IPOD 20Gb - Review and Tips

We bought our 20Gb iPod shortly after we bought a green iPod-mini and were shocked to find that our music collection almost exceeded its 5GB capacity. We returned the iPod-mini to our local FutureShop and bought the 20Gb model for about $400CDN.

Design really sets Apple products apart. Nothing better to dispel buyer's remorse than a slick box and a shiny product. iPod has the industrial design prize in the bag.

Also in our iPod package, the iTrip FM transmitter ($55 CDN). This is a piece of junk with almost no range. I was very excited about the FM transmitter for car trips. It barely has the range to reach the FM antenna from inside our Honda Odyssey. Using a standard tape deck insert (under $10 and WalMart), we were able to hook the iPod up to the car stereo and were very pleased with the sound.

Some general notes about iPods... They are the best digital music players on the market today in terms of design. But - they are very pricey and they basically lock you in to buying your music from iTunes. You can't buy music from Napster and install it on your iPod (you can, but it involves some hacking to get around the barriers).

Another point... The iPod is designed for use with one computer. We have two computers and our MP3 collection is (was) spread between the two systems. There are third party packages that help you get around the one-iPod one-computer problem, but Apple's iPod software patches often disable this functionality... So we advise against trying. Just move all your music to one computer.

In the iTunes software.. You will want to spend some time fixing the info in your music files. MP3s you have downloaded from P2P networks (Kazaa, etc) are not tagged in a standard way. For example, you might download a copy of Billy Jean, with “Michael Jackson” listed as the album, not the Artist. In other cases songs may be tagged with the right info in the right fields, but typos or slight variations will mess stuff up down the road. So you'll want to spend the time necessary to standardize all your MP3 tags. This way you can take proper advantage of the iPod's built-in playlist software. The iPod will allow you to play all the songs you have from the same artist, from the same album, from the same year, etc... But if your info is messed up, you'll have (for example) a list of songs for Michael Jackson, and another list for songs by Jackson, Michael.

If you really want to enjoy your iPod, make playlists of your own.. You can make playlists to fit possible moods or situations. Maybe you want a high energy mix of songs to get you psyched on your way to school or work or maybe you want a more calming mix for the evening. The more playlists you make, the easier it will be to take advantage of your iPod.