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Photograph courtesy of NOKIA
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By WILSON ROTHMAN
Let's just be clear from the start: I don't go anywhere without my iPod. When Apple launched its music player, it blew away the competition — it was smaller and easier to use than anything on the market. Now, the company has outdone itself with a new and improved model.
Weighing in at 5.6 ounces, the new iPod comes in 10GB and 15GB versions that are nearly half the thickness of the older player. (There's also a 6.2-oz. 30GB player that is just a hair thinner than the original.) All the new models have received a facelift: the four buttons which once wrapped around the scroll wheel are now above it, and when the main screen's backlighting is on, the labels on the buttons glow red. Everything is solid-state, which means that wheel and buttons can't break off — it's been known to happen — and dirt can't sneak inside. The pricier versions come with a dock for upright syncing, which doubles as a line out to your stereo from the cradle.
The new device is even cooler on the inside. Since the beginning, I never liked that there was no way to queue up songs in an ad hoc playlist. The On-The-Go feature in the Playlist menu lets you do exactly that. Highlight a song you want to add then hold down the center button. The song name flashes and sure enough, it shows up in a new, temporary playlist. More games have been added (including Solitaire), and there's now a customizable main menu. Also, iPod is at last truly multiplatform: Windows and Mac users now buy the same device, so switchers won't have to re-invest.
But let's pretend for a moment that the honeymoon is over — I do have one complaint: The iPod uses the same cable to connect to a Mac and to recharge at a wall socket. Before, Apple used generic FireWire cables, so I could keep one in the computer and one in the wall, but now it uses a proprietary cable, so I will have to buy a second one. Oh well. That's a small price to pay for an overall improvement on the best player in the field.
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