Apple iPod - Well worth the extra ££ (Apple iPod 15 GB)

Member Name: iazcac

Product:	Apple iPod 15 GB
Date:	30/08/03 (693 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Amount of music that can be stored, Design

Disadvantages: Screen can scratch easily

The Apple iPod is one of the best MP3 players on the market and if certain magazines and newspapers are to be believed, one of the coolest accessories you can buy this year (David and Victoria Beckham already have one etc).

This MP3 (see very bottom of article to find out more about what MP3 is) player is compatible with both Mac and Windows computers, although I have only used it on a Windows PC so cannot comment on how it works on a Mac

Look

The iPod is beautifully designed. The white colour and simplistic design really set this MP3 player apart from the rest of the field. It has a large screen and stainless steel back which make it look stunning

It is hard to believe how much music can be stored on the iPod given its small size. It is only about 15cm high and yet can store thousands of songs on it. I have got the 15GB version and have 3000 songs on it and still only used about two thirds of the hard drive. It weighs only about 250g and you barely notice it in your pocket or on your belt.

Price

At first this seems a very pricey MP3 player, and to be fair it is!! However, given that you can buy MP3 players for around £80 which can only store two albums on, it isn?t too bad. Mine cost £250 although with most things the price is likely to fall with time

Computer hardware and software

Getting the music onto your iPod couldn?t be simpler. The program Musicmatch Jukebox is included (full version, which normally costs £25 alone), which allows you to manage your music on your PC and then choose which tracks to upload to your iPod.

Converting normal CDs to MP3s is also a quick and easy process (although boring!) by using the Musicmatch recorder.

On thing to be careful of however, is that your computer needs to have a firewire port in order to connect it to the iPod. My computer did not have one, so I had to get one which added about another £50 to the total cost

Sound qual
ity

One of the main advantages of a MP3 player is not just the amount of music it can store, but the way you can access any of your tracks instantly as they are all stored digitally. On the iPod each track starts playing virtually instantly

The quality of the sound is only as good as the recording, but if using the Musicmatch recorder is very high

Menu system

The circular menu system was strange to use at first, but after a few days it becomes 2nd nature and easy. It is quite sensitive to use as it is a touch pad, but on the good side, the fact that there are no moving parts makes the iPod more robust

You can browse through your music by artist, album or genre either playing your chosen track straight away or saving it to a play list

Recharging

The play time is around 4 hours which is rather good. It only takes 1 hour to recharge 80% of the battery and a further 4 or so to fully charge it up. You can still use the iPod as normal when it is on charge

Other features

Although it primary function is to play music, the iPod also includes some games, and a diary feature and notepad feature. However the latter are not that good as they cannot be edited on the move or on your iPod and can only be uploaded from your own computer

Headphones

The headphones included are fairly standard, although adequate. An attachment is included which allows you to change track and volume remotely too. In addition, the iPod can also be plugged into any ?Line Out? leads allowing you to use existing speakers to play your music on

Accessories

A standard case is included with the package and I recommend that you use this as much as possible as the screen does scratch quite easily if you are not careful. A wide range of extra accessories are also available on the Apple website but although I have not bought these they do seem rather pricey for what they are

Overall


Overall, if you are looking to get a good MP3 player and can afford to splash out a little the iPod is a great purchase. Personally I never go far with out mine attached to me now and wonder how I ever managed with out it and having only one CD to listen to at a time on my walkman!!





What is MP3?
MP3 is a form of compression. It's an acronym which stands for Mpeg 1 Audio Layer 3. It is based on a psycho-acoustic model which recognizes that the human ear cannot hear all the audio frequencies on a recording and compresses it by removing the frequencies we cannot hear making them smaller to store and quicker to download.

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