Why not wait to write something until you have used it? Run down to an apple store it ain't that hard

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I never thought that the image was the 'Now Playing' album. What made the most sense to me is that the images work like the Apple TV...so when you click 'Music' it shows all your albums, when you click 'Artist->Nelly Furtado' it only shows Nelly Furtado album art.

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It's a great feature for two reasons.

If you have an album you probably like the art so why not look at it. Reminds me, born in '84, of that scene in Almost Famous when the kid's perusing his sister's records. Coverflow does the same.

Secondly, it's kind of nice because it reminds me of music I havn't listened to or thought of in weeks.

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Yeah sorry Mike, but this post comes across a bit juvenile or naive... I'm not sure why anyone would expect the art on the side while browsing to display the "now playing" art, which would consist of a single cover... what moving around?? That doesn't make sense at all.

The side area shows you what is below the area you are currently browsing... reminding you visually what is there. Corey's comparison to the Apple TV is actually in the right ball park I think. This was a way to do something visual in a small space...

I think you need to actually use something before you write a critical post about a feature, particularly on a blog that has such a large readership.

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Good grief, some people are WAY too picky for their own good. I personally don't mind (and indeed, I actually like) this feature. It's fun looking through your cover art randomly, and it does that cool pan-and-scan Ken Burns effect thingy. I think of it as kind of like the iPhoto screen saver on the Apple TV. Besides, who sits at the main menu screen when they are listening to something anyway? Don't you usually sit at the "Now Playing" screen when doing this?

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If by "Classic", Apple means old and slow, then Yes.

AND it's FULL of bugs and onerous "features" -

/- VERY Slow menu switching response
/- Display of clock rather than song info when "Now Playing"
/- Inability to use existing LEGAL 3rd party dock products (including Apple-advertised)
/- Audio skipping during operation
/- Slow connection to Mac/PC
/- Inability to disable "split-screen" menus
/- Lagging / Unresponsive click-wheel
/- Camera Connector not working
/- Inability to use EQ settings without skipping / distortion

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@ #6:

That sounds like you are describing a 5th gen ipod too! Everyone I know who has a 5th gen iPod - the menus suck and aren't silky smooth like they are on my 4th gen photo iPod. For this reason alone I've held off upgrading my ipod. The new ones just dont hold a flame to the true "classic"

4th Gen Color FTW!!

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@ #6:
If you hate Apple products so much (as it seems you do from your other posts) and have problems with how they work, why are you here and why are you using them. There's plenty of other products that play music and video that are completely "open" and have all the options you're looking for. Go take a look at one of those Archos monstrosities maybe you'll like that. Or get a Zen...maybe even a Zune. (*Gasp* ...hey, you might like it). Just stop b*tching about it. The menu system is in its first revision, maybe like everything else from Apple, you should wait until they update with bug fixes and the like until bashing it.

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#6 - please stop spamming your blog post all over the internet.

I've read that exact comment at least three times now, and it's really pretty clever.

Classic...old, slow haha! Such laughs. /sarcasm

sheesh.

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If you want to have a truly "classic" iPod experience, try the 3G: no color and no album art to distract you --just pure music and the feel of the original 1984 Mac.

The basics, man. That's what I like in my iPod. ;-)

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The point of why a flash ad is crap is its unrelated, snappy annoying graphics with no bearing on the contact which distract you. The ipod menu shows you things only related to what you are doing, to your menu choices. It isn't distracting, its enriching. You get to think of your music in a visual sense as well.

The only valid complaint I've heard about it was from a friend who said while perusing the menu he felt the need to pull the menu up to see the full art below...

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@10,

I'll do you one better. For a TRULY, HONEST TO GOODNESS "classic" experience, nothing can beat the Original 1st gen 5 GB iPod. Big chunky brick looking thing, mechanical scroll wheel that makes that nasty scraping/crunching noise when you get any manner of dirt under the thing, the circle of 4 buttons surrounding the wheel, and oh yes, the Firewire port at the top of the unit.... ahh, nostalgia.

yes I still have mine and yes it still works.

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I have a gen 2 iPod ... it works fine. and has firewire!

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If you are already listeing to an CD, then you don't need to see the coverart for it. What you may need to see is the cover art from an CD that you have not heard in a while. Seeing a random cover art image may show you a forgotten oldy but goody. It's a good way to rediscover some of your old, forgotten, or less played music.

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Guys, you are all missing the point. If Kirk McElhearn says something is stupid, then it MUST be stupid.

/sheesh

BTW, in his review of the iPod Classic, Kirk says, "Overall, I think this is a great update to the iPod."

/sheesh (again)

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I stopped into my local Apple Store and checked out the Classic. While the scroll wheel seemed a bit lifeless, what really threw me was the terrible skipping that happened when listening to music and using Coverflow at the same time. Must be a hard drive access issue (and possibly why they didn't put a HD in the Touch). Very annoying.

Hopefully they warn users not to use Coverflow while listening to tunes or many people could be surprised by this.

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How strange. I agree with Kirk.

If there's any album art on the side of the menu, then I'd want it to be the art of what's currently playing, not some random one album. There are much better ways to be "reminded of music I haven't listened to in a while". This needs to be fixed (or at least made optional) with a firmware update.

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I love the idea. Like cover flow, I've rediscovered long-forgotten albums because I saw the artwork pop up.

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i'm pretty sure it's not random, but devious. i have ONE hillary duff song in my itunes and whenever i take out the new nano to show someone, there's her face. all my "cool indie bands" album art floats by when only i look at it.

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Maybe Henry and krye and sympathizers have forgotten that there are better ways to be reminded about things you haven't listened to in a while, like smart playlists based on play counts and last-played dates.

I don't have a single piece of album art on anything in my library, but my experience with my still-empty 160 is that the menus are still going to be miserably sluggish, because they can't possibly get any faster than they are on a brand-new unit.

And yes, it's nuts that they replaced the Now Playing screen with a clock. I can only assume that Steve Jobs is so obsessed with his remaining days, or maybe is merely so bored with his job, that he just needs yet another clock to stare at. There were a lot of ways the Now Playing screen could have been improved, and taking it away from us wasn't one of them.

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