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iPod shuffle and iPod photo.
Apple
RRP: iPod shuffle: $149, iPod photo: $499
I bought my first iPod a year ago. When I first started putting
my music on it, the computer asked me what name I would like
to give it. Being the witty fellow that I am, I gave it the
moniker of Whitey.
Good old Whitey. I've taken him camping, interstate, and overseas. And he never complained when I dropped him (not that you should do that kind of thing - I'm sure his feelings were bruised on the inside). I've recorded interviews conducted for this magazine with him. And he's constantly surprising me. One minute I'll be listening to more recent fare from the likes of The Futureheads or Wolf & Cub, the next he's reminding me of my youth with Turtle Power from the 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' soundtrack. Or even stranger oddities from the depths of my music collection, like the 15 minute 70s epic In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly. Anyway, I digress...
The best part of how Whitey works is the feature that lets you rate each song you're listening to on a five star scale. You don't rate the songs for no reason. Say you want to listen to songs that you've added in the last 2 weeks, that you've rated 4 or 5 stars, but aren't jazz or by Black Sabbath, say. Using the 'smart playlist' option in iTunes, it takes about half a minute to set up just such a playlist, and not only that, it will stay constantly updated every time you play it, so that if you added a song precisely two weeks ago or lower a song's rating, tomorrow that song will not be in that list. It's a feature I've used more and more as I've discovered how powerful it can be.
Good as he's been to me, Whitey has had recent cause to be jealous. Recently, Apple lent me some of his younger siblings to play with, iPod shuffle and iPod photo. They can't be that much better than good old Whitey, I thought. Sure, the iPod shuffle is small, but it's probably too small - it won't fit enough music and won't be functional enough. And who needs iPod photo's colour screen? I just want to listen to my music, don't I?
The most affordable member of the family, iPod shuffle is the smallest too. It's as small as a pellet pack of chewing gum, and fits well over 200 songs on the 1 gig version. Not enough, I thought at first. The reality is though, 200 songs covers about 14 hours of playtime, with enough room left over to use the iPod as one of those useful USB memory sticks that everyone seems to be carrying their files on these days.
The iPod shuffle's marketing is based around its 'random' nature, as there is no screen to let you find the music you want. The novelty of letting the computer randomly 'autofill' the iPod from my music library wore off after a few days though. I was often hearing songs that weren't quite cutting the mustard. In the end I simply put my own selection of recent albums and favourite songs, using the aforementioned smart playlist feature in iTunes. You can let songs play in sequential order if you wish, which is useful if you are listening to an album. I soon found I was pretty happy with the shuffle once I had put in a good selection of music on it. And the convenience factor is great. iPod shuffle will go where the larger iPods won't.
On the other hand, if you want to carry your whole collection, or at least most of it, the iPod photo will let you do that and more. It also copies over your digital photo collection, letting you view slideshows while you listen to your music. It's surprising how often in the last few days I've been talking to someone about a recent gig, or a friend, and then realised I could actually show them pictures right then and there.
The iPod photo also displays album art, which luckily I already had downloaded for a lot of my music (nerd that I am). Being able to see the cover art of records you are listening to is something that I appreciated a lot more than I thought I would.
There were a couple of other features I didn't get the optional attachments for, but wish I had the chance to try out. There's the digital camera connector, which allows you to transfer your photos, and view them straight away on the screen. It effectively turns your iPod into extra storage for your camera. And if the weeny little screen doesn't cut it for viewing the photos, you can buy a cable to display the photos on a TV.
With rumours now surfacing of video capable 80 gig iPods coming out by the end of the year, there is always the temptation to wait for something better. Or perhaps you can't afford one. There's really no excuse though, as there's a variety of models to suit your budget, and they are good value for what they do. Whitey and his comrades will vouch for it.
Eddie Chan
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