Aug 26, 2005 10:47 AM
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(Updated Aug 26, 2005 10:48 AM)
Ok. So that sounds like a cliched statement. But then, what more can you expect out of the Apple I-Pod. It took me close to a year and a journey 3000 miles from home to lay my hands on an i-pod and I guess the wait was worth the while. So what is the hype about the i-pod and the latest one from Sony.
When I heard about the i-pod I chuckled to myself. How can Apple launch itself into the audio market when Sony and at the point of time Creative ruled the roost. Apple though redeemed itself with its i-pod offering. Of course 2 base models, the normal and the mini. And the normal has multiple capacity. I went for the middle of the road with a 20GB capacity. So what did I get for all this
The box contains:
Apple i-pod 20GB
Earphones
Firewire cable
Power Adaptor
And a USB cable
Manual with a CD ROM for the I-Pod updater and i-tunes
The interesting thing about the i-pod is no movable parts and therefore no skipping and you can jog around with the same in your tracks. The i-pod typically plays all mp3 and coverts the rest of the format to mp3 or the ACC using its proprietory software. (Hacks are available now). Almost all of the work can be done through i-tunes but with limitations which I will come to later.
The i-pod per se has in-built lists and it sorts songs across artists, albums, genres and composers. Further on, there are lists such most played, latest added and On the Go list. The i-pod comes with a good display and a backlight which can be always on or scheduled to be switched of after certain periods. The backlight is pretty good and you can use it to search for things you dropped on a black granite floor in the middle of the night. Of course, in day time, it does not work well, but then who is going to use it as a torch.
The menu keys are spaced out across a circular touchpad. There are 4 keys: Menu, Forward, Reverse, Play & Pause. The play and pause when depressed for a longer period of time acts as a switch off button. The menu key is used to move around the menu options and the central portion of the touchpad is used for selection. Further the ring around is a touchpad and is used to scroll across the menu items. Overall, a single hand usable device.
Apple lacks a bit in the ear phone department. You get standard earphones and if your ears are different from the normal person, then you are in trouble. Other earphones are compatible and therefore I use a Philips noiseless earphone. The sound quality is awesome and there are no distortions due to the hard disk reading. Further, there is a hold button which prevents the other keys from being operated when you are on the go.
I have not weighed the device, but it feels good in your pocket and you dont lean towards one side while carrying it. Equalizers are not great and for the same price I would have loved to have a set of complete equalizers.
On to the i-tune part of the i-pod. This of course is pretty cumbersome device to operate. It rips songs but at 9X while my Real Audio does it much quicker with the same CD ROM. Further while synching up with the i-pod, it has an option of auto update or manual update. Both of them work fine. The funny part of the entire thing is that I cannot copy from my i-pod onto my system. For this I use a different software called Sharepod. This is a pretty neat device and rests in the i-pod rather than the PC. Further, you run the application and it gives you choices of moving songs between devices.
Some drawbacks include the Firewire cable which is a 6 port as against the standard 4-port that you would find on every other PC except the Apple. The biggest drawback is on how i-pod arranges the files in the hard disc. Although through the interface you can see no issues, if you go behind the scene songs are randomly arranged in folders and you cannot search for a particular song. For this I would recommend the Sharepod.
The i-pod can also be used as a storage device and you can store any kind of file. Further, there is an option of photo import which I have not tried as of now. But knowing Apple it would not be that complicated, but at the same time would be pretty much robust.
With the i-pod I would recommend that one picks up the RoadTrip. This is a neat little FM transmitter and transmits the songs played on your i-pod over the FM frequency to your stereo. The RoadTrip comes with 2 options in built. The first one is a car power adaptor attached to the RoadTrip and you can plug it into your car cigarette lighter holder and voila forget buying an mp3 player for your car. The transmission is pretty good at a maximum of 70mts. I have not tried greater than that. If anybody has do let me know
The second one of course needs a computer. You remove the car adaptor and connect the RoadTrip to the PC and the i-pod and you can play it on any radio within the house. The FM transmitter needs to be tuned to a open frequency and the radio to the same. Although I wish the roadtrip could work without the PC in the house. I am sure it does. If anybody knows how, do let me know.
To end it all, it is pretty much good as a player and can be enhanced with some softwares. At 14k for a 20GB and 2000 for the road trip, I find it worth the price. I have managed to fill 6GB of music as of now - 4 weeks from date of purchase. Let us see how quickly I exhaust the same.
