Apple Ipod 30GB - a MUST have (Apple iPod 30 GB)

Member Name: jonotinx

Product:	Apple iPod 30 GB
Date:	29/06/04 (1544 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Massive storage capacity for all your tracks, Lots of extras to add on to suit your needs, easy to use, good quality

Disadvantages: battery life could be better

I got one of these little beauties in June 2003 - I had to get mine from the states on e-bay because
1) it was cheaper (about £350 compared to £400)
2) they are / were like rocking horse droppings to get hold of in UK

Anyway, regardless of where it's purchased, it's a miracle of fine engineering. It oozes quality and everyone who's seen it have been well impressed.
My model (30 GB) is quoted as holding 7,500 songs - I'm well on my way to 6000 tracks and still have 6GB space free so it looks like it will hold it's capacity at least.

I'm running it thru a windows PC (i.e. NOT a MAC) and it's fine regarding comptability (I did have to update my PC as it was rather basic with USB 2.0 card & extra hard drive for all my CD's)

My I-Pod came with Musicmatch software, and I really can't complain about it - it's easy to use, and I was downloading my CD collection to PC in no time. I think the new Ipod's now come with itunes which is what originally came with the ipods but only for MAC users. By all accounts, it's meant to be better than musicmatch, so now itunes is available for windows this should be even better (although the latest ipod software update doesn't seem to be compatiable with musicmatch and I had to unistall it and roll back to my older version)

The biggest chore is downloading your music collection onto PC - it takes around 3 - 5 minutes per album (so was a major task for me with over 500 CD's). Virtually all my CD's (some going back years) were recognised by the software, and track / album / artist details automatically came up (with the option for manual adjustments occasionally)

Music quality is very good - just the occasional glitch, but you can always delete a bad file and re-record it. I have i-pod connected to home stereo system. The convienince of having all your CD's in a gadget the size of a fag packet cannot be under estimated. No
more searching around for CD cases. I've now resigned my CD's to storage and have a lot more space available ! - Put the i-pod on random play, and i'm suddenly hearing things hadn't played for years !

The i-pod can do a lot more than just play music, but to be honest i'm not so interested in some of the add ons. I use a PDA for calendar / contact info. etc. and just keep my i-pod for the music. Although the facility to use it as a portable drive is good (i.e. transfer data files from one PC to another or even download media cards onto it as backup)

Battery life could be better - it's quoted at 8 hours, although that seems to be stretching it a little. Certainly, if you have it on random shuffle throughout your entire library, expect about 6 hours playback. But this does improve if you just play 1 album at a time without shuffle. It charges quick though, in under 4 hours (reaching 80% charge in about 1 hour). There's a neat hardware add on that lets you use normal AA batteries so when you're internal batteries are dead, and you're not near a power outlet you can still keep the music playing.

The biggest drain on batteries is when downloading (sync) the i-pod with your PC. If you're using the firewire connection, the ipod will charge whilst connected to PC. But for most users (especially windows based) it will be the USB connection option (Both cables come in the box) and this does not charge i-pod when connected. This might mean you'll have to download the music library you've built up on your PC in 2 or 3 sittings, having the charge the i-pod in between.

There are a lot of cool accessories available - including a voice recorder. I have a very neat FM transmitter device (actually illegal to use in the UK - but they've got to catch you first !); this plugs int the top of the i-pod, and you simply choose a vacant FM station on your radio, choose the frequency from the i-pod and aw
ay you go - set the i-pod to play, and it transmitts a short distance (approx. 10 feet) to come thru your radio. This is ideal for the car - it's like having a 500 CD boot changer (imagine how big that would be!) in the palm of you hand....

Add a decent pair of travel speakers, and you've got your own very mobile hi-fi system.

You have the option os creating 'playlists' so you can assign various tracks (or whole CD's) to your own lists. So, for example, you might have a playlist for driving, one for relaxing etc.etc. etc.

All in all, this piece of machinery is very capable, and just so convienient. It's very easy to use and very well built. These things really are the dogs dangly bits. There really is very little else on the market to touch them. yes, they're expensive, but well worth it.

Happy listening !

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