ENTERTAINMENT ON THE GO

Author's Rating:

Pros: Fits easily in the pocket. Great Design/looks. Music, Video's Photos and more on the go.

Cons: Prone to scratches. No Live Radio. Video Campatibilty Limitations.

The Bottom Line: 
Stylish, Easy to carry, Data on the go, New and improved features with bigger screen, longer battery life. Buy a decent case to protect from daily wear ¢¼

Author's Review
I say the Apple iPod is a hard drive on the go that plays music, video and much more. iPod lets you keep a grip on all things in your palm. The all famous “Click Wheel” gives you access to your entire music, photo and video library from one thumb and in one hand. Control volume and browse using the touch-sensitive surface. You have the play/Pause, forward, rewind and menu buttons only and just click the center wheel to select what you want. You turn the volume up or down or browse the menu by simply moving your thumb clock or anti-clock wise. There is the hold button on the top so that you do not skip a song or accidently change the volume as the click wheel is really sensitive. So Here are some of the details
Capacity: 60GB (15,000 songs or 22,000 Pictures or 150 hrs of video) You Choose
Screen: 2.5 inches with a resolution of 320x240

Color: Available in Black or White, I went for the black model as it is easier to focus more on the screen if you are watching videos and does not have glare that you may find in white ipod’s. I can say this first had as my girlfriend has a white video iPod.

Price to Value: To be really honest I cannot see my self downloading 15,000 songs or 25,000 pictures. Video’s is a possibility though as it has a capacity of 150 hours, Roughly 85 movies got to do it. But you got to take one thing into consideration that is the cost of downloading music from itunes or other places LEGALLY ofcourse and the cost of downloading video’s and movies, Audiobooks and podcasts. Over the years or maybe months you would pay more for this service than the actual ipod itself.

Battery Life: Apple states up to 20 hours of music but changing songs manually, and turning on the backlight will use up your battery considerably faster and that is exactly what I do jump from one playlist to the other and adjusting the volumes on few songs and that reduces the battery life. You can also watch videos for up to 3 hours. I have not personally watched the videos for that long but I have seen my battery meter go down substantially if I watch a video for about 30 minutes. Ipod has to be connected to your computer through USB 2.0 inorder to update and charge via the dock connector at the bottom of the unit. So better have your laptop handy with you on those long vacations!

EXTRA FEATURES:
Games: Comes with Pre-Load games-Brick, Music Quiz, Parachute (reminds of Atari) and the all famous solitaire and plus you can download more for $$$
Contact: You may import all your contacts from your outlook account
Calendar: Colorful calendar compatible with your outlook and another reason not to miss any appointments
Clock: Nice clock for easy access and world time.
Notes: This is where you could store your back-up files from your computer just in case if something does go wrong. I like to call it a mobile hard drive with music and videos.
Stopwatch: If you like to run, time yourself and listen to music all at the same time then wear your Arm-band with an ipod case and just keep running with the tunes.
Screen Lock: Password protect your ipod to avoid anyone digging into your personal data without authorization.

AV Output: You have to buy the dock separately which includes s-video output, so you can show off slideshows and video, on a television. There are also ipod A/V cables available that allow composite video and audio output, for connecting your iPod to your television good for watching music videos on a television or connecting your ipod to a AV receiver. I have a Denon AV receiver and Definitive Sound Speaker system and it is fun creating a customized playlist for a party or an occasion and let ipod do the rest rather than just playing a few CD’s from a few artists.

Convenience: Easy portability in your pocket, purse or a back pack. Show your vacation pictures to friends, watch home video, listen to music anywhere.

Quality and Appearance: I think the ipod looks very elegent and rich secondly not too many buttons to push around. The quality of sound is awesome and the video quality is excellent based on its size. However you could buy better headset's from Bose or Sony seperately and get a even better sound.

What Comes in the Box?
iPod, Ear Phones, dock connector to USB 2.0 cable, Instruction manual, CD and a nice cloth case for the iPod and iPod dock adapter to connect to the dock station (If you buy one). The original iPod package box itself could be used as a safe storage for the iPod at home.

What else?
Download Organize your music, video’s, audiobooks etc or make playlists on itunes on your computer and then sync your ipod and it automatically updates. You may also download selected episodes from some TV Shows for free on itunes to get you started with your video collection and you get 1 free download a week picked by itune staff if you register your ipod. No Live Radio. Only supports MPEG4 Videos and you maybe available to convert video to this format by downloading or buying converting softwares (I have not tried this. Scratches and fingerprints are more visible on black ipods than on white ones. You can add all your current CD's to itunes and start listening to music right away. There are many other accessories you could buy for your ipod ranging from few to hundreds of dollars. But to be honest what comes in the box is all you need to get started and Rock n Roll.