My iPod	SIGPC Vol. 6, No. 5 April 23, 2002

by Scott Tilley

A digital hub isn't complete without a digital music player. One of several extra goodies that I bought with my iMac was an iPod. While it's a bit late to the party, Apple's iPod is the best digital music player I've seen or used. It's about the size of a pack of cards but packs a giant 10GB hard disc for music storage. It plays MP3 files beautifully, sports a wonderful ergonomic design, and has a FireWire connection for fast music transfer. What's not to like? The steep price for one thing, and the Apple-only compatibility for another. The iPod synchronizes in a flash with iTunes on my iMac, but it won't work at all with my PC.

 

In the last issue of SIGPC I described my initial impression of Apple's new iMac. Overall, I felt that the iMac was a very solid computer. Since the article was published, I've continued to experiment with the machine, and my admiration for the Apple engineers and designers has only increased. As a "digital hub," the iMac does quite a good job. The first must-have peripheral I've tried is the new iPod digital music player. It's a winner -- as long as you don't mind coughing up a big chunk of change, and don't plan on using it with a Windows PC.

More Money, More Capacity

The day my iPod arrived, Apple was holding its Macworld Expo show in Tokyo. The iPod was delivered in the afternoon; that same evening, Apple announced that a new, upgraded model was available. Typical. I didn't even bother unwrapping the one I had just received; I shipped it back to Apple, paid the $100 price difference, and ordered the new iPod. I'm glad that I did.

The Apple iPod I originally ordered had a 5GB hard drive and cost $399; the new iPod has a 10GB hard drive and costs $499. I figured the extra $100 was worth the extra 10GB: a 25% price increase for a 100% capacity increase. The 10GB iPod can hold over 2,000 songs in MP3 format when encoded at a bit rate of 160Kbps. Since most people (myself included) typically use a lower bit rate of 128Kbps for CD ripping, the actual capacity of the iPod is even higher. This is a lot of music. I can literally carry in my pocket just about every CD I own. Incredible really.

The iPod plays for about 10 hours on a single charge. The batteries are internal, not removable, and are recharged using the supplied external adapter. The batteries can also be recharged when the iPod is connected to the iMac through its FireWire connection -- the same connection used to move the music between the computer and the player.

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Music Management

When so much storage is available, new issues arise. One of the most important is how to move songs from the computer to the player. Most MP3 players now come with a USB connection, which is fine for small amounts of data. But for 10GB it would take many hours to transfer the files. Fortunately, the iPod comes with a speedy FireWire connection. At 400Mbps, over 30 times faster than USB 1.1, it took me less than 15 minutes to transfer about 8.5GB of music from the iMac to the iPod.

The free iTunes 2 program from Apple provides a very capable player, music library manager, and CD ripper/burner. It also handles the synchronization of music between the iPod and the iMac. By default, the iPod will update itself to match the music collection as reflected in your iTunes library. You can turn this option off if you like, and manage data on the iPod manually. If you choose this option, the iPod acts like an external FireWire hard drive, which, after all, is really what it is.

Apple has done a very good job of making a potentially complicated experience easy for most users. It just works, which is more than can be said for a lot of Windows software. However, the iTunes music library management could be improved. I found it somewhat cumbersome to use, especially when it came to creating playlists. For a small number of songs, such as those typically used for devices with much smaller amounts of removable storage (like the Rio), even clumsy playlist managers can be used. However, when you're working with 10GB of music and several thousand MP3-encoded songs, even minor annoyances become more pronounced. Nevertheless, the overall iPod experience is a positive one.

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The iPod Experience

Although it only weighs 6.5 ounces, the iPod's compact form makes it feel very solid. As with most Apple products, a lot of thought went into the design and use of the iPod. Its ergonomics are excellent. It was built for one-handed use -- as long as that hand has a sure grip. With no handles or carrying case, the iPod could easily slip from your grasp if you're not careful.

There's no lime/watermelon color options for the iPod; it's only available in white. The back is shiny metal, and the front white panel is covered with transparent Lucite. The front panel is a witness to the possible blending of elegance and simplicity. The controls are simple and intuitive. The small but clear LCD screen, which displays song information and playlists, is navigated using the circular scroll wheel that accelerates the selection when it is held down -- useful for moving through lists of potentially hundreds of songs.

Nearly three years ago I wrote an article on Diamond Multimedia's Rio MP3 player (SIGPC V3N3: Its Name is Rio). At the time, I felt that it was the best digital music player around. In fact, I've continued to use the Rio since then, on long airplane rides and the like. But the features of the iPod make it a much better choice for today's consumers. Diamond Multimedia itself is gone, absorbed into SonicBlue. Hopefully three years from now, the iPod will still be around, and Apple with it. If they continue to produce innovative technologies like the iMac and the iPod, Apple should do more than survive; it should flourish.