The following originally appeared in Valley Scene Magazine in April of 2003:
iPod Review
A column from 3/19/03
I celebrated a birthday recently and decided to give in to my techno-lust by purchasing a 20 Gigabyte iPod. The iPod, a hot seller for Apple Computer, is one of the most popular MP3 player on the market. With its sleek design and mega-massive storage capacity, the iPod gets my vote for Greatest Electronic Gadget of the 00's (just what *are* we calling the current decade? The 0's? The Pre-Teens?).
Let me 'fess up to my lust by stating for the record that my 20 GB iPod is not my first iPod. I bought a 5 GB iPod when they were first available, over a year ago. I loved it and took it with me everywhere. It instantly became my favorite gadget and, not to be dramatic or anything, it changed my life. Having the ability to listen to a customized playlist for hours at a time, well that was just what I always wanted.
You see, I'm a music junkie. Not ashamed of it either. And the iPod takes care of me like the Salvation Army. 5 Gigabytes translated into a little over one thousand songs, which translates into about 3 full days of music. That's 72 hours of uninterrupted sound, how do you like that?
Also, the iPod isn't my first MP3 player. When MP3 fever first hit the computer culture, I bought myself a RIO. It gave me 64 MB of storage space (which was enough for a small-sized CD). Not only was it small, but it connected to my computer via USB (which was snail-slow, taking several minutes to complete a music upload). Unfortunately, this was the best MP3 player on the market.
Then along came Apple's iPod. It literally changed the scene. First off, it was 5 GB, which was a giant step in size. Also, it had a firewire port, which was a giant step in speed.
Let's talk about speed for a second. USB has a data transfer rate of 1.5 Megabits per second. Compare that to firewire's 50 Mbps. To give you a frame of reference, firewire's speed allows me to copy the contents of an entire CD to my iPod in about 10 seconds. That's fast!
Now let me gloat about my 20 GB iPod. If 72 hours wasn't enough, I can put 288 hours of music on my 20 GB iPod, although it is proving to be quite a task. I've copied over every one of my CDs and it's not even halfway full. Good thing I love a challenge.
I also love the extras that come with the iPod, like the earbuds that have a built-in remote control. This feature puts the important controls at my fingertips: Play/Pause, Volume, etc. appear on a nifty clip that attaches to my shirt, making it a breeze to adjust the sound of my iPod, even when it's buried in my pocket.
Speaking of pocket, let me focus a minute on the size of the iPod. It measures 2.4" across by 4" tall by .72" deep. It easily fits in my pocket, and at less than 7 ounces, I hardly notice it's there. Yet another reason why I carry my iPod where ever I go.
Another reason to keep my iPod handy - it doesn't just play music. It also contains a few standard pda applications, such as a calendar and an address book, both which sync up to my iMac. The iPod also syncs up to PCs, so if you're Windows-oriented, fret not. (I'm not sure if this means that Apple will be making more Windows software/hardware. Time will tell.)
Whether you've got a Mac or a PC, Apple gives a little bonus with your iPod - free, yet fantastic, software. Every iPod comes with iTunes, a powerful music library application. It lets you organize the contents of your iPod, create customized, "smart" playlists (such as "Play only the songs that haven't already been played" or "Play only the songs that are less than 7 minutes long").
There's not enough space here to detail all of the cool features, like the amazingly bright backlight, or the breakout game (perfect for the line at the bank), or sleep timer, or the brilliant quality of the headphones. Suffice it to say, in this writer's opinion, there is only one MP3 player to buy. The only real questions are, what size? and how soon?
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