in General, Reviews

iPod reviewed

As I mentioned briefly before, I got an iPod as an early birthday gift! Its a standard 20GB model, no fancy photo features or anything which I probably don’t need anyway. And I love it!

I’m primarily amazed at the usability of the interface. Everything I want to do with the unit is right where I expect it to be, even if I’ve never used the feature before. Putting music on it via iTunes is a breeze as well. Much simpler than I expected it to be, given my past experience with using proprietary software to transfer files.

I also got an FM transmitter/charger for the iPod, and utilized it to great effect on my 5 hour return trip to Pittsburgh yesterday. Much more powerful and better sound quality than my previous attempts at such devices.

One thing I haven’t figured out so far: is there a way to delete songs from my computer, but leave them on the iPod? My main laptop hard drive is only slightly larger than the iPod’s, so if I ever reach the 20GB mark of music it would get quite cramped in here for other software.

I really only have two complaints.
First: the mirrored finish on the back of the iPod is far too easy to scratch and mar. The unit looks so nice aesthetically that the accidental marks are really a shame.
Second: the included headphones (despite being a status symbol) rather hurt my ears while resting in place for more than a few minutes. That problem was easily fixed with a replacement pair, but I’m surprised Apple hasn’t redesigned the earbuds since I’ve heard others complain as well.

Now I’m off to dig up the blog posts I saw a couple weeks back about various things to do with your iPod!