![]() ![]() ![]() You’ll be fine if you hook up a set of ear-canal headphones to it, but try something a little larger – Grado SR60s for instance – and maximum volume levels will disappoint. Though music sounds as fantastically clear and well-balanced (as with previous iPods – if anything a little cleaner) the volume levels this one can reach are disappointing. The result is a little on the disappointing side, but not much different from previous models. Gone is the Wolfson Electronics decoding chip of previous models, to be replaced with one from Cirrus. Under the hood, the electronics have changed too. The down side is that, currently, games you’ve bought for previous versions of the iPod won’t work on this one – you have to buy them again, though there are rumours that a fix will become available for this soon. Other additions include a selection of games – including a 3D version of Breakout and a music quiz that’s based on the collection of songs you’ve downloaded onto it. The Now Playing view has also been swanked-up, with a reflection below 3D album art making it look as if it’s stood on a very expensive coffee table. Choose photos and pictures appear here.ĭrill further down and the vertical split goes away with album cover thumbnails appearing next to albums in the more traditional list view – yet another improvement. Choose music and cover art is displayed here. Now they occupy only one half of the screen in the other half, as you choose between music, photos, videos, games and so on, animated previews float by. Gone are those full-screen top-level menus. ![]() The menu system has been given a spring clean too. ![]() Of course it’s not the only improvement that’s been made to the interface. And though it sounds like a gimmick I found myself increasingly using it as the main method of choosing what I wanted to play over the traditional album, artist and genre browser. It works perfectly on the iPod Classic, animating smoothly and varying in speed depending on how fast you spin your finger or thumb around the click wheel. This has been available on iTunes for some time now and allows you to flick through the album covers of your music collection as if they were mounted on some giant virtual Rolodex. Here the most exciting addition is that of Cover Flow. What’s more noticeable are the alterations that have been made to the interface. The hold switch is on the top edge with the 3.5mm analogue audio output, while on the bottom you’ll find the Apple sync connector. A 320 x 240 resolution, 2.5in screen still occupies half of the front of the player with the click wheel control dominating the lower half. The Classic has also been slimmed down by a few millimetres – all the better for your pocket at just 10.5mm (13.5mm for the 160GB model), but this is hardly a dramatic change and in all other respects – physically at least – the Classic remains very familiar. Like the nano, the corners are rounded and the edges curve gently towards smartly sharp corners, while the back is shiny, easily marked chrome, just as before. Apple now seems to be moving slowly away from the classic plastic look that has characterised its revival over the past few years. It’s a big improvement if you don’t like greasy fingerprints and is available in silver or black, but not white. The most obvious change is to the glossy front fascia, which has now been dumped in favour of anodised aluminium fronts. But while it hasn’t received quite as dramatic a makeover as the nano this is still a very nice refinement. It’s been two years since Apple launched its last standard iPod and it’s not surprising to see the design tweaked this time around. But relauch it did, improve them it has and, despite the fact that it’s not the show-stopper it once was, the old iPod is still an extremely solid choice for any discerning music lover looking for a high-capacity do-it-all device. With the Touch and new nano grabbing all the headlines recently, it’s easy to forget that Apple also relaunched its classic range of hard disk players the other week. ![]()
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