The Cover Flow browsing mode is one of the major selling points of the Ipod Classic over other MP3 players. It is however painfully slow if your music library is composed of hundreds of albums--which is why most people would get an 80gb MP3 player in the first place.
While I don't have any benchmarks to show any speed difference, I do recommend resizing your album art to around 300 to 350 pixels. There's no point to high res album art on that small screen. Naturally it would take longer to the load high res pics.
One more thing to note: albums with various artists will be displayed multiple times in cover flow, once for every artist. It can be very annoying to see a soundtrack cover appear over and over again.
I've heard a lot of complaints about this in the Ilounge forums. Hopefully Apple gets to fix these problems soon.
Here's me wishing I was a piece of wood with graphite insides and rubber ass. I thought I was a crazed fan but reading the last 2 Hikki blog posts make my heart skip. Here's a quote:
"Awww Hikaru-chan You dun lounge around only in your underwear"
'That doesn't matter, I just took a bath you know~. It's the season where you can enjoy fanning yourself while cooling down, only with your shorts on~.'
It's been a long time since my last post. Blame it on the Ipod Classic. At $250, I got 80gb of storage--enough to store all the MP3s I've managed to collect in 5 years and video playback too.
First impressions first. It looks slim and feels handy. It still however feels like a hard-drive-based MP3 player so there's always the constant fear that dropping it means saying goodbye not only to the backup of my music collection but the $250 as well. Until Apple produces an 80gb, flash-based Ipod for under 300 bucks, this thing will stay only at home, while my Shuffle comes with me wherever I go.
Once turned on, there's the familiar Ipod interface that even newbies can quickly navigate. The only added feature over the 5th Gen model is the constantly present album art (provided your music is properly tagged with it). Looking for music either using Cover Flow or browsing through artists, albums or genres feels like browsing through actual CDs. And seeing random album art scrolling by the main menu can remind you to listen to an old favorite.
The sound quality, to my ears, using the stock earbuds is top notch. If there's anyone claiming that it sucks, he's probably just high on placebo.
Really the only bad thing about this Ipod is... Itunes. The newest version which is a requirement is as slow as watching paint dry on a rainy day. This on a Athlon X2 3600+ with 2gb of ram. (And no, I don't have any spyware.) The only relief to me is that once I have my music properly tagged with MP3tag and transferred using Itunes I can uninstall it finally.
I just finished watching half of Armageddon on TV. I vaguely remember how much I detested it the first time I saw it. It was your typical overblown, cheesy Hollywood summer blockbuster.
I still remember most of the plot and it was obvious then and permanently embedded in my mind that America and Bruce Willis saved the day. Nearly 10 years later, at the climax of the movie, a few seconds before all of mankind was lost, as if I had no clue what was to happen next, I was going mad trying to stop myself from screaming, "Push the damn button already!"
After years, of drooling over a hard drive based Ipod, it is finally time to buy one. Why just now? Well I have roughly 40gb worth of MP3s in my PC and 80gb is the sweet spot, I think, that has enough storage even for my future needs. And now it is only $250. I can't wait for these babies to available here in the third world.
Now if there was an alternative to Itunes in loading video to the Ipod, they would be perfect.
Only recently have I realized that some of the best music ever made is played in the Philippines. Like the people, geography and history, the music is eclectic and dynamic, emotional but smart, loud at the same time soulful. Finally the world is noticing as documented in this recent Time Magazine article.
Read it. Go ahead and doubt it. But give the music a chance. Just a quick search through Youtube and you'll see and hear what the fuss is about.
The West does not have a monopoly of the best music. Play it loud and listen.
Geez, I adore Utada Hikaru so much, it sometimes creeps me out. I have all her albums, nearly all her singles, some of her music videos and 2 concerts.
There's something magical about her songs. And no, it's not because she's featured in some video game or anime soundtrack or because of some sci-fi, fantasy music video. It's just the voice and the songs. Art and music are the only things magical left in the world and Hikki makes great music.
After I thought I had read everything in English on the internet about her, I find this translation of her Japanese blog. Whoever is translating this--you have my eternal gratitude.
Now I have 7 years worth of blog posts I have to start reading.
The Cover Flow browsing mode is one of the major selling points of the Ipod Classic over other MP3 players. It is however painfully slow if your music library is composed of hundreds of albums--which is why most people would get an 80gb MP3 player in the first place.
