Jewish World Review Sept. 13, 2002 / 7 Tishrei, 5763
By Mark Kellner
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com |
The iPod from Apple Computer is at once a great success for the
Mac-maker as well as a neat way to carry a whole lot of music - up to
4,000 songs -- in your pocket. First launched in October 2001 with
only 5 GB of capacity, the iPod is back for an encore with a new 20
GB model retailing for $499.
Along with a quadrupling of the capacity of the original model, the
new iPod has a wired remote control, a more precise touch wheel to
navigate the device's menus, and a clip-on carrying case that is
bound to be the envy of your fellow commuters. It connects to desktop
PCs using the IEE 1394, or FireWire standard, which is much faster
than the USB connections of other audio players. According to Apple,
a 70-minute CD can be downloaded to the iPod in 9 seconds, versus
nearly 5 minutes for the USB-connected Rio Riot MP3 player, made by
SONICblue Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif.
If the new device was merely a tiny, super-fast hard disk drive that
connected to both Macintosh computers and Windows-based PCs, there
were not be much difficulty in justifying its price or buying one
quickly. But the iPod is much more than a freestanding hard drive.
It is first and foremost a repository for digital music and a superb
player for home, office, car or jogging trail. The sound it produces
is amazing both for its quality and consistency.
Using a cassette adapter to connect the device to the stereo in my
Hyundai Santa Fe, I tooled along roads in Southern California
listening to crystal-clear sound, without any skips or stops when
hitting bumps or potholes, which might occasionally be experience
with a portable CD player similarly connected, or even a
trunk-mounted CD-changer.
And unlike a CD changer, it's possible, using software on the host
computer, to arrange a play list to suit your mood or desires. On the
Mac, the software is Apple's iTunes version 3, a music and streaming
audio player that gathers up your songs and lets you shuffle and
arrange them easily.
A special version of MusicMatch's Jukebox should be available for
Windows users shortly; in the meantime, MediaFour's Xplay, $30, does
the job just as well. It works with older iPods and the newest
models, installs well on a Windows computer and makes the iPod "talk"
to music libraries on the host device.
However, with both Mac and Windows systems, the "conversation" is one
way. You can download songs from the computer to an "associated"
iPod, but you can't transfer songs from an iPod to a computer. In
this the iPod becomes the "roach motel" of MP3 devices: the songs
check in, but they don't check out. Apple says, wisely, that this is
meant to discourage piracy and mass redistribution of copyrighted
music.
There are other useful features of the iPod: it can act as a portable
hard drive, you can use desktop software from Apple to manage a
calendar and store appointments. But these seem secondary to the
overall quality of the iPod device, which is truly outstanding as a
digital music player. Combining speed with superior sound, it's
difficult to imagine why anyone might want any other device.
The new controls on the device - more sensitive and responsive - make
using the iPod a pleasure; the menus are easy to negotiate and a
"lock" button can prevent accidents when walking or jogging. I'm also
impressed by the power capacity of the unit's lithium ion battery,
which fully charged can run the iPod for 10 hours straight.
In short, there's much to like about the iPod, and if you're doing
your holiday shopping early this year, it's a gift certain to draw
oohs and ahhs when unwrapped.
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JWR contributor Mark Kellner has reported on technology for industry newspapers and magazines since 1983, and has been the computer columnist for The Washington Times since 1991.Comment by clicking here.
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