« Tasty Links for March 15th 2006 | Main | Tasty Links for March 20th 2006 »

Review : Apple iPod with Video 60-Gig

Last week I gave in to temptation and blew my overtime pay and a piece of my tax return on a black 60-gig fifth generation Apple iPod. This is the biggest most powerful iPod that Apple has ever made and it is the first generation to sport a nice, crisp and large screen color and MP4 video playback. There is a reason why the Apple iPod is the best selling digital music player in the world and it is not because they have a decent ad agency. I had to choose between spending my money on a iPod or an Xbox 360 and I chose the iPod.

The iPod is about as thin as my old iPod Mini and it a little wider and taller than a pack of cards. The screen size is 2.5 inches wide and is a lit LCD that sports a 320x240 resolution and is capable of fast crisp video with no ghosting or blurring. The screen is lit and dims to save battery life when playing music. The design is similar to the iPod Mini with the click wheel and there is no additional buttons on the front of the iPod with the exception of the click wheel. Unfortunately this generation of iPod does not fit in most of the docks and third party accessories so there will be a whole new product line of stuff for it. The casing and screen are know world wide to be rather scratch prone so I got a leather flip top protective case on the same day. I almost never take it out of the case. It is a truly usable form factor and I think it is just about the perfect size for a PDA or personal media player. They sell a 30-gig version and a 60-gig version. Since the 60-gig was a hundred more and had a longer battery life I made the investment and went with the mack daddy of iPods.

I really like using iTunes and it is one of the totally indispensable modern apps that I use. I usually have it open on every computer system that I use both at work and at home on Mac or PC. I have iTunes set up to sync my calendars from iCal, contacts from Address Book and my photos from iPhoto. I also loaded up my VoodooPad personal Wiki on it and the color display looks great when you are browsing a calendar or text note. This is a really good option for accessing personal digital information while you are away from a computer. I can see myself extending the life of my iBook computer by taking my iPod with me on most trips.

The iPod can play MP3s, ACCs, AIFF audio files and it can take JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, and PNG photos. It can display MPEG-4 and H.264 formated video files. While it can't play older video files natively there are a plethora of conversion tools such as iTunes itself and iSquint. Might go ahead and pimp a link to Handbreak yet again. I don't think I can write a post without mentioning it as of late.

This iPod sports a big ass hard drive for a portable media device. It is so big in fact that I am thinking about moving my iTunes library to my external hard drive or stopping from including all the video files in one place on my hard drive. I have a 80-gig in my iBook and 75% of that can fit in the iPod. I could use it to store data files as a really big external hard drive but then I would have to carry the USB cable around. This generation of iPod is meant to charge via the USB cable and it can sync via Firewire but it can no longer charge over Firewire. Update: It looks like it can't sync via Firewire. That is lame. Technically I can't think of a reason why all the previous iPods worked with Firewire and this one does not.

Normal battery life of normal music use is around 20 hours but when you watch videos it can reduce it to three hours of video watching per charge. It is long enough to watch a full length movie and it is perfect for watching a half hour TV show but I don't think that I am going to sit down and watch Shogun on it from beginning to end. It is quite nice to be able to watch a movie in bed or when your girlfriend is watching some lame reality TV show. Apple is selling DRM restricted TV shows via iTunes and while they look great I am probably going to roll my own video content by ripping my DVDs and recording TV shows on my DVD Recorder PVR. I would love it if Apple would buy El Gato systems and make their own brand of set top PVR that could dock and update the iPod. There is a separate AV cable and a dock with video out so you can hook it up to a TV and watch videos and pictures on a TV. It actually looks decent because it can be a good picture quality, frame rate and compression. That makes up for the lower screen resolution but it looks like a very good VHS tape but not as crystal clear as a DVD. Unless you are a digital video freak and are deliberately looking for it you will probably never notice the 320X240 resolution.

This is probably the reason why Apple does not have a PDA line. The iPod success is probably preventing them from wanting to make a whole new PDA OS but it is so good that I don't think that I am missing a real PDA OS. I would call the iPod a digital media Personal Information Manager. You still need to use it with a computer but almost all PDA solutions are like that. It rules for keeping you sane on the hour long ferry across the Puget Sound.

Oh man video podcasts rule on this thing. The great thing about them is that since they are based on open standards that hopefully the Windows world will catch up once Microsoft gets off their ass and supports MP4 in Windows Media Player.

What don't I like about it. Well it ships with the same crappy white headphones but you can and should get a decent pair of headphones when you get one. Let me put it this way, this is a $300 to $400 digital device and it would be a better idea to not ship those five dollar in ear headphones that have gotten synonymous with the iPod. I know that they are an important branding mark but they still suck.

The finish and screen is totally scratchtastic can can scratch by people in the general area just thinking about scratching it. I don't plan on ever taking it out of my protective leather case.

Apple has made one of the truly perfect personal digital devices and they keep getting better. It just freaking works. Personal portable media devices can be a wonderful extension of your mental self. This little guy has all the music that I have ever owned, all the digital pictures that I have ever taken, all my calendars and to do lists, my contacts, my personal Wiki, ten of my favorite DVD movies and all my podcasts and video podcasts. I plan on having this in my pocket for years to come.

Jake at March 16, 2006 Reviews

Comments

Posted by: Ben at March 16, 2006 12:18 PM

Posted by: Aaron Keogh at March 20, 2006 2:11 AM

Post a comment

Name:

Email Address:

URL:
Remember Me? YesNo

Comments:

type the word "joystick" below (required):