brad's Experience
Written: Mar 19 '04 (Updated Mar 19 '04)
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Pros: Amazing capacity. Intuitive GUI (graphical user interface). Bring your music anywhere!
Cons: Portability issues for those that wish to "sweat to the oldies." Battery life issues.
The Bottom Line: The iPod offers features never before seen. An entire music library in the palm of a hand. Incredibly easy to use. A revolutionary machine.
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| brad's Full Review: Apple iPod 1st Generation 10 GB (MAC) MP3 Player |
Greetings. I'm reviewing the 2nd generation iPod, as pictured and described by Epinions. I'm not going to get into a lot of things that vary across the three generations of iPods, since the differences aren't significant, at least in my opinion. The functionality, for all practical purposes, is the same (based on what I've read on the 3G model). Since the iPod has a great many features, I'm not going to cover everything here, but I'll give you what I think should be noted.
What makes the iPod the best thing since the Walkman is its practicality and ease of use. In theory, you can take your entire music library wherever you go and listen to it with a pair of headphones. Pretty amazing, and for the most part, true.
The iPod really revolutionized the portable music player industry because of the tiny hard drive. That's what makes this experience possible. I have a 10 gig model and that's plenty for me. With the 3G models out, your choices are 15, 20, or 40 gig models. I can hardly imagine why anyone would need to carry more than 10 gigs worth of music around, but if you really want to do that, Apple will sell you a machine to do the job.
What makes it easy to use is the GUI (graphical user interface). The GUI combined with the scroll wheel for navigating the GUI makes a revolutionary combination in terms of functionality for such a small device, yet with such powerful capabilities.
As the iPod became a hit, other industry manufacturers came out with hard drive-based music players, but their GUIs weren't nearly as intuitive or easy to use. Apple uses a hierarchical menu system that starts with the most general menus and sub-menus, and more sub-menus and so forth. For example, the main screen lists options such as "Playlists," "Now Playing," "Settings," "Contacts," and others. If you click on Playlists, for example, you'll get a sub-menu of all the music folders you've loaded onto the machine (i.e. "80s Music," "Michael Jackson," "Led Zeppelin," etc.).
The hierarchical menu system is brilliant and it's easy to navigate with the scroll wheel system, which is the standard navigation tool on all three generations of machines.
How do I get my music onto the machine? I have to use the Apple iTunes software. There isn't another way. Thankfully, Apple has written one brilliant piece of audio jukebox software. It works seamlessly with the iPod and I would recommend it as your default jukebox, whether you're on Mac or Windows. The first thing you need to do is fill up your iTunes jukebox with your music library. Once you do that, you can begin loading the music onto the iPod. It could hardly be more simple. You should create playlists though (which is very simple). You don't want to dump your entire library onto your iPod without organizing the music into folders. Otherwise, you'll be doing a lot of scrolling while playing music on your iPod.
Apple provides the iTunes software and any necessary iPod firmware updates free of charge for the life of the unit. There aren't any strings attached in that regard. There isn't an "iTunes Lite" or "iTunes Basic" (i.e. Real Basic player). Apple will give you the full enchilada with iTunes because it knows that without iTunes, you can't use (or buy) your iPod.
Okay, I've built this thing up enough; I think it's time I get to some of the negatives of the machine.
This thing isn't as portable as you think. This is a computer hard drive with its own mini-operating system that you're carrying around. As with any hard drive, there are moving parts that are moving VERY FAST. If you subject the iPod do rugged use (as in working out, jogging, etc.), you run the risk of permanently damaging the machine. It's just like a computer. You usually can't use your laptop computer in a Tractor cab because the rugged terrain will destroy the drive's moving parts. If you want a truly portable iPod, you should look at the new iPod Mini. It's a flash-based machine, which means that it doesn't have the moving parts. The larger capacity, regular iPods are nothing but hard drives squeezed into a small shell to act as a portable music player.
So long as you're not jumbling the iPod, subjecting it to rugged and bumpy rides, you'll be fine. You can take with you on the golf course. You can take it to work. To class. You can walk with it. The ups and downs of jogging and working out is what causes the problems and is what will cause damage to your machine (and likely ruin it).
iPods have limited battery life. If you're a real music junkie, be aware that your lithium battery isn't going to last forever. Every time you re-charge the battery, the less you will get out of it. This is particularly a problem with 1st and 2nd generation iPods. The batteries have notoriously short useful lives. As for my experience, it's been positive. I've had my iPod for about 18 months and I really haven't used it all that much (was supposed to jump start a diet routine). However, I recently began using it again and the battery recharges nicely and lasts for several hours.
In my opinion, the "ear buds" that come with the iPod are worthless. They fall out of my ears. I replaced them with a $5 pair of Zenith headphones that I picked up from Target and I couldn't be more thrilled. My new pair of headphones reminds me of the days of the Walkman. Traditional headphones. That's all I want, thank you.
The remote control is worthless. The one that came with my iPod and the two replacements never worked for a second. I gave up fighting with Apple and wrote it off as poor engineering, false advertising, and a ripoff. Good luck if you're expecting this convenience (and it really would be nice if it worked - maybe the 3G models have functional remotes).
There isn't a way to play this in modern vehicles. Unless you have a cassette deck built into your vehicle, you will be out of luck. You can try these FM transmitters, but I bought from two prominent brands and both units were completely and thoroughly useless. The only solution that I know of is if your vehicle is cutting edge and has an auxiliary audio input. If that's the case, then you can plug the iPod in and you will be in music heaven. That doesn't apply to most of us, however.
Have I balanced the positives with the negatives? I spent more time on the negatives, but I hope you picked up on my nit picking. When I talk about how the iPod works and its basic functionality, I'm talking big-time. This is a revolutionary machine. It's the Sony Walkman 200x. A machine that changes the way people live their lives.
That's about all I'm going to say. I could go on about small details...it holds contacts and addresses...but that's not important. It's also a thing to look at...a true beauty of a machine. It'll turn heads.
It's available for Mac and Windows platforms. If you buy a Mac iPod, you can find Windows software that will allow you to extract music from a Windows machine to your Mac iPod (not recommended, but an option). I would stick to your native platform and buy on that basis.
The subject of this review is no longer available at retail. Its replacement is the 20 gig 3G iPod with docking station. The docking station is a fancy way of replacing a FireWire cord that recharges your iPod. I'm not at all impressed with the new "features" of the 3G iPod and I don't feel as if I've been left out of any meaningful features. When Apple came out with the 2G model and the new scroll wheel (still used on the 3G model), it turned another corner. Not much has improved since, and anything software related is updated with firmware (which is available to all iPod owners).
The iPod is a true wonder. If you love music and you want a semi-portable player (not for exercising, mind you), the iPod is the way to go. I've researched competing players such as the Dell portable hard drive player, the Samsung Napster player, the Creative hard drive player, and others. Not a one compares. At worst, you'll maybe pay a $50 premium to get the iPod. It's worth it.
I highly recommend the iPod.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 394.00
Recommended for: Music Lovers - High Capacity Storage for an Entire Album Collection
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Epinions.com ID:
brad
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Member: Brad Engelmann
Location: Helen Township, MN
Reviews written: 161
Trusted by: 94 members
About Me:
brad@engelmann.us (email address)
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