Let Her Rip With Apple's iPod

Every few years or so a product comes out that radically changes the way people do certain things. The personal computer changed the way we work, the microwave oven changed the way we cook (or at least re-heat) and the cell phone changed the way we communicate. Thanks to Apple Computer, there is now a device that may fundamentally change the way we listen to music.

Last October Apple introduced the iPod digital music player to the cheers of Macintosh users willing to spend $399 to connect the MP3 player to their computer. Now Apple has a version for Windows so "the rest of us" can take advantage of this ingenious device. Apple also has lowered the price on the entry-level iPod to $299 and introduced some more advanced models.

First the basics: The iPod is one of many portable devices capable of playing MP3 files that you either download from the Internet or "rip" from audio CDs. Apple certainly didn't introduce MP3 players, but unlike most others on the market, this one isn't limited to a few hours of music. The entry-level iPod has a built-in 5 gigabyte hard drive that stores about 85 hours of music or about 1,000 songs.

In July Apple released 10 GB ($399) and 20 GB ($499) versions of the iPod for both Mac and Windows PCs. If you do the math, you'll see that you can now fit an incredible amount of music — up to 4,000 songs — in the palm of your hand. And the devices fit nicely in your hand and pocket. The 5 GB and 10 GB models weigh 6.5 ounces and are 4 inches high, 2.4 inches wide and .78 inch deep. The 20 GB version is slightly heavier (7.2 ounces) and thicker (.84 inch) because of its larger hard drive.

The company lent me a 10 GB drive for the Mac and a 20 GB drive for Windows to test. Needless to say, I'm swimming in music and enjoying it more than I have in years.

It's not that I needed Apple to bring music into my car or home, but there is a difference between having stacks of CDs and having all your music available at the touch of a button. There also is something nice about it being portable. The unit has a headphone jack and comes with excellent ear buds, but you can use it with other headphones or a patch cord to connect it to a home stereo, external speakers or even a car stereo.

The Apple Web site sells a $19.95 car adapter (I picked one up at an electronics store for $15) that allows you to connect an iPod or virtually any other portable music device to a car cassette deck. I was afraid it would be kludgey, but it works fine and the wire isn't even all that unsightly.

After I installed the iPod, the next thing I did was grab a stack of CDs from our collection and use the included software (MUSICMATCH on the PC and iTunes on the Mac) to rip the music to my computers' hard drives. Then I just plugged the iPod into the computer's FireWire port and it automatically copied the files to the device.

Both iTunes and MUSICMATCH are best-of-breed programs. ITunes has no serious competition on the Mac side and the "plus" version of MUSICMATCH is good enough to warrant its $19.95 price tag even though all Windows users get a free copy of Microsoft's Windows Media Player.

My next stop was a visit to EMusic.com ($14.99 a month for a three-month subscription or $9.99 a month if you sign up for a year), where I legally downloaded a ton of tunes. This isn't the place if you want the latest popular music, but it's a great way to get jazz, blues, folks and oldies as well as contemporary music from the independent labels.

Now I have nearly 1,500 songs on my iPod and still have room for plenty more. I no longer have to search through a library of CDs to find what I want to hear. I can locate a song, album title or artist within seconds. Sometimes I use it to listen to my favorite albums but I also like using the "shuffle" feature, letting the iPod randomly pick music for me. It's like listening to a radio station that only plays my favorite music. The new versions have a touch-sensitive wheel that allows you to make selections with your finger or thumb.

Although Apple sells a separate Windows version of the iPod, it's easy to use the Mac version with Windows thanks to a $29.95 third-party application called XPlay from Mediafour (www.mediafour.com). This software is quite elegant and is an excellent solution for Windows users. True, it doesn't come with MUSICMATCH, but unlike Apple's software, XPlay works with virtually all media players, including Microsoft's Windows Media Player, the RealOne player from RealNetworks and both the free and plus versions of MUSICMATCH that you download from www.musicmatch.com. Mediafour plans to soon introduce a version of XPlay for Windows users who want to use media players other than MUSICMATCH.

The iPod connects to a PC or a Mac via a FireWire (also known as "IEEE 1394") cable. All Macs and some PCs have a FireWire port but they are not standard equipment on all PCs. You can add a FireWire port to a desktop PC for as little as $40; $50 will buy you a FireWire PC card for a notebook PC. For convenience, you can buy these cards and other accessories from the Apple Web site, at pretty reasonable price.

Once connected, there are two ways to use the iPod. You can synchronize music or you can use the iPod as an external hard drive to back up your data or move data from one computer to another, even between PCs and Macs.

If you're looking for a business excuse to buy one of these, you could justify it as a backup device. It's about $200 more, but a lot more fun than an external FireWire hard drive. Apple — which is in the midst of an advertising campaign to win over Windows users (www.apple.com/switch) — would be wise to promote the use of the iPod as a tool to help Windows users copy their data over to a Mac.

I'm psyched about this new way to enjoy music, but I do have one concern. Some record labels are experimenting with CDs that can't be copied to a PC hard drive and, therefore, wouldn't work with the iPod or other MP3 players. I understand the music industry's need to protect its assets, but I would hate to see this great technology thwarted by shortsighted efforts to inhibit legitimate use of music.

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By Larry Magid