Apple iPod classic 5th Generation White (60 GB)

Apple's iPod Video has outstanding technologies: 30 GB or 60 GB (!!) storage, photo-quality display, the gret click-wheel interface. My favorite: the multimedia capability.

It literally is now possible to store your family's life stories _in your pocket_, to take with you or keep in a safe place. Pictures, voice recordings of grandma, old and new home videos (yes, up to 150 hours' worth), perhaps a favorite tv show, commercial, or movie you'll want to view later--or maybe pass around the family. Oh, and that ton of songs, maybe every family member's top ten (top hundred, etc.)? Living memories, time capsule, treasured family history; you can have all of these things, in one small, tough, easy-to-access package.

Music: Not much more needs to be said about the music capability; the iPod started the movement, and still leads the way.

Photos: Ditto; and the images are museum-sharp. IMMENSE storage capability; no need to carry tens of rolls of film on vacation, or a ton of memory cards either. Get the right cable, and download your camera on-the-go. Sort and view either on the iPod or on a larger laptop, desktop, or tv display easily.

Videos: While the availability of content grows by the week (we love LOST on it, the Pixar movies, the classic Hitchcok tv series!), the right software can transfer any video source to MP4 format for loading onto your iPod. Edit on your computer, format into MP4, and drag onto your iPod as you would a song. Use the optional cable and record directly from your camcorder. For playback, the $19.95 A/V cable lets you play on any tv. You might think you'd lose resolution moving from the 2.5 inch display to, at our house, a 53 inch rear-projection tb, but the image was terrific, at least for the Pixar products and the best show on tv, LOST. Imagine flying around the world several times, and having fresh, non-repeating movies and other shows to watch the whole time. In your pocket.

Cons: Wow; I'm going to have to get picky here. Sure, 20 hours of battery life for music, maybe 4-6 hours for video (I actually got around 8), could be kicked up. However, options such as in-car chargers or lightweight external battery packs probably add the kinds of flexibility you'd need to overcome any power concerns you might have. Display size: Sure, ARCHOS and EPSON have larger displays, and they look good; part of the trade-off there is the power consumption of these larger screens, their greater vulnerability to scratching. Solve a few problems, and we might want to ask Apple about those displays (or maybe a larger screen that clips onto the back of iPod, self-powered?). That's about it; but no one really has anything better, just different and not in as convenient a package. Reminds me of my wife---the best there is out there!

Buy and enjoy. This is not a daunting gadget. Bring it along as a trusted companion, one who can record and replay life's experiences for you and yours.

When I first had an IPod it was the 2007 classic, I wasn't really getting adjusted to the product because it was too new and upgraded to a low standard. But when I gotten the Apple iPod 5th Generation version, this was what I had been waiting for in a long time. To have a real long lasting iPod that can charge very easy and keeps the battery in the right position and doesn't run out quickly was a real gift to me. Not only was I very happy to receive the product but I enjoyed the features it came with, I can now add my podcast audio and video files, I can store many music I want of my genre's even though I like all kinds of music, I can watch my favorite television shows and movies with no rush or imagination. The iPod 5h Generation is like a real entertainment in the palm of my hands. And I will enjoy every minute of it guaranteed.

The iPod with video playback was introduced on October 13, 2005. However, one should not necessarily consider this player a video player, but a great iPod music player, with video capabilities as a fantastic bonus. Nevertheless, the iPod with video playback is the most capable and feature-rich iPod ever produced by Apple.

Video Playback - The iPod plays back H264 and MPEG4 encoded video. The iPod's new display is larger than ever at 2.5 inches, giving it a resolution of 320x240. What video content can you play on your iPod? This area is limited, at least currently. You can buy music videos on iTunes at $1.99 per song, which will play beautifully on the iPod. Furthermore, Apple has made available select television shows, for download on iTunes. They cost $1.99 per episode, for titles including ABC's hits Lost and Desperate Housewives. You can also watch the episodes you purchase on your computer. If you want to put some of your own video, onto your iPod, you will need to use an application such as QuickTime Pro to convert the video to the specific requirements to play on the iPod. You can also find video podcasts, which will play on the new iPod. Even if you do not plan to view video on the new iPod, its primary purpose is to be used as the world's best music player. You can still benefit from the beautiful new display, for it will help you find your favorite music faster, and you can view the album art that accompanies your music.

Size of new iPod - Does the picture of the new iPod make it appear larger to you? Well, it did to me. The iPod looked wider, in the photos I saw. However, it is not. The height and width of the iPod are identical to the previous generation iPod with click wheel. The only change in dimensions is the depth. The new iPod is actually thinner than what came before it! Yes, this 30 gig iPod is thinner than the previous 20 gig photo model by 30 percent. What does all this mean? The iPod continues get smaller, making it even easier to carry.

Capacity - This 30 gig iPod has room, for a lot of entertainment. With storage, for up to 7,500 songs, 12,000 photos, or 75 hours of video. The great thing I love about my iPod is that my music, photos, and video only take up about 15 gigabytes. However, I use the additional space to backup data, from my computer. This is incredibly helpful, and could be a real saver, if something happened to your computer. See, the iPod functions as an external hard drive, so you can backup all sorts of data. The 60 gig version is available, for $100 more, so if you want to use it for lots of video, or you have an enormous music collection, you may want to consider that larger version, which also sports longer battery life.

New Software Features - Apple has added features, to the new iPod besides video support. First, they have a clock feature, which quickly allows you to view the time, in up to four different time zones simultaneously. Furthermore, there is a stop watch, and a screen lock, which you can enable to keep people from snooping on your calendar and/or contacts.

Battery - The battery life is one of the most important specifications that you, as an iPod user, are going to care about. This 30 gigabyte iPod sports a battery that will last up to 14 hours, when playing only music.

Sight unseen (in person anyway), I purchased the iPod from the Apple Store in December 2005. It arrived promptly, and the first day I put all my MP3's on it. I did not yet put any videos on it, because I hadn't found a conversion solution to my liking. Accordingly, I will first discuss my first experiences, which were with music and the interface.

Aesthetically speaking, the iPod, especially the black model, looks amazing. The sheen of the material, and the smoothness to the touch offer an extremely stunning appearance that makes the product that much more enjoyable to use. The screen is 2.5 inches diagonal, but has a much greater size in terms of perception. This illusion is caused by the stunning level of brightness on the screen.

The famous Apple click-wheel design is no longer a mechanical part like in previous generations, but rather a touchpad designed by Synaptics, a company world famous for laptop touchpads. The style is unchanged though. It is still operated by making circular motions, and instead of a mechanical click, the sound is supplied a small speaker in the iPod, and through the earbuds.

As far as sound quality is concerned, this is largely variable, depending on several factors. On the iPod end of things, sound processing is handled by the central ARM7 and ARM9 processors. However, the iPod is not solely responsible for sound quality. Another large factor is the quality level of the encoding on a given song. The songs I tested were 128kbps AAC (Apple format, equivalent to 192kbps MP3), and 300kbps MP3. Naturally, the 300kbps MP3's sounded noticably better, as one would expect. However AAC produced acceptable sound quality as well.

If one is not satisfied with the sound quality, one of the approximately 20 different equalizer presets in the iPod can be useful. Be advised however, that equalizers require the iPod to process and change song attributes in real-time, which significantly decreases charge life on the battery.

The aforementioned iPod battery is an in-built lithium ion battery, not removable or serviceable by the end user. It is stated by Apple to last about 15 hours on music playback, and 3 hours on video. Both estimates are on the proviso that one is not using any equalizer.

Next I will discuss the video capability. The iPod can play videos that are encoded in the QuickTime H.264 codec, with the suggested quality profile of 320x240 resolution, with 128kbps stereo audio. The most prominent place to acquire iPod compatible videos is the iTunes Music Store, which offers TV shows, music videos, and other videos available for download, preformatted for iPod. If one wishes to convert their own videos, this is possible via QuickTime Pro, or a smattering of other applications.

Video on the iPod is extremely good quality, with good brightness and overall clarity. The LCD screen leaves some more contrast to be desired (as do all LCDs), but the backlighting seems to be perfectly even, which is a relief. Given the 4:3 (standard television) aspect ratio, and low resolution of the 2.5 inch screen, this is not a device that would make for a cinematic experience. However, such material isn't intended for this use anyway. The core material for iPod video is music videos and television, both of which are a pleasure to view on the iPod.

Overall, Apple's video-enabled iPod makes a superb portable media device which will provide endless enjoyment for the mobile music and video lover.

it took me a LONG LONG time to consider buying this thing...and i was a devout sony flash player user for a couple of years before i fell in love with itunes. here is what pretty much sums up the ipod for me.
Pros:
1. high capacity hard drive. im told its durable but i baby my ipod so i never had the chance to find that out.
2. amazingly high resolution display with colors that kicks the tubes out of my magnavox or computer monitor.
3. the controls are very intuitive. the paper-like texture of scroll wheel provides great feel for when im selecting songs or controlling volume without looking.
4. itunes is one of the best interface programs out there. i still use the sonicstage software since i also have an MD player and a sony flash drive player but itunes is vastly superior..especially the one click song purchase..sigh..sublime.
5. unlike the lower capacity versions or the previous generation ipods the new 60 GB has a fantastic 20 hours till you need the next charge (however this varies with usage...i stretch the battery life by keeping the backlight off when im just listening to music...and the internal memory is a way to conserve power, but when you do lots of song selections you make the harddrive spin more often and that can lower your battery's running time) but its a good few hours more than the 30 GB.
6. it plays videos..need i say more?
7. in "enable disk" mode it doubles as an external harddrive for your computer. i intend to fill this thing up with lots of adobe images so 60 GB is the way to go.
Cons:
1. the acryllic faceplace of the ipod is super susceptible to scratches...even certain holders and cases scratch the surface of it. my new 60GB doesnt have a scratch on it(yet) but my 30 GB has lots of little scratches here and there with more noticably larger ones RIGHT OVER the display..provided your ipod is white thats hard to see....but its when the light refracts through the facets of the scratches over the display itself you begin to notice.
2. this may happen once or twice, but when it does its very frustrating. ipods have been known to freeze. this happened to me before..but not with the 60GB. the ipod didnt suffer any software corruption or anything...but i found that on occasion very quick song selections while playing other songs can make your ipod halt completely..the display will show what you selected and you cant get out of that function. the only thing you can do is let the display eat away at the battery until it shuts down completely then you can restart it by plugging it in. afterwards it should run just fine. its just a memory problem thats easily avoided.
3. i mentioned the battery before and how its great..but when compared to the likes of sony then you see the shortcoming. albeit the vast majority are flash drives so the lack of moving parts are the core of its longevity, but the shuffle has a meager 12-14 hours, the nano and 30GB the same, and the 60 has 20....now 20 is good...but remember this is an estimate and the ipod with very energy conscious usage will probably only get you about 5-6 hours of actual constant running time. perhaps the lithium ion battery doesnt hold a torch to the venerable nickel metal hydrides. =/this doesnt normally matter if you only use it from point A-B close to home...but i travel alot, so it makes a difference.
4. its pricey, but you get a full year of coverage by apples fantastic warranty. if youre willing to shell 60 bucks you get 2 more years. excellent =)