Filed under: iPod Family, Retro Mac, Blast From the Past
Blast from the Past: What the new iPods ain't got
Newer isn't always better. Ask any wine connoisseur or violin player. I recently googled across this article over at the Apple Blog on why new iPods aren't quite as good as old iPods. Sure there are a lot of great reasons to buy new. It was iPod video support that finally convinced me to buy. Eddie Hargreaves writes that early iPods had a lot going for them too, with features recently phased out such as A/C power adapters included in the box, FireWire support, and carrying cases, among others.
I personally prefer having my modern batteries and video capability (currently about 80% of my iPod's tiny 30GB hard drive is used for video) and I long ago picked up a cheap A/C-USB power adapter. Still, an included wired remote would have been nice and I wouldn't have minded playing around with the original extra feedback click settings.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Leonard Nimrod said 5:53PM on 5-07-2007
I'm glad Apple phased out the power supplies. I have several of them and I use none of them.
I'm also glad they removed the FireWire cable from the box. The ubiquity of USB 2.0 with 'near' identical sustained write speeds to FW are close enough to not make a difference.
What I do have a problem with is that newer iPods will no longer sync via FireWire 400. What is the sense behind that? The iPod recharges faster with FW so it's why I'd prefer to use it.
I also would have liked to have been able to purchase a FireWire 800/30-pin iPod cable for doubly fast uploading from my Mac Pro to my 5.5G iPod.
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brian said 5:55PM on 5-07-2007
I used to own an original "dock connector" iPod which I replaced with an original video model, mostly because my collection got too big. Sadly, I mostly preferred the details on the older one:
- I preferred the old solid-state controls--I *loved* that there were no moving parts on the device except the 'lock' slider
- I preferred the discreet back/menu/play/forward buttons instead of them being on the 4 corners of the clickwheel
- I preferred the headphone jack to be in the center instead of on the edge
- I preferred the 'lock' button being on the right instead of the left (easier to use, for me at least--I could hold it with my thumb and middle finger and easily operate it--now I've got to bend my index finger almost all the way back to my thumb and I lose leverage and the ability to catch it with my fingernail.)
- the old one's UI was faster (though 'smart scrolling' more than makes up for it.)
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Allen Jerabeck said 5:46PM on 5-08-2007
i have one of every single kind of iPod made. from 1st gen, to photo, to nano, shuffle, etc.
when Apple started phasing out putting cases and such in the box, i was a little sad, because it seemed like it was a very APPLE thing to include most of what you need/want with the product. But as the collection grew, i had tons of the power bricks, and I only really needed one or two. the lack of firewire support in the newer iPods makes me kind of mad, why would Apple, so popular in pushing the technology ditch its support in the iPod?
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Gene Cowan said 6:26PM on 5-07-2007
If you have the old Firewire dock (or the Firewire to dock connector cable) you can still use Firewire to charge your iPod, quickly. For some reason, newer iPods still allow charging via Firewire, but won't sync with it.
I use my old Firewire charger all the time with my video iPod because it charges much faster than with USB for some reason.
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Todd Bradley said 7:09PM on 5-07-2007
Am I the only one who remembers that the old iPods (2nd generation, anyhow - maybe first) came with a "remote" in the box? Of course, the current iPod Shuffle is just about the same size as that remote, but I sure found it handy and was disappointed when I upgraded to a video iPod and didn't get a remote.
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jesse said 8:04PM on 5-07-2007
i'm still reppin the 3G ipod, and i have yet to find a reason to upgrade. faster UI, touch sensitive controls, and i paid $100 for a 20GB ipod! (eBay)
i'm not a video guy, so I'm happy
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William Crabtree said 8:52PM on 5-07-2007
My first was a 3G. I loved it. I also loved the dedicated row of buttons at top with the scrolling wheel. It was so much easier to remember how to reset it. It also looked awesome when it would light up the buttons too.
My biggest beef is the lack of inline controller. That thing is a god send when you are working out or working in general.
I only changed because of battery failure..and then I think my hard drive was on the fritz. So I bought a 2G Nano..good enough for what I need it for.
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Eric said 8:41PM on 5-07-2007
The original poster did leave out one point... Firewire cables and AC adapter weren't removed from the 4G iPods until colour screens. I have a monochrome iPod, and it included both (it was actually a Firewire AC adapter).
And the packaging was a bit of wasted space, I think... they could have made it thinner (not as thin as 5G iPods, mind you) without removing accessories.
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(01) said 8:52PM on 5-07-2007
I just picked up a 80 gig Video iPod (hmm, anyone else think they'll announce the touch screen true video ipods next month?) to replace my 4th gen ipod that suffered a rather painful hard drive death. I was amazed at how little was in the box. Where was my dock, firewire cable, and charger? Slim indeed.....
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dc said 9:02PM on 5-07-2007
The big thing I miss about the B&W iPods (as others have pointed out) is the completely lag-free interface. The big color screens are nice, but pushing all those pixels makes the thing run at, oh, 5-10fps if you use it while you're playing something. (The scrolling of song titles on the "Now Playing..." screen used to be a lot smoother, too.) If you look at the tech specs for the iPod family over its evolution, if I recall, the processors have actually been getting *slower* over time—that's one of the reasons you can get 2.5x as much battery life with twice as big a backlit color screen, a bigger HD, etc.
Myself, I would have preferred they kept around an old-style, B&W click-wheel iPod with TV out through the headphone jack; I hardly ever watch videos on the iPod's screen. (Also, why not a Front Row-style interface for when you plug into a TV via a dock? That'd be waaay more handy than the Apple TV for 90% of Apple's customers.)
I have high hopes that the next iteration of the iPod will return to a silky-smooth, responsive (and 3D-ified!) interface, a la the iPhone (which is purportedly absolutely lagless, sez Andy Ihnatko). The current crop is a definite step back from the responsiveness of the older iPods.
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Si said 9:59PM on 5-07-2007
Now on my third iPod, the biggest feature I miss is the "Headphone" click. I hate the click when in public, but it was nice to hear it through your headphones when you go through your songs. I would memorize playlists and would be able to count the clicks to a favorite song. Poor headphone clicker sound.
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brian said 10:56PM on 6-04-2007
Todd--RTFA, or at least the summary. Both mention the remote.
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Mark said 10:23PM on 5-07-2007
The article mentions not being able to listen to music while attached to a computer to charge. He seems to have overlooked just 'ejecting' it, restoring playing ability while charging. It doesn't, however, allow continuous play while plugging in to charge, which would mean you'd still need an A/C charger to continue listening without any interruptions.
I am surprised that the click feedback was removed. I haven't updated my Nano since the 1.2 firmware release, so I must have missed this. Admittedly I disabled this after my first week, since I preferred no sound at all, but it does seem weird to have removed the multiple settings and I'd miss have the option.
My first iPod was my Nano, so I can't say I miss features from previous models, but I do have one thing I sort of missed from my previous mp3 player. I like the color screens and all, but at times I wish I had a B&W display to reduce battery use and improve viewing without needing a full backlight. I also never use the display for photos, so the option to buy a non-color model would have been great.
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Patrick Howell said 11:08PM on 5-07-2007
The biggest thing I miss about older iPods is syncing via FireWire. Even though USB 2.0's 480mbps transfer rate is supposedly faster than FireWire's 400mbps, FireWire always worked SIGNIFICANTLY faster for me...
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fourteen said 4:56AM on 5-08-2007
My 2nd gen iPod lasted a hell of a lot longer than my other ones - it's only the headphone socket that went. I never actually used the remote that came with it by the way.
Also, it's worth thinking how much iTunes has changed since version 4. It's all improved for the better, especially now we have tools like The Filter to fill our iPods.
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Ben Cunningham said 6:35AM on 5-08-2007
as others have said, i miss the firewire syncing capability, mainly becuase my computer's only got USB1, and, that means that the syncing via USB is deathly slow (12mb/s), and, firewire is, well, ligntening speeds faster than that! Thank goodness it can charge through the firewire charger i got with my previous iPod though.
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marcosmalo said 8:19AM on 5-08-2007
I'm still using my 2nd Gen 10 Gb iPod. This thing is a tank. Dropped many times. Survived a motorcycle crash where it literally had the upper right corner scraped off. The whole thing is covered in scratches.
I finally replaced the battery at the beginning of this year. Cost of the replacement battery (at OWC) was $5. Five freaking dollars.
I'd love more capacity and video, but a new iPod is not high on my list of priorities at the moment. When I do finally get another iPod, my brother has dibs on this one. He's too cheap to buy one for himself, but says he wouldn't mind having mine. =) So, I'd be surprised if I don't get 8 or 10 years of service out of this thing that I bought refurbed from the Apple Store at a considerable discount.
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Martin Nguyen said 6:21AM on 5-08-2007
I have a G4 Cube god-dammit, which btw does not have USB 2.0 so I'm stuck syncing my music and video over USB which takes hours.
I'm thinking they removed firewire support as they would be able to remove a firewire controller, saving money and/or space.
Still, I wan't firewire back!!
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wicker_man said 10:03AM on 5-08-2007
I'm still happily using my 3rd gen 40GB iPod (which had a useful remote, dock and power adapter included!).
I'm annoyed by the lack of firewire on new iPods because I use my G4 Cube as my media machine which only has USB1, which is one of the reasons I haven't upgraded my iPod (and plus I love the red glowing touch sensitive buttons).
It would be awesome if Apple put firewire 800 on a widescreen touch sentive iPod (which is very unlikely).
But, I'll probably be upgrading when the new iPods come out anyway, 40GB is too small for my music collection.
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JeffDM said 11:51AM on 5-08-2007
I think the Firewire cable still charges because the power connections are the same for either USB or Firewire. It is just the Firewire data lines that aren't connected.
The loss of firewire kind of hurt the old Macs because Apple was late to the USB 2.0 game, and that most of their computers couldn't be updated for USB2. I guess they assumed that anyone buying a new iPod would have a new computer, which I don't think is a valid assumption. At least with my Windows computers, I have added a USB2 / Firewire card so I can have a USB2 jack on a five year old computer. It's still plenty useful for me, allowing me to use 2.8GHz chips if I saw the need to upgrade it.
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