Apple iPod Photo 60GB [M9586]

That I can also cram in heavens knows how many photos (the ad says 25,000) is a real bonus. Mind you, who on earth wants to lug around, let alone look at that many holiday snaps? Once set-up, the slideshow function works well when connected to a TV, although watching it on the iPod is a little odd, as you get a row of three pictures in thumbnails. The one just gone is very small, the one you're looking at is somewhat larger and back to the small size for the upcoming photo. None of these sizes are designed for viewing your photos in comfort. If, however, you just use it to cruise through your photo library, just like whizzing through all your music, track by track, the thing really gets a move on. You can select your own music to accompany your slideshow, which adds a nice touch for family and friends. I could see the combination of these features as being useful to unattended portable business presentations too.

The dial is now much more positive, with a distinct click to the touch when selecting one of the main functional areas. A neat feature in this model, which I hadn't noticed in previous versions, is that the track being played pauses when the external source (headphones or hi-fi) is disconnected.

There are a couple of negatives, but they are far outweighed by the slick functionality and smooth styling of this bit of kit. You must have a Mac or PC to properly arrange and import your photos, so the plethora of iPod devices which allow you to store photos on previous iPods, although they will still work, won't present your photos in a viewable format on the iPod. Then there are those earbud headphones! They might be a fashion statement, but apart from the discomfort, any man with hairy ears (everyone over 35, then) will find them unusable. OK, the iPod works so well, that having to go out and buy real headphones isn't that much of a hassle that it's likely to take the smile off your face, especially when you consider that you own the best of the current series of iPods.

I ordered from the apple store (more expensive than Amazon!) and it arrived a week later direct from China, in the meantime all of my spare time was spent putting my CD's into iTunes on my PC, a job which I still haven't completed, about 200 to go.

Even though i am windows through and through I bought an ibook about 3 years ago purely for its beauty, to be honest I didn't like the user interface, the quality and design of the product and packaging were however second to none. The ipod arrived at work and the packaging and quality were up to this high standard - apple really do understand the needs of people who are prepared to pay for quality.

I spent a frustrating afternoon trying to get my PC (a 1.3Ghz Dell with WindowsXP home) to install the ipod through a newly acquired usb 2.0 card without success. Windows kept seeing it as a newly connected usb device and running the 'New Hardware found - locate drivers dialogue' there were no drivers as such on the disc. I surfed for answers, tried everything including uninstalling and re-installing all of my usb devices without success. As a seasoned windows user however I remained sanguine, popped the little monkey into my briefcase and waited until I got home. I had recently installed a decent sound card on my identical home PC with a firewire port built in, in went the software, I hooked up the ipod via its dock and hey presto we were in business. I did need to re-format the disk on the ipod which may make installation at work easier next time round.

I left it overnight loading the 3000 odd songs, it then took about an hour to load the 4000 photos currently on my pc on Saturday morning (iTunes has to convert them first, but you can set it to keep the full resolution images on the ipod).

Once all of this was complete I set the thing up in the dock next to my HIFI and hit Shuffle - I fell to my knees in front of it as the album cover popped up with Miles Davis Seven Steps to Heaven and it started to play track 4 (good taste these people at apple) and off it went, dredging my cd collection for songs that I hadn't heard for years and reinforcing my belief in my impeccable taste in music. Anyone who has a big CD collection will know of the frustrating knowledge that there is so much music that remains unlistened to for literally years. In my opinion this is the best thing about the ipod it keeps your CD collection alive.

SOUND QUALITY

If you are the sort of muso that likes to move his entire furniture collection to the other side of the room to reduce the sibilance on a particular track in a 25quid Naim CD - then the ipod is not for you.

Having read up on the internet about compression rates and listened to samples I went for AAC compression at 160kbps which is pretty close to CD - ON MOST TRACKS!! Some tracks when played on CD and compared make the ipod sound laboured with woolly bass, the whole track seeming just a little distant. I also turned on the 'Sound check' option which keeps all of the tracks at the same volume this too has a muffling effect on some tracks. But mostly the ipod is good to excellent when compared to say a CD walkman.

The whole thing is that you can't look upon this device as a 'hifi separate' it really is a new way to get access to your music, much more like a radio station - you lose some sound quality but what you get in return is more than enough compensation.

I also spent £25 on a belkin tape adapter for my car - it does hum and the sound quality takes a little bit of a dive, but again - it is more than bearable and what it gives you in terms of music access and portability far outweigh it's failings. You can't hear the hum when the music's playing and you're driving along. Take a look at the Denison Ice link on google.

THE PICTURES

The quality is good and if you shuffle through the entire library quickly using the wonderful click wheel you get the strange feeling your entire life is flashing in front of your eyes as you flick through 4000 moments in the space of a few minutes. I took it out to a family lunch and it was a really great way to pass photos round, this is so good as so many photographs stay unseen on hard disks nowadays. You can plug it into your TV to get a sound-tracked slide show also great to have on in the background at family occasions.

I've said it once and I'm going to say it again, the same applies to the photo side of the ipod, it gets your music and photos off a hard-disc/CD and out into the world to be looked at and listened to.

Its sound quality is flawed, the accessories are pricey, you may end up with a nightmare installing it on a PC.

BUT!!! It brings your music and photos closer, is made really well, has an unbeatable consumer satisfaction and gadget value and what's more it looks really cool.

Take a deep breath, get the plastic out and buy one now... you won't regret it!

Now, I wonder what Jane Birkin's doing these days.

Firstly, looks. The 2.0in (diagonal) screen is absolutely gorgeous, very sharp and clear, and I think it's fine for viewing photos on as well. The smooth casing with the clickwheel (what an invention!) looks great as well, and the product, while being thicker than ever before, still has an undeniable cool factor.

The storage space is amazing, and I don't know anyone who would ever need more than this. Its fab being able to play any song that I own at any time, and you'd be surprised how much my iPod comes into my social life now. One of the other thngs I love about this is the fact that you can use it as an external drive, to store files on, which means there is no need to buy a seperate memory stick if you're prepared to carry around the connector cable.

OK, bad points. Firstly, everyone says that it scratches easily, but to be honest, I haven't found that at all, mine still looks pristine. I'm not really sure why, as I keep it in my bag with all my other stuff for day-to-day use. Secondly, it is obviously expensive, and it might be hard to justify buying it. However, if you compare it to other players on the market, it is actually pretty good value for the price of each gigobyte.

Overall I think this is the best player on the market if you need more than 4GB of storage space