techNOcool

Near as I can tell this thing is an Iphone without the phone, I went with the 8 GB version because I'm cheap. First thing I do is bring it home and it starts to auto sync the 25 GB of music and video I keep in my Itunes folder. I finally found the "Don't think for me" checkbox and got that stopped. I've been spending the last few hours getting my playlists and such recreated off of the old IPod (why didn't I back them up!!!) so far here's the positive's and negatives as I see them:

Positives:

1. CoverFlow, for some reason I'm entranced by this, my old Nano didn't have it, and I'm playing with this like a kid with a new christmas toy.

2. WiFi, I connected to my home network and downloaded a song via the IPod just because I could. Also browsed the web. My phone can do it, but-I can't believe I'm going to say this-Safari does a better job with the zoom capabilities once you figure out the finger jives.

3. Calendar and Contacts, While not useful to me since my phone already sync's wirelessly with them, you can sync with Outlook and I assume other clients via a wired connection.

4. Screen Cleaner, good thing they give you one, after about 3 touches fingerprints were everywhere

5. Battery Life, (Stay Tuned)

6. Glass Screen, (Stay Tuned)

Negatives:

1. Size, It's the same size as the Iphone, which is to say about the same size as a Q or a Palm Treo, pick a smartphone, they're all about the same size. That being said I could have bought a Nano which is nowhere near this size.

2. Weight, It does seem to weigh a ton, but at 4 oz. I don't think it will break my arm.

3. Software, Plug it into my computer, first thing it tells me is you need to update Itunes, ok, no big deal there. After that, oh, by the way, you need to update the IPod's software from v. 1.1.1 to v. 1.1.2. Only this particular near incremental version update is 160 MB (2% of the storage space)!!! No big deal, I have broadband, except that it gets to that 160 MB size and keeps going. Last I looked ITunes had downloaded 350 MB out of 160??? I may let it run all weekend and see how high it goes. This thing hasn't been out long enough to justify 160MB of updates, and if it's bad enough to need 160 MB of updates shouldn't the update software actually work? C'mon Apple give me a link to just download it manually and install it to my IPod, I don't need to use ITunes, which obviously doesn't work (550MB and counting)

UPDATE!!! I restarted the download and it stopped when it should have, then gave me a nice error: "The Ipod cannot be read (-50)" That's what I really wanted to see.

4. Screen Cleaner, (see above positives)

5. Battery Life, Apple says 22 hours of music playback, I may be one of the few people that can actually put that number to the test. (Stay Tuned)

6. Headphones, This is a minor gripe since replacements are cheap, but the new ear buds have to be the most uncomfortable things I've ever worn, I've already swiped the ones from my Nano.

7. Glass Screen, I tend to put my IPod into chest waders with keys while fishing, or into my pocket with keys, or just throw keys on top of it. Will the screen hold up? (Stay Tuned)

8. Fixed storage, I'm torn on this one. For one there is no way to expand the memory with SD or Mini SD flash cards. On the other hand it does have 8GB or 16 GB of storage. My phone will play music, and uses Mini SD cards to basically make the storage limit infinite, but I still bought an IPod. That said it would be nice if you could plug in a pre-made playlist via an SD flash card, or shove a card in and expand your memory so you could fit all of your Seinfeld and DMB bootlegs on all at once