Excellent! Superb! Wonderful!
Written: Mar 23 '04 (Updated Mar 23 '04)
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Pros: Excellent design, engineering, sound quality and functionality. Large capacity hard drive is fantastic!
Cons: Display screen, while very good, is still somewhat dim and difficult to read.
The Bottom Line: Highly recommended! If you want and/or need a portable, high quality music and audio book playback and data storage device this is the item for you!
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| mcmeadows1's Full Review: Apple iPod 40 GB White MP3 Player |
I have only been using my new Apple iPod 40GB portable music player for four days now. Discounting my intial confusion and frustration concerning the installation of the communication software on my notebook computer, I have been extremely pleased with my new iPod so far.
My primary purpose for purchasing my iPod was to be able to listen to not only music, but audio books as well. Through at least the end of this year (2004), I will be working in Iraq and, while AFN does an admirable job of relaying news and playing music, the site at which I am working does not receive AFN that well, if at all.
My secondary reason for obtaining the iPod is to be able to have with me, at all times, my addresses, calendar and notes data from Microsoft Outlook.
My third, and final, reason for wanting not only an iPod, but also the 40GB model in particular, is to be able to use the extra capacity of the large hard drive as a back up storage volume for my other personal data which is not contained within Microsoft Office. (Items such as Word and Excel files, graphic images, etc.)
In a nutshell, the Apple iPod, 40GB model, does all I ask of it! There is more than enough room to store each and every song I could possibly want to have with me at all times. Additionally, having one device with which to carry my music and other personal data is far more convinient than having to carry two or more devices.
The sound quality of both music and audio files is nothing short of fantastic! I am simply amazed at the clarity and sonic imaging of the music, of all genres, of which I listen. My primary musical tastes lean towards rock, but I also listen to classic, hip-hop, pop and R&B. All genres sound wonderful!
Now that I finally determined the connection issue, synchronizing and updating my music and data files is easy, quick and accurrate. After only four days, I find myself simply using the iPod and not really thinking about it. It is with me constantly and does what I want and need it to do.
With that said, the iPod isn't perfect and some elements of installation and of the human interface design are not in keeping with the overall excellent design and engineering of this device.
My first hassle was simply being able to read the serial number on the back of my iPod. The characters are just about 1mm high! I do not know how well Steve Jobs can see, but I do know he wears glasses. I wonder if he ever tried to read the serial number on the back of his iPod? I literally had to use a magnifying lens in order to be able to accurately read the serial number. It wasn't until after I had struggled with trying to read the serial number off the back of my iPod, that I noticed the serial number is also printed on the bottom of the box in which it came. Still the obvious question still remains: "Why is the serial ridiculously small?"
Now, before you wonder why I am going on and on with regards to the small size of the serial number, let me explain. I initially misread the last character of the serial number and, apparently, this prohibited iTunes from synchronizing with my iPod. Of course, this took me about five hours of frustrating agony to determine! (I believe had I been in the states, I simply would have called the Apple help line and had them assist me in correcting the issue.)
The serial number seems to be filed in a 'bin' file within the iPod folder on the hard drive. This file is NOT removed by just running a regular uninstall; one must manually remove this file and then reinstall the iPod driver and input the correct serial number in order for iTunes to be willing to communicate with a connected iPod.
I understand Apple's concern for and desire to minimize the proliferations of illegal copying of music files, but this experience was horribly frustrating! Running the 'normal' unistall program should remove ALL references to a particular iPod. Most users simple don't feel comfortable mucking around in their hard drives and most won't.
Once that issue was solved, iTunes happily, quickly and accurately updated my iPod with all of my music and audio books. Subsequent synchronization has also been performed with nary a hiccup.
One other complaint I have is that the display screen is rather dull and the viewing angle is not very wide, either along the horizontal or vertical axis. I do not have much experience with other portable music players, but since most reviewers seem to say that the iPod displays are good, I will have to conclude that this is an engineering compromise in order to allow for the longest battery life possible.
I researched and finally settled on iPodSync 2.12 to use as the program to synchronize my Outlook data with my iPod. It works as advertised, although the web news synchronization seems to work sporadically, if at all. However, the primary purpose for my using the program is well justified. It works, simply and accurately.
Other than the two complaints I listed above, one of which was almost a show stopper, I am extremely pleased with my new iPod.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 499
Recommended for: Music Lovers - High Capacity Storage for an Entire Album Collection
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Epinions.com ID:
mcmeadows1
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Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 0 members
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