Apple iPod MP3 Player Review Author: Matt and Brian Date Posted: May 12th, 2003 SLRating: Bottom Line: Most of you have probably heard of Apple's iPod, it is small, it is white, it plays MP3s from a hard drive instead of a CD, and-unsurprisingly-like all Apple products, it is expensive. Read on to find out if the newest revision of the iPod is worth your money… Article Navigation Comparison Starting Up Usability/Functionality Components Conclusion Gallery Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 >> Discuss This Article

Usability/Functionality:

The iPod is very straightforward to use: when it is powered on you are greeted with the last menu you saw when it turned off. Typically the main menu will appear, giving you the options:

• Playlists
  
  • Whatever you make…
    
• Browse
  
  • Artists
    
  • Albums
    
  • Songs
    
  • Genres
    
  • Composers
    
• Extras
  
  • Clock
    
  • Contacts
    
  • Calendar
    
  • Notes
    
  • Games
    
• Settings
  
  • Can change about anything…
    
• Backlight

(images from Apple.com we assumed Apple.com would not mind, if Apple.com have any objections we will remove them)

In addition to playing music, the iPod has many of the same features of a simple PDA. Such extras include a Calendar, a List of Contacts, text Notes and of course Games. The Calendar and Contacts will sync with Microsoft Outlook, and text files can just be dragged onto the iPod for the Notes. On a side note, the notes can contain links to other notes or songs, and can do other interesting things: here's a link to an Apple reference PDF on the subject. The main drawback of these extras is that you can't change anything once it is already on the iPod. This means no adding to the calendar, no inserting a new contact, no jotting down notes and no keeping track of past scores in the games. This is acceptable though because the iPod really shines as an MP3 player. It isn't going to replace your PDA. Another side note: some iPod enthusiasts have found that you can record six seconds of audio with the left headphone in the debug menu. While this isn't very exciting yet, it will most likely be fully supported in future firmware updates. Here's a link with more information.

The Games are a nice afterthought, but they are just that, an afterthought: Brick is carried over from the original iPod and still has its charm, but I personally found it a bit hard to play with the touch pad. The two new games are Parachute and Solitaire. In parachute you enter a grim futuristic world of "Helicopter Paratrooper vs. Turret" combat in which you shoot a path to a brighter future for turret-kind to achieve a world without tyrannical Helicopter Paratroopers… a world with peace… Actually it's sort of a fun classic Missile Command-like game where accuracy and consistency get you higher points. And solitaire… Until now I thought no one could infuse so much energy and raw fun-ness into a game, let alone a card game. After playing iPod Solitaire I still feel the same way. It is solitaire, and very slow solitaire at that. The controls are a bit cumbersome and the iPod screen is a little cramped when there are a lot of cards out, but all in all the Solitaire game is my personal favorite of the three.

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