Complete Entertainment in the palm of your hand

I received the Apple iPod Video 30GB as a Christmas gift. Hands down, this is the best player I have ever owned. There is very little not to like about this player.

It's easy to see why Apple has taken over the MP3 player market with the iPod. The iPod video has the click-wheel design that is standard on all new iPods. It's very intuitive -- I didn't even need to read the instructions to begin using the iPod. Even my six-year-old has the ipod controls down.

As a music player, the iPod video is a little on the big side -- but that's because it has a 30 GB drive and a screen. It fits easily in a jacket pocket and is light enough to carry with me all day. Battery life is rated at fourteen hours, less if you play a lot of video. I haven't run mine completely down yet, not without charging it. I have a Rio Nitrus that is much smaller. But the video iPod can play louder and holds 20 times more music, so I can forgive it that.

And the best part of the video iPod -- video! Regrettably, the video iPod does not play the .avi format natively. Given the popularity of the avi format this is something Apple should address in the next version. (And I do know that the 80 GB version is already out there.) However, there are free converters out there on the Web, which will do the job for you.

At first, I thought that the screen was too small to properly watch video. The screen is very clear and bright, and you can watch movies and TV shows easily. Even better, you can get cables (from Apple or other vendors) that will plug into the RCA jacks on your TV and let you play your iPod on your TV. In other words, the iPod can replace your DVD player and DVD's -- everything all in one tiny, palm-sized unit. The video quality on a TV screen leaves a bit to be desired, but it's hardly unwatchable -- comparable to a VHS tape. (Remember those?) Watching episodes of 'Jericho' has become an occasional pleasure at work.

While the 80 GB version offers more storage, the 30 GB is plenty. I have several movies, at least thirty TV show episodes, and several hundred songs to keep me amused for a couple days at a clip and it's still got four gigs free.

In order to use the iPod with your computer, you will need to download Apple's iTunes. This is a free download, and that's a good thing -- no worries about losing a CD. There are other iPod managers that you can use if you prefer. iTunes is a bit of a resource hog, but overall it does the job reasonably well, and it gives you access to the iTunes store.

Happily, the iPod does not cripple you with DRM. The screen bears a sticker reading 'Don't Steal Music' when you take it out of the box, and music purchased from iTunes does contain DRM. However, the player itself does not care where you got the MP3's. And that's how it should be. There's a parallel that can be drawn here.

Once upon a time, Sony created and ruled the portable audio market. (That's back when the audio cassette was king, kids.) In the digital world, Sony promptly shot themselves in the foot by selling players that only played their own format (ATRAC3) and would only allow you to move a converted MP3 on and off the player three times. (I had a Sony NW-E3 and stopped using it because of this.) So, if I'd ripped some MP3's using a freeware ripper that didn't meet Sony's standards for 'acceptability', Sony limited my ability to play that music. That's a great way to ensure that buyers go to a product that won't make them jump through hoops.

There are also many accessories out there for the iPod. Apple has wisely standardized the dock connector for all new iPods, meaning that accessories that will work on one will work on them all. You're not limited to Apple, either -- there are many third-party vendors, and where there are third-party vendors there is competition and choices. My DLO Transpod and my wife's Transdock micro, for example, will work on both my iPod video and her iPod nano. There are even iTunes substitutes to manage your iPod. These are important considerations for someone wanting to buy a music player.

There are a few extras that the iPod comes with -- games, photos, and contacts. It's nice to be able to put digital photos on the iPod and show them off with the bright screen. Games -- well, I haven't really played them, and I don't bother syncing contacts. While these are nice thoughts, they're really secondary to the music and video experience that the iPod provides. Odds are if you're big into contacts you'll have a PDA for that.

If the iPod has negatives, they are few. The headphones that come with it aren't great, but they do the job. However, the headphone jack is standard, so you can replace them with whatever you like.) It can scratch easily, but a $20 case will protect your $250 investment well. If you need to be able to watch video for 72 hours straight, the 80 GB is the one for you. (Plus, you should consider getting out more.) But for $100 less, the 30 GB iPod can give you music and video in the palm of your hand.