pwhite8314's Full Review: Apple iPod photo 4th Generation (60 GB) MP3 Player
Apple got lucky with the original iPOD; they hit the market at just the right time - everyone else was producing tiny (by comparison) chip-based players with dinky buttons and a hopeless UI. In storms Apple with an MP3 player that was sexy, useable, and had storage measured in Gb's!
I should say that generally I'm not an Apple fan. I've never owned an Apple computer, and other than the fact they look nice, have no inclination to do so. I mention this because it's an even great leap of faith for the iPOD to win me over the various offerings from Sony et al.
I've now had each generation of iPOD, with this, the photo iPOD, being the 4G model. I have to say that unlike most, I'm not a huge fan of the 'new and improved' click-wheel; I liked the 3G model with the touch sensitive buttons and red glow. There are a few other bad points too; for some reason, Apple have stopped including the headphone remote in the box, so now it's a $40 extra. Given the price of this kit, that's being a little cheeky. They didn't even make the headphone lead longer to compensate for the lost lead from the remote, and that's just downright mean. Of course, it still has the stainless steel back that get scratched easily, but every iPOD I've had, and subsequently sold on eBay, has been immaculate. Just keep it in one of the silicon cases and it'll be fine.
But that's all that's bad. The design and functionality of the iPOD is simply genius, and it operates faultlessly with iTunes, which is a great product in it's own right. I 'needed' the 60GB model as I've now got nearly 40Gb of tunes (all legit, after weeks of burning my CD collection!), and didn't want to mess around deciding which songs to leave off. The fact that the battery life is now much improved, and it's got a nice colour display are almost secondary.
The battery life has always been a complaint made about the iPOD, and whilst the young pretenders will always beat the iPOD life (it's an easy target, after all), it's now actually quite good, seemingly hitting the 12hr target with ease. Experience of other iPODs shows that this will tail off over the course of the year, but it's still more than enough. With so many 3rd-party chargers and battery packs around, it's really not a problem these days.
The new screen is very nice; bright and very clearly defined. What I'm about to say may be sacrilege, but I don't really have any plans to store photo's on the iPOD. Aside from the fact that I need the space for tunes, why should I when I can burn, and share, my entire photo collection on a couple of DVDs? Far easier that taking the iPOD, plus charger, plus AV leads to someone’s house. Perhaps if you're the type to have an impromptu slide show then the Photo iPOD will be a dream come true, but for me it's just a very nice MP3 player with a great screen that can show the cover-art!
BTW, I use this with a Bose SoundDock (also excellent by the way, if a little pricey), and despite what you might here, the 60Gb Photo iPOD fits the Sounddock just fine.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 650 Recommended for: Music Lovers - High Capacity Storage for an Entire Album Collection
60 GB model holds up to 15,000 songs; supports AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 (32 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible, AIFF, Apple Lossless and WAV Holds 25,000...More at Amazon Marketplace
60 GB model holds up to 15,000 songs; supports AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 (32 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible, AIFF, Apple Lossless and WAV Holds approx...More at Amazon Marketplace
60 GB capacity stores 1,000 hours of audio or around 15,000 songs at 4 minutes per song, 128 kbps AAC or MP3 Upload your whole photo library: the iPod...More at Amazon Marketplace
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