I remember getting my first audiocassette. It was actually a “Weird Al” tape. I used to play it over and over again. I couldn’t wait to get home from school to use it. Then I discovered CDs. (Actually, my first CD was also a “Weird Al” album.) A few months ago, I got an iPod as a gift. Man, was this an upgrade. I didn’t look back when I upgraded to CDs and I don’t plan on looking back now.
If you’re not familiar with the basic concept of an mp3 player, then I have some major explaining to do. The iPod comes with iTunes, which you install on your computer. I’m not going to go into major detail about iTunes, but it’s the same software that you use to access iTunes music store. (Believe it or not, the first song that I purchased from iTunes was a “Weird Al” song.) You also use iTunes to manage your mp3 files and put them on your iPod. Basically, you import as many songs as you can. In this case, you get 20 GB of files. (That translates into roughly 5,000 songs.) When you connect your iPod to your computer, the iPod checks for any updates or changes to your files and updates the iPod.
You’ll definitely want to read the instructions before doing anything. The manual explains what you have to do to set up. The iPod comes with a USB cable and a FireWire connection. I’m told that if you have USB 1.0, you’re going to want to get a FireWire card. Fortunately, I have 2.0, which allows for fast transfer. I have just under 5 GB and it transferred in a matter of minutes. Once that’s done, you can add and remove tracks as you see fit.
When you create play lists using iTunes, those play lists are transferred onto the iPod. This is helpful if you have a group of songs you really like. I inherited a lot of tracks from my brothers. I also copied a lot of my own CDs onto the computer so that I could listen to them on the iPod. Transferring from the computer to the iPod is easy. However, if there’s a track that you don’t like and you want to get rid of it, it can be tricky. You can shuffle songs and if there’s one you don’t like, it seems to keep coming back up like a bad penny. My recommendation is to rate the song one star to mark it and then delete it.
Now, you’re probably wondering how you can rate songs using the actual iPod. This is one of those things that the instruction manual doesn’t cover. On the upper half of the iPod, you have the display window. Below that is the spin wheel. In the middle of the spin wheel is a button. If you press the button twice, you can rate the current song between one and five stars. Rate the songs that you want to delete as one star. When you next connect, iTunes will mark the corresponding files as one star. You can then clear these files from the main library.
That’s another thing that I wanted to touch on. The instruction manual is very clear on how to set up the iPod. Once you’ve done that, you’re almost on your own. I found out about rating by accident. Volume control was also an accident, even though it is covered in the manual. The manual simply says to use the spin wheel to control volume. What it doesn’t tell you is that you have to spin clockwise or counterclockwise to affect volume.
There are four buttons on the spin wheel: Menu, next track, previous track and play/pause. To change the volume, you just move your finger around the spin wheel. It’s very sensitive, so you’ll have to get used to it. The next-track and previous-track buttons should be self-explanatory. You use these two buttons to change tracks. When you randomize the tracks, the order stays the same unless you go through all of the tracks. As for play/pause, this should also be self-evident. The thing that I learned from the instruction manual is that you hold down this button to put it in sleep mode.
You’re probably wondering how you can shuffle, or randomize, the songs. On the main menu, the third selection is settings. The third option on the settings menu is shuffle. Press this until you get the desired level of randomness. I don’t recall seeing this in the instruction manual, but it might still be there.
Now, you’re probably wondering how the battery life is. When I first got the iPod, the battery seemed to drain quickly. I think that this was because I was using it a lot and testing out all of the features. Since then, I’ve only had to recharge it every few days. The bad news is that it’s an internal battery. The good news is that it is rechargeable, as most internals are these days. This means that you can’t use your own rechargeable batteries. You have to connect the FireWire cable to an AC adapter, which plugs into the wall. (You can also use the USB wire to recharge through the computer, but I don’t really like doing that.) It takes about four hours to recharge, which isn’t so bad. The thing I don’t like is not being able to take it with me during that time. It’s a small price to pay to have so many songs.
The display is pretty good. It’s a small screen and the text may be a problem if your vision isn’t so good, but it does have backlighting. To turn it on, you simply hold down the menu button. It will turn off after a minute or two. (If you want to turn it off manually, just hold the menu button again.) There have been a few occasions where I’ve needed to use the backlighting. It depends on where the nearest light source is.
Aside from the wires and adapter, this iPod also comes with earbuds, which seems to have it’s own jack to connect to the unit. I don’t like earbuds. Fortunately, the iPod takes the standard earphones, so I was able to use the ones I already had. It gets great sound using these earphones, which I like. I’ve also noticed that putting in the earphones will bring the iPod out of sleep mode and removing the earphones while a song is playing will pause it.
You also get four games: Music Quiz, Solitaire, Brick and Parachute. Solitaire is the same card game that you have on your computer. It’s difficult to play with the spin wheel since you have to go through the columns in order. There’s no way to skip to either end that I know of. Music Quiz simply goes through your songs and quizzes you on them. You’re given four titles and you’re scored on how quickly you can pick the right one. Brick also goes by Breakout and several other names. The idea is to keep a ball in the air. When the ball hits a brick, the brick goes away and you get a point. I’ve never seen Parachute before. The idea is to shoot down helicopters and the guys that jump out of them. If the troops land on the ground, they’ll eventually fire at you. When they do, the game is over. Also, if one lands on you the game is automatically over. Shooting a bullet costs a point, but hitting a target gets you two points. If you hit a helicopter, the wreckage can destroy another helicopter or one of the men. It’s a tricky game. The highest that I’ve ever gotten is just over 1,000. At this point, the game seems to stop.
The iPod was easy to set up and start using. Now, it’s all that I use. I haven’t used CDs since then. You can even get audiobooks. I don’t listen to them, so I don’t really know how it works. However, I could see it as being useful for someone that listens to them. My brother got me a case for the iPod, which I recommend getting. I’ve been told that the iPods scratch easily. You can also use the iPod as an external drive. My brother even uses his to store digital photos. (He uses an adapter. If you want to use the iPod to store photos, I’d suggest testing it out first to make sure that you know what you’re doing.)
I give the iPod five stars. It’s extremely easy to use. Once you get it set up, even the biggest technophobe shouldn’t have a problem with it.
iTunes:
http://www.epinions.com/content_181747814020
Maxell Digital Foldable Full Ear Headphones HP-550:
http://www.epinions.com/content_170418146948
