| As ever for Apple, the design wins kudos. The white | | | | for the iPod. The Nomad's battery lasts about four |
| lucite and stainless Hp Omnibook XE3 battery steel | | | | hours. |
| device -- the size of a deck of cards -- stands out | | | | ``The iPod is less expensive on a per-megabyte |
| from the generic black-box look of most other | | | | basis,'' said Susan Kevorkian, a research analyst at |
| consumer electronics. | | | | International Hp 346970-001 battery Data Corp. in |
| The iPod has few buttons and no knobs. A touch | | | | Mountain View, California. She predicted iPod prices |
| wheel allows users to scroll quickly through the music | | | | will drop as more hard drive makers enter the |
| content, which can be categorized by artist, song or | | | | growing market. |
| album title, or user-created playlist. Information is | | | | Only iPod uses Firewire technology allowing for |
| easy to read on a backlit two-inch diagonal LCD | | | | download rates of up to 30 times the speed of |
| screen. | | | | other devices. Users can download 1000 songs in less |
| ``I love the retro touches, the Chicago font. It's got | | | | than 10 minutes, while simultaneously recharging the |
| this very early Macintosh (news - web sites) feel,'' | | | | battery, Ng said. |
| McFarland said. ``It's got few controls, but they do | | | | The iPod works with Apple's iTunes music jukebox |
| everything you need. And I love the feel of the little | | | | technology, automatically transferring new songs |
| wheel.'' | | | | onto the device when the iPod is connected to the |
| SMALL SIZE, LARGE STORAGE | | | | computer. |
| IPod buyers are willing to pay a premium for a small | | | | Apple has skirted the piracy problem by giving the |
| form factor and large storage capacity, analysts said. | | | | iPod only one-way transfer capability. Users can |
| There is no other digital audio MP3 player available | | | | download songs to their iPod from only one machine |
| that holds as much music and is as small as the iPod. | | | | and cannot transfer them from the iPod to any other |
| Flash memory-based MP3 players are small, but don't | | | | device. |
| hold many songs, while other hard drive-based | | | | ``Everything on here (iPod) I have a license for,'' |
| players tend to be much bigger. | | | | McFarland said. ``I don't listen to anything directly off |
| For example, the Rio Sonicblue 800, which sells for | | | | the CD anymore.'' |
| $225 to $300, is slightly smaller but has only | | | | MACINTOSH ONLY -- FOR NOW |
| 128-Megabyte flash memory and holds only four | | | | For now, the iPod works only with computers running |
| hours of music. Both the Rio Sonicblue 800 and the | | | | the Macintosh operating Hp HSTNN-DB02 battery |
| iPod feature batteries that last 10 hours. | | | | system, limiting its market to the 7 million people |
| Meanwhile, the 6-Gigabyte Nomad Jukebox from | | | | running Mac OS 9 or OS X, roughly 5 percent of the |
| Creative Technology Ltd., priced from $200 to $300, | | | | U.S. personal computer market, analysts said. |
| has more storage, but weighs more than twice as | | | | ``The Mac community is backing it as their MP3 |
| much as the 6.5-ounce iPod and is about four times | | | | player,'' said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative |
| as big, according to Stan Ng, product line manager | | | | Strategies in San Jose, California. |