the battery from Lithium Polymer to Lithium Ion -- the latter is apparently cheaper and features much less longevity. In some ways I haven't really noticed it yet, because I've only just started using the iPod at home. And I can recharge it at school using Firewire anyway. The good thing, I guess, is that you can easily recharge and listen to music at the same time. So if I use it at home, I always have it plugged in. Looking back on this, I realize that my review has been little more than a ramble. lol Oh well. I think that's partly because iPod has been out for a while and there have been so many reviews -- if you've thought of getting one, you have no doubt read all the reviews anyway. But as someone who had read a lot of negative things, and as someone who cares about music quality, I can tell you that you need not be too worried. As long as you have some of your own headphones/earphones for the iPod, you'll be fine. EDIT: Has anyone else noticed that the belt, stitching and pockets on Elle Driver's costume are drawn on with a black marker? Take a look at the photo below. I noticed this last night when taking screenshots for Torisuki. Cool, isn't it?

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