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Apple iPod

8 days ago, while shopping for a few things at Target, I bought an iPod, hooray! I have of course wanted one since the day they were announced, but finally just went out and bought one last week. I took it to my work, ‘cause I thought that computer had a Firewire port, but it didn’t. And I knew mine didn’t, since it is around 3 years old. So I had to make a trip to Best Buy to buy a Firewire card for my computer as well.

I opened it up in the car on the way to work, and was extremely impressed with just the packaging of it, let alone the actual iPod. The packaging was perfect, every little detail was planned out and fit perfectly. For example, the AC power adapter was embedded down inside the styrofoam, and normally you would have to dig it out with your finger nails, or turn the whole box upside-down to get it out. But Apple put a little plastic tab on, so you could just grab that and easily pull it right out of the box, amazing! All of the other plastic wrappers and things were easy to open, not need to get out scissors or anything to try to break into the wrappings. There were a couple of vaccuum sealed packages for the earphones, etc, but they had notches in them to help you easily tear them open.

The iPod itself is tiny. Smaller than a deck of cards or pack of cigarettes, easily. It’s very “solid” and feels really sturdy and well-made. The buttons on the front are amazing, none of them move at all, they are all touch-sensitive, including the circular scroll wheel that you use to navigate through the on-screen menus with.

I got the 10gb model, which does not include a case, dock, or wired remote like the next model up, the 20gb. The 20gb model is probably a better deal, since those accessories alone add up to another hundred dollars, not to mention doubling the storage space, but it was a stretch to be able to afford even this model so I am quite happy with it.

The backlight on the screen is really bright, and the menu buttons light up as well, allowing you to very easily see the screen in any lighting conditions.

The interface is perfect, and really easy to use. I’ve had several people try to use it that have never even heard of an iPod before, and they had no trouble immediately figuring out how to use it like a pro. The only thing that isn’t immediately apparent is to hit the “Menu” button to go back a screen in the menus, but when you figure that out, everything else is extremely intuitive and natural.

Unfortunately I still have to connect it to my old Windows PC using the included MusicMatch Jukebox software, rather than iTunes on the Mac. The MusicMatch software isn’t too terrible though, and is pretty easy to use as well. You just create a library in MusicMatch by importing existing songs on your computer, or by ripping new ones from CDs onto it. Then you just hit the Sync button, and it copies all of the songs to the iPod that were in your library. When you delete a song from the library on your PC and Sync, it is automatically deleted from the iPod as well.

Right now I have 1,048 songs on the iPod, and I haven’t even filled it up half-way yet. Wow! Also, most of those are encoded at 192kbps, rather than the more standard 128kbps. The higher bit rate gives a better quality sound, but also increases the file size quite a bit.

My car MP3 CD player has a MP3-in port on the front of it, so I have been plugging my iPod into that, and playing it directly through my car stereo, which is incredibly cool. It only plays on the left speakers though, and I haven’t figured out why yet. I hope it isn’t just a mono in port or something. That would be inconvenient.

Click the read more link to see a few pictures of my new iPod!

Here you can see me pulling off the plastic packaging around the AC adapter. This is how the little tab was attached to help you easily pull the adapter out of the styrofoam packaging.

This is a wider shot showing me and my work area at work. It’s a huge mess, we aren’t the most organized people in the world, as you can see… You can also see the crappy Compaq I have to use all day! Hopefully this will be replaced with a 12” PowerBook soon. :)

After removing the outer cardboard “sheath”, you are presented with this lovely black box. It it cut in half, and folds out. One half contains the iPod and AC adapter, the other has the wires, manuals, software disc, etc.

Here is the iPod case when it is opened, with the iPod on the right and other stuff on the left.

Here you see the star of the show, the iPod itself! The outer plastic packaging says “Don’t Steal Music.” in several different languages. The great thing is, that is basically the only thing stopping you from copying music. There are basically no restrictions on the iPod, unlike most MP3 players.

The back of the iPod, showing you how to do basic things like turn it on, play music, etc., for people that don’t read instruction manuals.

Me reading the manual and holding the iPod. You can get an idea for how small it is, see it in my hand.

Me reading the manual still. You can see the iPod there on my Wacom Tablet, as well as some of the packaging.

Still reading the manual - my wife took these pictures like 10 seconds apart, that’s why it looks like I’m reading the manual for so long, it’s really not that hard to use! You can also see the iPod there compared to my mouse, very small!

This is one side of the outermost packaging, showing the iPod with the backlight glowing, as well as the buttons. It really does glow that strongly!

Check out Apple’s iPod site for more pictures and info on the greatest MP3 player in the world!

Take a look at:
http://www.redchairsoftware.com/anapod/getanapod.php

I’ve been using X-play thus far as Music Match is pretty awful, and it’s very good, however Anapod looks even slicker, particularly with the web based streaming features.

I had the same “left speaker only” issue when connecting to my stereo at work, but I think it was a lousy cord. I bought the Monster Cable sold at the Apple Store (from iPod OUT to RCA IN) and now I get stereo. Could be just a bum cable that’s your problem.

Thanks for the tip Daniel! I’ll buy a new cord and see if that fixes the problem.

Tony, that software looks nice as well. But I’ll hopefully have my powerbook in the next few weeks, so maybe I won’t need it!

Think that opening and using the iPod is a great experience, you should open and use one of Apple’s computers. I found this experience equally if not more mind blowing. Just opening the box is truly exciting, turn it on you won’t be able to rend yourself from it for weeks.

Yeah I can’t wait! I should be getting a Powerbook in the next few weeks I’m hoping, through my work. I hope to get it on a Friday so I can play with it all weekend. I know I won’t get any work done for a while once I get it! :)

Derek

Ha, nice, now you neeed to head over to [url=http://www.ipodlounge.com]iPodlounge[/url] and see all the goodies available to accessorize your iPod.

iTunes for Windows is right around the corner. Or better yet, get yourself a Mac next. If you think the iPod is well-thought-out, you haven;t seen anything until you try Mac OS X.

I thought Target stopped stocking the iPods? They’ve been out of stock for a while. I hope to get one soon, as well.

Target does sell iPods adn iPod minis