Apple iPod Photo 60 GB White M9586LL/A (4th Generation) OLD MODEL by Apple Computer
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Digital camera reviews of Apple iPod Photo 60 GB White M9586LL/A (4th Generation) OLD MODEL
Digital camera Review: iPod is an excellent and elegant tool
Summary: 5 Stars
This (60 Gb iPod Photo) is my second iPod (the first, a G4 40Gb was pickpocketed from my napsack in the NYC subway - beware) and I've had it over a year. Looking over the spate of recent negative reviews here prompted me to respond. Most of the shrieking pans and drooling raves are divorced from reality. I think it's important to point out that iPod is a tool and only a tool - a portable music player - a compact digital device with much in common with a laptop computer. It is highly configurable and the user has many choices about how to encode music - which affects the final results a great deal.
1) About scratching. The front of the iPod is shiny plastic. You'll need to put it in a protective case. There is an extremely lively aftermarket. I bought a nice silicon case with a compliant plastic panel that covers the display for $12 on Ebay. It does the trick and a year later my iPod looks like new if I take it out of the case. A protective case must be considered manditory for an iPod. That's it - now get over it.
2) All hard drive based devices of any kind - iPods included - have limited G-force tolerance. If you jog, it will go into protection - (the music stops and unit appears paused until you hit "play" again). If you drop it while it's running, you might kill it - or cause disk damage that will require a reformat. If you want a player for jogging or sporting (skiing, skateboarding etc...) buy a Nano or a shuffle or competing solid state player. Memory chips have no moving parts and don't suffer these limitations. They just have the size limitation.
3) All electronic devices are subject to RF interference - especially digital devices. The iPod has a nice metal body shield, but it can crash when taken near power lines, radio transmitters etc...
4) Sonically all MP3 players will vary in quality based on how much encryption you choose to use. For best sound use a high bit rate (192K or above). Apple offers proprietary schemes that offer higher performance. Competing open standards exist for just about every format Apple has cooked up. Is this skeevy of Apple? Perhaps. It's similar to what Microsoft did on computers. Love it or hate it - it's part of the whole Apple experience. I use Apple's lossless compression and it works seamlessly with iTunes and yields wonderful high quality rips. Are they portable with any other deivce than the iPod? No. Do they work with any software other than iTunes? No. Am I complaining? Not yet! I personally think the iTunes software is the best software and the iPod is the best player. Down the road if the proprietary format limits me from doing something I want to do I might start complaining. Life is full of compromises and choices.
5) You must turn off equalization if you care about sound quality. Sadly this is true of every portable digital player currently extant in the world. I was expecting better with Apple - but it's not so. Every single equalization setting introduces audible distortion that ruins the experience for an audiophile like me. With EQ set to off I get wonderful sound.
6) About reliability and dealing with broken players - portable electronics take a lot of abuse. Laptops have shorter warranty periods than desktops because rapidly spinning hard drives don't tolerate motion well. This is exactly the situation in the ipod. It's a tough environment for a hard drive. There is a lively after-market for hard drive replacement services. Ambitious folks can buy cheap replacement hard drives on the open market and fix/upgrade their iPods. Sure you'll scratch the case getting it open - but it's better than a dead iPod. Battery life issues - same situation. If you like to tinker you can do this for little cost. If you are paying for the service it becomes more justifiable to just buy a new unit. Is this cost effective? Nope. But if you become addicted to the wonderfuly lifestyle of having one of these players - you'll do it.
7) Audible distortion of the Photo iPod becasue of the video jack? Maybe on early units. I have one and don't have any audible distortion when the EQ is off. This unit sounds noticeably better than my 40GB G4 iPod did. It has better battery life too.
8) What about music services? It's a totally personal opinion - but I don't recommend buying music on iTunes or any other service. They all pretty much use relatively severe mp3 compression. Buy the CDs and get full resolution. Then rip at your choice of compression. That way you have a full backup and you get all the music you pay for. I also feel that music appreciation sometimes takes time. There are many songs on albums that I didn't initally like, but grew to love over time simply because I had them because they were on the album with some more accessible hit. If we only buy the hits - we never get to know the more difficult songs and we end up shallower.
I'll confess I'm a dyed in the wool audiophile - the kind who hangs sonex on his walls and puts specially made sound reflecting pillows on his ceiling. I'm also, like a lot of audiophiles, opposed to digital equipment in general and prefer the warmer fuller sound of analog sources (like my very tricked out turntable). That being said - the system that shows you the most is the one you use most often - and for me that is the portable. For years I had high-end cassette tape walkmen, then portable CD players of various stripes. The iPod completely blows away all previous portables by a WIDE margin. The iPod sounds way better than most stand-alone CD players - the sonics are comparable to a really good DVD player playing CDs. This is a killer sounding portable when used with lossless compression, and etymotic ER-6 headphones. It has better resolution than my big rig (Rocksan Xerxes turntable, Audio Research pre and amp, and ProAc Repsonse speakers). Granted this is digital - so the highs are more brittle and there's less warmth and depth. This is highly dependent on source material. Recent recordings by good engineers sound great - through the headphones or played on a stereo system with a good cord via a line out from the cradle. I get around 1500 songs - about 135 albums worth on my 60gb. The iPod is high enough sonically that it can function as my test source for critical listening of back-end components or sharing music with audiophile friends at their house (on their big rigs). This "library" aspect is the biggest feature of the iPod - and is really life changing. I can't recommend it highly enough.
My main complaint with the iPod is with the headphones. The included headphones are not adequate for musically satisfying listening. I recommend Grado or Etymotic headphones (even the bottom of the line ones). You don't need a separate headphone amp - unless you source material is unusually low volume. "Earbud" type phones are all garbage - avoid them like the plague. Other than that - I'm a really happy camper with the iPod!
Digital camera Review: ipod photo O.K.
Summary: 3 Stars
Just purchase my new 60GB ipod photo. Also my 1st apple product. For the past 4 years I have owned several MP3 players, the diamond RIO 500 and the RIO Karma.
My system is windows XP, so I don't get the full features that a MAC user would get. The software (itunes) is o.k. not as good and the Rio music manager.
The ipod lacks a feature to allow you to play only the songs you have just added. This feature allows you to choose the time or number of days since you added new songs, and it plays only those added within the specified time period. With almost 400 songs on my Rio, this is a nice feature.
The ipod also lacks a graphic equalizer, although it features several EQ modes, you cannot taylor your own as I would like to. In the photo mode, the ipod does not rise to the level of what you paid. For almost $500 bucks, the picture quality needs to be much, much, much better.
Also I cannot get the picture sync (pulse with the music) feature to work. Perhaps under the macOSX software it may.
The controls are somewhat intutive, but not quite user friendly as the Rio Karma. There are too many menus in the ipod and one can easily get lost, however the "now playomg" feature is a nice touch.
The ipod sounds a bit better than the Rio Karma, the bass is a bit smoother, but with highly compressed MP3 files and Mark Levinson reference electronics as my comparison, both players sound pretty bad. The color screen is a nice touch, but some visualization (such as with real player) would be great while your are listening.
The ipod photo does not come with a docking station, that's extra. For $450.00 it should. The Rio Karma comes with a docking station, ethernet and USB connections, limited mono graphics display a great software package and a 20GB HDD for under $300.00
Why did I buy the ipod, I droipped my Rio on the bathroom floor. It survived, but it needs some repair.
All in all, the ipod photo 60GB is a great toy. I wish it was offered in more colors other than white, but for the money, around $450.00, I would consider some of the newer MP3,video players out there. The Samsubg looks great and so does the Creative Zen and the new m:robe player. My rating for this product is 3.5 stars.
I am considering purchasing a Imac mini so that I can take full use of the Ipod photo, but that's another $500.0 bucks that I'm sure I want to spend.
D. Cooper II
Digital camera Review: loads of fun
Summary: 5 Stars
I recently purchased this model and I must say,I love it!Cyling with the ipod and raybans is akin to riding in a convertible with a killer system.I really don't care for the earbuds so I replaced them with a different set of phones and it works out fine.The only drawbacks are : my wife and daughter each want one,and given the amount of space it has (actually more than my laptop)-it does occupy quite a bit of my free time loading music onto it.Digital camera Review: music to go
Summary: 5 Stars
I am rating this iPod with 5 stars because I have never had a problem with it. Since day one it has been everything I hoped it would be. I purchased it as a combo with my IMac desktop. Due to a combo special and a student discount I picked up this iPod for $179. For that price, it really can't be beat. I purchased it because I have a huge cd collection (approx 1,600) that I wanted to transport. I was tired of lugging around 5-10 discs in my car or in a case on trips. While the 60 gigs didn't quite fit my collection, I have it filled up with over 16,300 songs. That's enough music to last anyone a long time. The first thing I purchased was a clear, hard plastic case. I did this to prevent scratching and damage with a fall. I've heard that these are two issues associated with the unit. That case is a wise $30 investment. It really is a wonderful invention. I haven't had much luck with digital tuner connectors to my car stereo but plugged directly into any stereo it sounds great. Thankfully my wife's new Camry has an aux input jack. I'm thinking of having one installed in my car as well. I find the 'rock' eq preset to be the best sounding overall. It has been wonderful for long trips, vacations and working out. Downloading songs to it is a snap. Anyone who can turn on a computer can do it.Digital camera Review: you *MIGHT* love this iPod -- guide to upgrading to iPodfoto
Summary: 4 Stars
Yes, unlike other reviewers, I do own a 40gig iPod Photo (as of 10/04)... and yes I do also own a regular 3G 15gig iPod (plus I'm not pushing IP Address harvesting scams like the "free iPod" reviews)... so this was quite an expensive UPGRADE decision for me...so this review is geared towards those struggling with an upgrade decision (for those who own a smaller/lighter 10-20gig music iPod)...I own both PC and Mac formats.
1) BOTTOM LINE: Although \very, very\ cool, I do not believe the trade-offs between the large size/weight and photo capability & extra battery life... are worth the enormous price (which includes a software purchase). Yes my 4 star rating is entirely based on how much incremental "stuff" you get versus what you have to fork over. But if money is not an object and you already own the larger/heavier 40gig variety, this becomes a "NO-BRAINER" upgrade - the `wow' factor is huge. If you travel quite a bit for business like I do, this is also a good addition to keep you company during trips.
2) PHOTO QUALITY: Good to "pretty good".. but not excellent... I do realize the size of the screen is only 2 inches, but photos tend to be slightly pixilated, even the full resolution ones that are over 2mb (though you stop noticing after a minute) and color reproduction is not all that great on skin tones and deep reds, but very good w/ greens&blues... which make pics of landscapes quite nice!
3) PHOTOS ON MY TV: Now this is where this thing shines... this is a really cool feature... the iPod includes a mini-plug-to-RCA-out (headphone to 3 pronged yellow/white/red) that produces cool results when you plug it into your TV.. you can scroll through your photos on your big (or at least bigger than your computer screen) TV screen. However, having only 2800+ photos on my iPod (that's more than avg), I got tired of flipping through & showing off my albums in about 2 days...
4) MUSIC: Besides not being able to see the screen as well w/out the backlight, it's the same as any click-wheel, 4G iPod.
5) SIZE/WEIGHT: If you already own a 40gig variety, you won't have much to complain about... but if you have a 10-20gig iPod, you will add more size and weight to your pocket (or bag). Moving from a 3G 15gig, this difference \to me\ is significant, as my iPod usually resides in my jacket pocket.
6) COSMETIC CHANGES: None on the outside, still scratches as easily as the rest, but has a color screen w/ a new font and screen looks very dark w/out the backlight.
7) BATTERY LIFE: Conditional based on the user... i never trust battery reviews on websites, as they vary DRASTICALLY when I employ my personal uses to the device. However, so far it seems to run near spec during mixed use... and much longer than my 3G iPod.
== SURPRISES OUT OF THE BOX==
A) NEED TO BUY SOFTWARE: In order to enable the cooler features - like syncing albums automatically, etc..., you need to purchase or own iLife (iPhoto specifically) 4.03 or better (if you are the rare few that bought your computer in the last few months w/ 4.0, you still have to download an upgrade to 4.03) ... Now I bought my iMac from the Apple website last Christmas and it still shipped w/ iLife 2.0... so I had to purchase iLife 4.0 (according to several company reps, there is no free upgrade from the jump from 2.0 to 4.0)...which took me an additional day to figure out... Yes, you can assign folders and such to sync to your photos to your iPod, BUT having an album editor enables full control of changes and what changes I'm making, to the entire process. Oh Yeah, you need a high version of iTunes as well; my pod came w/ ver. 4.7... IMHO, you \need\ the iPhoto upgrade to enjoy this purchase.
B) TRANSITIONS: Only the "wipe" from right-to-left is included, maybe more will be avail in the future, but you are not given a choice.
C) SLIDESHOWS: You cannot assign multiple music lists in iTunes to specific albums in iPhoto... as of 10/04, you can only assign a SINGLE music list to ALL photo albums when you enable the slideshow feature. Yes, you can change this music list, but need to go back to the menu to do so. Also, you can only display-to-TV in slideshow mode; you can't just flip through your albums in browse mode through your TV.
D) COLOR SCREEN: When not backlit, the screen during regular music playback turns \VERY\ dark, much more so than regular B&W iPods... you need a light source reflecting off of the screen in order to see the letters... typeface has changed too, more like "Arial" and slightly smaller. Oh yeah, with the backlight off, the screen still displays in color.
TECHNICAL DETAILS:
A) You cannot adjust the color quality, size, cropping or transitions of the photos when detached from your computer, so don't bother asking a apple representative on the phone or at the store- they don't make enough money to actually buy one themselves. I've tried two different stores the NY area.
B) Both the 40/60gig packages come w/ an iPod dock (if you don't have one already), but like the old ones, do not allow for use w/ thick iPod skins and covers.
C) Comes with an iPod dock WITH a S-Video output (new) and a solo USB 2.0 cord (finally!).
D) Yes, this is thicker and heavier than your 10-15gig, traditional music iPod.
E) If you never upgrade your iTunes due to the hacks you can employ on earlier versions, then you cannot use the photo feature (yes I tried).
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