Amazon.com: Apple Ipod 30 Gb Photo White M9829ll/a Best Deal
SCOPE: Because of the price drop on the color models, this review will be targeted to those struggling over a 20gig b&w screen vs. the 30gig color iPod decision.
BACKGROUND: I own both the 40gig iPod Photo and the new 30gig iPod Photo, and have owned a 15gig regular 4G iPod in the past and I also own a 512mb Shuffle. I use both PC and Mac formats. Note, I am not recommending the 60gig variety.
1) BOTTOM LINE: The new 30gig iPod Photo @ $349 is, in my opinion, the *perfect* iPod. My main complaint with the 40gig iPod photo was its price and size/weight (i gave it 4 stars). The new 30gig is roughly the same size/weight as the b&w 20gig and has all the features of the Photo family --> and for just $50 more, you get another 10 gigs, 3 more hours of battery time and a color screen!!! This price/feature tradeoff is one of the best you'll find anywhere in the Apple product suite. Frankly, the 20gig b&w is currently mis-priced @ $299, i would expect this price to drop very soon.
NOTE:
30gig iPod Photo = $11.63 /per gig -- $23.26 /per hour battery time
20gig iPod b&w = $14.95 /per gig -- $24.91 /per hour battery time
2) PHOTO QUALITY: Good to "pretty good".. but not excellent (no improvement since the first iPod Photos were released in 10/04)... I do realize the size of the screen is only 2 inches, but photos tend to be slightly pixilated, even the full resolution ones that are over 2mb (though you stop noticing after a minute) and color reproduction is not all that great on skin tones and deep reds, but very good w/ greens&blues... which make pics of landscapes quite nice!
3) PHOTOS ON MY TV: Now this is where this thing shines... this is a really cool feature... however you MUST BUY the mini-plug-to-RCA-out (headphone to 3 pronged yellow/white/red) for another $20, which in my opinion is worth it.. you can scroll through your photos on your big (or at least bigger than your computer screen) TV screen.
4) MUSIC: Biggest change here is you can now see the album art... sounds like a tiny feature, but after you get tired of showing off your photo albums, this is probably the single most useful feature. When before you had no incentive to look down at your ipod screen, now you'll find yourself looking at it all the time... In terms of music playback, it's the same as any click-wheel, 4G iPod.
5) SIZE/WEIGHT: Its great!, I cannot physically tell the difference in size and weight between the 20gig b&w and the 30gig iPod Photo... this was my #1 complaint about the iPod Photo 40gig -> it was simply too big and heavy to be practical... that's why I was forced to buy the Shuffle!
6) COSMETIC CHANGES: None on the outside, still scratches as easily as the rest, but has a color screen w/ a new font and screen looks very dark w/out the backlight.
7) BATTERY LIFE: Conditional based on the user... However, so far it seems to run above spec during mixed use = 16hours.
8) STORAGE: Disk access time for photos do have a lag (on both my 40gig and 30gig), and the unit tends to freeze from time to time, but I would consider the severity and frequency of this event to be insignificant to the overall functionality. In terms of size -> i think audio books, photos, and Podcast Radio programs have made -for the first time- the ridiculous size of the hard drives actually justifiable... in my 40gig photo, i used 15gigs due to my podcasts and audio books and would expect to reach 30gigs in 3-4 years of use... I still feel the 60gig to be not very practical... i suggest you stick with the smaller size.
== SURPRISES OUT OF THE BOX==
A) NEED TO BUY SOFTWARE: In order to enable the cooler features - like syncing albums automatically, etc..., you need to purchase or own iLife (iPhoto specifically) 4.03 or better (if you are the rare few that bought your computer in the last few months w/ 4.0, you still have to download an upgrade to 4.03) ... Now I bought my iMac from the Apple website last Christmas and it still shipped w/ iLife 2.0... so I had to purchase iLife 4.0 (according to several company reps, there is no free upgrade from the jump from 2.0 to 4.0)...which took me an additional day to figure out... Yes, you can assign folders and such to sync to your photos to your iPod, BUT having an album editor enables full control of changes and what changes I'm making, to the entire process. Oh Yeah, you need a high version of iTunes as well; my pod came w/ ver. 4.7... IMHO, you \need\ the iPhoto upgrade to enjoy this purchase. If you have PC, you have to buy Adobe Photoshop Elements.
B) TRANSITIONS: Only the "wipe" from right-to-left is included, however, I heard a firmware upgrade with more transitions would be out later this year.
C) SLIDESHOWS: You cannot assign multiple music lists in iTunes to specific albums in iPhoto... as of 03/05, you can only assign a SINGLE music list to ALL photo albums when you enable the slideshow feature. Yes, you can change this music list, but need to go back to the menu to do so.
D) COLOR SCREEN: When not backlit, the screen during regular music playback turns \VERY\ dark, much more so than regular B&W iPods... you need a light source reflecting off of the screen in order to see the letters... typeface has changed too, more like "Arial" and slightly smaller. Oh yeah, with the backlight off, the screen still displays in color.
TECHNICAL DETAILS:
A) You cannot adjust the color quality, size, cropping or transitions of the photos when detached from your computer, so don't waste your 1 customer service call credit on it.
B) The 30gig package does not come with the TV-out cable, you have to buy it ($20), and it comes w/ a USB 2.0 based charger, not firewire.
C) If you never upgrade your iTunes due to the hacks you can employ on earlier versions, then you cannot use the photo feature (yes I tried).
D) ALBUM ART: For those of you who haven't figured it out yet, you don't have to purchase a song from iTunes to get album art... just drag and drop an image of the album cover into the window where iTunes usually shows the album art.... plus there are programs out there that auto-download the album art into iTunes if you have the name of the album and the name of the artist...
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Amazon.com: Apple Ipod 30 Gb Photo White M9829ll/a Overview
Amazon.com: Apple Ipod 30 Gb Photo White M9829ll/a Feature
- 30 GB model holds up to 7,500 songs; supports AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 (32 to 320 Kbps)
- Holds 25,000 photos and displays them on a 2-inch diagonal 65,536-color LCD screen with LED backlight
- Up to 15 hours battery life when fully charged (which typically takes 5 hours)
- Compatible with Mac OS X v10.2.8 or v10.3.4 or later; or Windows 2000
- Comes with earbud headphones, AC adapter, and USB 2.0 cable
Amazon.com: Apple Ipod 30 Gb Photo White M9829ll/a Detail
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