Sat
Oct 20
8:39pm
Which iPod should my wife buy me?
Last Thursday I was in an Apple store and played around with an iPod Touch. What a sensational piece of kit that is. Sure, plenty of people are bagging it (touchscreen too susceptible to fingerprints, not enough storage, too expensive etc etc) but I challenge those people to use one for 5 minutes and not be fascinated by it.
The touchscreen interface is just amazing to use - you flick and slide things around with your fingers, tapping here and there, slowly scrolling in other places - wonderful. A massive leap forward for personal devices. It’s like Tom Cruise in Minority Report. Why has it taken this long for someone to make something like this?
When I finally put it down 15 minutes later I picked up a Nano. That was boring in comparison.
However, I hope my wife buys me one. This review and a brief analysis of current iPod options have sold me on it.
| Model | Capacity | Dimensions (in) | Weight (oz) | Battery (video/audio) | Price (AUD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4th Gen Clickwheel (my current iPod) | 40gb | 4.1 x 2.4 x 0.57 | 5.6 | 0/12 | - |
| 5th Gen (late 2006) | 30gb | 4.1 x 2.4 x 0.43 | 4.8 | 3.5/14 | $270 |
| 5th Gen (late 2006) | 80gb | 4.1 x 2.4 x 0.55 | 5.5 | 6.5/20 | $300 |
| Classic | 80gb | 4.1 x 2.4 x 0.41 | 4.9 | 5/30 | $350 |
| Classic | 160gb | 4.1 x 2.4 x 0.53 | 5.7 | 7/40 | $480 |
| Touch | 8gb/16gb | 4.3 x 2.4 x 0.31 | 4.2 | 5/22 | $419/$550 |
| Nano 2nd Gen | 8gb | 3.5 x 1.6 x 0.26 | 1.41 | 0/24 | $240 |
| Nano 3rd Gen | 8gb | 2.75 x 2.06 x 0.26 | 1.74 | 5/24 | $280 |
Let’s dissect my current iPod.
The good:
- It works.
- It holds my 14gb of music (although I also have two more copies of that 14gb - one on the MacBook and one on my external HDD).
- It also holds another 1gb of Get This and This Sporting Life podcasts.
- It works as a back-up for all my photos (another 11gb)
- And it still has room to spare.
- An iTrip lets us make the most of it on long trips in the car.
- It’s not in pristine condition anymore, so I don’t mind if it gets a minor scratch or two when I chuck it in my work bag.
The not so good:
- It’s a bit too heavy to clip to my shorts (via a Booq case) when I’m running, and anyway I’ve read that extensive shaking isn’t good for the HDD mp3 players.
- It doesn’t play video, so I can’t watch Thank God You’re Here, Enough Rope or Summer Heights High episodes, vodcasts, other TV shows, music videos or YouTube stuff.
- I can’t look at the photos that are stored on it.
- The battery is still going OK, but I only get around 6hrs from it now before it carks it.
So, given those + and -, what am I looking for?
- Light enough to exercise with.
- Video (and video out to TV would be good).
- iTrip.
- Robust enough to withstand the inside of my work bag.
- Not too pricey.
The Classic, Touch and 5th Gen iPods offer me video, but are roughly the same weight and dimensions as my current iPod - so no real leap forward from an exercise point of view.
The Touch is almost irresistible, but I’d be very hesitant to chuck it in my bag. I’d want to protect it with something, and I hate those skins that people put on their iPods. They remind me of those Car Bra things that people put on the front of their cars to protect them from stone chips (losers). I’m also not convinced that I wouldn’t miss the physical volume and skip controls of the clickwheel.
The Nano has less storage capacity, but the review I linked to above has convinced me that if I’m smart with my iTunes I don’t need 30gb+ of storage on a portable device. My MacBook and HDD can hold the master content. It has video out, so I can watch Enough Rope on the way home on the train and Thank God You’re Here on our telly later that night (if I buy an Apple Universal Dock and a component cable. It’s amazingly light and small, so with some sort of armband it’ll be great for exercising. I might even buy a Nike + kit for it (not as good as a Polar Activity Watch, but good nonetheless).
So an 8gb Nano it is. A black one, I think. (Although if she bought me a Touch she wouldn’t get the smile off my face.)