wolfpacker
New member
- Joined
- Jun 14, 2003
- Messages
- 464
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First, some background to set the stage:
I'm a long-time iPod owner. Bought the 1st gen 5GB when they did the $499 -> $399 price drop, and then bought a 4th gen 40GB when it first came out. I'm also a Mac user. My 40GB iPod died on me while travelling in Germany this past summer. I got by with the old 1st gen while waiting for new models to be released. I have around 120GB of music in my iTunes, so wanted the largest capacity iPod available.
I stopped by the Apple store Saturday and no iPods yet, so I called again yesterday morning and they had some. I stopped in at lunch and picked up a Black 80GB and a black iSkin evo3. When I got back to work, I hooked it up and downloaded some songs from my work machine just to get a feel for things. I charged the iPod and placed it in the evo3.
iSkin evo3:
I'm impressed with how much they've improved since my iSkin for my 4th gen. But while I like the new texture, it collects a lot of lint. The screen also smudges and scratches too easily. I was hoping I could fit the iPod in the little sleeve it came with even with the iSkin on it, but no luck. I need to find some sort of sleeve I can leave it in.
I really do like the new look, and like having the scroll wheel covered. I do worry a bit that having the clip removed leaves two holes in the back. Was hoping they'd address this.
The hold button thing is strange. But I almost never used my hold button on my 4th gen, so no real biggie.
The iPod itself:
filling the iPod:
OK, the windows work machine download went fine for the small # of songs I used as a test. When I got home, I spent about 3 hours creating a playlist to fill my iPod. I copied ALL my 120GB to the playlist, then started pruning. It started getting painful around 85GB. With trial and error, It looked like I had to get the playlist down to below 73GB before it would sync. I went to bed one the syncing was well underway.
This morning, even though iTunes was the only application using the iPod, it wouldn't let me eject the iPod. I finally had to shut iTunes to be able to eject. Very annoying.
One cool thing, the icon for the iPod on my desktop shows it as a Black iPod. Too Cool.
Playing Music:
Once I got it ejected, I headed out to the car to go to work. Hit shuffle songs. 13, 260 songs! Cool. One thing I've noticed with the color screen, once the backlighting shuts off, it is almost impossible to read in the car. Unlike my old monochrome. Annoying. I have been thinking about a new car, and will have to really check out the iPod integration. My current car, I just use the tape adapter and keep the iPod in the dashboard cup holder.
I get to work, pause the iPod, head inside and go to get coffee. When I finally start to listen to the iPod this morning, it shows the "play" arrow icon, but the time isn't incrementing and no sound. I tried and tried, but no luck. Really upset to hit a bug so quick. Really upset. I had to reboot to fix.
Was bummed to notice that I have no album art. WTF? Is it because my iPod is so full? I got no warning in iTunes that I noticed.
One thing I noticed yesterday, it seems like if the Settings have Shuffle by Album, then the "Shuffle Songs" now shuffles albums. Before it used to just shuffle by song. If you actually wanted Shuffle by Album you had to go to Music and hit play. The new behavior seems more "correct", but I kinda had gotten used to the old behavior and liked it.
Games:
I grew to really like the Solitaire game in my 4th gen (and missed it when I went back to the 1st gen). Solitaire is much improved in the color version. The scroll works different, so that took some getting used to, but is actually probably better. I may have to download a couple of games in the future.
Search:
The Letters thing that pops up when scrolling is really cool. Very, very helpful. Took me a minute to find the Search. I was expecting it available within Artists or Songs and didn't realize it was a new option under the main Music menu.
From my brief time playing with it, it looks like there is no Space option when entering a name to search for. Pretty big omission to me. Apple really needs to fix, IMO.
Video/Photos:
No video or photos for me yet. I plan to explore this brave new world (for me). But for now, I wanna just enjoy all this music.
Other:
I'm really disappointed that we are all the way up to version 5.5 of the iPod hardware (not to mention SW levels) and there is no way to control Balance. I'd really like to make the left ear slightly louder than the right to adjust for my hearing.
Summary:
1) Overal impressions of new iPod and iSkin very favorable.
2) Having to reset so soon really worries me
3) Where is my album art?
I'm a long-time iPod owner. Bought the 1st gen 5GB when they did the $499 -> $399 price drop, and then bought a 4th gen 40GB when it first came out. I'm also a Mac user. My 40GB iPod died on me while travelling in Germany this past summer. I got by with the old 1st gen while waiting for new models to be released. I have around 120GB of music in my iTunes, so wanted the largest capacity iPod available.
I stopped by the Apple store Saturday and no iPods yet, so I called again yesterday morning and they had some. I stopped in at lunch and picked up a Black 80GB and a black iSkin evo3. When I got back to work, I hooked it up and downloaded some songs from my work machine just to get a feel for things. I charged the iPod and placed it in the evo3.
iSkin evo3:
I'm impressed with how much they've improved since my iSkin for my 4th gen. But while I like the new texture, it collects a lot of lint. The screen also smudges and scratches too easily. I was hoping I could fit the iPod in the little sleeve it came with even with the iSkin on it, but no luck. I need to find some sort of sleeve I can leave it in.
I really do like the new look, and like having the scroll wheel covered. I do worry a bit that having the clip removed leaves two holes in the back. Was hoping they'd address this.
The hold button thing is strange. But I almost never used my hold button on my 4th gen, so no real biggie.
The iPod itself:
filling the iPod:
OK, the windows work machine download went fine for the small # of songs I used as a test. When I got home, I spent about 3 hours creating a playlist to fill my iPod. I copied ALL my 120GB to the playlist, then started pruning. It started getting painful around 85GB. With trial and error, It looked like I had to get the playlist down to below 73GB before it would sync. I went to bed one the syncing was well underway.
This morning, even though iTunes was the only application using the iPod, it wouldn't let me eject the iPod. I finally had to shut iTunes to be able to eject. Very annoying.
One cool thing, the icon for the iPod on my desktop shows it as a Black iPod. Too Cool.
Playing Music:
Once I got it ejected, I headed out to the car to go to work. Hit shuffle songs. 13, 260 songs! Cool. One thing I've noticed with the color screen, once the backlighting shuts off, it is almost impossible to read in the car. Unlike my old monochrome. Annoying. I have been thinking about a new car, and will have to really check out the iPod integration. My current car, I just use the tape adapter and keep the iPod in the dashboard cup holder.
I get to work, pause the iPod, head inside and go to get coffee. When I finally start to listen to the iPod this morning, it shows the "play" arrow icon, but the time isn't incrementing and no sound. I tried and tried, but no luck. Really upset to hit a bug so quick. Really upset. I had to reboot to fix.
Was bummed to notice that I have no album art. WTF? Is it because my iPod is so full? I got no warning in iTunes that I noticed.
One thing I noticed yesterday, it seems like if the Settings have Shuffle by Album, then the "Shuffle Songs" now shuffles albums. Before it used to just shuffle by song. If you actually wanted Shuffle by Album you had to go to Music and hit play. The new behavior seems more "correct", but I kinda had gotten used to the old behavior and liked it.
Games:
I grew to really like the Solitaire game in my 4th gen (and missed it when I went back to the 1st gen). Solitaire is much improved in the color version. The scroll works different, so that took some getting used to, but is actually probably better. I may have to download a couple of games in the future.
Search:
The Letters thing that pops up when scrolling is really cool. Very, very helpful. Took me a minute to find the Search. I was expecting it available within Artists or Songs and didn't realize it was a new option under the main Music menu.
From my brief time playing with it, it looks like there is no Space option when entering a name to search for. Pretty big omission to me. Apple really needs to fix, IMO.
Video/Photos:
No video or photos for me yet. I plan to explore this brave new world (for me). But for now, I wanna just enjoy all this music.
Other:
I'm really disappointed that we are all the way up to version 5.5 of the iPod hardware (not to mention SW levels) and there is no way to control Balance. I'd really like to make the left ear slightly louder than the right to adjust for my hearing.
Summary:
1) Overal impressions of new iPod and iSkin very favorable.
2) Having to reset so soon really worries me
3) Where is my album art?