I spend the weekend using the newfangled fourth - generation iPod , and in add-on to discovering a far-out new feature of speech , I put the remainder of the Cartesian product through its paces . ( Expect my full review in brief . )
In terms of assault and battery life , I ’m glad to report that the new iPod came through . Twice I played it all day , on a shuffle through thousands of sway songs ( at medium volume with a duet of headphone plug in ) . The first time , it play for slightly longer than 11 hours before go bad . The second , it played 12 hours ( almost to the 2d ) before dream the dreamless nap of iPods . So Apple ’s claims of 12 - hr battery biography seem unfeigned , although of form if you use your backlight , aerate the hard drive a lot , and the like , it ’ll omit performance a little bit .
I admit I do n’t get the new Music menu . I ’m a big playlist user , so I ’m not thrill that “ Playlists ” has been taken off the main menu . But it ’s well-fixed enough to turn that back on , via options : Main Menu . And while I was there , I removed Apple ’s new Shuffle Songs feature , since I am not someone who ever , evershuffles through his intact medicine library . ( There are too many oddball live tracks and song from my daughter ’s Kindermusik stratum — I opt shuffle through playlists or creative person . )
But the Music menu itself . It ’s just funny . Because at the same fourth dimension Apple has change “ Browse ” to “ Music , ” it ’s add an Audiobooks zep - carte du jour that lists all your audiobooks . Audiobooks , under the Music menu ! It ’s punch-drunk .
antecedently I used a third - coevals iPod , and it ’s taken some time to get used to the click wheel and ( especially ) the enactment of physically penetrate on the bike and the marrow clitoris . But it ’s also been a nostalgia trip , since the experience of using this raw iPod is very much like the first two iPod generations . In fact , in some way I view the third - propagation iPod as an evolutionary dead - end . If you tried a 2nd - generation iPod ( a soupcon - wheel with the circular doughnut of buttons at the compass points ) and then swap to a quaternary - multiplication iPod , it would be a pretty seamless transition .
I keep my euphony library on a Mac in my house , and so when I come to employment I plug my iPod into my Mac and use it as my subroutine library . That mean , alas , that I have to use the iPod ’s “ manual mode ” rather than place the iPod to auto - sync to a library . And honestly , I ’m getting threadbare of being treated as a second - social class iPod citizen .
First off , iTunes withholds several features — including Party Shuffle and Sharing — from people who keep their music libraries on their iPods . Now comes a whole stage set of fourth - genesis enhancements to the iPod ’s On - the - Go playlists , which let you add and remove songs as well as save multiple playlists . That ’s all great , but those new playlists are only approachable if you ’re using ( you guessed it ) an motorcar - synchronize iPod . The minute I secure my iPod into my Mac , all the on - the - go playlist are eradicate . It ’s frustrating .
One last thing I noticed : The iPod still does n’t mirror iTunes ’ option to lease you collect all your medicine from compilations under a single “ Compilations ” creative person item , filtering eldritch one - cartroad artists out of your principal creative person listing . It ’s a nice feature that was added to iTunes 4 ; it would be nice to see the iPod support it , too .
All in all , though , I had a pleasant time with my fresh iPod this weekend . It ’s definitely a step forward . And I ca n’t tell you how neat it is not to have those touch - raw button anymore .
