Buy Now...

I received a text from home on Wednesday lunchtime informing me that my 'pea-pod' (what it is with women?) had been delivered. I drove home with the wind at my back...new toys and all that.

Opened the box and WOW. The Ipod looks good on telly and in magazines but is even better in the flesh...smaller and lighter than i was expecting..feels only slightly heavier that my phone (T610) and is a bit wider. My immediate reaction was to protect it as it is soooo smooth and shiny (am i sounding a bit weird here?) i was reluctant to take the plastic cover off!

See also: MP3 players

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It came delivered with some charge so i have used the controls which feel strange at first but within a couple of minutes feel quite natural...there are 4 buttons that are touch sensitive (Fwd Skip/Search, Back Skip/Search, Play/Pause and Menu) and then the scroll wheel with a touch button in the centre. The scroll wheel works by sliding your finger in the direction required on the wheel - nothing moves it's a bit like a touch pad on a lap top i guess. Scrolling through the menu's seems very straightforward and i can see that with tracks etc on it it would be very efficient...

There are games on the Ipod which to my mind cheapen it slightly as it should be better than that. Phones have games and everyone has one of those so why bother? Similarly the contact list to me seems a bit lame...the Ipod is (i hope) a great music player and should stick to that as opposed to doing other things OK do one thing great? If someone needs that functionality and has an Ipod chances are they have capable phone or probably a PDA /lap-top too?

Looking further into the box there is a carry case and cloth bag that looks a bit weedy...not tried it yet but a better bag looks definately on the cards.

OK so what about the installation i hear you say? Well theres the rub it is only supplied with a Firewire connector as standard. No USB!

I ordered the PC compatible Ipod and only a Firewire? Checked Apple online and they will sell you a USB cable for around £20 (inc. P&P) which kind of negates any price deal they offer for a lot of customers. Not a good feeling about this....considered buying the cable and waiting for however long it takes to be shipped and delivered - pesky Christmas post - so instead have bought a IEEE TR-1394W Firewire card. I get a good deal as company make and ship hardware aswell as software.

Anyway tonight i will be installing the card and all being well loading the Ipod with some music and using it properly.

Part 2 to follow when i can comment on music performance etc !!

>>>>>>As to my question in line one of this article; perhaps a separate discussion thread should be started :-)