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Product: Hard disk based digital music player

Developer: Apple

Minimum Requirements: Firewire or USB port (cables included), Macintosh computer with FireWire port, Mac OS X v10.1.5 or later (Mac OS X v10.3 or later recommended), USB 2.0 requires Mac OS X v10.3.4, PC with FireWire or USB 2.0 port, or FireWire or USB 2.0 card, Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4 or Windows XP Home or Professional. Use of iTunes required.

Retail Price: $299.00 (20GB)

Availability: Out now

Product Page: www.apple.com/ipod/

It's the little things that make the 4G iPod better than its predecessors. There's the capacity, of course, and the improved battery life, the slim shape...all the obvious things they've improved. But use one of these devices and you'll appreciate some of the less noticeable improvements.

For example, if you're playing music and the headset jack gets pulled out, the iPod automatically pauses. When you eject it from iTunes, the iPod doesn't go into a full restart, but brings you to the main menu within seconds.

There are the obvious improvements, too. The click wheel is the perfect interface, making the locking switch almost unnecessary. I like the fact that unlike the mechanical scroll wheel, the volume is unlikely to shoot up if I'm moving around. Integrating the buttons with the wheel is a nice touch, and a big improvement over the 3G's buttons.

The iPod, as always, integrates seamlessly with iTunes, making transferring your music a breeze. You attach a Firewire or USB 2.0 cable, the iPod shows up on your computer, and you just drag and drop your songs. Simple. Of course, you can always set your iPod up to automatically update, but I'm always a bit hinky about letting my computer change files without asking me. And you if you should add any music to the iPod from someone else's computer, iTunes would automatically erase it to make the 'Pod match the computer.

May I make a momentary digression here? I realize you probably know this, but I like to take every opportunity to quash misunderstandings when I can. Ahem...The iPod plays MP3s, AIFFs and unprotected AAC files in addition to protected AAC files from the iTunes music store. Sorry about that, but spend a few minutes on Slashdot in any discussion regarding iPods, and you'll begin to see how even a lot of very geeky people don't seem to know this. Oh, and while I'm at it, Microsoft did not buy Apple. Thank you.

The 4G features further improvements to its elegance and ease-of-use that make the iPod so popular. Creating an on-the-go playlist is easy (if, unlike me, you can remember that the new playlist appears on the bottom of the playlist screen, and not alphabetically), and the iPod supports multiple such lists. You can shuffle your songs, creating a "personal radio" effect that I'm actually enjoying now that I try it, creating odd juxtapositions of songs, and reminding me of favorites that I haven't listed to in a while.

Apple no longer includes the dock with its iPods, which is probably a wise decision. The big reason is that there's not an iPod case I can think of that works with the base station. Plus, if you've got your iPod hooked up to your computer to begin with, it's not displaying any useful information anyway.

And for all the Apple hoopla about how the iPod "does one thing, and does it right," the iPod is a surprisingly versatile tool. You can keep your contact information, calendars, and notes with you for easy transport. And of course the iPod's second greatest feature is its ability to be used as a storage device. Just last weekend, I got a panicky phone call from a friend who desperately and quickly needed to transport photos from a computer that were stored on a computer without a CD burner. Rather than try to walk my friend through networking over the phone, I just said, "Get your iPod, and a Firewire cable." Problem solved.

I use my iPod more than I ever thought I would—for music, sure, but also for listening to old radio shows and keeping all my documents with me when I travel. And with the amazing amount of accessories (accessories! For an Apple product!) now available for it, it becomes even more flexible. My wife recently started doing webcasts for a nature website, Birdzilla.com, and she uses her iPod, a Belkin adapter, and a microphone to record interview segments and nature sounds before mixing them together in Garageband. A friend is eBay-ing his 50 CD music changer because he puts all his music on his iPod, then hooks that up as his in-house stereo system. My niece, a budding photographer and Windows user, is getting an iPod with a digital camera adapter to store her photos while she's out in the field.

One problem with the iPod continues to be the earbuds, which, due to their shape, drop a lot of bass out the side instead of into the ear (something you may only notice after you've experienced headphones that focus the bass into the ear). However, the earbuds are practically the symbol of iPod ownership, being the most visible part of the device, and if you think that fashion isn't an important part of the iPod, you aren't paying attention. Also, as someone once said, tools can be the subtlest of traps, and once you've got an iPod, you may find that you begin to rely on it so much that if you misplace it, break it, or run out of power, you realize how much you use it.

The iPod is unarguably the most important product Apple has ever released, and with the new 4G unit, it's reached a level of elegance and usability that will be hard for even Apple to top.

Strengths: Outstanding design, elegant user interface, useful additional features. One of the most useful gadgets ever made.
Weaknesses: Earbuds still stink. You will begin to rely on it more than you realize.

Buy the 4G iPod

Bill's been using Macs since the late 80s. When he's not making smartass remarks to amuse Kirk Hiner, he enjoys fighting for the user.