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Apple iPod (20 GB Model) Review
James first started this website when learning Visual Basic back in 1999 whilst studying his GCSEs. The site grew steadily over the years while being run as a hobby - to a regular monthly audience of over half a million unique developers. In July '08 James left his job as Head of Development at a digital agency in London to focus his energies on developerFusion full-time.
- Introduction
- A closer look
- iTunes
- Conclusion
Conclusion
Returning to the hardware for a moment, the iPod also has a calendar and contacts view, plus a notes section - used for viewing text files (though obviously not creating them!). These additional features are perhaps hinting at an area Apple could exploit more in the future - why have an iPod and a PDA when you can have it combined in one? The calender and contacts use the standard iCal and vCard formats; and these files are simply copied over into the appropriate folder on the iPod. The major downside at the moment isn't a flaw with the iPod, but with Outlook - which handily only lets you export one iCal or vCard at a time (ie one calendar entry or one contact), which makes exporting the next months worth of events impossible. If you really do want to take advantage of these features, and use Outlook, you'd have to purchase some third party software such as iPodSync - fingers crossed a free equivilant will appear eventually.
The iPod is a great bit of hardware - and is still in my view the best offering available; its the smallest, lightest, and arguably the most stylish MP3 player on the market. However, you have to pay for the priviledge; the 20GB iPod currently retails at $399 USD, or £299 direct from Apple. Aside from the price, there are a two niggles that I'll just point out. The first is the battery life. Although 8 hours is acceptable, when Dell manage to squeeze out almost double that for their Digital Jukebox, it would be nice if this could be longer. The second is the ease with which the iPod is scratched. Metal cases are always a problem, and are always easy to scratch... unfortunately, the white plastic front can also be scuffed quite easily if you place it on the wrong surface - so take care, and use its docking station and carrying case!
| Supplier |
Amazon.com (US) Amazon.co.uk (UK) |
| Pricing |
Prices are correct at time of going to press (Source: Amazon) |
| Availability | Now |
| Specs | Click here for full specifications |
You can transfer files to another computer. I regularly use mine to transfer large files like that. The only thing the iPod restricts is music files that you have copied to the device using iTunes, (and therefore want the iPod to be able play while "in transit").
There is one thing I don't understand. I would like to purchase the 20 gig, using it for an external hard drive, as well as music player. I have large video files I would not be able to tarnsfer another way. But my question is, as mentioned, can I take the files and put them on another computer, which seems might not be the case, so then, what is the point of it acting as an external? What happens when my computer crashes, is everything lost?
Thanks,
Seaman
hmm. That was supposed to be mentioned in the article - it seems I managed to edit my own comments out. All lithium-ion batteries have a limited life, and I don't think the one Apple use is particularly below average for this. When it does run out, you can either
1) purchase a replacement battery from a 3rd party and attempt to open the sealed unit yourself...
2) send it back to Apple for replacement (I don't currently know the cost of this...).
Obviously, if the battery dies within a year (there's no reason it should), then you won't have to pay for it to be replaced anyway.
how about the irreplacable li-ion battery that can only be charged 500 times??
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