Aqua-Soft ForumsI previously posted this review in an old thread- but it was not being read, so I decided to give it more notice to people looking for ipod reviews, by giving it a new title.
Before I begin I must state my bias- I love apple, but previously bought an old Creative Zen Touch 20GB which I grew to love. I use my iPod with a WIndows Xp SP2 machine. I will try and give the most fair and reasonable review and will give some comparison;
Music Quality
Perfect, couldn't ask for much better- iPod remains a music first machine and does it great with a range of EQ settings- no custom EQ as yet- but I haven't needed it.
Body and Appearance
Thats one of the main reason that we buy iPod's for isn't It? It's extremely thin, the shiney metalic back looks fab, and the white/black face just so...perfect...(until you get a million scratches)
Size measurement details
imperial measurement; http://www.apple.com/ipod/specs.html
or for Metric; http://www.apple.com/au/ipod/specs.html
BUT, this thing scratches very very easily, you'll want to buy a case BEFORE you get your new iPod. I made the mistake of putting off buying a case for a week or so, now I have scratches everywhere- including the screen.
I had a Creative Zen Touch for roughly a year and dropped it hard several times, without barely a scratch, I guess scratches and lots of them are the price we pay for iPod's elegance.
The good news is, that when the bright display is on, most scratches are barely visible on the screen.
Cases
A small neo-prene case is included with the iPod and is a nice snug fit, but doesn't offer genuine protection and lacks access to the controls and the screen.
I decided to to go the cheap way and modify...I used a sharp stanly blade and some plastic contact in order to cut a hole for the screen and click wheel- It worked well, and I used the contact to cover the screen... but I DON'T reccommend it unless you know what you are doing...and make sure you take the iPod out first before cutting...
While there are plenty of useful cases out there for standard iPods, there is still a very limited amount for the iPod 5G, epecially if you want one with access to all the controls and the screen visble...harder yet if you're looking in Australia for a leather wallet version with access to the dock connector...
Interface
The interface of the iPod will make you happy- nice bright and bold colours, with clear images and symbols, mac styling all the way. Looks gold, simple and good looking.
There are excellent fast transitions between menu screens and album art feature works a treat.
Navigation and Controls
iPod is famous for its clickwheel and for good reason, it allows for extremely accurate song selection compared to the Zen touch. The Zen touch's touchpad was over/under sensitive, apple's clickwheel is extremely precise and intuitive.
The clickwheel simplifies controls- even my mum could operate it (she's hopeless at all technology)...
The transitions between screens is simple and elegant, like the flash demo found here;
http://www.apple.com/au/ipod/features.html
and the good news is there is no annoying pop-up sub-menus like those found on the zen touch, which speeds up selection dramatically- The navigation is as fast as your thumb can handle, with screens sliding quickly between.
But Unfortunately there is a lot of button bashing on the new ipod, for example; on the Zen touch to get back to the main menu you just pressed "menu", on the ipod you need to press "menu" several times if you are playing from a playlist or artist screen the menu button acts more as a "back" button... One exception is if you choose "Now Playing" from the main menu, then you only need press "menu" once, but what iff you want to get back to the playlist?
Overall I was not satisfied with the 'clickiness' of the buttons making loud irritating noises, especially when you're constantly clicking between menu's to get to the page you want.
Extras (firmware)
iPod has a mass of extra goodies other players just dont have, checkout http://www.apple.com/ipod/features.html, its a fairly accurate demo.
Notes- A simple and handy feature, allows you to read simple TXT files...dont get excited just text NO word files with graphics or anything will work.
Screen Lock- Handy for keeping out prying eyes, an elegant style of onscreen combination lock well implemented with clickwheel.
Alarm- I use this to wake me up every morning, fantastic! plays my favourite playlist at the start of each day.
Contacts and calender- Good If you have iCal (mac only) but for Windows it means using outlook which is extremely cr@p...there are probably some freeware out there thats does the job though.
Games-There are only four games; Solitare, Brick (ping pong style game), Parachute (shoot down parachuters- think space invaders, sort of) and then music quiz.
These games grow boring very quick...no surprise. Music quiz is creative- it plays a song and you need to guess the title of the song before the timer runs out- but If you're like me, then you already know every song on your ipod.
Photos
Already got a whole heap of photos organised into folders on your pc? use iPhoto? use Adobe photo album?
No problem! iTunes is no iPhoto but it does allow you to sync and organise all photos of a selected folder or album onto your iPod 5G.
I dont use iPhoto or Adobe photo album, So i'll just comment on syncing photos from explorer folders-
There is a couple of set backs, first of all iTunes only allows you to select only one folder to sync to the iPod(lets call it levi's photo album).
In "Levi's photo Album" there are all subfolders, these subfolders become the "playlists" of the photo section on the iPod, but If I have loose photos not in sub-folders these will only show up in the entire photo library, making them hard to find amongst all your other photos which are sorted.
Also, If I have a subfolder in "Levi's photo album" called "Christmas" and then other sub-sub-folders called "Xmas tree" or "Party" within "Christmas" these will not show up, the photos will be in "Christmas" but not in the sub-sub folders.
-hope that made sense .
For more info about how photos are synced go to this useful article; http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/ar...photo-pictures/
Videos
Video's look fantastic on the screen, and still look reasonable on a normal tv screen.
However playing videos drain batteries fast, so dont expect to put on DVDs or anything like that- stick to the odd music clip here and there, or video podcast...thats what it was intended for...or get the carlton draught big add; www.bigad.com.au/ -hilarious video clip...
iTunes can only sync videos to the iPod that have been made into the right format first, you'll need Quicktime or some other 3rd party software.
On my 2.4GHZ 512MB WinXP machine, exporting into iPod format was EXTREMELY slow, and I was only doing short video clips.
Overall I'm happy with video- knowing it was going to be limited.
Software
iTunes is easy as, but no surprise it wont work with windows media player, winamp or real player without getting a plugin first (some may not even have plugins).
If you haven't used the simplicity of iTunes yet then get it! http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
But there are plenty of great 3rd party appz if you are not pleased with iTunes.
But If you don't like iTunes, then you're going to be missing out on a lot of what iPod has to offer...iTunes simplifies things a million.
Overall-
Fantastic player- with good bells and whistles, video function is limited and software is a bit lacking for pc when it comes to video, photo and calender syncing. Interface is great, music quality divine, but a little too much button bashing.
Go get it, it'll make you happy, its as good as you'll get, don't forget to buy a case first.
). Now is it worth going for iPod video 30 GB which offers rather less battery life compare to one which I have? I don't think so.
