So, after all my recent negativity about the Video iPod (sorry, "iPod with video") I've now gone and bought one. Or, more specifically, I asked my parents to bring me one back from New York while they were in the good old "yoo ess of aye". See, they're cheaper that way, and having sold my trusty 4th gen version (which has served me well over the last 18 months, but is slightly lacking in capacity) it's cost me about £40 for an extra 20gig of space, 8 hours of battery, and a colour screen. Oh, and video.
Setting the thing up wasn't easy though. The iPod would sync a few hundred songs, then unmount itself. After a couple of attempts, I rebuilt my PC but the problem continued. I'd get a "write failure" on the iPod drive, or a delayed write failure. I couldn't be sure whether this was a problem with the new iPod or my PC, as I always used Firewire on my 4th gen device. Apple have robbed me of that luxury with the Nano, and now the 5th gen (with video).
Thinking it might be the iPod itself, I took it into work. Mark (who should blog, but doesn't, so no link here I'm afraid) tested it with the extensive collection of audiobooks in his iTunes library. It worked without a hitch.
I decided it must be a driver, so rebuilt my machine again, and didn't install any drivers. Before sync'ing again, I ran the iPod software update to clear off the audiobooks. The updater started, and immediately crashed with a "write failure". The iPod, for all intents and purposes, was dead. It was an ex-iPod, etc.
After going through the inevitable "oh great, an expensive paperweight" panic, I decided to try to reapply the firmware update on my iBook. Presto, hey, the update worked and the iPod came back to life. Does that make it a zombie iPod? I don't know…
So, my next step was to unplug EVERYTHING that used USB, and try to sync the iPod again. Sure enough, several hours, 50 gigs, and 9000-odd songs later, the iPod is properly sync'd.
The moral of this story? The new iPod is a power hungry little beast when used with USB (which is the only option these days) and won't warn you if it doesn't have enough power.
What do I think of the new iPod? It's very nice. The screen is nice and large (although meagre and puny in comparison to the PSP), the sound quality is better than my gen 4 (slightly bassier and with a little more depth), and the build quality, and overall size, is very agreeable. The case is OK – you can't use the iPod whilst its in the case (although it does give you an instant, high capacity iPod Shuffle if you try to), and I suspect it won't stand up to much (the case, not the iPod).
If you've never owned an iPod, or still own a gen 3 (touch buttons and wheel) or older (ie no clickwheel) then you will more than likely adore this generation of iPod. If you've got a black and white gen 4, and can find someone to buy it, then this is a worthwhile upgrade. 60gig photo owners are unlikely to be terribly excited by this though.
