The irevolutionaryi iPod continues to garner media attention. In articles after article, including many editorials and reviews, iPod still seems to be the darling of the tech press a month after its release. What is interesting is that most of the praise is not only coming from those who normally watch Apple, but from those technology watchers outside of the insulated Mac community. People who look at more general, consumer orient technologies are chiming in with opinions on iPod, and the majority of those opinions are very positive. The latest bit of praise comes from ABCNews.comis article, iFrom Walkman to iPod,i in which technology writer Tim Bajarin mulls over the history of personal music players. Mr. Bajarin writes:
Fast forward to today, when MP3 players have sprung up from the Walkman legacy. With the advent of digital technology, and more importantly, digital audio downloading and custom music, mobile MP3 players have now become one of the hottest items within the tech world.
While many MP3 players have hit the market over the last three years, none has garnered more attention than Appleis iPod, with its revolutionary approach to digital music storage.
Indeed, Mr. Bajarin seems to be quite taken by iPodis ease of use and the iPodis ability to quickly download 1,000 songs.
The use of a Firewire [sic], technology for connecting the iPod to the Mac, is just one more thing that makes the iPod great. It makes uploading even large amounts of music very fast. In fact, if you tried to download 1,000 songs over a conventional USB port it could take all night. But with Firewireis blazing transfer speeds, those 1,000 songs are transferred in about 10 minutes.
Arik Hesseldahl, technology writer for Forbes, recently gave the iPod a glowing review.
When it first comes out the box, one might be forgiven for being afraid to touch Apple Computeris iPod digital music player for fear of getting it dirty. It looks that good.
Mr. Hesseldahl goes on to give iPod a complete workout:
The control interface is easy to figure out, even for the technically challenged. Four buttons arrayed in a circle bring up the command menu, play and pause songs, and shift forward and back. A spinning wheel highlights the contents of the onscreen directories of artists, albums, songs and playlists, and also controls the volume of the song playing. A fifth center button selects menu items displayed on the screen.
And then there are the minor media mentions, the ones that you might overlook unless you just happen to be browsing. For instance, CBS News The Early Report listed the iPod as one of the suggested hi-tech gifts, and you can also find it listed as one of the Chicago Tribunesi Gadgets to Gorge on.