I was excited when I got the chance to have a play with the new 30GB video-capable iPod.Truth be told, everything Apple makes is stylish and simple. The other day I was troubleshooting a new $5000 MacBook's wireless internet connection and just pressing a button makes it, well, just work.
What's in your box? Simplicity rocks.
In the box, you get some fish, chips but no salt to go with that. Only the USB charger, earplugs (plus spare buds) and the iPod are included. And no, this model does not support FireWire. Luckily most (if not all) PCs and Macs come with USB2.0 ports. The iPod is simple to use with basic wording (music, photos, videos, settings, podcasts), you don't get easier than that. It's pretty thin, much, much, much thinner than the 4G U2 iPod which I own and comes in either white or black of which I tested the latter model.
Music for your ears
The music is amazingly simple to get on there with either iTunes 7.0 or YamiPod, with no issues on Apple Lossless, MP3 or MP4 audio and holds heaps of songs. Even at 320Kbps you will notice a difference with premium earphones or headphones - but for serious audiophiles FLAC is not supported.
Viewing pleasure
Photos look extremely beautiful on the 2.5" 320x240 LCD screen, extremely clear. You could hold literally thousands of photos, put on a slideshow and no way would it ever run out of photos - though battery is a different matter. But you wouldn't use it as a fully-fledged photo viewer because it ain't designed for that. Photos take only a few minutes for about 300 or so to go over.
Life in cartoon motion
It's designed for video, and to be really honest the LCD makes videos look great. The battery life, on the 30GB model is kind of crap. You get around 3 hours, which is a full movie (not a Tom Hanks film) or 3.5 hours depending on what size the video resolution is at.
It's a pain to convert your own movies and videos over because of such restricted formats, in which case you need to buy QuickTime Pro 7 or find software which can convert it easily, of which there are several. Sometimes the video freezes up, in which case you just reset it or wait.
Below are the video restrictions (for iTunes and iPod):
Hopefully new Firmware pops on by to get better support for video and wider support of formats, as this is just too limited for what you're paying.H.264 video: up to 768 Kbps, 320x240, 30 frames per sec., Baseline Profile up to Level 1.3 with AAC-LC up to 160 Kbps, 48 Khz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats
MPEG-4 video: up to 2.5 mbps, 480x480, 30 frames per sec., Simple Profile with AAC-LC up to 160 Kbps, 48 Khz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats
Extra stuff makes all the better
You can finally have a key lock combo. Enter four numbers and you can increase security along with the Hold switch. However, if someone connects your iPod to iTunes they'll be able to unlock it. The point of this feature is sort of useless if someone nicks off with your iPod and connects it to iTunes, however I never found out whether it was limited to just your computer or could work on any system.
You can define several time zones with the new World Clock feature and see how long you take to run a lap with the new Stopwatch feature. It also keeps a database of your last laps so you can compare.
And finally a search function and gapless playback is a very cool addition to an already cool player.
Hard Warez
The iPod 30GB model is 10.35cm high, 6.18cm in width and 1.1cm in depth, so it's pretty small.
- Hard drive: Toshiba 29.98GB MK3008GAL
- SDRAM: Unknown 32MB 534-K9WAG08U1M
- Video: Broadcom BCM2722 32Mbits SDRAM
- LCD: Unknown, 2.5" 1WX510015194 320x240
- Battery: Unknown, 5H27086
- Audio decoder: PortalPlayer 5021C-TDF
- Video decoder: Broadcom VideoCore BCM2722
- Power: Philips CF5067
- Voltage: National Semiconductor LM34910 40V 1.25A step-down switch regulator
Final Rating
Good about the 30GB iPod video
Awesome display, good pricing, U2 edition available and gapless playback.
Bad about the 30GB iPod video
Bad battery life, screen and shell easily scratched, annoying video conversion, crap earplugs
Final words
A cool great audio/video player marred by some flaws. Rating: 85%
No comments:
Post a Comment