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SteveDallas · 10-25-2004, 07:40 PM

I'm glad you asked!

The good:

Well you can see why it is so popular. The click wheel is great. Sound quality seems just fine (though I'm far from an audiophile). The large disk size is certainly good--I've traditionally taken forever to figure out what CDs etc. I want to take along. At this point I have... I forget.. how many CDs on it, maybe 75 or 80, and am not even up to the 25% mark. It's nice to be able to access music by album, artist, or track title. The handling of multi-disc CD sets (once they've been properly entered, see below) is very nice. All in all, it's great. Which is not to say I wouldn't like to see some changes....

The bad:

The width of the screen means that most titles get cut off. Could we have an option for a smaller font size? Or some clever use of scrolling? (When you're playing, the track title scrolls, but not the album or artist.) Perhaps this is only problematic for the classical listener... all those albums starting with "Symphony" or "Symphonies", you know.

Not iPod per se, but iTunes... the GraceNote database is unbelievably lame. How the hell can you have a 4-CD set and have information for discs 1, 2, and 4, but NOT for 3? And then there is little consistency between the discs. Some albums have Artist and Track Title information swapped. Etc. Etc. Doesn't anybody check this stuff? These inconsistencies and inaccuracies were acceptable for CDDB when it was a free, cooperative effort. Now that companies have to pay to license it, they ought to have more accurate information.

For what Apple charges, I can't believe they didn't include at least a cheap case and/or belt clip.

Maybe I'm just weird, but I hate the earbuds. They are, literally, painful. Maybe my ear canals are just small. (Besides, the little covers NEVER stay on.)

There really needs to be a good way to get two tracks to play sequentially with no pause in between.

And a way to shuffle the songs on an album while you're playing the album, without having to bop back up 3 or 4 menu levels to the settings menu, change the setting, and then go back and change it again before you play the next album that you don't want shuffled.

10-25-2004, 07:40 PM	#12
SteveDallas Your Bartender Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Philly Burbs, PA Posts: 7,651	"So, Steve, how do you like your iPod?" I'm glad you asked! The good: Well you can see why it is so popular. The click wheel is great. Sound quality seems just fine (though I'm far from an audiophile). The large disk size is certainly good--I've traditionally taken forever to figure out what CDs etc. I want to take along. At this point I have... I forget.. how many CDs on it, maybe 75 or 80, and am not even up to the 25% mark. It's nice to be able to access music by album, artist, or track title. The handling of multi-disc CD sets (once they've been properly entered, see below) is very nice. All in all, it's great. Which is not to say I wouldn't like to see some changes.... The bad: The width of the screen means that most titles get cut off. Could we have an option for a smaller font size? Or some clever use of scrolling? (When you're playing, the track title scrolls, but not the album or artist.) Perhaps this is only problematic for the classical listener... all those albums starting with "Symphony" or "Symphonies", you know. Not iPod per se, but iTunes... the GraceNote database is unbelievably lame. How the hell can you have a 4-CD set and have information for discs 1, 2, and 4, but NOT for 3? And then there is little consistency between the discs. Some albums have Artist and Track Title information swapped. Etc. Etc. Doesn't anybody check this stuff? These inconsistencies and inaccuracies were acceptable for CDDB when it was a free, cooperative effort. Now that companies have to pay to license it, they ought to have more accurate information. For what Apple charges, I can't believe they didn't include at least a cheap case and/or belt clip. Maybe I'm just weird, but I hate the earbuds. They are, literally, painful. Maybe my ear canals are just small. (Besides, the little covers NEVER stay on.) There really needs to be a good way to get two tracks to play sequentially with no pause in between. And a way to shuffle the songs on an album while you're playing the album, without having to bop back up 3 or 4 menu levels to the settings menu, change the setting, and then go back and change it again before you play the next album that you don't want shuffled.