iPod Update

I have been intending to post an iPod update for the last couple of weeks, but never got around to it. The other day, I had an email from a guy at the Boston Globe asking me what I thought of the new device, and what I used it for. So, in a two birds vs one stone style, here's my iPod update.

Scott from the Globe asked me the following questions:

- Why'd you buy the video iPod?
- What are you watching on it? Mostly new content bought from iTunes, or stuff you had before?
- Do you think the iPod Video will have as much impact on the world of TV/movies as it did on music?
- What do you think about watching full-length movies on your iPod? How much would you pay?

All interesting questions. As I mentioned in my earlier post, I bought the video iPod (or iPod With Video, as Apple would have you call it) because an opportunity presented itself; I could sell my existing fourth generation, black and white iPod and upgrade to the shiny new iPod With Video for very little money. I wanted the extra space, and I wanted the nicer, colour screen, so it made a lot of sense. Would I have bought one if I couldn't sell my existing player? Probably not. Would I have bought one if I didn't have an existing player? Yes, absolutely.

I can't honestly say I'm exploiting its video capabilities to the fullest; I converted a couple of DVDs from my collection to try it out, and have copied a couple of television episodes across, but I've not actually bought anything from the iTunes store. DVDs don't work terribly well as they're mostly presented in a widescreen ratio, which the iPod doesn't handle - you either get a letterboxed display (which reduces the visible screen size) or you have to crop the edges of the picture - neither of which is ideal. The battery life doesn't really support the watching of full length movies either - approximately three hours if you watch a film without jumping backwards and forwards (seeking through to different scenes is a great way to eat your battery very quickly). In fairness to Apple, they aren't selling the iPod for movie use, but rather television and music videos. The few television episodes I've copied over, and the few music videos work very nicely, and I can honestly see me using the device to watch a few episodes of something on my next trip abroad.

Video iPod - Bought one

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.

Video iPod - World quite happy actually…

I really did think that Apple's announcement wouldn't be met with such enthusiasm - I guess it might just be a Brit thing (TechDigest weren't massively enthused either, neither was Ashleigh).

A reader by the name of Pathway posted some comments in my previous post, and I wanted to respond here in a bit more detail.

For starters, if you've never owned an iPod, don't own a PSP, or similar, and have been holding off getting a new mp3 device for some time, then this must be pretty exciting for you. In all honesty, if I didn't already own an iPod, I'd have been camping outside my local Apple shop for one of these. If I had a local Apple shop…

I still don't think the video content is that impressive for Europe. I'd love to see a day when, instead of having to wait for UK networks to buy the rights to Lost or the other "next big thing" (so that would be Fathom, Threshold, Invasion, etc) I can just nip onto the iTunes Music Store and buy them. I just don't think that's realistic in the next few years, if ever.

I also think that having the ability to download video to my iPod and then plug that into my TV and get playback of a reasonably high quality would be fantastic. My ideal future would be one where I don't need to use my PVR (Sky+) to record programs, but where I pay a monthly sub to someone (maybe Apple, maybe Sky) and am allowed to download the programs I want to watch, place them lovingly on (in?) my iPod, and watch them on my TV. That would be cool. I have a suspicion that Apple think this would be cool too; how else can you explain Front Row? Is this the start of Apple's assault on your living room? Maybe. A Mac Mini running Front Row, connected to a TV and a wireless network, and loaded with the potential to legally download episodes of the best shows on television could be where Apple is heading.

And, as Pathway says, these things will sell like delciously warmed cakes over Christmas. Consumers might actually be able to get their hands on an iPod, which is more than can be said for some "must have" items this Christmas.

Apple release video iPod - World shrugs?

Is it just me, or is the new iPod really not that exciting? Apple are trying to make it sound exciting, yes, but a large part of me (the part that would usually be reaching for the credit card about now) really couldn't care less. Are the magic reserves starting to run a little dry at Apple?

For a start, the drive sizes aren't anything terribly excited. I've got a 40gig 4th generation iPod at the moment, and moving from 40 to 60 isn't a terribly compelling reason to upgrade. Where's the 80gig drive that we know Toshiba have in production?

Then, there's the video. Is that supposed to make me want to upgrade? So I can watch a handful of pretty crappy short films from Pixar? If you live outside of the US, there's no "Desperate Housewives" episodes, or "Lost" to download, so your (increasingly inaccurately named) "iTunes Music Store" video content boils down to some low res music videos and some Pixar cartoons. Yeah, I could encode my own video from various sources, but I can already do that, and in a far higher resolution I might add, and on a far superior screen with my £179 PSP. Apple are supposed to be about elegant solutions.

So let's see if any of the other features can convince me - the size: not interested, a bigger, more colourful screen: nope, TV output: still nothing. I really don't care. I don't even care about the "me too" media centre application (Front Row), or the new, slimline iMac.

After all the hype, this is a big let down for me. A nice 80gig iPod, with that shiny new screen and video playback, which supported wma, wmv, and ogg vorbis, would have set me back £300; I'd have been powerless to resist. As it is, I think I'll wait for the next "one more thing".

(Besides, I've just checked iTunes, and my mp3 collection currently stands at 62gb so I'm going to have to wait for that 80gig device!)

Headphone Addiction

Over the years I've invested a lot of time and far too much money in trying to find the "perfect" pair of headphones.

I can't honestly say that I've found them though:

• I've got a great pair of Grado SR60's, which sound magnificent, but leak noise like a very noisy, leaky thing.
• I've got a set of Sony mdrex81's. These are canal-phones, and I think they might have convinced me that I don't like canal-phones at all. The theory seems to be that you jam them as far into your ear as they will go, and you get great sound. The only problem is, if your ears aren't the correct shape, they sound rubbish. They come with other rubber "bungs" that are supposed to provide a better fit, but the larger ones just feel uncomfortable to me - oddly enough, they make me feel claustrophobic.
• Somewhere, hidden in the depths of one of the many drawers I've got at home, is a pair of Sennheiser px200's. These are a great set of headphones. They fold down, for portability, they insulate quite a lot of the sound, and they have pretty good sound quality. I've lost them though.
• I've also got a set of cheapo Beyer Dynamics (DT231's, I think) which are fine, but they make me ears sweat. That, and I think I loaned them to a colleague and never got them back. Or I lost them.
• And, finally, I've got a set of Philips SBC-HN100's for work. They're noise cancelling phones, so are quite handy for a noisy, open plan office environment. The problem with these is that they don't sound terribly smart.

So, I've not found the perfect, all purpose, uber headphones yet. Steve has, and promises to blog about them. When he does, ::steve("this"):: will be a link

I've ordered some Sennheiser mx550's now. They should arrive next week. Ashleigh loves his, so I'm hoping I'll like mine…

iPod Swap

Every now and then it's entertaining to swap iPods with someone, place it lovingly into "shuffle" mode, and enjoy.

(Ideally, this would be someone you know, otherwise you're likely to end up somewhat iPodless).

Tracklisting from my last iPod swap:

Black Box Recorder - Kidnapping An Hieress
Johnny Cash - 'Cause I Love You
The Fall - Pine Leaves
Tim Hart & Maddy Prior - The Brisk Butcher
Softcell - Secret Life
Atari Teenage Riot - Too Dead For Me
Arab Strap - Hello Daylight
Augustus Pablo - East of the River Nile
The Fall - Last Nacht
Slowdive - 40 Days
Miles Davis - Oleo (Live)
PJ Harvey - We Float
Yo La Tengo - Our Way to Fall