The Core of My Life (Apple iPod (3G) 20 GB)

Member Name: topsyturvy

Product:	Apple iPod (3G) 20 GB
Date:	02/06/05 (272 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: fun, easy to use, saves CD clutter

Disadvantages: scratching, battery drain

So the ipod, everybody knows about them, either everybody has one or everybody wants one. For many years ever since the ipod was first started I knew I wanted one, I saw it always in the must have gadgets pages. The only problem, the price, who in their right mind I thought would pay just a little over £200 for something that carries music. Then, I started to think of the possibilities, how good it would be to have an ipod, long haul flights, walking down the street, boring bus journeys, being able to walk about your house not having to hold you CD player or be limite to one seat, also no CD jumping because I'm walking with my electronic music device.

So, 2 years have passed and then I thought to myself what the hell I have earned this for all my hard work so I decided to stop staring longingly at the white ear buds I saw people with and to purchase my own ipod. I have waited so long, I noticed that they are now on 4th generation Ipod's which is the one I bought, 20GB. I notice this one is very popular, I ws going to get the mini but wanted more music space and also like the ipod better. There has been 4 different generations but I can safely say I am glad I have waited until now to buy because as with many products the first can never be the best because it was a first attempt and there are improvements to be made all of the time. The 4th generation ipod is much thinner compared to a woman's I saw at the bus stop the other day who seemed to pull out a brick from her bag which was twice the thickness of mine and to my shock it was a 1st gen ipod. Of course, anyone reading with a 1st gen ipod, take no offence.

So first impressions were that the box was pretty, all colourful squares and you pull it off then open the two halves to reveal everything you need. There is the battery charging equipment, ear buds, the ipod itself with the platic over the screen. The first thing you have to do when buying this is charge your battery this usually takes a couple of hours. I prefer to have it fully charged otherwise the battery keeps going down and I start to panic. I have been out before and happily sat down and then noticed the battery go and it saying I need to recharge it. So once this is done you can begin the real fun.

What you need to do to upload music is to download itunes from the Apple site and this should be easy enough. Then, you will register with iTunes, I already had this on my computer because I preferred playing my music files on it. So, what you do is, you click the centre of the click wheel and then turn on the ipod and you will noticed all of the menu settings. You go to games and there is Brick which is just simply a ball flying about and you have the surface which slides from left to right that you have to bounch the ball from otherwise it will fall and you will lose. The aim is to hit the ball at all of the bricks above and to try and get rid of them all. The music quiz is just all of the songs on your ipod being used and you hear the first 10 seconds or so and click out of the 3 options as to what one this is. Obviously, this is more fun if you have more songs. Parachute, is just a shooting game you have to shoot the helicopters and the parachuters and Solitaire is just the card game.

There is the Settings menu which is just things like the backlight which you can time to be on all the time but I wouldn't as it drains your battery or you can put it on for 5 seconds then it goes off, I have it on this or you can just put it off completely.

To get to your Music click music then go into them by Artist, Album, Song title, etc. I usually go by song title as I prefer it. The click wheel is simple enough to use you go forward by clicking the middle and go back by clicking menu. To go left or right you just slide your finger over the forward button on the right and vice versa for going left which is also up and right is down.

So to get your music on what you do is you insert a CD and it will either start importing the music right away or not if you don't want everything imported you look at where it displays the play button etc and click the cross. Then you tick the songs you want on your ipod, go to the top right hand corner of iTunes and click import. This is quickly done and then you connect your ipod to your computer via USB port and all the songs will be loaded onto your ipod. I have never bought individual song files from iTunes so can't explain that but it is really easy and to delete songs from iTunes means that when you next connect your ipod the song will not be on it anymore. iTunes counts how many times you play certain songs and then you have your playlists such as 'Top25 Most Played' or 'Recently Added'. On iTunes you can make up your own playlists as well and just drag song files into it.

The ipod I have as previously mentioned is a 20GB which is meant to hold roughly up to 5000 songs. So far I have had it for months and know it will be a long time before I use up 5000 as I have 151 songs, there is 17.9GB available so I doubt that it will even be able to hold 5000 songs but obviously they are just estimating. The song quality is very good though and the ear buds are always comfy when in. You can easily put the volume up or down by using the click wheel.

One thing I do have against the ipod is that the battery goes very quickly. I noticed if I fully charge it is will last for hours but if not then you quickly see the battery just drainging out and this can be annoying. There are ways round this if you get external batteries etc. A friend also told me that eventually the battery will completely run out and that I will have to send it way to get a new one which will cost hundreds, I don't know if that is true though as she was jealous of me having an ipod because she wanted one too but who knows. I suppose, it depends how regularly you use it.

Also, I do recommend getting a case of some sort for your ipod, you can get the skins or just a leather holder. I know that because the back is a mirror it can get easily scratched and fingerprinted and this can be very annoying. I still love the design. It is 10.3cm x 6.1cm and 1.4cm thick. The ipod is a great invention and I do recommend it to anyone who is a music lover and wants to make their CD collection more compact by reducing it to one device. I know it has made my life easier and now I choose to walk places more because with my ipod there is never a dull moment and I love the envious looks I get when wearing them.

The cheapest price I have seen it is http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore.wo a/
You get free delivery and they are all sold here. You can also personally engrave amessage on the back here.

Another good site for ipod stuf is http://www.everythingipod.co.uk

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