Christopher Smith, Gleaner Online Writer

The iPod Touch

If you have a large enough music collection of over, say, a dozen albums, and listen to music on the go, an iPod may be a good idea. It catalogues your music, allowing you to locate a song in mere seconds.

The iPod offers an interface second to no other portable media player. It is easy to use and very intuitive. The use of the innovative click wheel - touch sensitive display in the case of the iPod Touch - makes navigating menus and content on the device a total breeze.

The user-friendliness is a huge selling point of this gadget, which easily overcomes the lack of certain features offered by other portables like a radio tuner and voice recorder.

When Apple Inc released its iPod in October of 2001, it was not an immediate mega hit. Fast-forward a few years, and several iPod iterations later, the device now stands as the most successful portable digital audio player.

The lineage of iPod now carries the iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano, iPod Classic, and the iPod Touch, which all come with varying capacities and price points.

iPod Line-Up

The iPod Nano

The iPod Shuffle comes in 1GB (Gigabyte) and 2GB configurations and can be found at the Apple online store for US$49 and US$69, respectively. There are five colour options and this member of the iPod line-up is the only one that does not carry a display.

The Nano has been overhauled and packs quite a bit of value in its diminutive dimensions, which by the way, is 6.5 mm thin.

It comes with either 4GB (US$149) or 8GB (US$199) solid state storage or SSD. The Nano is video capable. It plays TV shows, movies, and video podcasts, and displays most popular image formats. Its anodised aluminium and polished stainless steel housing has six colour options.

With direct roots in the original iPod, the Classic encapsulates all the working technical specifications of the Nano. However it sports a larger display and carries massive storage solutions, namely 80GB (US$249) or 160GB (US$349) hard-disc drives that can store many an avid music listener's entire audio library. This iPod can be had in silver or black.

Latest addition

Finally, the latest addition to the line-up is the iPod Touch, which has an impressive feature set.

In addition to playing/displaying all the media supported by the other iPod models, it allows for web browsing, emailing, stock and weather checking over any available WiFi (wireless network) with Internet access. It has support for Youtube and a streamlined FaceBook (one of the most popular social networks), and you are even able to browse the iTunes online music store, purchase music, and buy or rent movies directly on the device. The three capacities available are 8GB (US$299), 16GB (US$399), and 32GB (US$499) which all come in black.

With thousands of songs in your pocket, you will have long listening hours of music everywhere you go.

christopher.smith@gleanerjm.com