iPod gave me something I didn't even know I need
Written: Nov 21 '02
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Pros: Great design Great interface I got over 1800 songs on here
Cons: I regret not getting the 20 GB
The Bottom Line: This is the best electronic device I have ever bought. Increased my music enjoyment tenfold. I would recommend this to anyone.
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| machinehien's Full Review: Apple iPod 2nd Generation 10 GB (PC) MP3 Player |
If you have a moderate music collection (100-200 CDs) and love to go back and listen to every single track any where you want then the iPod is a must have.
I wasn't particularly attracted to the iPod when it first came out. I just got laid off, was broke, and had a lot more to worry about than some expensive toy. I was indifferent to the design, and hardly saw a need to carry thousands of songs wherever I went. Also other hard drive based MP3 players I saw in person were mediocre at best, an electronic curiosity.
Flash forward eight months later; got a new job started buying CDs again, rediscovered a lot of music in my collection. The iPod became more and more attractive, it wasn't until I held one at a store that I knew I had to have one. All it took was a minute.
This thing has really made me appreciate my music so much more. I loaded up my entire music collection (barely fitted) and as I got more CDs I just simply deleted tracks that suck. So now on any given day I can alternate from Stereolab to Nirvana to Ramstein to the soundtrack for 2001, if I feel happy I can select a playlist designed to make me happier, if I want to feel sad I have a playlist for that as well. A couple of clicks and a quick spin on the scroll wheel is all it takes.
The iPod is a sculpture in of itself. This cannot be said of any other MP3 player. For those who appreciate industrial design, this thing is a milestone. It looked like no other MP3 player that came before. It was slightly ahead of its time, so much so that it took me eight monthes to appreciate its aesthetics, I'm sure many of you who initially disdained the iPod are reading this now because it has slowly grown on you to the point that you want to get one for yourself. The highly polished lucite front and stainless steel back is a joy to hold in your hand. Although it does smudge easily, polishing it is hardly a chore, the closest analogy I can come up with is waxing a prized car. Maybe Apple knew this and deliberately made the iPod susceptible to fingerprints and smudges, it works.
The interface has to be experienced to be believed, it is so intuitive that a child could pick one up and in seconds select a specific track to play. Other players might require endless button mashing to navigate through a collection, at most the iPod would require four button clicks in conjuction with the fluid scroll wheel to access any track in your collection. The interface is so nice to use that people can just amuse themselves with simply navigating the contents of the iPod and exploring the heirarchical menus and features.
Firewire is fast, so fast that I don't even consider it an issue. I only experienced USB transfers on a friend's Nomad once before, eight hours to transfer 5 GB of music and it failed halfway through, that was enough to dampen my enthusiasm about MP3s. My iPod filled up in about 20 minutes, problem solved.
Battery life is 8-10 hours, good enough for a day on campus or in the office. A one hour charge will give it 80% a three hour charge 100%.
Enable firewire mode and you have a portable harddrive to store photoshop files, movies or just random stuff. It's also bootable if you put some boot files on it. Could come in handy for troubleshooting computers although I haven't had a need to do so. Also you can store contacts, calendar events, and some hacks allow for weather and news update to be downloaded when you connect it to your computer.
But mainly it's all about the music for me. When I get a new CD the first thing I want to do is get it onto my iPod. The Apple iPod also has a great cult following, there are hundreds of websites devoted to it, hundreds of great accesories designed just for it. Cases, car adaptors, travel kits, speakers. I got the JBL creature 3 piece speaker system and it turns my iPod into a desktop stereo system. Get a car adaptor and you have a 200 CD changer that doesn't skip. It's very versatile for the price.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 394
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Epinions.com ID:
machinehien
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Location: Houston, Texas, USA
Reviews written: 11
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
Graphic Designer, tech junkie
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