Apple iPod Photo (40GB) review: Apple iPod Photo (40GB)

Intro
Given the iPod's raging popularity, the photo-friendly version should get more than its share of looks. Sporting a full-color, 16-bit screen, the 40GB iPod Photo displays photos and album art in an interface that's undeniably Apple (also available in 30GB and 60GB capacities). From the ease with which one loads photos to the device to the browsing of thumbnails and images on the iPod itself, the overall experience is positive and warm. But its premium price tag of $500 dismayed prospective buyers when it was first released. Apple has since discontinued the 40GB version, but bargain hunters should pay some heed because this version comes with the original accessories no longer included with the updated 30GB and 60GB versions. These add-ins include a dock and an A/V cable, and if you consider its street price of less than $400, this is a good deal--maybe even a steal. From afar, the Apple iPod Photo looks no different from the popular fourth-generation version: same Click Wheel interface, polished white body, gleaming silver backside, hold switch, dock connector, and headphone inputs. It's not until you hold one that you sense a difference. At 4.1 by 2.4 by 0.75 inches and 6.4 ounces, the iPod Photo slightly thicker and heavier than its 40GB audio-only counterpart. The additional mass is especially noticeable when compared to the 20GB iPod, and while the Photo is still considered sleek, it almost feels as if you're holding two iPods. The high-capacity hard drive and a larger battery contribute to this iPod-on-steroids feel. And when you power it up and see the color screen light up, you know you're dealing with entirely different beast.

The 2-inch backlit LCD can display 65,536 colors at a resolution of 220x176 pixels. Unlike the screen on the iRiver H320, another MP3 player that displays photos, the iPod Photo's transflective face is visible with the backlight turned off. This is particularly useful outdoors during the day, as the backlight sucks serious battery juice from the player. The monochrome LCD of the audio-only iPod looks downright drab when compared to the Photo's bright and vivid screen. As far as photo viewing goes, the experience certainly adds to the value of what is already an outstanding audio player. However, the small screen size will have some users squinting and others complaining that the device doesn't do the photos justice. But most will be impressed by the iPod's ability to instantly load pictures, which can be browsed using the Click Wheel in a fashion that takes less thought than that of browsing music since your choices are based on imagery instead of text.

Color adds a lot more than just photo pleasure. The familiar iPod interface now has a white background, a blue selector bar, black text, and a green (changing to yellow and red when dying) battery indicator. Built-in extras such as the calendar and games look entirely different and more approachable on the iPod Photo, and you get full-color album art on the Now Playing screen if you've purchased music from iTunes Music Store or if your ripped CD or your jukebox software supports the feature.

We--and many others--were disappointed with the original iPod Photo's lack of a digital-camera interface. After all, this iPod, with its color screen and huge hard drive, had the potential to be an essential photographer's companion. Apple has responded by releasing a firmware update and an optional Camera Connector accessory that will allow users to connect a camera and transfer photos to the iPod (see Features). Luckily, those who shelled out the big bucks for the original can upgrade their iPod Photos, too. Previously, your best solution was to purchase a third-party product such as Belkin's Digital Camera Link or Media Reader, which allow you to transfer your files to the iPod but not view them. But serious photographers, be forewarned: the iPod Photo is not the ideal photo viewer due to its small screen size; direct digital-camera transfers will make it more suitable as a storage device. Serious digital photographers should take a peek at dedicated photo viewers such as Epson's P-2000, which features a larger 3.8-inch, 24-bit color screen and built-in media card slots. Nevertheless, the combination of audio and imagery that the iPod Photo provides is deft at worst.

We should also mention the iPod Photo's headphone jack also serves as a video-out port. The device ships with a fancy-looking white A/V cable that allows you to output audio and still images to a television when viewing a slide show. This method of viewing photos is outstanding, especially on a big-screen TV with a nice audio system. Both versions of the iPod Photo ship with a newly designed dock featuring an S-Video-out port (which adds sharpness to the images on the big screen), standard earbuds, a carrying case, an AC adapter, and FireWire and USB 2.0 cables.

An MP3 player with built-in photo viewing isn't revolutionary by any means. iRiver's 20GB H320 was introduced a couple months before the iPod Photo, and other lesser-known manufacturers have experimented with MP3/JPEG players (see Bantam's BA800 and Truly's MP301). In fact, every portable video player on the market--including the Archos Gmini400, which is smaller than the iPod Photo--can display pictures. But you had to assume that Apple would implement the most user-friendly method of organizing, transferring, and viewing JPEG, BMP, GIF, and PNG files. And it did.

When you connect the Apple iPod Photo to iTunes 4.7 or higher, you'll get a new tab in Preferences. This is where you can designate what photo application or photo folder you want to sync with the iPod Photo, just as you would with audio tracks. After--and only after--iTunes has synchronized the music side, the program will automatically create and transfer three copies of the original photos designated by the user: one each optimized for thumbnail viewing, regular viewing, and for viewing on a television. This makes a ton of sense, as zero optimization or compression would make for annoyingly slow photo-loading times, as experienced on the iRiver H320. And without optimization for televisions, your outputted photo would look pixelated and harshly low-fi. The transfer is invisible to the user, and the benefits include blazing-fast scanning through photos and thumbnails, which are displayed in an innovative mosaiclike five-by-five thumbnail grid. In iTunes' Preferences menu, you also get an option to transfer a full-size copy of the photo. While you can't view this file, you can store and transfer it as you would a data file.

Now here's the catch. The best possible way of transferring photos to the iPod Photo is by utilizing the power of iPhoto 4.0. Having the latest version of the Mac OS X staple allows you to transfer photo albums and the accompanying slide-show music you've spent time assembling. It's a much cleaner experience than pointing to a folder and having every photo in there transferred in bulk. Unfortunately, many users of older Macs don't have iPhoto 4.0 or must pay $100 for the iLife 4.0 suite to get it. The fact that Apple didn't bundle iPhoto 4.0 with a $500 device blows us away. On the PC side, iTunes is optimized to work with Adobe Elements or Album--again, two products that will cost extra.

OK, you now have your photos on your iPod. In its default state, the iPod main menu lists Music, Photos, Extras, Settings, Shuffle Songs, and Backlight as options. Drill down into Photo, and you'll see Slideshow settings and your iPhoto Albums or bulk photo library. In Slideshow settings, you can specify what music playlist accompanies the slide show, the time between slides, whether to use a simple transition, and so on. If you're away from a computer and want to play a specific song, you can utilize the On-the-Go playlist feature as a workaround.

By way of a firmware update, Apple has added a hotly desired feature that should have been included with this first version. Digital camera owners can now transfer their photos to the iPod Photo and view them. Users will be able to do this by purchasing the optional iPod Camera Connector ($29) and by updating their iPod's firmware to version 1.1. This once-coveted extra feature is now icing on the cake, especially since users today would buy an iPod Photo just for its colorful interface. The firmware update also includes additional, not to mention cool, slide-show transitions.

Let's not forget that the iPod is an audio player first and foremost. Outside of the color screen, the scrolling track information, and the inclusion of album art, the iPod Photo is the same excellent and easy-to-use audio player compatible with MP3, AAC, Apple Lossless, WAV, AIFF, and Audible files. We love the fact that you can browse photos while listening to music outside of slide-show mode. The slide shows add an intangible emotional element to the portable experience, and album art brings some personality to the music, with the effect of transforming a digital file into a song. For more detailed information on the iPod's audio features, click here.

The first thing we noticed about the Apple iPod Photo was its relatively speedy processor. Although Apple won't get specific about internal hardware, we know that the Photo runs on dual 80MHz processors residing on an updated PortalPlayer chip. In general, you're never waiting around for photos to render or for slide shows to activate. Besides the couple of seconds it takes to load a screen full of thumbnails, the iPod Photo slows down for no one.

This model's sound quality mirrors the regular iPod's and is excellent overall, although we're still not impressed with the preset EQ settings. Rated battery life has also been improved to 15 hours for audio only. You're able to get a rated 5 hours of battery life when you play a continuous slide show, but with a device with dual audio and video features, expect battery life to vary depending on usage. For example, our device lasted only 8 hours when we had played audio (backlight turned off) for about 5 hours and slide-show mode with the backlight turned on for nearly 3 hours.

Transfer times were similar to the iPod at about 5MB per second over FireWire, a very respectable speed.