Gadget review: Apple iPod (4th gen) 20 GB
September 12 2004
I've had my iPod now for a couple of weeks,
and I thought it would be worthwhile to write up my early impressions.
As personal audio devices go, the iPod rocks -- great looking, great sounding,
and a good user interface. The menu structure makes it very easy
to choose what you want to listen to at any given time -- by artist, by
album, by genre, or just shuffle around your collection. The sound
quality is excellent; I was listening to a Santana track the other
day and picked up percussion sounds I had never noticed before. I
haven't explored every menu option on the device itself; so far, volume
adjustments are about the only thing I've needed to do when listening.
The physical device is a solid design. The "clickwheel"
takes some getting used to -- it's quite sensitive, and I often feel like
I'm going to overshoot a menu choice if I'm not paying more attention.
Also, the chrome backplate seems to need constant polishing -- I
know it looks cool, but it sure does show fingerprints and smudges easily.
Ah well.
There are two places where I've been a little bit less than enraptured
with the iPod, and they are in a related set of architectural design points.
I have owned other mp3 players. I was expecting a similar design
point -- copying the desired MP3/AAC/WMA files over from another computer's
hard drive, or ripping new ones direct from CD. The Apple iPod requires
a different approach. All your music must be in a "library"
in the iTunes software, and then is synchronized/updated with the iPod
device. Pro - you end up with all your music on your computer
as well as your iPod, giving you the ability to enjoy it in multiple places.
Con - you end up with all your music on your computer. I
didn't know when I bought the iPod that I would need to have 20GB free
on my computer. Disk is cheap, sure, but upgrading or replacing or
buying 20GB external for my laptop isn't that easy. There are hack-arounds
listed on ipodlounge.com,
but they give up a lot in terms of flexibility.
The second is the master-slave relationship which iTunes sets up between
a library on a PC (or Mac) and the iPod. When I first received my
iPod, I started using it with my laptop. I quickly discovered that
while it works just fine with my USB1.1 port and slow CD-ROM, both of those
were suboptimal for loading gigabytes of music onto the device. I
switched instead to my much newer home computer, with a 16x CD-ROM and
USB2. In switching, I immediately lost all the tunes that I had downloaded
to the iPod and had to start over. Apple's design point sets the
PC/Mac with the (full copy) library as the master, and the iPod as a slave
to that library. This means that I essentially have to back up the
library (storing this stuff a third time), lest a hard drive crash occur.
My friend Bob (or was it vowe) suggested that the simplest way around
this would be to set up a network share between the two computers, and
use the one copy of the library on either device. Still, again this
means work for me, and it's not a perfect solution, anyway. If I
get some new music while I'm on the road, I essentially can't update that
music to the iPod (unless I use more of the ipodlounge.com hack-arounds).
Not cool.
Anyway, I don't regret the purchase of the iPod by any stretch. I
just was surprised that the reviews I read of the device on some of the
afficionado sites don't really describe these two architecture points in
great detail, when they are so fundamentally different from a lot of the
other personal audio devices on the market.
I've loaded only about 20-25% of my existing music collection onto the
iPod. It still has gigabytes and gigabytes of free space. So
it definitely is going to deliver on the promise of being able to carry
a ton of music everywhere. I know the device itself provides a lot
more value than simple audio playback, so I'll be exploring more of that
in the coming weeks.
Post a Comment
- 2
Bruce Elgort http://www.bruceelgort.com | 9/12/2004 9:34:52 AM
On Volker's recommendation I purchased the KOSS headphones and I love them. Inexpensive, compact and soung great.
- 3
Matt White http://www.11tmr.com | 9/12/2004 9:57:08 AM
I don't know if it's an excuse but my iPod (gen 2) was my first ever MP3 player and so didn't have anything to compare it against in terms of functionality and the whole package is so cool that I hadn't worried about any problems.
However I do agree it can be a pain if you don't have a spare 20 (or, indeed, 40) gig to dedicate to music. From the Mac world there is a tool called iPodRip { Link } which is invaluable. Don't know if there is an equivalent PC version I'm afraid.
- 4
Thomas Yung http://thomasyung.com:81 | 9/12/2004 9:59:40 AM
Ahh.. the cursed master slave relationship has bitten you too, eh? You must not have heard of the program "EphPod". ({ Link } The configuration I'd use is...
(1) Use your home computer as the master and use iTunes to manage your library there. (2) On the laptop computer, do not allow iTunes to manage it. Instead use EphPod. If iTunes on your laptop asks for permission to transfer management control of iPod, say NO. Otherwise, you already know what happens. (3) In iTunes, change the iPod preferences by right-clicking on the iPod icon on the left navigation. You want to "Manually manage songs and playlists" and uncheck "Open iTunes when attached". (4) Now, by using EphPod, you've essentially made the iPod the master instead of the slave. Now, you may add new songs to your iPod via EphPod and the next time you plug your iPod into your home computer, the new songs will be synced up. Same goes for any deletions you make using EphPod.
- 5
Stephen O’Grady http://www.redmonk.com/sogrady | 9/12/2004 11:16:54 AM
I was going to post on the "Manual" idea but Thomas beat me to it. But I second his recommendation; my iPod is set up for manual use, and thus any iTunes I plug it in to - any of my machines, a friend's, whatever - is not the master. I only populate it with what I want on there.
The manual overhead is a bit irritating, but the overall control is well worth it.
- 6
Stephen O’Grady http://www.redmonk.com/sogrady | 9/12/2004 11:37:51 AM
Forgot to recommend the Griffin iTrip, which turns your iPod into a mini radio station. Great little addition for travel.
- 7
Bruce Elgort http://www.bruceelgort.com | 9/12/2004 2:03:42 PM
@Stephen,
I tried the iTrip for a week or two and found that the sound quality was not very good. I found that buying one of those cassette-deck inserts that plugs into the headset jack to sound much better. Maybe it was the FM availability here in Portland, OR. I finally sold the iTrip on eBay :(
- 8
Ed Brill www.edbrill.com | 9/12/2004 9:25:16 PM
@1 vowe -- I have a couple of headphones to try... will try some others out to see what they are like before I go investing more money. This thing looks like it could be a money pit!
Matthew/Thomas/Stephen -- thanks for the tips. EphPod "sounds" perfect; I've just downloaded it and will try it out in the next few days.
@6/7 -- I did briefly consider buying a Creative Labs muvo that had a built-in FM receiver. In the end, I decided it wasn't critical to me at the moment. But glad to know it's available in the money pit. ;)
- 9
Stephen O’Grady http://www.redmonk.com/sogrady | 9/12/2004 9:26:20 PM
The sound quality is not the best, true, as it's just FM quality. Line-in would be best, tape's a bit better. But in my experience, you can always find a station that's pretty clear (the iTrip can be set to just about anything on the spectrum, from 87.9 to 100+), and it's workable. Plus, it works in the many rental cars now that have CD players rather than tape decks, or neither. Or hotel clock-radios, boom boxes on vacation, etc. It's the best for taking your music with you, anywhere.
So I hear you, but I'll take the flexibility of radio over the slight gain in audio quality of tape any day of the week.
- 10
Mike Lazar | 9/12/2004 11:08:02 PM
Ed -- I wrote it on Bruce's blog a while back. Get some Shure E3c earbuds. They are sound isolating, not noise cancelling. The sound quality is miles better than the Bose. I wear them everywhere, train, plane, or tractor. I can't rave about them enough. As for the FM modulators, I just returned my Sirius setup because here in greater Chicago, there are virtually ZERO open frequencies. That rendered the modulator useless for the car. Couple that with the incredibly spotty reception I could get in my house, and it was a quick return for my Sirius player.
- 11
Bill Geimer | 9/12/2004 11:19:06 PM
From a couple of Gen's back, for me, both Apple and others make nice sleeves for the I-Pod that keep you from having to polish the back all the time. None of them ever look as good as the I-Pod does, but some make it a bit more dent resistant.
Nice list of headphones. How do you like Apple's departure from the MP3 format? Sounds only slightly better to me.
Speaking of design, while Apple has always been to top of the heap for that, I do love the iNotes 6 design. Best look I have seen on Notes / Domino yet.
- 12
Paul Robichaux http://www.e2ksecurity.com | 9/13/2004 9:34:21 AM
EphPod, XPlay, and other utilities exist that will allow you to just mount your iPod as a volume instead of going through the whole library-sync cycle. I use my iPod with my T40 for ripping CDs I buy on the road, then with my Mac and my wife's Mac to load songs from CDs at home-- some hers, some mine. With a combination of XPlay (for the Windows machine) and selective use of the "manual" option, this works pretty well.
As for cases, check out the iSkin evo line of cases. Great scratch protection and not too bad looking. A little Meguiar's or 3M polish will help remove scratches from the screen and back, but be careful; it's easy to make things worse rather than better.
- 13
Bob Frank | 9/13/2004 1:38:24 PM
One comment about various headphones instead of ear buds, is that some will require more power to operate and will lower the operation time of your iPod (in fact this is true for all MP3 players, cassette players, radios, etc.). Also, FWIW, I have a pair of Sennheiser PXC 250's (noise canceling), and I highly recommend them at $130 { Link }
w/r/t iTrip, etc. If you don't have a cassette player in your car, it might be your only choice, but I agree Mike (@10) here in the Chicago area, we have too many radio stations. I've got a Sony cassette adaptor ($20) and I get all my iPod music in the car that way { Link }
- 14
Michael G | 9/13/2004 3:26:05 PM
Ed,
Anapod Explorer is the answer to your needs. There is a limited trial version and you can purchase the Pro. It integrates your iPod with Windows Explorer and makes managing your music no different then using explorer. It also has a cool feature - a built in web browser that you can see your ipods contents on a browser. It also has a sql engine for searching.
{ Link }
- 15
Ed Brill www.edbrill.com | 9/13/2004 3:49:19 PM
Man, you guys rock --
@13 Paul -- iSkin evo does not fit the iPod 4th generation...but I'll watch their site.
- 16
Ross http://www.merauderweb.com | 9/13/2004 11:29:58 PM
Ed,
A couple of other options, depending on whether you like iTunes or not ;)
If you're a fan of Winamp, then the Winamp plugin ml_ipod works really well for transferring music. It simply adds a context entry 'Send to iPod' in the Winamp library, meaning you can send whatever you want to it. It also allows you to manage playlists, and offers the ability to sync your ratings/played statistics with the winamp library.
{ Link }
If you want to stick with iTunes for playback, then this piece of commercial software is designed to offer alternative transfer software for (m)any different types of portable audio device (mainly aimed at people buying the new Rio/Creative offerings which come with such lousy software - Musicmatch anyone?):
{ Link }
My requirements were slightly different to yours - I have an iPod mini, and don't really like iTunes. When I did connect the thing up to iTunes for a test, I was quite surprised to see the iPod "Syncing!" - not sure how it planned to fit my 14gb of music onto the ickle 4gb iPod - maybe the conversion from mp3 to the Apple specific format is better than I thought?
- 17
Ross http://www.merauderweb.com | 9/13/2004 11:31:27 PM
Oh, also if you like Winamp and want to keep the "i" look and feel, then the iPlay skin is pretty nice:
{ Link }
- 18
The Turtle http://www.weightlessdog.com | 9/14/2004 11:24:31 PM
Ed: I was on vacation this week and picked up a 40G 4th-generation Pod in Sacramento. This is in comparison to the 20G 3rd-generation Pod I've had for a couple of months now.
Some things I've noticed: the single clickwheel was easier to get used to than I thought, but I think I still prefer the older wheel-and-buttons setup of the 3G. The extra battery life is good... the inability for 3G and 4G Pods to share cradles and some other gadgets is stupid. The extra space of the 40G is good. For me, having all the music on my iBook is not a problem, because the iBook isn't all that far away. So far, more than 4100 tracks on the Pods, and that's even without going into the more obscure CDs or LPs.
Oh, and all the games are easier to play on the older Pod interface.
Turtle
- 19
ron fenton | 7/27/2008 2:39:13 AM
how do you get photos and movies onto this big 20 gig machine. I cannot find anything on the web and i have been p all night. Ron
- 20
evoline http://www.worktoppower.co.uk | 11/12/2008 3:51:45 PM
I think yo have to just use itune unfortunately, I've tried everyting but windows just won't see it as a drive.
I suggest you try the iPod with a different set of headphones. Either the Sennheiser PX100 { Link } or the KOSS PortaPro { Link } Have $50 ready because you won't give them back once you tried them. :-)
Yes, I know you have those Bose NC headphones. But please, do try one of them. The good thing is that you test with your own music.