First hand iPod experience

These iPods

really look great. I never had a chance so far to hold one in my hands - but now that my brother wanted one - I helped him ordering one from eBay. It has just arrived and I have been checking it out in the last few hours. I had several mp3 players so far but none of them could match what Apple has put together in the iPod. Mainly the user experience is what makes it stand out from the rest. Even if you are not a geek (or not especially tech-savvy) you can get used to it in minutes basically. Everything is straightforward (mostly) and it can even speak hungarian (my brother’s gonna love this). Well, the whole clickwheel thing and the animations, adjusting the volume, fast forwarding-rewinding, searching for a song - well all just “clicks”. Very nice. Although I will buy myself whether an iPhone or an iPod touch. It can wait. One thing that I do not particularly like is the integration with iTunes. Well, OK, at least I can switch to manual synching of what I want on my iPod. And I know that probably lots of people like the automatic synching. Those that actually buy songs from iTunes You know, then synching back and forth, etc. Cool stuff - even if I do not use that.

I also had to figure out the Window/Mac file system formatting issues with it. Basically if you will be using this beauty on computers out of your control (and probably not just Mac systems) you should install the Windows version of iTunes, and “restore” using that. Then copy a few things onto it. (It will be formatted as FAT32 - OS X has no problems reading/writing that - even if on the Apple site they say it is not supported by them). Just be aware that the max file size is 2 gigs on FAT32 file systems. Should be enough - but keep an eye on lengthy movies

Also watching a movie is quite enjoyable - despite the not too big screen. I would not use it to watch lots of movies, but for short videoclips, and occasionally a movie while on a bus / train / plane - it can come handy.

And also the games are pretty cool - and to my surprise they can make good use of the click-wheel controls. I imagine my thumb getting tired in half an hour or so - but for a quick play it is cool. The very first thing I did is getting a small collection of iPod games for this (5th generation video iPod, also known as 5.5 gen) with a small “hack” of the firmware. Having Zuma, Bejeweled, Pac-Man, Tetris and Vortex is good. Especially knowing that even if I wanted I could not buy stuff from iTunes as I am currently located in the land of the sheep - as a friend of mine puts this. Also known as Hungary.

And one last picture with a more close look at the back: