colol's Full Review: Apple iPod 1st Generation 5 GB (MAC) MP3 Player
I'll admit it. When I first heard of the iPod, it was when everybody was busy mocking Apple for calling an MP3 player "groundbreaking". But the more I read about the iPod, the more I realized it truly was groundbreaking. And when the Apple Web Store had refurbs for $339, I eagerly snatched one up.
Portability - 5.0/5.0
The iPod is easily one of the most portable MP3 players out there today, and rivals some other music players. It's just barely longer than my MiniDisc player, but it also weighs less than half as much. It's easy to forget the iPod is in your pocket/backpack/whatever, and it performs admirably without skipping.
The secret is in its design -- the hard drive is only used to load songs. As long as the current song is under 32MB, it's loaded fully into onboard RAM and the hard drive shuts offf. The result is a skip-free experience, no matter what you're dishing out.
Sound 4.5/5.0
While I'd love to give sound a 5.0, I can't do it in good faith for one reason: the version 1.1 firmware update.
Before I address that, though, let me address sound quality overall -- it's great. Used in combination with the very good MP3 encoder iTunes has, you're getting an experience that rivals a CD very closely. There's no notable distortion in the audio ouput at reasonable volumes (and I'm not turning the volume up to maximum to check at that level. Sorry!). Where some players tend to have a background hiss, the iPod is perfectly silent when your music is silent.
Now, then, the 1.1 update... It's a bit of a toss-up. On the plus side, Apple added an onboard equalizer to the iPod, and it automatically applies whatever equalizer settings you set for each song in iTunes. While this is all fine and dandy, the results of the equalizer aren't all that noticable using the included earbuds or any other average pair of earbuds. But I don't believe in equalizers anyway, so it's not a huge loss for me.
While it does add equalizing and a few other features, it also adds a few bugs. Before 1.1, my unit never skipped, and the breaks between songs were always silent. After updating to 1.1, there's an occasional dropout in the audio for reasons unknown, and occasionally while playing from a playlist or on shuffle, it'll play a second of another song while changing songs. Both are fairly rare, but they diminish the quality feel of the product.
Ease of Use 5.0/5.0
Like Apple's other hardware and software i-series products, you don't get a manual with the iPod, and you don't need one. Open up the box, take it out, and enjoy. The jog wheel is intuitive, as is the entire user interface.
Copying music to the iPod is as easy as simply connecting the included FireWire cable between iPod and Mac -- seconds later, iTunes starts, transfers your music, and tells you it's okay to disconnect the cable now. Beautiful.
Features 4.6/5.0
1. FireWire - Everyone else is going about MP3 players all wrong. USB? Come on. It's slow and unwieldy. FireWire's the way to go, and the iPod's got it.
2. Hard-drive based - Similar players use physically larger, less durable, or smaller-capacity hard drives. Worse yet are players like the Rio which use proprietary storage systems and claim you can get hours of music into 32MB. The iPod isn't talking about horrible-quality MP3s when Apple claims it can hold 1000. They're using 160Kbps as their benchmark.
3. 10-Hour Battery! - Enough said. Ten hours of music. Without recharging.
4. Breakout! - Nothing's complete without easter eggs. In the iPod's case, it's a game of breakout hidden in a menu.
5. Simplicity. - Everything should be this simple. Connect cable, wait 10 seconds, disconnect.
6. Doubles as a hard drive - Need some extra hard drive space? If you're not using all of the iPod's capacity for music, you can store files on it.
Aesthetic 4.1/5.0
The iPod is a beauty to behold. It's expertly designed, it begs you to hold it, and it draws adoring stares. However, it does scuff and scratch fairly quickly with "normal" use.
Personally, I just wipe down the stainless steel back every week or two and it still exceeds my expectations for looks. Other people freak out at minor scratches... So I compromised with the 4.1.
Durability 4.3/5.0
See the above comments about the appearance for part of the reason this score is a 4.3. Beyond that, it seems quite durable. I've dropped it several times, it's gone to college in a generally disregarded backpack, and I've done everything from skate to wash the car with it. It's durable. And since it'll go anywhere, that's a must, since you'll want it to go everywhere.
Discontinued by manufacturer, replaced by model #M8976LL/A FireWire interface for fastest digital transfer available Download audiobooks from Audible....More at Amazon Marketplace
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