A little while back (say... 3 years...), I wrote a review of the
First Gen iPod Nano, and have sense upgraded to a 160GB iPod Classic - a little different versus my 2GB Nano... I have been extremely happy with both iPods (and I still use both on a regular basis). If you read my Nano review, then you would know that I also have a 3rd Generation iPod (which still works, but is a little slow and I don't really use... it's kind of like the really old member of your family that makes awkward comments at the dinner table...) and a Shuffle (which was lost during my move from college to the real world... not a big loss for me though...). That being said, let me get on with the actual review at hand - my
Black 160GB iPod Classic.
Why I Upgraded I graduated college and got a job - worst idea ever, in case you're wondering - and started listening to more music on my iPod while sitting at a desk rather then while walking around a campus. I figured I would be fine with my Nano's 2GB capacity, and I held out for about a year, but I eventually decided that I was tired of constantly having to put new music on my iPod (when you listen to music for more then 7 hours a day, you really run through everything fast). So I upgraded to 160GB and that really wasn't an issue anymore...
Size As I said above, I went from being in college, where I listened to a lot of music while walking around, to working, where I could have my iPod on my desk and not worry about the bulge in my pocket (yes, I am
always happy to see you). The actual dimensions are 2.4" x 4.1" x 0.53" - so it's not overly huge. I manage to fit my iPod Classic, Crackberry, Keys, Wallet, and Cell Phone into two pockets, so it really can't be that big!
Weight The 160GB iPod Classic weighs 5.7 oz. Since I have all the other junk that I mentioned above (I also have a George Costanza wallet... which I did not mention...), my iPod basically feels like nothing else in my pocket...
What's In The Box? In the iPod Classic box, you get your iPod, Apple's headphones, a USB 2.0 cord to connect your iPod to your computer, a dock adapter, and that's about it...
Headphones My only constant complaint with Apple are their headphones - I had two pairs break on me in the past (stopped being able to hear anything in the right ear both times), so I've decided that I will no longer use them. I now use the headphones that actually came with my new Dell XPS 420 that I got back in February (a nice surprise to find...).
What's a Dock Adapter? Good question, young mind! A dock adapter
is not a charger! It is merely a piece of plastic to sit in the old docs so that your new, thinner iPod Classic will sit in the dock with more ease. It's hard when it's competing for the same space as its older, fatter brethren.
No Charger?? Ahh yes, newer iPods are no longer coming with chargers. I've heard a lot of reasons why - from "everybody already has an iPod and the chargers are all the same, so everyone doesn't need 8 chargers" to "they want the extra $30 from you." Basically, if you have a charger already, it's not a big deal.
If this is your first iPod, you need to make sure you also buy a charger ($29 right now on Apple.Com).
Ease Of Setup If you have iTunes on your computer, then setup is a breeze - you have to plug it in and it walks you through all of the steps. If you don't have iTunes (which is the only software that your iPod can interact with on your computer), then you need to go to Apple.Com and download it under the downloads tab. All in all, it is incredibly easy to get yourself going.
User Interface What you see is what you get - a 2.5" Color LCD screen and a scroll wheel with a click button in the middle. Pretty standard at this point - but you should just be aware that the screen it just a screen, it is not an interface itself (this is no iTouch or iPhone!).
You Can Really Watch Movies On A 2.5" Screen? I was pretty skeptical at first too, but I've found that you can watch the screen pretty intently on airplanes or trains (not recommended while in the back seats of cars if you get motion sickness...) and it seems like it's pretty big. It helps that you can also hold it 6 inches from your face, which makes it seem like a huge screen just really far away...
Software The software on the iPod itself is very useful and easy to use - the opening screen has everything that you're looking for: Music, Videos, Photos, Podcasts, Extras, Settings, Shuffle Songs, Now Playing.
Music - Within Music, you have the ability to choose:
- Cover Flow (where you scroll by album looking at the album's covers - provided you have them loaded onto your iTunes).
- Playlists (these are the playlists that you have created on your iTunes, as well as your On-The-Go playlist that you can create from your iPod).
- Artists - Just scroll through your music by artist.
- Albums - Just scroll through your music by album.
- Songs - If you want to go through your music collection song-by-song.
- Genres - Your music is all ground together by genre.
- Composers
- Audiobooks
- Search - By far the best new feature, search does exactly what it sounds like it does... but if you want to find something very specific, it's very useful.
Videos - Within Videos, you have the ability to choose:
- Movies - If you have downloaded any movies from the iTunes store, they will show up here.
- TV Shows
- Music Videos - Recently, a lot of albums that I have purchased on iTunes have some with a music video. They show up here...
- Video Playlists - If you have created any video playlists, this is where you can find them.
- Settings - Your options here are
TV Out (Off, Ask, On - so if you have your iPod connected to a TV through iTV or something similar),
TV Signal (NTSC, PAL - NTSC is the US, PAL is Europe),
Fullscreen (On, Off), and
Captions (Off, On).
Photos - If you have any digital photos uploaded to your iPod, this is where you can access them.
Podcasts - If you subscribe to any Podcasts (through iTunes), they will show up here. Some of them are free, some you have to pay for. I'm a big fan of the Mike and Mike in the morning podcast...
Extras - Here comes the good stuff - the things that your kids will inevitably understand and screw around with, just to watch your struggle to figure out what is going on. Well weary traveler, you've come to the right place for your explanations:
- Clocks - In case you want to know what time it is somewhere else...
- Calendars - You can set up to-do's and alarms in here (someone has a birthday coming up - will your iPod remind you??)
- Contacts - If you have any contacts loaded in (so if you want to keep personal contacts separate from work contacts, this could be a good place to keep them).
- Alarms - Your iPod can now wake you up too! I would recommend having it hooked up to speakers or something, though...
- Games - iQuiz - In case you don't know your music well enough, you get to listen to small portions of songs and figure out what it is before time runs out! There's also a few other included games (I haven't played them), but you can also download games for pretty cheap at the iTunes store.
- Notes - If you want to make notes to yourself, you can put them on your iPod from your computer. Pretty useful for grocery lists and stuff like that.
- Screen Lock - You put a four number combination on your screen, and you can't use your iPod again until you unlock it. This will be the one that your kids will get you on! Make sure you know important dates in your head (in numerical form!) and don't have them just in your iPod calendar!
- Stopwatch - You're out at a track practice and coach has forgotten his watch AND stopwatch. Practice is over - everyone go home... NOT SO FAST! Here's my iPod coach! Now please run me into the ground!
Settings Pretty typical stuff - if you want to shuffle songs while you listen to specific things, this is the place to do that. Aside from that, you can set brightness, language, etc.
Shuffle Songs If you are really indecisive, this is the place for you! Shuffle all of your songs and listen to them randomly. Actually a really nice feature for long car trips.
Now Playing If you are playing music and start screwing around in other sections (games, for example), you can go here to see what you're currently playing.
iTunes I've mentioned iTunes a lot - it is the only software that Apple allows the iPod to interact with on your computer. It is available for both Windows and Mac from Apple.Com. Since I've been riding the iPod wave for awhile now, iTunes doesn't bother me since it's the only music software I've used in the last five years. That being said, I do know that the lack of compatibility is a complaint of some people. It's a very user-friendly program, though.
Apple.Com Engraving Apple has had this deal going on for awhile, where you can engrave two lines of a message for free in the back of your iPod. Basically, if you have that birthday that you forgot but your iPod calendar reminded you of, you can put the recipients name on the first line and their birthday on the second line, and then just say that it took so much longer because of the engraving so that's why it's only a day late! (If they're crafty, though, they'll go to Apple.Com and see that it still ships in 24 hours...).
Scratching Problems? There have been some complains of all iPods scratching easily. Now, I'm not sure about you, but my keys try to eat
everything in my pockets, so that means that my iPod isn't spared... My iPod really doesn't look any worse then everything else in my pocket, and the screen actually looks pretty good. All in all, I don't think that they scratch that easily anymore - and it's definitely a problem that can easily be avoided (saran wrap it if you're cheap and worried...).
Bottom Line I'm a huge fan of my 160GB iPod Classic - it fits everything that I want it to, is a convenient size, and is very easy to use!
