Apple iPod 5 GB

TRUST the folks at Apple to think differently, this time coming up with their own MP3 player, called the iPod. Of course, MP3 players have been around for years, but this is an MP3 player like no other.
For starters, it is only the size of a deck of cards, yet it contains a 5GB hard disk, which means you can store up to 1,000 songs in it. That equals about 77 CDs worth of music, assuming that each CD has 13 songs on it.

The iPod only measures 6.17 x 10.21 x 1.9 cm and weighs 184.3 grams. On top of that, it looks absolutely cool and well-designed; the iPod drew lots of attention during our testing period.

Easy to use

Apple has always been known for its user interfaces, and the company doesn’t disappoint with the iPod.

The iPod sports a 1.5 x 1.5in screen with very crisp text, and a bright backlight in case you need to use it in the dark. Long-time Mac users will recognise the Chicago font used on the iPod screen; Chicago was the default Mac OS font for many years.

The iPod’s buttons consist of a rotating jog wheel and a button in the middle. The button is used to make selections, while the jog wheel is used for menu navigation.

The jog wheel also has four buttons within it that control volume, track selection, fast forward/rewind, backlight and sleep modes.

While the iPod controls are different from other MP3 players, I quickly got used to them, and it became apparent they were designed for one-handed use.

Apple’s iTunes 2 music program is used for transferring music to the iPod. The program can automatically synchronise the Mac’s MP3 files with the iPod, or you can add or delete songs manually.

Fast connect

The iPod connects to Macs via a FireWire connector, which lets users transfer loads of files in a jiffy. For instance, I transferred my entire MP3 file collection (421 files, 1.83GB) in just six minutes and 29 seconds. With a USB-based MP3 device, moving over that amount of data would have taken 30 minutes or longer.

If you’re just transferring MP3 songs encoded from one CD to the iPod, it should take no more than 10 to 15 seconds.

The vast amount of storage means you can store your entire music collection. Also, you can encode your MP3s at 160kbps or higher (which results in larger files), rather than the common encoding rate of 128kbps.

More discerning listeners could encode their MP3 at very high rates like 192, 256, and 320kbps, or even just copy over uncompressed audio files.

Note that various blindfold tests have revealed that even audiophiles have trouble telling apart MP3 music encoded at 160kbps or higher, and music from original CDs.

Rugged, long-lasting

The iPod also has 32MB of cache memory which allows for 20 minutes of skip protection. In terms of power consumption, the iPod comes with a built-in rechargeable lithium polymer battery. Apple claims the lithium battery will provide about 10 hours of playtime, and my tests showed that this was not too far off. I managed to get slightly over nine hours of playtime off our test unit.

Connecting an iPod to a Mac also charges the iPod’s battery, or you can use the included multi-voltage AC adapter.

In addition, the iPod doubles as a portable FireWire hard disk.

One can reportedly boot a PowerMac off an iPod, though I didn’t get the chance to test this. Even the headphones that come with the iPod are a bit different.

Apple says they were engineered with Neodymium transducer magnets for enhanced frequency response and high-fidelity sound. However, not being an audiophile, I can’t verify this claim, but the headphones do certainly sound better than the ones included with other MP3 players and portable audio players.

The iPod even has a secret built-in game.

Macs only

If there is one drawback to the iPod, it’s that it only works with Apple’s systems and notebooks, which includes the recent PowerMacs, iMacs, PowerBooks and iBooks. You’d also need a FireWire connection to access the iPod, so that rules out Apple’s own first generation iMacs and G3 PowerMacs.

There is hope for the Mac-less though; a company called Mediafour (www.mediafour.com/) is working on XPlay, a program that lets the iPod connect to a Windows-based PC. As a matter of fact, they've created one! Check out the website for further information.

I'm not sure the price here in UK, but in US, it is around $350

Conclusion

The iPod is a great product for music lovers, provided they have access to a Mac. It has an unbeatable combination of compactness, storage space, ruggedness and long battery life.