iPod Photo 40 GB

So my wife got me a new iPod Photo as my anniversary gift (gotta love her for knowing me so well - albeit my incessant drooling while looking at the iPods in the Apple Store in Bellevue Square might have given her an idea or two - but nevertheless it was lovely of her to be so considerate)

Anyway, so I finally got something that would allow me to carry my music with me where I go. The nicely equipped package came with all the necessary accessories like USB 2.0 and Firewire Connector cables, a docking station, carrying case and a pair of headphone (not really the best, but will do until I get my hands on the Bose Noise Filtering ones). The sleek colored screen and the associated support for downloading and carrying photos is a HUGE plus for someone like me who has tonnes of photos and dozens of relatives in different parts of the world always asking for high res photos. The bigger storage means there's a lot o more weight than a 20GB one, but its not that much to cause a problem. The display quality has improved manifolds from the previous generation iPods. There are nice smooth transitions between menus and photos (while viewing a slideshow). The sound quality is fantastic with very easy to understand and use controls on the touchpad (which is also the navigation pad for menus).

However, there were a few disappointments too. The biggest one being that you can only view slideshow of photos with selected playlists. I thought the most obvious thing would be that I would be able to view a slideshow while listening to my currently playing songs, but that is evidently not the case, the slideshow stops the currently playing song and starts playing the pre-selected playlist which is kinda absurd (and something to improve on). The screen - with all its nice colored resolution, seems like something that will easily get scratched. To avoid scratching, you can put the iPod in the carrying case, but the one that came with the package would then make the song selection impossible - but its still a good thing to have if you always play select playlists of songs - unlike me who changes to a new song manually everytime. The chrome is very fancy, but you cannot use the iPod without putting your fingerprints ALL over the chrome finish. That makes it look less stylish to say the least.

I have already copied about 5 GB of high quality images as well as abouit 20GB of songs (iTunes makes it a lot easier to organize and copy songs over). I had to write a utility to make the song names and the artists information accurate for most of my song collection. But copying of 20GB in two days is not bad going.

Finally I can listen to pretty much any song I have without having to carry a CD case with me. I have already ordered the monster iCarPlay accessory that comes with a charger and the ability to broadcast songs over FM, plus it has a huge FM range to select from and you can even save up to 3 in memory for quick switching. Can't wait for it to arrive.

It was a good anniversary :)