So you thought the IPod is only for people with Mac’s? You couldn’t have been more mistaken.
I was reading by the tons, and looking around, for a good mp3 player for quite some time now. Was in love with the Sony mp3 stick for a while, before it was pulled out of production. Fell in and out of love with a number of other products in the line - the cost-benefit curve was just not cutting it, with the memory costing more than the player, and the limited capacities of the memory stick formats.
Then came the IPod, with it’s entourage of reviews. The first statement anyone would make - it’s for Mac only. Not that I don’t like the cute little half-dome machines with simply adorable swiveling LCD screens - just that I’ll have to buy all the software all over again, and my Sony Vaio is doing just fine as a home PC.
I’m so in love with my IPod right now - it’s been just days since I received it - that I’ll go all over the place without coming to the topic, so I’ll default to my standard pattern of the good, the bad (and the ugly?).
The Good
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Capacity - I bought the 5GB version for $374 at https://bhphoto.com - you can dish out another $120 and go for the 10GB as well. Yes, there are a few others that can also boast such capacities - I know at least one other that has 20GB storage - but then it’s the finer points that they totally lose out on.
Looks - I can’t really explain this very subjective factor in a review. Go to your nearest store, pick up an IPod, and scroll, or do something. If you don’t like it, chances are you won’t like anything else, either.
Working on Windows - Ah - this is what I should have started with. After all, beauty is not skin deep, and I won’t want a $400 gadget to sit on my desk. So let me explain in moderate detail what I did to get it working.
First, my system specifics: Sony Vaio Digital Studio, with Sony Firewire. It was running Windows 98 - that’s what it came with 1.5 years back. However, when I tried to plug the IPod in, my computer froze up every time. I formatted the machine clean, and reinstalled from the recovery disks - still the same issue. Then I decided to upgrade to Win ME. That solved it.
Next - the software. Someone told me this morning that there are multiple such cross-platform interfaces. I read up at https://anandtech.com, and went for the software by MediaFour - https://mediafour.com. So far, so good - and I’ve drag-dropped nearly a thousand songs. MediaFour says Win98 is supported, but I could not make it work on my version.
Note - the Sony Firewire is a 4-pin connection, while the Apple Firewire (on the IPod and elsewhere) is 6-pin. You can go to CompUSA, or any other store that has both PCs and Macs, and pick up a converter cable for around $30. It’ll say ’Converter for Sony Firewire to Apple Firewire’. That simple. For references, the Firewire is also called IEEE 1394, after the standard.
So - this is what I finally did. Upgrade to Win ME or better. Plug in the IPod - the system detects it automatically, though it wants to format the drive straightaway, since Windows can’t read the Mac formatting. Next - install the XPlay software from MediaFour.com. From then on, it’s a piece of cake - drag and drop files from Explorer, eject the plug n’ play device (otherwise Windows issues a warning, and tells you how to do it right), and unplug the IPod. Music on the go at your service.
Drag and Drop - Of course, I expected drag and drop. What I did not expect to see was the superb handling of this huge a number of files. When ripping my CD’s to mp3, I use MusicMatch Jukebox, and classify the folders by Artist - Album, and the songs by Track Number - Song Name. So, a file would be like ’’Led Zeppelin/Box Set 1 (Disk 2)/15 - Stairway To Heaven.mp3’’. After I plug the IPod in, it shows up as a removable drive on Explorer. I selected the XPlay Music folder as the target, and drag-n’-dropped the top-level folder, ’’Led Zeppelin’’. I’m not sure how much of the work was done by XPlay and how much was taken up by the IPod - but this is what it does - it reads the mp3 song information, creates folders under Artist/Album, etc., and puts the song in there with the right name - no leading track number or trailing file extensions. Really neat.
The playing interface - go and play around with one of these things at your local store. The scroll wheel surrounding the center button is really cool. The well placed buttons, plus the balanced weight, makes one-hand operation a breeze. Press the Menu key (top) to go up the menus, and the central button to go into selections.
Sound playback - In one word - incredible. The hard disk approach, as against the CD player approach, starts playing a song almost immediately after it has been selected. Some of the older reviews had rants about equalizers - I’m not sure if this was added on later- by player comes with selections of Rock/ Pop/ Vocals/ etc. - not exactly a 10-channel equalizer, but good enough. Still, a fully functional equalizer would be something I’d like to see in the future.
Also, instead of switching it off and having the playlist reset, I leave it under pause mode, which automatically shuts it off after some time. In the pause mode, when you click on a button again, it powers up and starts playing from wherever you left off.
- LCD screen - The screen is neatly organized, showing battery life (10 hours on a single charge - as per the books), song name, artist, album, song position progress bar, time into the song, time remaining, and the ’song m of n’ display for the playlist. Click on the center button in play mode, and the progress bar becomes a scrollbar for selecting song position. Rotate the scroll ring during play, it adjusts the playback volume.
Backlight - The backlight is really bright at night - but it makes it difficult to see during the day. I shut the backlight off, since I’m playing more often in brightly lit areas than in dark ones.
Accessories - The IPod comes with a jewelry box- looking AC adapter, which sends power through the Apple firewire cable that comes in the box. That’s about it. You don’t need batteries, memory, or anything. The box does not have a manual - Apply ITunes is supposed to have the manual, and the box does come with a Mac CD containing the software - the only thing they tell you is that there’s absolutely no user-serviceable parts inside, so there’s no need to break it apart for any reason whatsoever.
The Bad
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There’s nothing that’s really bad about this - I’m all raves about my IPod. However, there are a few very minor issues that can be brought up:
Playlist on the go - you can create a playlist on the XPlay software, but can’t create it on the go. It would be nice if I can click on songs and push them onto a playlist while not near a computer.
Equalizer - for a product this fine, I would like to see a full range equalizer.
Earphones - the standard earphones that ship with the box are great, but having better ones sure help in such a high quality environment. I just purchased the Etymotic ER-6 from headphone.com - am eagerly waiting for it’s arrival.
Backlight - As I mentioned earlier, the backlight is irritating during the day, but great in the dark. Maybe we can have a light sensor that will provide backlight only when necessary? Even my ancient pager has that feature.
Overall - there’s no better thing to buy for listening to your favorite music on the go.