6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
iPOD's Are Great
Date of Review: Dec 7, 2004
The Bottom Line: I recommend this to the music lovers of the world. Don't waste you money on this if your music collection is small. Personally, I want nothing less than the iPOD.
About a month ago, I was pondering over what I wanted for Christmas; a very early Christmas present. There were a lot of things I wanted like lip gloss or CD's, but those things really weren't important enought to be called awesome Christmas presents.
At first I wanted an Ipod Mini because it was cheaper, it could hold all my songs, the new colors were cute, and it was more portable. I finally decided on an Apple iPOD Fourth Gen. in case my music collection will accumilate in a few years.
I had to resist going to the nearest Bestbuy and ordered it online at Amazon.com. I saved about forty dollars because there was no tax, and I had a twenty dollar coupon off from AOL shopping. Well, I did spend seven dollars on two-day shipping because I just couldn't wait a week!
The iPOD I ordered came in the evening from one of those brown trucks. I was especially happy because the box came earlier than I thought. The box the iPOD came in was quite innovative and somehow made me feel I was getting my money's worth. It was just pretty. You have to fully charge the iPOD for 3-4 hours or else something bad will happen. I don't know what but they recommend it. When the charge is finished, you can install the software that is included. After that, you plug in you iPOD and add music to you library. You do this by importing songs from CD's which is pretty easy. Just put in a CD and click Import. When you first use you iPOD, it will automatically put songs from Window's Media Player into the iTunes as long as the content isn't protected. Any songs you have from other files can be added by going to "add file."
An important thing to know is that there are options as to how you want to update you iPOD. It is factory set to put all the songs you have in your library into you iPOD when you plug it in. If you want to change this you can go to iPOD options at the bottom right corner when you iPOD is connected. There are detailed instructions on manually updating your iPOD at www.apple.com, just go to the support section. MAnually updating your iPOD is good if you want songs on you iPOD and not your computer to free memory on your computer. The bad thing is, you won't be able to add the songs back to the computer even thought they are on your iPOD. You will be able to play them on iTunes when you iPOD is cinnected, though. By the way, you can find music on you iPOD according to playlist, artist, song, composer, and genre.
The usability of this product is very good. I was able to get by with that little brief instruction booklet. If you want to find out all the little things about using the iPOD, be sure to go to apple.com; then go to support center.
One of the greatest things about the iPOD is its click wheel. All you'll ever need are your thumbs and not even that much brain power. You know how when you get a new electronic product, it is hard to adapt? The iPOD's controls are very intuitive and you can easily use it the first time.
Battery:
Playback at its most will last 12 hours, but expect less. If you work they controls a lot it will use up more power; the backlight also does along with the use of 128 kbs. I don't really mind, I have never have my battery run low yet. Just be sure to charge it fully every night, which Apple recommends. Basically, the battery will last depending on how you use the iPOD. Be prepared to replace the battery in about three years for $100 if you don't have the Apple Care Plan(which I don't.)
Once you get the iPOD, be prepared to have your entire music collection anywhere at you fingetips. For the imaginative, you can pick the theme song of your life and play it whenever you want. This little gadget can fit into any of my pockets and easy to conceal if you don't people to know you really aren't listening to them. The iPOD is a great mood lifter. People are generally happy when they listen to music and this really helps. More great things include the games: brick, solitaire, astro-something, and music quiz. Music quiz is like Name That Tune using the songs on your iPOD. IPODs are great for jogging too. It has 25 minutes skip-protection and I personally have never had it skip. The back-lit display is good for when you are in the dark. I like to use it as a flashlight(just kidding, but its is glow-y.)
Problems:
After having the iPOD a while, I came upon some problems. Some which are solved and somethat are not.
1)Once after my dog dragged me around the neighborhood and I was running, jumping around a lot. My iPOD froze and I was FREAKED out. Luckily, I remembered how to fix it. You have to hold on to Select and Menu for a few seconds. This sort of restarts your iPOD(don't worry, this doesn't get rid of your songs.) Be sure to plug it into your power source before doing this because it drains your battery(I learn from mistakes.)
2)There are so many scratched no matter how careful I am; although I think it comes from me taking it in and out my pocket all the time. I highly recommend getting one of those iSkins or any other protection. I have yet to get one since they are about $30. For people who don't really care about those tiny little scratched, ther eis no need. I don't really care either. Rubbing the iPOD a lot with a soft cloth removes some scratches(and makes it shiny!)
Some extra things you dont expect is that you can use this as a portable hard drive. Although I have not tried this yet, I read on the Apple website that you are able to save things like documents on you iPOD and share them with other people by connecting it to their computer. This would be good because I somehow have no floppy disk drive. There are also options for a sleep timer, alarm clock, adding notes, address book, and a calendar(if you have that Microsoft software that lets you organize a calendar.)
I haven't had the opportunity to buy music from iTunes yet. I'll have to try it this weekend. It is 99 cents a song, it may seem like a lot but you can't put a price on music. You'll need a major credit card to set up the Apple account or you can use AOL Wallet(for AOL users.)A plus is that there is a free single every week to download. You can also go to an Apple store and buy one of those prepaid cards. I think you won't need a credit card with the prepaid cards. Something that's pretty nifty is that you can buy audio books. I can't really do that because I have dial-up internet and it would take too long to download a book. For those who have DSL, cable, LAN: go for it.
Am I happy I bought the iPOD? Yeah. Although I do try to forget how much I spent on this. If you really love music, the iPOD is a must-have. Don't buy this if you just have a few CD's and music is fun once in a while. If you have ton of CD's, the iPOD is like having all those in the palm of you hand and taking htem anywhere. It's ease of use, portability, beauty, and state of the art technology is worth the $300. I hope I have given you a good idea of what it's like being an iPOD owner. Once you get the iPOD, you will live the iPOD lifestyle. At least I do, it's fun listening to music all the time even though you sometimes get disconnected from the world(haha.)
