elizaf's Full Review: Apple iPod 3rd Generation White (20 GB) MP3 Player
Greetings Epinions, this is my 1st review after spending a few hours nosing about in other opinions posted to the site. ANY guidance or comments on my style would be appreciated.....
I am a 28 yr old Irish girl based in London UK, so occasionally my references may be a little colloquial, I have tried to edit my op to make sure that this does not interfere with the ease of consumer decision making. Like I said earlier ALL feedback appreciated :) So here we go....
Shhhhh, don’t tell anyone, but I’ve bought 'him indoors' (also referred to in moments of lucidity as my fiancée) an iPod. No, I am not about to confess to sleeping with his brother or anything like that, he just happens to be the man I love and shame on you for casting dispersions on my pure intentions. *Indignant sniffle*
In the name of quality assurance and to make certain that it actually does work after laying out wad-loads of my hard earned, I have been using it for the last 15 days. “Any excuse” I hear you yell and you know what I am going to yell back; “too blooming right” : )
I’ve seen the ads, what are iPods?
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An MP3 player made by the Apple computer company.
Well that’s not much use to me, all my music files are in WAV or AIFF format:
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The term MP3 player has passed into the English language as a generic term to describe a piece of hardware or software that can play digital music files. (This is akin to the way that some people go into department stores and ask for Dyson hovers) The iPod “MP3 player” will play music files that are saved in WAV, AIFF and MP3 format.
Err….what are WAV, AIFF and MP3 format files?
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These are the extensions that a computer system will save a music file in. So if you use a piece of software to save a tune from a CD to your Windows or Apple computer (depending on the software) the files will be saved in one of these formats. To find out what format a file is preserved in, select it by clicking on it, right-click and select the menu item called ‘Properties’. On the dialogue box that appears you will see the tune and it’s extension listed. e.g. HelpbyTheBeatles.mp3
Ooh, ok, what colours I can get the iPod in:
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Any colour your little heart desires, as long as it is white, white, white or whitey-white. (There is also white whitedy-white, but this shade is harder to find)
So it is not available in black?
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No. I refer you to my last answer for a comprehensive list of colours available.
Will it fit in my jeans pocket?
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The dimensions of this doyenne of engineering are 6.1cm x 2.1cm x 10.2cm (in WidthxDepthxHieght format)
That’s small, right?
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Yes, (sigh) that is small. However if you are someone who considers the area covered by ¾ of a CD case big, then surreally, it is also big.
Where can I buy this mini-marvel from?:
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Circuit City: http://www.circuitcity.com/detail.jsp?oid=79770&WT.mc_n=66&c=1&b=g&WT.mc_t=U–
Price $399.99 - P & P: Free - Availability: In Stock
CTI:
http://www.ctistore.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=M9244LLA&Category_Code=
Price $388.00 Availability: In Stock
Online Micro
http://www.onlinemicro.com/prodLG.jsp?fap=shopping&prodId=f79797ac36.1 – Price $392.00 P & P: Free Availability: In Stock
Now at this point, I would like to give a bit of advice to my fellow commuters/foot soldiers/music listeners. If you do have in your ownership the marvel of technology known as an iPod, ditch the white headphones that come as standard with the player. There are very few other standard white headphones on the market at the moment, most being variations on the theme of black. As far as I am concerned, wearing the distinctive iPod ones is like announcing to every mugger within a 50 mile radius “I have something on my person worth doing me over for” I see commuters on the train every morning wearing them as these little badges of pride and I am happy for them that they have such a desirable object but I think broadcasting the fact they have one
is a dangerous thing.
Right, lecturing over and on to the object in hand….
I ordered mine from John Lewis (a UK department store) as they had them in stock and could deliver right away. I could have found them for 10/20 pounds cheaper if I was willing to wait up to 14 days for delivery but I did not want to wait and risk the player being swamped by the rest of the “common” post. John Lewis also run their own vans for deliveries so there was no chance of any action of our friends in the post office effecting my delivery.
So here it is, after all my strategic planning, I have it in my hot little paws and am about to give the player its virgin run. The first thing that strikes you about the machine is how small and white it is giving an impression of delicacy, an impression that proved to be correct as I put it unsheathed in an inner coat pocket with my house keys and afterwards could detect a slight scratch. I nullified this danger by quickly placing it in its ‘mock leather’ black carry case. This comes free with the 20GB and 40GB model but otherwise can be ordered from an accessories reseller: I found them priced at £29.99 from http://www.amazon.co.uk, this seemed to be around about the best price.
I know what you are thinking at this point and you’re right; I haven’t even played a tune on the thing yet and potentially I have laid out another £40 (presuming I had bought a 5 or 10gb edition) on top of the purchase price to stop it from being nicked and errrr……knicked : )
So is it worth all this fuss and bother?
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The storage on this player works by saving all music placed on it on the hard drive (HD). This has the huge advantage that you can have as much storage as you like, the only limitation being your pocket. This player has a 20gb HD, it is more than likely that the computer that you are sitting in front of has a hard drive of similar size. Every singular gb (gigabyte – the measure of a computer’s storage space) represents the space to store 200 tunes. The quickest of the mathematicians among you will realise that even with my HUGE music collection (stretching back to 15 years of album and CD buying) I have only barely just filled half of this player.
It is a funny feeling walking around knowing that you are carrying the contents of 15 years music buying in one little machine in your inside coat pocket. Funny and really good! So for me, it was worth all the f and b, and more besides!
Hmmmm, Apple make the Apple Mac computer, don’t they, will this player work with my PC (personal computer, taken to mean that it is a Microsoft Windows machine)
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Excellent question and I am glad that I asked it pretending to be you.
Apple have developed 2 pieces of software that ship (in CD form) with the iPod. The first is called MUSICMATCH Jukebox. (For Mac and PC) It is a music organising and purchasing programme that will allow you search for and buy music (providing you have an internet connection, which I presume you do, after all, you are reading this : ) Musicmatch will then organise your music into folders of your choosing (e.g. by artist, by genre or by release date) I found this application easy to install and simple to use. If by any chance, you do have difficulties getting used to it, there are comprehensive help menus and online tutorials available from: http://www.musicmatch.com/
Exclusively for Windows machines, Apple's has included what they call “Auto-sync technology”. Once installed on the PC, this software checks the iPod automatically every time it is plugged into their PC and updates the song lists, organisational folders and other elements to reflect the configuration on the computer. For instance, if you had a folder called ‘Easy listening’ and one called ‘Nora Jones’ and moved the song ‘Don’t know why’ from one to the other and then downloaded the Eagles ‘One of these nights’ into the former folder, Auto-sync would automatically update your iPod musical organisation to reflect these and any other changes.
Right, how does it talk to my computer? Osmosis? Telepathy?
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Included with the iPod is the dock for new iPod. True to its name, it resembles a courtroom fitting for the accused to stand in….
I could go into surreal ‘Ally McBeal aside’ here in which the iPod is standing in the courtroom accused of a cynical marketing ploy to extract more money out of people by not shipping what should be the standard accessories with the 5 and 10gb models……but I won’t : )
The iPod sits in the dock which needs a USB cable to connect to the main PC containing the music files. Note: You can only move files from a computer to an iPod. There is no other way of music getting onto it’s hard drive. So if you want to move all the tunes from you favourite CD to the iPod, you will install the Musicmatch software, put the music CD in your music drive, copy the tunes into the application, put the iPod in its dock and plug the USB cable into USB port in the back of your computer. The USB port(s) are the ones that look long (about 15mm) and flat (about 3mm).
The iPod also charges its battery through the USB connection so there are no chargers to disappear down the back of the sofa, leave in work, or dangle about for the baby to pick up and try to chew. (Don’t laugh, it will happen to you one day)
The longest continuous play I got out of one charge was 9hours and 23 mins. That was pretty darned good in my book.
It all sounds like a lot of work:
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How much work would you normally have to do to carry 4000 songs in your pocket??!!
Stop complaining, I could not make this any easier for you unless I came around to your house and did all the song copying (referred to in the industry as ‘burning’) and transferring for you. No, that was not an offer….. : )
Would Rob Gordon approve?
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Rob Gordon, for the uninitiated, is the owner of the Record shop in Nick Hornby’s ‘High Fidelity’, his character is that of a muso, one who constantly thinks about, talks about and lives for music. (The book was also made into a successful film starring John Cusack) I think he would love this product as the sound from the iPod is so crystal clear and beautiful. I have a live track from an Irish artist called Damien Rice and what I could not hear when the song was played on the computer were the soft dying-down murmurings from the audience as he played the first opening cords of a song on his guitar, it came out so audibly on the iPod, I felt like I was in that smoky pub room where it was being played. Had I closed my eyes, I would have been. Well, I wouldn’t really, as I would have been chased by the men in white coats as the closed-eyed lunatic standing in the middle of a crowded Oxford St. with all the busy shoppers bumping into her, but you get the idea.
So after all that, all you can do is listen to a tune on the thing?
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You’re a very hard audience to please.
No, the iPod puppy also does other tricks, and bonus!, it doesn’t pinch your loo roll as you sit on your throne.
The unit has an integrated (it’s on the inside of the box) Belkin Voice Recorder. This is another incarnation of the old-fashioned dictaphone. It means the holder can digitally record voice memos, lectures, meetings, interviews or foreign language lessons (should they so wish). You could, if you were feeling mean and so inclined, record your best friend slagging of their girl/boy friend and play it back to them. Just think of the ensuing hilarity!
Now the Belkin Media Reader is a feature I really like. This means that you can save all the contents of your 256MB flash memory card from your digital camera to the hard drive of the iPod. This makes a great way to back up an important set of pictures or save to another media type in order to wipe your flash card and start again. The 20GB iPod will hold 10,000 images. This is approximately the contents of 80 cards. Impressive, eh?
My 3rd nipple
The iPod has the touch wheel, which fulfils the same function as the nipple mouse on mobile phones or older models of laptops. It is designed to made scrolling through the iPod’s menu and the complete saved music collection lists quick and easy. However will all nipples (yes, this is really what they are called) it takes a while to learn how to manipulate them properly and to mutual satisfaction – oooh er missus! All the buttons and on the face of the iPod are easy enough to use unless you have absolute shovels for hands a la Casey Keller. I suppose that looking at it now, the iPod would not be the best pressie in the world for a goalkeeper but perhaps there is a whole other market there for Apple to develop a ‘big hands’ version. The company blurb specifies that the player is “designed for easy one-handed operation” but as you need one hand to hold it and the other to twiddle the knobs, I think this is a “This packet of peanuts may contain nuts” kind of claim.
Accessories available (at an extra cost, unless specified)
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Remote Earphones (Comes as standard with the 20 and 40gb models)
Carrying Case (Comes as standard with the 20 and 40gb models)
Dock (Comes as standard with the 20 and 40gb models)
Dock Connector to USB 2.0 & FireWire Cable (for PC)
Related URL’s:
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http://www.apple.com
http://www.apple.com/uk/ipod/
http://www.musicmatch.com/
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 541.637 Recommended for: Music Lovers - High Capacity Storage for an Entire Album Collection
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