An ongoing phenomenon , that ’s what the iPod is . No matter what the competition does , Apple ’s diminutive digital audio machine seems to keep pulling in customers — sometimes faster than they can make them . In some cities the iPod is so ubiquitous , you ’ll rule yourself in a sea of white earphone just walking down the street . In the most recent acclivity , Apple sum colouring material to the iPod , but is that enough to keep the phenomenon going ?

Without changing the form factor of the machine , what could Apple do to invoke to the small percent of portable digital audio twist exploiter that do n’t already have an iPod ? Rumors swirled around the introduction of a video iPod , but Apple CEO Steve Jobs put an end to that at the unveiling of the iPod photo . The next footstep for Apple was a color projection screen and funding for photos , said Jobs .

To be dependable , this appealed to me much more than a video iPod . I have no need to take in my own movies on my iPod and , to date , there are no legal ways to buy movies and transfer them to the equipment , so what would I really need it for ? If I ’m on a carpenter’s plane or in a hotel room , I apply my PowerBook — it ’s much big projection screen will assure my in effect seeing for at least another few yr .

I necessitate some time after the iPod pic launching event in San Jose to play around with the machine . I was impressed , but that ’s not real - humankind conditions — the lighting would be perfect , so if you look at a picture , of course it ’s going to look estimable .

Since then I got my own iPod photo and directly transfer 4,000 pictures from my iPhoto library and 4,000 songs from iTunes ( far too many of these buy from the iTunes Music Store — I really want to find another hobby that does n’t affect a $ 0.99 charge every fourth dimension I click ) .

All told , this added up to about 28 GB of datum on my iPod , leaving me wads of room to purchase more songs and to put single file on it . When I travel I expend the iPod as a hard drive , carrying all of my important files and a backup , just in case some affair go on . Since I always have the iPod with me , it cuts down on the amount of duplicate I have to pack .

Viewing impression on the iPod works as you would gestate . The icon are easily viewable on the screen and show a surprising amount of gloss and detail . The index finger of library is a different news report — I notice that unless I knew what I was looking at , it was difficult to make out the thumbnail .

countersink up a picture slideshow from the iPod could n’t be simpler . The slideshow options are straight , allow you to pick out music to flirt , repetition , shuffling , transitions , etc . After you ’re done with the preferences , plug the iPod into your goggle box using the include AV overseas telegram from Apple , prefer your photo album and penetrate child’s play . work first meter for me with no messing around or jiggling of the cables ( Yes , the first thing I run to do is jiggle the cables — it never turn for me , but I bear on to do it anyway ) .

The most notable change on the medicine side was the inclusion of record album artistry on the iPod . This is something else that I liked a lot — if you ’re going to have color , you have to have record album artistry .

Overall , the iPod picture is certainly a good twist . I do n’t know if there is something Apple can do with the photo thumbnails to make them a bit bigger , but nothing else really stood out on the negative side for me . On the positive side , there is a mickle to like about the iPod pic — enough to keep it on the wish list of many this holiday season .

Playlistmag.com ’s Christopher Breen has recentlyposted an in - profundity reviewof the iPod photo where he deal a few trick let in hide out release combinations .