First Impressions of 80GB iPod (+evo3)

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wolfpacker

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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? :mad: 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?
 

wolfpacker

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I can't believe I forgot to mention the lack of power charger. Pretty big omission. With 80Gigs, I don't have to sync to the computer much. But Apple forces me to tether to the computer to recharge? Complete Bull, IMO.
 

baggss

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I don't think my 60Gb came with a charger either. It's not anything new, and I just use my old charger from my 4th Gen or the one from my wife's 3rd Gen.

Would you rather have paid the old price, say the 4th Gen price (!$450 for the 60Gb), than what you paid, just to get a charger?
 

Aceon6

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FWIW, I have the same combo (albeit in white) with similar issues regarding library size. I haven't experience any of the things wolfpacker has... at least not yet. My shuffle albums is working fine and I haven't had any freezes. Album art is there, although I did spend about 6 hours last weekend making sure it was in order. Keeping fingers crossed.

As for the holes in the back of the eVo with the clip removed, I just inserted a piece of the protector film from the iPod packaging.
 
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Just as an aside, while this may be a surprise to those who are only upgrading from 4G unit, the lack of power charger is not a new thing. Apple stopped including the charger originally with the 2nd-Gen Minis and refreshed 4G "iPod Colour" units in March-June 2005.

No iPod has come bundled with the AC adapter since the 4G iPod photo.
 

silvery

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First of all, thanks for posting your experience with it in detail. From what I've read, your experience has been very similar to mine, you love the same things I love, being a previous 4G person.

wolfpacker said:
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. :(
This is exactly what I experienced but not after my first sync, but rather a few days after I owned it, and had happened 4 times. After posting my sound issue in one of the stickies here in the forums, a few folks suggest I take it back. I did so this morning, explained the problem in detail and the specifics, after intently listening to me, the nice man exchanged my iPod for another 80GB black and I am now sync-ing it, I hope the same problem is not there anymore, I will definately post if I encounter it. I am sorry you are having this problem, but at the same time I'm somewhat relieved that I was not the only one with this particular issue, it only seems to happen after big sync-ing sessions. I did not have an issue with album art however.

As far as the Search button, I think I read in the features guide that you can use the right arrow to insert a space as you would do on some cell phones (don't kill me if I'm wrong, lol). In any case, I'm sure it's covered in this detailed features guide available here (I still need to read it all to become familiar with all the new things since the 4G):
http://www.apple.com/support/manuals/ipod/
Fifth Generation iPod (Late 2006) Features Guide (Manual)


TheBigNewt said:
The Apple charger is like $30 with no cord. What a ripoff.
Again don't kill me if I'm wrong, lol, but I think the new smaller Apple charger comes with a cord this time around.
 
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silvery

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YQW. :) Well so far so good on this second 80GB black, song started up no problems, let's see how it behaves over the next few days. Art work is there. A game and a movie I bought a few days ago transferred no problem.

About your worry about the 2 holes on the back of the evo3, I could be your twin, lol. Anyways, I noticed that this pod does not heat up that much compared to the 4G, so with this second one I removed the protective plastic that comes on the front of it when it's brand new, trimmed off the dock flap and slapped it on the back of the iPod. I hope this is a "safe" thing to do, not quite sure, time will tell, wonder if anyone else did the same.....

BTW is your "show art work box" (not exact phrasing) checked on the main page for the iPod when you have it plugged into iTunes? (I assume it is....)



Edit: I spoke/posted too soon. :(( I was on my way to do prep work for dinner, turned it on to desired playlist, it plays the sound but with a stutter, highly distorted, I'm very sad don't know what to do, are these just a bad batch of pods? Confused and sad..........
 
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silvery

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An update: I called the Apple Store, spoke to someone who told me to bring it in right away so they could hear what's going on, of course once I got there, the pod was playing fine. Who feels like a crazy customer? *Raises hand. I didn't have time for them to replicate the issue today so came back with the same pod and we're taking a wait and see attitude while I do a clean install of iTunes 7.0 and see if the issue repeats, if it does I guess I take it back when I have lots of time so they can replicate the issue and see what I'm talking about, wishing I had a laptop to make this easier, just might take my Vaio desktop in........anyways really need to make dinner now, lol. After I do clean install of iTunes will post on my progress, hope other folks with the same issue will post about their particulars, keep us up to date, thanks. Wondering if it's a windows issue only. :(

Editing to say I headed downstairs, knowing it was working fine in the Apple store, played my playlist nada zip nothing, no sound at all, tried a few different tracks, nothing, different albums, playlist, no sound!, same thing as wolfpacker described before timer not moving forward, etc........doing soft reset so I can at least listen to music while I cook what will be a lot simpler than I orignally had planned: lasagna. Wishing the Apple Manager heard my pod(or not heard, lol) now.
 
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wolfpacker

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OK, I finally have artwork on my iPod, but it took me most of the evening.
There is definitely a problem related to size (who says size doesn't matter?).

When I got home last night, I checked to make sure the check buttom for artwork
was checked. It was (as I suspected). I then unchecked and it deleted
artwork from the iPod. Once it was done, I checked it again and it started the
process of loading the artwork.

Eventually, I got the message that the iPod was full. Now, the first time I loaded
the iPod, I started with a playlist that iTunes recognized was too big. I pared it
down until it was able to start downloading. BUT, at the end of the download, it
popped up the full message and said some songs left off. Well, I didn't want iTunes to
decide what not to put on there, so I deleted a bunch of songs off the playlist I
was syncing and hit sync. After a couple of tries doing that, I got a completion.
But even though it said complete in this scenario, artwork wasn't complete.

So, back to last night. Full iPod. Well, I deleted some more stuff and resync'd ok.
Still no artwork. I unchecked artwork and rechecked. Full again. But this time, it
looked like it didn't really delete what was already there. iTunes showed that the Other
category had a large size.

I deleted some more stuff, and did a restore to the iPod. Started downloading the whole thing again. When it was done, it now said I had 2GB free. No error messages this time. I ejected the iPod and checked and now I have album art.

Also, thus far this morning after the reload, I have NOT seen the no time advancing/no sound when playing thing.
 

CrouchingDonkey

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I only got mine yesterday, and so far so good - no issues. Everything seems to be working as it should!

Although I got a Radio Remote too, and it's a little hissy, but I've posted about it on another thread, so I won't repeat here.

Anyway, as this thread is titled 'First Impressions of 80GB iPod', I thought I'd give you mine.

Some of you have mentioned about the lack of power charger. Yes, I agree that by cutting out certain things from the package, Apple can reduce it's pricing, but it makes the product feel pretty basic.

In comparison to what you get with the 5Gs, the 4G photo felt much more like a luxury item. There was a wow factor to unboxing the 4G photo, which is lacking I think, in the 5G. Not only did you get a power charger included, you also got the dock, a set of AV cables, a proper 'clip' case, a USB AND a Firewire cable, and of course the iTunes CD. Everything you needed in fact to access all functions of the 4G photo. All this, in a beautifully designed box! Oh, those were the days! I dunno, maybe I'm sucker for good packaging?!

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the cheaper prices, but I think perhaps charge a little more and include the charger. Even if you're an existing iPod owner, an extra charger can be pretty handy, for around the home, and work - especially if you work in one of those places where they don't allow you to plug anything into the PCs for fear of viruses!

On the upside though, and having gotten over my unboxing traumas, I find the G5 to sound a lot richer than the 4G. I can't identify what exactly has improved, but all I know is it sounds better. I think this may have something to do with the 'set your own volume limit' feature. My original 4G photo was bought in New York, and as you may know, they don't have volume restrictions on iPods in the states. But last year, the HD died, and I took it to the Apple store in London, where I lived at the time, London that is, not the Apple store. They replaced it - no questions asked, which really impressed me as I'd long lost the receipt. Anyway, the replacement was a UK spec iPod, so it had the volume limited as standard. For some reason, this limiting doesn't just reduce the volume. It somehow 'thins' the sound too. With the limit off on my 5G, even at lower volumes, the sound is still much richer and punchier than higher volumes on the old iPod.

Has anyone from the UK got one of the new iPods? Do they still restrict the volume as standard?

(Just to avoid any confusion, I live in HK now, so I got my 5G here - no volume restriction)
 

Parrothead Phan

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CrouchingDonkey said:
On the upside though, and having gotten over my unboxing traumas, I find the G5 to sound a lot richer than the 4G. I can't identify what exactly has improved, but all I know is it sounds better. I think this may have something to do with the 'set your own volume limit' feature.
I've noticed the same thing as well. I also noticed that my 1G Nano sounded "richer" than my old 4G photo, so I wonder if Apple is now using the audio processor from the Nano in the new 5G iPods.
 

silvery

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Crazy customer saga continues....... So I did my clean install of iTunes 7.0 the other day. I waited before I sync-ed the pod with it. Once I did, I unplugged, tested a track, all was good (as it usually is). About half an hour later I went to lay down and enjoy my music, sound issue manifested itself but in a brand new way, this time the timeline WAS moving forward, the play button was displaying, yet no sound, I switched headphones, no sound, switched tracks, nothing, checked volume limiter which I had not set yet, etc. So I was like great, put the pod on my bedside table, finally deciding to take this 2nd 80GB back to the Apple store for the second time, hoping the Asst Mgr who knew my issues and my history would be there, clearing an appointment I had in the morning so I would have time to hang around there long enough for them to see the issue. The thing is as soon as I walk into the store with the iPod, it plays beautifully for them, lol, my ipod is haunting me.

So this morning I picked up the pod hit play, same issue, nothing had changed. I took it into the store so they could finally see what I've been talking about, of course I park, walk in, looked for the Asst Mgr but he wasn't in today. So someone approached me and helped me - but of course, the thing is working great for him!! Talk about frustration. Every one of them has been super nice, always telling me they believe me, but this person said since he can't see the problem, there's nothing to do. Recommending I wait a while and played with it more before I bring it back to the store, he was thinking the issue would go away after another iTunes upgrade. But iTunes works fine for me, these songs play fine in it, I've had no crashes with 7.0. This had already been my second trip back since I had exchanged my first 80GB black. He said I was welcome to hang out and see if the problem manifested again, but I told him it usually happens after syncing and the Asst Mgr was going to hook it up to a windows machine so we could replicate the issue however long it takes. I was then informed they no longer have a windows machine in the back as I was previously told. So I left, wondering if I should take a "wait and see" attitude, even though I had already done that with both of the 80GB already. I thought, next time I'll bring in my desktop and we'd get to the bottom of it.

I sat down in my car, then pulled out my iPod again one last time before I left, knowing full well it was playing fine for him a second ago, hit play - NEW PROBLEM, he had been playing the track so it was like on 1minute something, the pod showed it was playing, but it was stuck at that time frame, as it had been stuck at 0:00 before, and no sound, I literally ran back into the store and this guy was helping someone else, I interrupted and asked him to look at the screen. Finally it was doing it inside the Apple store! So I was told to make appt with Genius, did that, but before I did, had the Genius look at the screen in case my pod decided to make me look like a crazy customer once again, LOL.

Thankfully, for my sanity, the pod actually remained frozen the whole time while I waited for the Genius, I repeated my sound story for what seemed like the 20th time. He listened patiently and carefully. Asked me questions, decided to restore the pod at the genius bar and see what happens, apparently he had the same issue so he proclaimed my 2nd 80GB "toast" and now I have been given a 3rd 80GB Black iPod, I half-jokingly asked for a really different serial number then my previous ones, hoping that I was just encountering a bad batch of them. So that's where it stands, I'm afraid to open this box at the moment, will probably unbox it this evening and see what happens. I almost want to drive to another city and exchange it unopened for a 4th, lol, just to really, really make sure it's from another batch, but that would seriously complicate things so I'm not gonna do that.
I really really really hope that this pod does the one thing it's supposed to do reliably - play music! (for the first time today I regretted selling my 4G). Intermittent problems suck!


Edit: Update on MY THIRD 80GB BLACK iPOD - I have put approx 14 GB of music only on it to test this thing out. Disconnected, and right away I notice that the HD is warm, this really didn't happen with my previous 2 ones (previously I thought this was a nice new feature, lol), they were barely lukewarm, this one is more like my 4G used to be, and there's this weird yellowish color on the screen, hmmmm. Music played fine though. :) So now gonna fill it with my usual playlists and play over the next few days and hope and pray that all is good with this one. Bit worried about the screen, gonna test vid next. Thankfully I don't have any issues with iTunes itself whatsoever - that could have made this whole ordeal even more frustrating then it already is.
 
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swe3t23

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i have the same problem where after i sync my ipod, and i play it there is no sound and it just has 0:00 on. What should i do. I mean if i restart i by pressing Menu and the select it works fine, but i have to do ever so ofter. What should i do bring it back. I just got this 80 gig right after christmas.
 

paranoidxe

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swe3t23 said:
i have the same problem where after i sync my ipod, and i play it there is no sound and it just has 0:00 on. What should i do. I mean if i restart i by pressing Menu and the select it works fine, but i have to do ever so ofter. What should i do bring it back. I just got this 80 gig right after christmas.
Try a restore.
 

silvery

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swe3t23 said:
i have the same problem where after i sync my ipod, and i play it there is no sound and it just has 0:00 on. What should i do. I mean if i restart i by pressing Menu and the select it works fine, but i have to do ever so ofter. What should i do bring it back. I just got this 80 gig right after christmas.

Hey dear, please go read this other thread here:
http://forums.ilounge.com/showthread.php?t=175400&page=3

That "solution" might work for you, at least I hope so.....
 
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