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First Look: iPod Classic 2G

CNET Senior Editor Donald Bell offers his First Look on the second generation Apple iPod Classic.

Donald Bell Senior Editor / How To
Donald Bell has spent more than five years as a CNET senior editor, reviewing everything from MP3 players to the first three generations of the Apple iPad. He currently devotes his time to producing How To content for CNET, as well as weekly episodes of CNET's Top 5 video series.
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Donald Bell
Watch this: Apple iPod Classic

Apple didn't make much of a fuss over the second-generation upgrade to their iPod Classic, but there are a few details worth noting. First off, Apple has discontinued their 80GB and monstrous 160GB models and now offers only a single version of the Classic packed with 120GB of storage for $249. We may hear some grumblings from file-hoarders and lossless audio fans about the discontinued 160GB model, but 120GB is still an impressive amount of space for your music and video collection.

The user interface of the Classic hasn't changed since the first-gen model, but there are a few additional features that are only available on the second-gen. Apple has included their new Genius playlist tool, which theoretically should work better with the larger music collections you can store on the Classic. Also, the Classic 2G can now make voice recordings through its headphone jack, so long as you use a compatible pair of headphones with an in-line microphone (Apple's iPhone headphones do the trick, but we'll see more headphones from Apple in October).

The iPod Classic is still offered in the same two colors (black and silver), with a healthy-rated battery life of 36 hours for music and 6 hours for video--numbers that are slightly up from last year's 80GB model, but down from the 160GB version's promise of 40 hours of music and 7 hours of video.

Click here for full coverage of Apple's "Let's Rock" event.