Back in November, I received a 20GB iPod as a gift from my bosses on my 5-year employment anniversary. They also gave me an FM adapter so I could listen to it in my car, which is a welcome accessory to make my daily 1 hour round-trip commute go more quickly. I've read a lot about iPods and dreamed of owning a portable mp3 player for quite some time. All I can say is that everything good you might have read about iPods is true.
For Christmas, I asked for and received the Belkin TuneDok Car Holder for my iPod, which makes listening to my iPod in my car even easier. It fills a cup holder in my car that sits next to the cigarette adapter where the FM adapter plugs in and securely holds my iPod as it faces me at a comfortable viewing angle while I drive. While the FM adapter doesn't maintain the high quality of the mp3s on the iPod, I'm not going to buy a new car radio just for that reason alone. All in all, I'd say I'm set up pretty well.
Having used this setup for several weeks now, I've come to wish for a few minor tweaks I'd like to see in the iPod to make it even easier and more "portable friendly":
- The iPod makes a "clicking" noise as you scroll through entries on the display. It'd be handy if this noise could somehow be a part of the audio output of the iPod rather than come from a teeny internal speaker. While plugged in to my FM adapter in the car, scrolling through entries is a visually accomplished task - something that's not very safe while driving. The click can't be heard over normal interstate noise or music that's already playing on the iPod. The click exists to assist in navigation by tapping another sense, but it is too easily drowned out under these circumstances.
- "Power Profiles". Modern notebook computer can decrease screen brightness and cut back on processor speed when running on battery to conserve power. I'd like something similar for my iPod so that I can define different settings for how my iPod operates based upon the current power source. If it's on battery, I want the backlight display to turn off as quickly as possible. When it's plugged in, however I'd like it to stay on longer (again - something to assist me while driving). It'd be nice to be able to have the equalizer work in the same way. If my iPod is plugged in to a power source, chances are it's in my car or connected to my computer. In both cases, I'm using an external audio player with its own equalizer to listen to the music. If it's unplugged, chances are that I'm using the headphones and would like to use the built-in equalizer. While these two examples are contrary in that one seeks to conserve power while the other consumes more, they're just examples of how power profiles provide more flexibility and customization for this awesome device.