The New Pods And i
Posted on | September 12, 2007 at 8:40 pm | 3 Comments
Last week, Apple announced another new series of iPods. What generation are we up to now on the “classic” model? 6th? 7th? Anyway, my initial impressions based on the marketing materials and online reviews are very good. I’ve been wanting a new iPod for a long time, which makes it somewhat ironic that the only iPod I’ve bought lately was a reconditioned 4th Gen 40GB one. I still use my old 3rd Gen 30GB one for my iHome alarm clock, for listening at work, and for jogging. It’s never worked very well for jogging. I have to hold it in my hand while running, and even then it still skips or gets stuck sometimes – the perils of a disk-based system. So I’ve wanted a flash-based nano for a long time. Y’know, something I could stick in my sock and not worry about it skipping. But something about the 1st/2nd Gen nano bugged me. The form factor just felt wrong. It just seemed too toy-like, too insubstantial, too small and plastic. I thought it would blow away in the wind. And the screen was too tiny for my fading eyesight to read, with too much real estate taken up by the album cover. So I never actually got around to buying one (for myself anyway; N loves her 2nd Gen nano).
The new iPod nano looks very appealing and negates my complaints. The new screen is bigger and brighter. Though I have yet to actually hold one, the form factor just looks right – like what they should’ve done in the beginning (but probably couldn’t have done back then because of technology limitations). The thing just screams sexy. Pretty much the only reason I wanted a nano was for running, but I can see using the new one for more than that. The 8GB memory limitation is bit low for my needs, but that’s better than it used to be. Maybe I should wait for next year’s inevitable 16GB model…
The new iPod classic also looks very good, especially the 160GB model. With that kind of memory, I could fit everything I currently have in iTunes in the thing with room to spare. Although it does fall way short of the 350GB or so I’ll eventually need to store my entire CD collection. So maybe I’ll wait to get a new “classic” model until there’s one big enough to store absolutely everything.
The iPod touch looks cool, but it’s not going to be worth it to me until they push the memory up. 16GB max just ain’t going to cut it. I don’t know what I’d use it for. It’s physically too big to use easily for jogging like a Nano, and the amount of memory is too small to store the bulk of my collection like a Classic. But it does look fun to have and play with.
The video capability of the iPods is not something I’m really interested in right now, although I can foresee a day when it might come in handy. For example, if I started taking the bus to work everyday, I could download some shows from iTunes and watch them on the ride. Although I hear that NBC will be yanking their shows from iTunes over a pricing dispute, which would be a major bummer.
The ability to display photos does nothing for me. Neither of my current iPods will do that, and I don’t miss it. My Palm T|X PDA will display photos, and yet I’ve never really gotten around to loading any into it other than a small sampling of my digital pix. (It will do videos too, but not as easily as the iPod + iTunes will.)
I do like the album cover displays, despite the fact they take up valuable screen space that could be used to display track information in a bigger font that my poor eyes could more easily decipher. Again, neither of my current iPods have the album art feature. And I have yet to actually put all the cover art into iTunes anyway, though that’s something I’m working on.
I may eventually get an iPhone, once the bugs are all worked out and they have more memory. But for now, I think I’ll stick with my thin little RAZR and my Palm T|X PDA.
I’ve never had any interest whatsoever in an iPod Shuffle. Too little memory, no screen, no ability to choose a track or identify a song I just heard (without hooking it back up to iTunes?)… urgh. It does look cute though, and I have to admit it would work pretty good for jogging, though I’d have to keep refreshing the songs on it.
Conclusion: I’ll probably be picking up an iPod nano before too long…
Pet Peeve Of The Day: A dirty house. The maid is sick and won’t be coming to clean up until next week!!
Latre.
Comments
3 Responses to “The New Pods And i”
September 12th, 2007 @ 10:01 pm
Joe has put several TV shows from DVDs we own onto his iPod, to watch on the way to work. One day a couple weeks ago, his train had to sit in a station for 15 minutes because of some system delay, and he didn’t even notice because he was busy watching an old episode of “News Radio.” (*I* noticed, since I was waiting to pick him up…)
September 13th, 2007 @ 3:47 am
> only reason I wanted a nano was for running,
[...]
> The 8GB memory limitation is bit low for my needs
Ye gods, man, how far do you RUN?! By my calculations 8 gigs is enough for a dozen hours of music even using straight uncompressed CD rips, much less MP3 format! If you’re running longer than that, you may want to consider cutting back on the Starbucks…
September 13th, 2007 @ 8:54 am
*Sigh* The musically non-obsessed and the running non-obsessed will never understand…