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iPod 20GB MP3 Player

4.08 Poor
Average User Rating
Manufacturer's Info: A musical dream come true, the fourth-generation iPod offers huge capacity, letting you easily slip up to 10,000 songs into your pocket. And enjoy it wherever you go. In the car. On the treadmill. At the office. Around the house.Though ease of use has always been the hallmark of iPod, we believe in constantly moving perfection forward. So iPod now incorporates the same touch-sensitive Apple Click Wheel that debuted on iPod mini. Without lifting that trusty thumb of yours from the wheel, you can easily select playlists, scroll through thousands of songs, and start the music playing. Want that song to play from the beginning again? A single click will do the trick.You can put the Apple Click Wheel to use the next time you want to set your music to shuffle. Right there on the main menu ? where it?s very easy to find ? you?ll find a new option ? Shuffle Songs. Everyone?s favorite option for mixing things up, Shuffle Songs randomly plays songs in a selected playlist or your entire music collection. You?ll never guess what?s coming up next, so you?re always surprised by startling juxtapositions ? like a melodic Coldplay song hot on the heels of an aria by Caball?. And you can shuffle your way through a lot of songs now that iPod lets you play your music for up to 12 hours on a single battery charge. Imagine: you could fly from New York to Paris and still have hours of listening time left over as you stroll the Champs Elys?es. While you?re on the move, iPod keeps you aware of its charge level, and when it?s time, iPod?s quick to recharge. Plug it into your computer or a handy wall socket (via the included power adapter), and you can fast-charge iPod in as little as 2 hours.The perfect companion to iPod, iTunes lets you easily build and manage your digital music collection. Since the iTunes Music Store is built right in, you can browse through hundreds of thousands of songs and audiobooks until you find just what you?re looking for. Jazz, Reggae, Pop, Electronica, Hip Hop ? the iTunes Music Store has it all. And it?s open 24/7. All year long. In the US and Europe, too. On both the Mac and Windows PCs. As for all of those CDs you already own, iTunes makes it easy to quickly transfer your favorite songs and albums. Just pop a CD into your Mac or PC, and click the Import button. You can import music in a variety of formats (such as MP3 or AAC) and at whatever quality level you?d prefer. You can even choose the Apple Lossless encoder. Music encoded with that option offers sound quality indistinguishable from the original CDs at about half the file size of the original. And with FireWire and USB 2.0 support, you can transfer the music from an entire CD to iPod in just 5 seconds or less.

Apple IPod

Apple's evolutionary IPod gets better but leaves room for improvement.

Eric Dahl

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[Editor's note: Since this article was published, Apple has discontinued the 40GB model. The 20GB player in our most recent Top 10 Audio Players chart is identical to the model reviewed here except for its capacity and price ($280).]

Apple recently launched its fourth-generation IPod--and by now either you love the slick-looking player, or its features and price have left you unimpressed. Here's a simple take on the new version from someone who resides in the second camp: This one's much better, but it's still not perfect.

Apple has introduced its 20GB and 40GB IPods for $299 and $399, respectively. That's $100 less for models with the same capacities that the previous generation offered, though accessories such as cases are no longer standard.

The major improvements: Apple rates the new IPod's battery life at 12 hours of continuous play (up from 8 hours), and I netted exactly that in tests of a shipping 40GB unit. To improve usability, Apple added the IPod Mini's click-wheel control, which elegantly combines touch-sensitive scrolling with easier-to-use click buttons.

Other improvements are minor: You can now speed up Audible.com audiobooks without triggering the chipmunk-on-helium effect; you can better manipulate On-The-Go playlists (and more easily save them); and you can shuffle through all of your songs or albums with a single click.

Frustratingly, the IPod continues to suffer from several feature omissions. Apple limits codec support to AAC, MP3, and Apple Lossless (plus .wav and AIFF), so fans of WMA, Ogg Vorbis, and FLAC are out of luck. You still can't change the order of songs on a playlist, and you can purchase music online only through Apple.

The IPod's thoughtful design and features make it an excellent MP3 player. But for picky buyers who are holding out for the ideal portable music device, the wait continues.

Upshot: Apple's 20GB IPod has most of what you need, but power users may want more flexibility.

Eric Dahl

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