I have been in love with iPods ever since I started with my 60 GB fourth generation Photo iPod (
http://www.epinions.com/content_176234860164 ), and this new fifth generation model is in many ways a better unit than my old one.
I was perfectly happy with my Photo iPod, but like many other people, I was intrigued by the video capability of this new iPod, and so, when I unexpectedly got a letter from my credit card company telling me that I had accumulated enough points to get something “free”, and one of those “free” things was this model of the iPod, I decided to get one for someone I really love. Of course, they let me have a long look at it first after we got it.
You can get it in black or white, but since my other one is white, I decided to go with black. Black really is beautiful, and black on this iPod looks great. It is thinner and less bulkier than my Photo iPod, and the screen is bigger. It does videos and movie clips. But for veteran iPodders, one thing you find out quickly is that this model is
faster. I suppose that is because it has an improved processor inside, but whatever the reason is, the command selection process and the performance goes where you want it to go much faster and much more efficiently than with earlier models.
The iPod is still, in my experience, the most fun portable music player there is. I haven't tried too many other ones and I'm sure that many good people love other brands, but to me this is the One. You just get that “click” in your mind that says, at least to me, that you have found the best. Apple doesn’t have to pay me to say that either. It just feels right and sounds right and looks right. It will work with either an Apple computer or a PC Computer. You need to have either a firewire port or a USB port, but either will work.
Like its earlier model fourth-generation cousin, this one does photographs. It will hold several different formats of images. You can put your own digital photos in it, you can scan your “old” prints into digital images you can likewise import, and you can go scouring the internet for various scenes and portraits you like; it will go into the photo library on your computer’s hard disk and then it can be saved to the iPod in groupings you define. The major differences between this unit and the Photo iPod are that the images are a little bigger and the better processor seems to work much more efficiently, even with large groupings of photos. You can watch these individually or as a slideshow, of course.
And as I have noted, primarily for the music and video features, in earlier reviews of the iPod, nobody in the industry has such a wonderful team as the iTunes-software-on-the-computer/ iTunes-Store-on-the-internet (
http://www.epinions.com/content_224739495556 )/ iPod-itself music triangle. With the iTunes software and store, you don’t even have to buy music; you can get free internet radio broadcasts which you can save, as well as podcasts, which are “shows” of all kinds of things from Rick Steves’ worldwide travelogues to discussions of rock climbing to audio blogs to, well, you name it. Of course, you can buy music, audio books, videos, TV shows, and a lot of other intriguing stuff there from Apple to be stored and played on the iPod. Not to mention all the hours of your own music you can rip from your CD collection. Then the biggest problem becomes how do you organize all the sound and vision stuff you have collected, a problem I have attempted to address in another epinion (
http://www.epinions.com/content_4734623876 ).
The fifth generation Video iPod uses the Click-Wheel for navigation, as do some of the earlier models. The Click-Wheel takes a while to get used to, but when you have mastered it it works very well. And very well indeed when it comes to speed on the Video iPod. You can jump from Music to Playlists to Songs to Album Art, etc. with it very quickly. You can pause your music, go forward and backward through the song list, and turn the unit on and off with it. I still wish, though, that the iPod had an on-and-off switch separate from the Click-Wheel. Even with the improved speed of the Video iPod, sometimes getting it to a positive shut-down takes a patient wait, and even if the screen darkens sometimes the power stays on, and unless you are absolutely sure it is “off” it may stay on and run the battery down. Just a minor gripe, but it can be important.
The new video feature is really a kick. The easiest way to see how this works is to buy a video from the iTunes store for about $3.00 a pop, but I am told that if you have other videos they can be added with aftermarket software. I tried, using Apple’s A/V software, a $30.00 upgrade needed here, to load in some homegrown mpg video clips with mixed results. It works, but I’m not sure this part is ready for prime-time. Even when I got the video part of a clip to work, usually the audio didn’t, This may be the fault of the clips, but I was a little disappointed. But as long as you stick with iTunes’ media, you will be okay. You can get TV shows that go almost an hour. Some people say that no one would watch a two-hour movie on such a little screen, but I’d like to give it a go some time. People watch tiny screen TVs all the time for hours, so maybe it would work on the Video iPod. I also have seen a visual ($$$-expensive) headset advertised that is supposed to be “perfect for the Video iPod” which is claimed to give you the effect of looking at a big-screen TV. That would be fun to check out. As a matter of fact, it may even be a wave of the future, if they can ever get the cost down.
Here are the factory specs:
Storage Capacity: 30 GB
Audio Formats: MP3, WMA, AAC, MP3 VBR, & AIFF
Audio Bit-Rates: 16 kbps - 320 kbps
Video Formats: MPEG-4 & H.264
Video Bit-Rate: 768 kbps (kilobits per second)
Max Resolution: 320 x 240
Frequency Respone: 20 Hz - 20,000 Hz
On Screen Display: ID3 Tag Info, Battery Level, Playlist / Table of Contents, Play Mode, Elapsed Time, & Recharging
Screen Size: 2.5 inch
Interface: USB 2.0
Outputs: Composite x 1, S-Video x 1, & Headphone Jack
Power Source: Rechargeable via USB cable, Internal Battery, & AC/DC Adapter
Battery Type: Rechargeable Lithium
Battery Life: 14 hours
Additional Features: Games, Sleep Timer, & World Clock
Dimensions: 2.4 in. (width) X 0.43 in. (depth) X 4.1 in. (height)
Weight: 4.8 oz
Other thoughts:
The stock earbuds are okay, but I suggest you get a really good pair like Sony’s, in the $50.00 range- you’ll be glad you did. Better yet might be something like a wireless Bluetooth headphone set. As I noted in another review (
http://www.epinions.com/content_231073615492 ), Logitech makes a great-sounding but scarily designed unit for the fourth generation models, but I’m not sure if there is a wireless Bluetooth unit out (yet) for the Video iPod (different connection slot on the top). Make your own choice about that.
One of my favorite things to do, and I may be among a minority on this, is to import album art to go along with the songs that are not so endowed. If you buy songs from iTunes, you will get the album art pre-packaged, as it were, but with your ripped CD songs you won’t. Just go out on the net and you can copy-and-paste images into the information tabs on your songs and voila! If your old copy of that Elton John classic is blank where the art should be, from Google’s images or from amazon.com’s album pictures you can put Elton’s face with his songs. Or you can put a picture of the Apollo moon rocket in with
Rocket Man if you like. You have a little creative control here.
Peripherals? Ah, there’s the rub. The older model iPods had the ability to accept lots of peripherals. I have a few for my Photo iPod- a digital recorder, an FM transmitter on top of the unit (iTrip) (
http://www.epinions.com/content_215751036548 ), and the Bluetooth headphones transmitter, to mention some which are available. But Apple has apparently done away with the old connection, rendering the old peripherals obsolete. Why, I don’t know; perhaps a new generation of peripherals will come out like the old ones. Still, it’s strange. You can still get an FM transmitter to work with the Video iPod, just not the good old iTrip. So we will see what happens. I’m sure the good people at Belkin and other marketers of aftermarket companies will come up with something, if they haven’t already. At least your Video iPod will work with many of the new boom-box-type sound boxes you can put in your living room and take to the beach. That form of peripheral is only now in its early stages of evolution.
Overall, I have to give this unit an A+. For the experience for the money, I don’t think you can beat it. Until the sixth generation comes out one of these days.
Five Stars/ *****
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