I’ve had the new iPod for just about 24 hours and have played with it quite a bit in that time. In a nutshell, it’s a great improvement to an already very good product. Here are the things I’ve really liked about it:
- The cradle. Being able to sync and charge the iPod without dealing with plugging and unplugging the FireWire cable is a definite improvement.
- The line out on the cradle is a real line out, not a headphone jack. This makes it very nice to hook up to the home stereo.
- The backlighting. The red buttons are really cool when you are in a dark room.
- The iPod no longer goes through a boot cycle when you attach it to or detach it from your computer. It just goes into "Don’t touch me" mode until its sync is done (or you dismount the drive if you have it mounted on your desktop).
- If you want to listen to the iPod while you are charging it off your computer, you can as long as you aren’t in the process of syncing (or have it mounted as a drive on your desktop).
- Parachute. Much more fun than Breakout.
What’s not to like?
- The addition of a new connector to the FireWire cable. Yes, this enables the line out feature on the cradle (which is a big plus) and enables a smaller, thinner connector receiver on the iPod, but one of the things I really liked about the original iPod is that it used standard FireWire cables. Standard cables are a good thing.
- The new connector also means that my current car charger doesn’t work. Yet another new accessory to buy.
- There’s not a travel length cable available. For my old iPod I had a really small 12 inch FireWire cable which traveled well in my bag. I want a very short iPod cable so that I have the same benefit with the new iPod.
- The change of the headphone connector so that the old remotes don’t work on the new iPods (and vice versa). I wonder if the new remote plug has more leads so that more advanced functionality will be available to accessories? Without knowing this, the change is a negative.
Bottom line: A good improvement. I’m glad one came home with me in the car last night. But I’m not looking forward to waiting for the various accessories to become available.
Update: That said, my criticisms are limited to the new connectors—and even that critcism may not be entirely called for considering that new features may wait in store for us. I think that speaks volumes about how good the new iPod is. (grin)
What do you and don’t you like about the new iPod.
New connection cable
Actually, the new connection cable is a bit more capable than the old firewire cable. It carries Firewire and USB2 signals, as well as audio out AND apparently, audio IN.
iPod on Linux??
Does iPod comes with a any app to connect it to a linux box?
Dock Cable
Not having one my self to actually experience this, but, I personally keep all my music on my laptop. Said laptop sleeps and recharges on my dresser at night, won't I have to unplug the dock cable from the laptop and then plug it into the power brick when I want to charge it? Will the iPod charge while connected to a sleeping Mac (even thought the mac is plugged in)?
How about audio quality
James,
Does the new iPod sound any different than the older ones?
New iPod cord
Do not go buy a new car cord!
Look for a female-female 4 pin firewire adapter. I don't know if anyone makes one .... yet.
I have a mini, 3 port firewire hub and tested it yesterday. Attached car cord to lighter plug in car, then connected the minihub, then the new firewire connector attached to my new 30 gig iPod. IT CHARGED.....
Linda
SE Michigan
New connector for headphones and remote
The New connector is for the future "Sound In" devices that will be available, so I've heard. =-)
New connector for headphones and remote
Yep. It seems reasonable that there is a lot more stuff coming for the iPod. A bit of future built in perhaps. I am looking forward to seeing what the future holds in store.
New iPod cord
That's a good idea. Actually, a quick Google search on "FireWire female-female" gave a few hits as to places to buy such a beast. Great tip.
How about audio quality
I haven't performed a double-blind test with my old iPod, but to my ears they sound about the same. However, the sound quality to my stereo seems quite a bit better--which would make sense because of using a line-out instead of hooking up to the headphone output of the older iPod.
New connection cable
Yes, it does look like it's more capable. The new connector has tons of pins which gives a large amount of possible future possibilities. And I look forward to seeing what developments may occur. But that's the operative word until we see more: may.
And of course, if whining about the connectors is the best that I can manage, well... that says something doesn't it. (grin)
iPod on Linux??
Please do you own research before asking such easy questions: http://www.google.com/search?q=linux+ipod&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
New connection cable
It certainly does seem that new apps and features are on the way. As someone alluded to in an earlier post, recording is looking to be on top of the list. I've read elsewhere about a diagnostic mode that supports the recording of six seconds of input. I imagine we're in store for voice memos soon, and I hope that we'll be able to record lengthy audio too. I for one would love to be able to use my iPod to record live performances (with the band's permission of course!).
Hell, it would even be nice to use it as a second audio recording source for digital film making.
iPod on Linux??
Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed today or are you just generally insecure enough to need these little ego boosts from time to time. Here you go: "Wow. You are so smart for having found that. I wish I were like you."
iPod on Linux??
This is the program I use: http://gtkpod.sourceforge.net/
Recharging in Sleep Mode
You can't charge your iPod through your notebook while it's in sleep mode unfortunately, it has to be awake. If you leave your notebook asleep at night, you have no choice but to use the power brick to recharge your iPod. Your notebook will still probably get a full charge if it's plugged in overnight and awake. It may charge slower that way then if asleep, but eight hours should be plenty of time even while it's running, so I'd suggest you do that if you really just have to havee your iPod charging through your notebook for simplicity. Hope I helped in some way.
iPod on Linux??
Just say "Google me".
It really is your friend.
iPod on Linux??
I had the old version (20 gig) iPod before and that worked just perfectly on Linux, using ephpod running under Wine. But for some reason I can't seem to be able to mount my new iPod - Does anyone know what filesystem the thing runs? The old one worked with vfat (fat32). I get two scsi devices when I load the kernel modules, /dev/sda and /dev/sdb
/Jesper
iPod on Linux??
do a fisk -l /dev/sda after you have loaded the modules!
can you please post the result? if it's a mountable filesystem for linux i like to buy me a new ipod too !
it scares me that the new ipod supports both mac and pc and therefor i could be possible that you can't mount the new ipod as a additional harddisc
and need special software to communicate with this device.
markus
Ipod for Windows
yea yea yea i know, i should get a mac, but until i move out of the house i can't. So does anyone know if their are many big hookups with the ipod and windows(XP) before i spend the $$ on it. Feed back is appreciated.
Prismagirl3@yahoo.com