Thomas Davie
12-03-2003, 01:18 PM
I bought a 3g 40gb Ipod last friday, and overall it has been a very satisfying experience. So I thought, what the heck, I'll share my experiences. Nothing terribly in depth, mostly just a stream of consciousness kind of thing.
1) The packaging; most often, I wouldn't give a rats ### about this, however I hate blister packing that is impossible to unwrap without an exacto knife. It was rather nice ot be able to open the package and see that I could easily replace the parts without struggling. No unobvious carboard inserts either.
2) The degree of extras. Ok, I wasn't expecting a carrying case and bag, so it was nice to be able to find them included. It would be nice to be able to access the Ipod controls while i is inside the case. I'll probably have to buy something here.
3) The headphones. Why oh why, considering the price of the unit could they not have included somethig other than fricking earbuds. I hate em, hate em, hate em.
4) The Ipod itself; I was amazed at how solidly built it is. Other than the hold button, no moving parts externally?! Compared to my previous hard drive mp3 player (Rio Riot), it is simply on another plane of existence.
5) Ease of use; I can't quite use it one handed, but that doesn't bother me. I find that when I am walking with it, or using it anywhere other than at a desk I have the hold button on. The touch buttons seem 'too' sensitive. I find that the ease of navigation isn't particularly any better on the Ipod than the Rio Riot though; when you've got 1000's of songs, it just becomes a pain in the ###. Also, I find that adding individual songs to 'on the go' playlists only works when I add songs ffrom the 'song' sub menu item, and not when browsing through the artist or album list. Maybe I'm doing somehting wrong.
6) The screen; I'm in love with it. I haven't got the best eyesite in the world, needing reading glasses. I found that the contrast on my Rio Riot was very washed out, and the backlighting was a joke (in the dark, the backlight made it harder to read as pradoxical as that sounds). Here, I was able to adjust tyhe contrast to my liking, and the backlighting is very useful.
7) Included software; can't say because I haven't used it. I did have Musicmatch Jukebox on my Rio Riot, and got rid of it, instead going with Sveta Portable audio. Prior to buying my Ipod though, I had downloaded and installed ITunes for Windows. Finally, one piece of software that rips, burns, transfers and does basic tag editing. Thats all I want or need. Oh yeah, I can also spend my money though IStore if it comes ot Canada :)
8) Sound quality; I'm not an audiophile, and most of the time, I'm quite happy with a 128 kbps mp3 (I listen to an awful lot of old time radio shows at 24 and 32 kbps). When I'm ripping my CD's to go on the Ipod, I'm using AAC @ 96 kbps, and find that I like the results....muchly
Overall impressions; I'm very pleased with the Ipod, and it seems well supported, with plenty of extras and accessories to throw my $ at. Nice sound, and easy to use downloadable software (ITunes). Small drawbacks I find, are the earphoens and carrying case. It's hard to assign a numerical score, so about all I can say is that I would recommedn it to other people.
Wishlist for the future? Oh, lets say built in 802.11 a/b/g for transfer to or from other computers or Ipods.
Tom
1) The packaging; most often, I wouldn't give a rats ### about this, however I hate blister packing that is impossible to unwrap without an exacto knife. It was rather nice ot be able to open the package and see that I could easily replace the parts without struggling. No unobvious carboard inserts either.
2) The degree of extras. Ok, I wasn't expecting a carrying case and bag, so it was nice to be able to find them included. It would be nice to be able to access the Ipod controls while i is inside the case. I'll probably have to buy something here.
3) The headphones. Why oh why, considering the price of the unit could they not have included somethig other than fricking earbuds. I hate em, hate em, hate em.
4) The Ipod itself; I was amazed at how solidly built it is. Other than the hold button, no moving parts externally?! Compared to my previous hard drive mp3 player (Rio Riot), it is simply on another plane of existence.
5) Ease of use; I can't quite use it one handed, but that doesn't bother me. I find that when I am walking with it, or using it anywhere other than at a desk I have the hold button on. The touch buttons seem 'too' sensitive. I find that the ease of navigation isn't particularly any better on the Ipod than the Rio Riot though; when you've got 1000's of songs, it just becomes a pain in the ###. Also, I find that adding individual songs to 'on the go' playlists only works when I add songs ffrom the 'song' sub menu item, and not when browsing through the artist or album list. Maybe I'm doing somehting wrong.
6) The screen; I'm in love with it. I haven't got the best eyesite in the world, needing reading glasses. I found that the contrast on my Rio Riot was very washed out, and the backlighting was a joke (in the dark, the backlight made it harder to read as pradoxical as that sounds). Here, I was able to adjust tyhe contrast to my liking, and the backlighting is very useful.
7) Included software; can't say because I haven't used it. I did have Musicmatch Jukebox on my Rio Riot, and got rid of it, instead going with Sveta Portable audio. Prior to buying my Ipod though, I had downloaded and installed ITunes for Windows. Finally, one piece of software that rips, burns, transfers and does basic tag editing. Thats all I want or need. Oh yeah, I can also spend my money though IStore if it comes ot Canada :)
8) Sound quality; I'm not an audiophile, and most of the time, I'm quite happy with a 128 kbps mp3 (I listen to an awful lot of old time radio shows at 24 and 32 kbps). When I'm ripping my CD's to go on the Ipod, I'm using AAC @ 96 kbps, and find that I like the results....muchly
Overall impressions; I'm very pleased with the Ipod, and it seems well supported, with plenty of extras and accessories to throw my $ at. Nice sound, and easy to use downloadable software (ITunes). Small drawbacks I find, are the earphoens and carrying case. It's hard to assign a numerical score, so about all I can say is that I would recommedn it to other people.
Wishlist for the future? Oh, lets say built in 802.11 a/b/g for transfer to or from other computers or Ipods.
Tom