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Welcome
to the Apple 20 GB iPod M9282LL/A Review page:
The iPod literally constitutes
the ultimate solution to owning, managing, and listening to music. It is not often
that I consider a given product to be perfect, but this iPod is that, as far as
I am concerned. I do not believe that I have ever been so impressed with a consumer
product. This iPod reeks of elegant design and quality engineering and construction.
I know that there have been some complaints that the units are fragile. My own
experience has been that if the user exercises reasonable care, the iPod will
take a bit of abuse in stride and continue to function as new.
The iPod
is just wonderful for music management. One can put one's entire music collection
on the unit, and then construct any reasonable number of playlists such that specific
genres, artists , etc. can be featured. So, for example, all of my favorite Christmas
music is on the iPod, such that when that season rolls around I can listen to
this music exclusively (and/or you can create a playlist that combines Christmas
music with other types too!). So if you are in the mood for rock (as I usually
am) you can have rock playlists. Country music? Same thing. Soul/R&B? Yes
that too. No more futzing around with CDs or trying to burn custom CDs that don't
hold enough music. The iPod does it all.
I am not qualified to comment
on the quality of the iPod music output other than to say that the iTune music
sounds excellent to my ear. If there is a degradation in quality it is nominal
and to me, not noticeable in the least. My iPod sounds great either playing through
my stereo or the iPod Dock by Bose, which, by the way, is an excellent accessory.
This particular iPod is the right one to buy for some. Holding 20 Gigs
is enough for me--right now my entire music collection is on my iPod and it totals
less than 3 Gigabytes, leaving almost 17 for headroom. I doubt I'll ever get the
iPod even 50% filled, although time will tell. So for me, even another $50 for
more space would appear to be unnecessary. Those with truly mammoth music collections
can evaluate this for themselves, of course.
The iTunes software left
me very impressed. I give Apple top marks for designing the software interface
for the iPod as well as the menus on the iPod itself. I had it nailed within half
an hour, which is a prerequisite as I am a busy kind of guy and I do not appreciate
non-intuitive software that involves a big investment in time by the user. I was
making custom playlists, ripping CDs, and purchasing music for the iPod via iTunes
within minutes of getting set up. The only quirk in the software is that it did
take me several minutes to figure out how to DELETE a song from the iPod. No big
thing.
Accessories? Almost everyone will want a cigarette lighter adaptor,
to keep the iPod charged up on one's car or boat. A cassette adaptor (available
on Amazon for $10) is also very useful, as a way to input the iPod into most vehicle
stereo systems. Until the coming happy day when all vehicles have built-in iPod
cradles, this is a must-have. For backyard or room listening, Bose and JBL, among
others, make superb speaker docks for the iPod, which both let you play your iPod
through a quality speaker, and charge up the iPod at the same time. Most users
will want all of these accessories.
Now I see what the fuss was about
as regards the iPod. This is an elegant and beautiful product that does it all.
Buy the Apple 20 GB iPod M9282LL/A
