Apple iPod 60 GB

Author's product rating:   

Sound Quality	Excellent
Ease of Use	Simple
Look & Design	Excellent
Range of Features	Diverse
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	Huge memory, can store and show photos
Disadvantages:	Not able to edit song titles, memos, calendar etc

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

My mother gives good presents. And in order to beat the rush, she gives them to me early, which is why I now have an iPod Photo a whole month before Christmas. I've never had one before so I was a bit worried at first because I thought I might have to have an Apple computer before I could use it, but my fears were unfounded as it runs on windows software as well.

So, delving into the goody bag I was given, I found a cube-shaped box which, on careful application of pressure and fingernails, opened like a shell to reveal the treasure within - an iPod 60GB photo! The elegant, smooth white casing, the shiny metal posterior, the gorgeous little screen, the fondle-and-click control... this is one sexy piece of computer hardware!

*dribble*

Sorry, where was I... oh yes. Also inside the box was a strange looking plug with an adapter to clip it onto, a USB connector, earphones and the instruction manual and CD ROM. The CD contains the software to put on your computer in order to add songs to your iPod.

Mother (Gawd Bless Her) also bought me a carrying case, a dock and a doughnut-shaped speaker system to go with it.

In order to use your iPod, you must first install the software from the CD onto your computer. I have a laptop. (My laptop actually has less memory than the iPod! *stunned*) The iTunes software gives you complete control over your iPod, handles the music library on your computer and gives you access to the iTunes website where you can download thousands of songs (but you'll have to pay for them of course!) and Podcasts -a Podcast is like a radio programme, you can download and listen to it, and it can update automatically when a new version is available. I have seen many websites that have made their own Podcasts and send them out like a newsletter. You can also download album pictures and audio books, and when you put a new CD into your computer it automatically checks their database for the song titles so that you don't have to type them all in yourself.

Once the software was installed, I plugged in the iPod to the computer using the USB cable (You need USB 2.0 in order to use the iPod - because it is a high-powered connection and charges the battery at the same time as transmitting data). The first time you plug it in, it formats the iPod for use with your computer. A big red "no-entry" sign pops up on the iPod's screen to let you know it is transmitting data. When it is finished, you will then be able to start putting your songs onto the iPod.

This is done either by downloading from the iTunes website (assuming you have an internet connection and bottomless purse) or by copying your CDs - for personal use only, of course! So I started off by copying my Rolling Stones album onto the computer and then onto the iPod. Then I deleted the songs from the computer so as not to take up all the disk space. Then they disappeared from the iPod.

I was puzzled, to say the least.

After reading the manual, I discovered that this was because they songs are not simply "copied" to the iPod, they are "synched" - which means the iPod updates itself to whatever is in your music library when you connect the two together. While I can see where this would be fine if you have a computer with a larger memory than the iPod and you keep all your music on it anyway, this is no good for me so I searched for, and quickly found, the option to turn off the auto-synch, so I could then just drag the music files into the iPod window manually and then delete from my laptop without losing them again from the iPod.

Also, I don't know if it's my laptop or what, but recording the cd's to the laptop seemed to take ages - at least a minute and a half for each one, but once on the computer, they downloaded almost instantly to the iPod.

Right, so now I've got a few songs in there, I can tell you about the various features of the iPod. The iPod is about the size of a pack of cigarettes or playing cards, has a 2" colour lcd screen, weighs only 181 grams and is quite slim. The battery is internal and is rechargable, charging each time it is connected to the computer or to the plug/adaptor wotsit. On the front, below the screen, there is the thing called the "Click-Wheel" - a circular, touch-sensitive pad with a button in the centre. Each point of the compass on the wheel is assigned a function as well - north is the menu, east is skip forward, west is skip back, south is play/pause. When navigating through the on-screen menus, moving your finger around the touch-sensitive wheel moves through the menu options and the centre button is used to select the option. Pressing Menu takes you back to the previous screen. When playing music, moving your finger round the wheel controls the volume.

The first screen that shows up is the main menu - you can change the options shown, but at first it will show the main functions: Music, Photos, Extras, Settings. Navigating down into each menu takes you to a new set of menus. The music menu shows the categories which the songs are sorted by. You can sort by artist, album, genre (rock, pop, r&b etc), last time played, most played, any kind of sorting you can think of really.

The Photos menu shows the photo library and the slideshow settings. You can store up to 25,000 photos - depending on size, obviously! - you can scroll through them with the click-wheel, or you can set up a slideshow, using your favourite music, and plug your iPod into a tv or projector to let everybody see and hear (need an extra cable for this though!). You can also associate a picture with a song, so that it will be displayed every time that song is played.

To get photos onto your iPod, you synchronize them in the same way as the music. You can choose which folders on your computer to get them from, so it doesn't just download everything! You can also get another optional cable which lets you connect your iPod straight to your digital camera - which I will definitely get! This is really handy as you can take loads of pictures then save the lot to the iPod, then take loads more pictures! I went to Dixons to see if they had one, but the gormless sales assistant denied that they existed, even though it says in the manual that they do!

The Extras menu contains the setting for the clock, where you can set the alarm clock, Contacts - you can download V-cards onto the iPod from your computer (from Outlook), Calendar - you can synch this with your computer too - Notes, you can write stuff in notepad and save onto the iPod, and also a few games. The games are pretty simple, only the bat&ball game, solitaire and a game where you can shoot people dropping out of helicopters - and also a guess the song game, where it plays tiny snippets of songs and you have to choose the title of the song that you think it is. Strangely though, it does not save your high score.

On the Settings menu you can choose all sorts of settings - ranging from what you want to show up on the main screen (i.e. shortcuts to lower menus), to the graphic equalizer which has 23 different settings.

That's enough about the "pros" - I wouldn't want you to think there's nothing that could be improved!

The feature I dislike the most is that EVERYTHING has to be updated through your computer. You cannot add new contacts on-the-go, you can't delete pictures or songs, you can't add notes, calendar entries, appointments etc etc...

I think the worst thing is that, by the time you buy one, it will already be out of date! The next version is about to hit the shops, and has the added feature of being able to watch videos.

I think this cost Mum around £280, but I guess that when the next one comes out the price of this one should drop. So it's up to you - wait for the next version (which will soon be superceded again, no doubt!) or get this one once the price goes down if you're happy not to have video.

Bon Appetite!

****UPDATE****

I did indeed go out and get the camera connector - this is a little piece of plastic with an iPod connection at one end and a USB connection at the other end. You plug your camera into the USB connection and then plug the thing into the iPod. This little bit of plastic cost me £20.

I plugged everything in and the iPod started to download the pictures from my camera automatically. This took about 30 seconds for each photo as the pictures I had taken were wuite large, so I put the iPod to one side to wait... bumping the connector out of it's socket! The iPod completely locked up, I couldn't get it to work! ARGH! I tried putting the connector back in, switching the camera on and off, plugging the iPod into my computer, nothing worked! The iPod does not come with a reset button or manual off switch, so once it locks up in this way you cannot do anything with it!

I decided to wait until the battery had completely run down and then see if this would reset the system. I then had the idea to dock the iPod with the speakers, without plugging them in to the mains, to see if this would run the battery down quicker as otherwise I would have to wait about a day. This did work, the battery ran down in under 2 hours, and when I plugged it in to the mains the iPod lit up and everything is now fine. *phew* What a relief! Thought I'd broken it completely!

Once pictures are transferred to the iPod in this way, you can retrieve them by using the iPod as an external drive as you would with a USB stick, navigate to the right folder and there are your pictures! This is great, because then you don't have to buy any more memory cards for your camera.

So if you get the camera connector to go with your iPod, remember what I've said and be really careful not to knock the connector out of the socket! Other than this it works perfectly!