Wednesday 4 March 2009

My iPod NaNocHroMaTiC ^^


I'm very grateful dat i got this gadget from my lecturer. His name is Thomas Apitzch, he's from Germany and teaches me Writing for PR at school. I do contribute a column for his web: http://www.fim-jakarta.com/ , tagged as XLR and filed under XLR Asian Movie Review. I write movie & drama reviews for this web. That's why, you can find some of my reviews there.. hoho

Anyway, about getting this iPod, i was lucky (and blessed, of course) dat i got the chance to do a test drive for a week on this gadget. Afterward, i had to write a review on it. So here is my review:

Ariesa’s iPod Test Drive

“Santa Claus, Santa Claus, I want an iPod for this Christmas”. And finally my wish was granted on January 5, 2009. It took a while for the iPod to land on my hand, maybe because of the shipping process from The North Pole or, let’s forget it and go straight to my review.

When I clutched the iPod in my grip, I suddenly thought, “No wonder everybody is drooling for this gadget. It is very cute, yet handy and sophisticated”. I am glad that the iPod was green as, according to a leading fashion magazine, the color is truly hot this year. The keypad was very soft. You can simply touch and turn your finger on it to move the cursor. It was very sensitive, so there was a keypad lock provided at the top.

After I had reached home, I straightly went to connect the iPod to my PC. When it is connected to PC, the battery is charged automatically. So you don’t need to spend more hours to shut it down and charge. Frankly speaking, I was unacquainted to this gadget. But I have downloaded an iTunes before, so the songs in my music library could be uploaded immediately, as the music format was already matched to the iTunes format. When I want to download another song, I can download from 4shared website for free. Then the newly downloaded songs will be automatically added to iTunes.

However, I met a problem when trying to add videos to iTunes. The video format could not be automatically converted by just drag-and-drop it to iTunes library. Then I went to google “iPod video converter” and thank God, there were some freewares that I could download. I downloaded Videora iPod Converter. On the web, they have various softwares for any kind of iPod, which could be downloaded for free. But, if you find it useful, you can make a donation for the web, only if you want to. Well, that is quite fair, in my opinion. Anyway with this Videora software, I just need to select any video (with any format) and convert it in a click. The conversion period does not take long and the newly converted video would be sent to iTunes right away. I found it very easy to do.

As I continued with podcast, I signed up for an iTunes store account. I had to be very selective when choosing any podcasts to download ever since, otherwise I would be charged for purchasing something.

I was quite confused about podcast thingy, and tried to do research by googling (I found the explanation on the Apple web not very helping to understand). Then I googled for a Chinese podcast and found Chinesepod website. Unluckily, the podcast subscription was not available in Indonesia iTunes Store. However, I could still download any episode of the podcast. So I downloaded one episode about “Australian People’s Love of Sport”. Unfortunately, the people who did the role play were very boring and seemed to be unnatural when conversing.

But if you move to US iTunes Store, you will find everything available there. It is very interesting because it has everything you need, from education, entertainment to news.


I subscribed to audio podcast, Newsweek on Air. I found two advantages by subscribing to this podcast: first, I can always be up to date with the headline news around the world, such as Gaza tragedy; second, I can become accustomed to listen to people speaking English with any accents, I believe it would be very helpful if I take English Proficiency Test like TOEFL or IELTS, especially for the listening section. In this Newsweek program, they have anchors and correspondents to report, give opinion and analysis from their point of view.


Since I love to exercise, I also subscribed to Ford Models Fitness podcast. I downloaded Kim Strother’s Progressive Abs Workout. The video podcast was very beneficial as it helped me to change my basic abs exercises to be tougher and more challenging. I usually bought exercise VCDs, but with this podcast, I can possibly save my budget as it is free to subscribe and download this podcast.

After getting the iPod synchronized, I immediately tested it. The voice from the earphone came smooth into my ears and I started to over enjoying that moment by singing my favorite song, which was being played. Apparently, some songs were broken and the iPod skipped them right away and played another ones.

Then I started to watch some videos on it. The color is bright and the resolution of the LCD is excellent. It is even better than watching on Youtube display. Even though the LCD is rather small, I could still read the English/Chinese subtitle. When I watched my Taiwanese film, it was subbed with Chinese characters only. I am not excellent in Chinese language, but if I can listen carefully and read the text at the same time, I will be able to understand. Thanks to the iPod which gave me distinct voice and video. This can obviously help me learning even mastering this language. However, I don’t think it is a good idea to watch serial movies on this iPod, as your eyes will get exhausted easily to look at such tiny screen. Moreover, your arms and hands will also get sore if you hold it for length of time. Anyway it is still very good if you just have a little spare time like 30mins to an hour to watch a movie on it.

There were some games provided in the iPod. But I did not really play it, because I am not a gamer. However, the games were quite easy to play. You just have to turn the iPod from one side to another, and the ball will follow your direction.

Finally, here are my conclusions for the review,
Pros:
1. The design of the iPod is handy and attractive, the color is very young and juicy.
2. The keypad is sensitive, so the provided key-lock is really useful.
3. iTunes program is easy to learn and operate, you can directly go to iTunes store in the same window.
4. Many iPod video converter softwares are available, even for free.
5. The podcasts in iTunes store (especially the US’s store) are various and helpful, you can have anything you need for free.
6. The voice is very distinct when playing both song and conversation.
7. The LCD color and resolution are excellent for both photo and video.
8. When watching video, you can still read the subtitle clearly.
9. The disk space is HUGE! 8Gb for sure!! That’s a lot of videos and music!!!
Cons:
1. You can not delete anything directly from the iPod, you have to go to iTunes first to delete or add anything.
2. You have to convert your video before it can be placed into iTunes and played.
3. The LCD is rather small, so it does not suitable for watching movies in a long time.

No comments:

Post a Comment