4 4B - The Michigan Daily - Weekend, etc. Magazine -Thursday, January 24, 2002 I The Michigan Daily - Weekend, etc. Magazine- Apple delivers attractive, easy to use digital music player E3 ELITE ENTERTAINMENT EXPOSITION OTHER COLUMNISTS POKE OLD WOMEN IN THE EYES WITH STICKS f By Kiran Divwela Daily Arts Writer When you buy any expensive gadget, rarely do you think the pack- aging is well designed. Usually you just want to tear it off in search of the prize inside. Not so with the iPod, Apple's digital music player. Even the packaging is elegant; it comes in a tiny cube shaped box with two compartments, one with the iPod itself and the other with software, earbuds, a power adapter and manuals. Of course, this isn't where its ele- gance ends. There are five self- explanatory buttons on the front of the iPod and a scroll-wheel in the middle that moves you through your music. Other than that, there's noth- ing else to clutter up its design, allowing you to move incredibly quickly through your songs. This is a necessity because the iPod comes equipped with a volumi- nous 5-gigabyte hard drive. Apple's marketing catch phrase of "1,000 songs in your pocket" is actually an understatement (for once). The iPod could probably hold about 1,200. It gets easier. After connecting the iPod to your Mac, iTunes (Apple's I a I I I I digital music jukebox) automatically opens and syncs all of the songs on your computer to the MP3 player. You can have your entire music col- lection, from Air to Yo La Tengo, on you wherever you go in a package the size of a pack of cigarettes. And If you get a Radio Shack adapter you can play the iPod music in your car or on a home stereo. Also, since the battery life is 10 hours, you don't have to constantly worry about recharging. You could listen for an entire workday and still have time for a jog. Another cool feature is that when you sync it with your computer, it recharges. If you don't have a computer close by, it comes with a handy adapter. It takes about an hour for 80% of the battery to charge and three hours for a full recharge. I could go on about how easy it is to use the iPod, but the real test of whether or not a music device is worth buying is its sound quality. There wasn't any sound degradation when I transferred music over and the earbuds that come with it are of high quality (but may be a bit uncomfortable for those of you with small ears). The only problem I had was a short silence between each song. If you're the active type, you'll appreciate the skip free quality of your music. Apple has built 20 min- utes of skip protection into the iPod. That's not a typo. Even if you throw it around (which I do not recom- mend) it won't skip a beat. Now to one of the hallmark fea- tures about anything by Apple: Its design. I hate using the word "sexy" to describe consumer electronics so I'll say that this is one of the most mouth-watering digital devices on the market. The front sports a bright, crisp screen with an incredibly bright backlight and is the distinct white color Apple uses on all its products. Its back is a mirror-like stainless steel with an etched Apple logo and "iPod" under it. Right now the iPod is Mac only. A company called Mediafour is work- ing on software to make it Windows compatible later this year. It won't be as good an experience though, considering there's nothing compa- rable to iTunes on Windows. I don't view the lack of Windows compati- bility as a disadvantage though; it's even more of an incentive to lose your PC and finally upgrade to a Mac. alicia.keys.sucks.ass~umich.edu B LLBOAD- they could be rast. How u more effective report hi TO P 1 would it have been ifthey had procIaimed out "'*elp ius fight against this court rnling.o o r nldb a racistAkys 1. 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Soon. ing advertising behemo~th, that those who do not enjoy a -~ Ile IIenre'# WHAT'S NEWS IN ENTERTAINMENT Courtesy of Apple Computers IPOD: Coming to a pocket near you. > ''v . x F ::f >F > : Y' .kr. fn% hYVs :4 x: f % tilt" :3?'+.. G J fin yit' Y?.G i t:j:: 'ac