Buyer's Guide

What ZDNet UK's editors want for Christmas

ZDNet UK ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 16 Dec 2004

I've been counting the number of people sporting those tell-tale white 'mug me' ear buds on my commute into the office, and the number grows inexorably higher.

I've been through the shock of not having one, I've worked through my anger, I've tried bargaining, denial and acting out, and have now reached the calm, final stage of any serious life change: acceptance. I have to have one.

I'm clearly late to the party, so the only possible option is to vault over the sad iPod masses, with their bland black-and-white screens and their inability to display fetching album art, and commute in triumph with the shiny new photo version.

We've had a digital camera at home for about a year, which means I've only built up a library of about 1,000 digital photos, and my MP3 collection has topped out -- with the storage limit of my notebook -- at a modest 5,000 tracks, so it should be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

I'll be quite comfortable with the 60GB photo version, which will allow me to store up to 15,000 songs or as many as 25,000 photos -- plenty of room to make our son’s life a nightmare by obsessively cataloguing every stage of his development and creating a vast library of slideshows (with amusing faux-hip soundtracks) with which to embarrass him during those difficult teenage years. The 220-by-176 pixel LCD screen offers 65,536 colours, which will be perfect for capturing the lurid, multicolour splatter paintings of the family dining experience.

I recently got to meet Apple’s global iPod marketing supremo, who talked me through the specs of the new machine. She was quick to point out that one of the biggest benefits of the new model is the colour screen. 'After all, we see in colour,' she enthused. I found it hard to disagree with this logic.

I also saw the spectacularly vulgar and clueless U2 special edition, which is as fine an example of gilding the design lily that I ever hope to see, and which is definitely not on my Christmas list this year.

True fans of U2 may be mesmerised by the autographs of Bono, The Edge, and the other two, but I was just overwhelmed by the garish red and black colour scheme. I was also labouring under the misapprehension that it came loaded with U2's music, but actually it just comes with a voucher that enables you to purchase this collection -- at an admittedly handsome discount -- from iTunes online music store. And there's no iTunes store in Ireland at the moment, which seems a bit of a shame for any diehard local fans.

If you're one of the last two or three people in England not to have played with an iPod, allow me to let you in on a little secret. You've probably heard all about the wondrous click wheel, the effortless user interface, the jaw-dropping storage, the impeccable sound reproduction. However, the real joy of the little white box is actually hand appeal. Pick one of these puppies up and what strikes you is not the white Imperial Storm Trooper cladding, but the surprisingly chunky heft in your hand, and the smooth burl of its polished metal rear, which feels like an extremely expensive antique silver cigarette case. What's not to like?

Apple

Price
from £359 (inc. VAT)