June 26th, 2007

strong>first take The new “enhanced” iPod looks like a tremendous improvement over the last one, with a brighter screen and better battery life.

At Apple’s media event, Steve Jobs jumped right into introducing an updated fifth-generation iPod. Not a tremendous surprise here, as we believed the sixth-generation “true video iPod” would not be announced until later in the year or even early in 2007. But the new “enhanced” iPod looks like a tremendous improvement over the last one, which debuted last October. The iPod has many incremental improvements, including a brighter screen and better battery life, but probably the most appealing aspect is the new price points of AU$380 for the 30GB version and AU$499 for the huge 80GB version.

Let’s talk about battery life first, since the pre-enhanced iPod has been dogged for its 2-plus hours of video battery life. Now you’ll get 75 percent more battery life with both sizes — that means you’ll get up to a rated 4.5 hours of video battery life for the 30GB version and up to 6.5 hours for the 80GB. Boosting battery life will always make a product more appealing, and it looks like Apple responded to all the complaints. Basically, this brings the iPod in line with other players, such as the Creative Zen Vision:M and the Toshiba Gigabeat S, in terms of video battery life. And now you can watch a couple of movies on a plane trip, plus have some extra juice for music and photos.

The new iPod also has a brighter screen — by up to 60 percent. Not that the iPod had a dim screen in the first place, but brighter is always better, especially when it doesn’t come at the cost of battery life. Gapless playback is probably one of the most requested features in any MP3 player. Those with dance mixes can now rejoice, and the feature works with virtually all the compatible formats. While this should have been added a long time ago, we commend Apple for turning the corner (the new iTunes 7 also has gapless playback).

The iPod’s software has been enhanced as well, and these new features definitely make the iPod better. First, you can search tunes using an alphabet-style instant search. OK, we’ve seen this on Creative and other products for a while, but it’s nice that Apple has observed the market and integrated this useful feature. Another “borrowed” feature is that as you scroll through tracks, the first letter of the track section appears as a graphical button overlay. Remind you of the Toshiba Gigabeat S? Finally, Apple has added a refined games section, which includes titles such as Bejeweled, Tetris, Texas Hold ‘Em, and Pac-Man. New games will be available online.

Just about every reviewer despises the bundled headphones. So Apple responded and will be shipping better-designed headphones — we can’t vouch for their comfort level and performance at this point, but any improvement is appreciated.

So that’s it — while the 6G “true video” iPod will still be a figment of the tech world’s imagination, the enhanced 5G iPod looks more attractive than ever with its incremental updates. It looks virtually the same, but underneath the hood, you have an iPod that makes the original 5G iPod look very rusty. Nice job there, Apple. For me personally, the gapless playback and better battery life make the iPod the most attractive one to date.