iPod Photo MP3 Player and Picture - Apple Manual Support Features Review Guide

Remember the 64-color pack of crayons? Meet the 65,536-color pack. Everything looks better in color. With iPod photo, everything sounds better, too. Choose from 30GB or 60GB models and carry an entire library of music — up to 15,000 songs and full-color album cover art — or as many as 25,000 photos in your pocket.

Picture Your Music

The original iPod changed the way you listen to music by putting thousands of songs in your pocket. Now iPod photo changes the way you see your music, with a crisp color screen. Browse your playlists via vivid menus, thumb through album and audiobook cover art on the go, even play games and view your calendars in color. Of course, iPod photo also lets you carry memories along with your music. Choose from a superslim 30GB model or a capacious 60GB model starting at just $349. Then upload photos from iPhoto on your Mac, Adobe Photoshop Elements or Adobe Album on a Windows PC or directly from your digital camera using the optional iPod Camera Connector and view them in color, anywhere, complete with built-in backlighting. Your personal, portable entertainment library, iPod photo looks as good as it sounds.

Take It for a Spin

Like its famous siblings, iPod photo features the touch-sensitive Apple Click Wheel that’s the envy of the industry. Use it to navigate your music and photos in 65,536 colors. Easier to read than ever, the iPod photo's display boasts 220x176-pixel resolution and a new Myriad typeface. Spin the wheel to Music and scroll effortlessly through dozens of playlists, hundreds of albums or thousand of songs.

Or highlight photos. iPod photo displays 25 full-color thumbnails at a time. And you can scroll through them the same way you scroll through song titles. Quickly. Just spin the wheel to see more. And when you see a photo you’d like displayed all by its lonesome, just click the center button and voila. No one will have to say “cheese” as long as you have iPod photo around. Whether you’re listening to tunes or checking out photos, you’re sure to be all smiles.

Get Brownie Points for Sharing

If you’d like everyone else to smile right along with you, iPod photo makes it easy. Sure, you could let them take the Click Wheel for a spin themselves, but here’s a way to get extra points for style. Use an optional AV cable to connect iPod photo to a projector or TV. You can mesmerize friends and family with a glorious multimedia experience, offering them a breathtaking slideshow accompanied by the music you already have on your iPod photo. Of course, you get to choose the songs, albums or playlists. And talk about smart, iPod photo optimizes your photos to fit on a standard (4:3) or widescreen (16:9) TV.

Sync, Look and Listen

iTunes lets you import your images directly into iPod photo from a folder on the hard drive of your Mac or PC. Spent time organizing your photos using iPhoto on a Mac or either Adobe Album 2.0 or Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 on a PC? iTunes rewards your diligence by importing the photo albums you’ve created in iPhoto or collections created in Album or Photoshop Elements. You’ll be able to choose them from the Photos menu on iPod photo.

Wait, there’s more. iPod photo features even more robust Auto-Sync capabilities. Now, in addition to offering the industry’s best music syncing, iTunes offers stellar photo syncing, as well. Update your photo collection by adding images or creating new albums, and the next time you connect iPod photo to your Mac or PC using the included USB 2.0 or optional FireWire cable, iTunes will automatically synchronize your photo collection. Or transfer photos directly from your digital camera to iPod photo using the new iPod Camera Connector. And did we mention that iTunes 4.8 also autosyncs album cover art? It’s true. The cover art downloaded when you purchase music from the iTunes Music Store is transferred to iPod photo along with the music. So while iPod photo plays your tunes, you can enjoy the album art — in color, of course — on the Now Playing screen.

Enjoy Improved Battery Life

Whether you’re on a transcontinental flight or an extra long hike, if you plan to listen to music for hours and hours, iPod photo has you covered. Fully charged, it lets you enjoy up to 15 hours of continuous music; or up to 5 hours of continuous slideshows with music.⁽²⁾ Use the included USB 2.0, optional FireWire cable or handy iPod photo Dock to quickly charge the batteries.

Did you ever think you’d be able to walk out of the house in the morning carrying as many as 15,000 songs or 25,000 digital photos with you?⁽¹⁾ And in your shirt pocket, no less.

Beyond the Beat

Of course, with iPod photo, you do more than just carry songs and photos with you. You revel in the experience iPod photo provides. Listen to just the song, album or playlist you want to hear. Pop open the virtual covers of an audiobook and journey to another time and place. Scroll through entire albums filled with photos of friends, family, favorite places and treasured times.

Or you can take advantage of the 30GB or 60GB of storage capacity iPod photo provides to take care of business. You can, for example, use the included USB 2.0 or optional FireWire cable to transfer files from your Mac or PC to iPod photo. A newsletter you’re writing in Pages. That Keynote presentation. Excel spreadsheets. PDFs. You name it.

Say “Geez”

Even before you get home and add your newest photos to iPhoto on the Mac or Adobe Album or Elements on your PC, iPod photo comes in handy. Using the Belkin Media Reader, you can transfer the contents of your bulging memory cards onto iPod photo’s capacious hard drive.

Where Am I at 2 p.m. Tuesday?

If you’ve ever forgotten a dental appointment, you’ll be pleased to hear that iPod photo also lets you take your calendar with you. Many applications — iCal, Microsoft Entourage and Palm Desktop, to name a few — export calendar files in vCalendar or iCalender formats, both of which iPod photo supports. In color, of course.

Sorry, Wrong Number

Little black address books are so last millennium. Thanks to its support for industry-standard vCard files, iPod photo lets you store and access all your important contact information — names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses — with a spin of the Click Wheel.

Play Games

You know what they say about all work and no play. Navigate to Extras and you’ll find Games: Music Quiz, Solitaire, Brick and Parachute — four popular, not to mention colorful, games you can play anywhere (like when you’re waiting for the movie to start at the multiplex).

Store Text Notes

You’ve got playlists. You’ve got To-do Lists. And you can carry both with you on iPod photo. The iPod Notes Reader lets you take text-based information — such as news downloaded off the web, stock tips, your workout regimen, restaurant reviews, directions, even your shopping list — with you on your travels. Just transfer it via FireWire or USB 2.0 to iPod photo from your Mac or PC.

Rise and Shine

Did you know that iPod photo has a sleep timer that lets you fall asleep to music? It’s true. And if you like to wake up to music or need the blare of an Alarm Clock to jolt you awake, iPod photo is just as accommodating. You’ll find settings for the Alarm Clock and Sleep Timer in the Extras menu.

During Your Commute

At Work

At Home

On Campus

On Vacation

At Play

The digital shelves of the iTunes Music Store are stocked with more than 9,000 audiobooks, so you can catch up on your reading wherever iPod photo takes you. And your iPod photo will set a bookmark for you when you stop reading, letting you pick your book up right where you left off.

Technical Specifications: iPod photo

Capacity

30GB or 60GB hard disk drive ⁽¹⁾
Holds 7,500 or 15,000 songs in 128-Kbps AAC format ⁽²⁾
Holds up to 25,000 photos ⁽²⁾
Stores data via USB 2.0 or FireWire hard drive

Display

2-inch (diagonal) transflective, 65,536-color liquid crystal display with white LED backlight
220 x 176 pixel resolution, 0.18-mm dot pitch
Support for display of multiple languages and characters simultaneously

Audio

Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
Audio formats supported: AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Music Store), MP3 (32 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, WAV, AIFF
Upgradable firmware enables support for future audio formats
iTunes synchronizes thumbnail images to iPod photo from the following file formats: JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PSD (Mac only) and PNG

Headphones

Earbud-style headphones with 18-mm drivers using Neodymium transducer magnets
Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
Impedance: 32 ohms

Mac system requirements

Macintosh computer with USB 2.0 or FireWire port
Mac OS X v10.2.8 or v10.3.4 or later
iTunes 4.7 or later (included on iPod photo CD)
iPhoto 4.0.3 or later recommended

Windows system requirements

PC with USB 2.0 or FireWire port or USB 2.0 or FireWire card
Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4 or later, or Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 2 or later
iTunes 4.7 or later (included on iPod photo CD)
Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0 or Elements 3.0 or later recommended ⁽⁵⁾

Customizable settings

Customize main menu
Save On-the-Go Playlists, delete songs from On-the-Go Playlists
Adjust audiobook playback speed
Clicker on or off
Rate songs
Shuffle songs or albums
Repeat one or all
Sound Check on or off
20 equalizer presets on or off
Backlight timer
Alarms on, off or silent
Sleep timer
Date and time
Display time in menu bar
Contacts sort and display by first or last names
Clicker on or off
Album art display large or small
Photo slideshow settings
- Music from iPhoto (Mac) or iTunes playlists
- Time per slide (manual) — 2, 3, 5, 10 or 20 seconds
- Repeat on or off
- Shuffle photos on or off
- Transitions on or off
- TV out on, off or ask
- TV signal PAL or NTSC
Menu Languages: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish and Traditional Chinese
Additional language support for display of song, album and artist information: Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian,Turkish and Ukrainian

Environmental requirements

Operating temperature: 32° to 95° F (0° to 35° C)
Non operating temperature: -4° to 113° F (-20° to 45° C)
Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing
Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet (3000 m)

Music comes naturally to every member of the iPod family, including iPod photo. But when it comes to synchronizing photos from your camera or computer, iPod photo works just as famously.

25,000 Photos in Your Pocket

Now syncing your photos to an iPod is as easy as syncing your music. iPod photo lets you carry up to 25,000 digital photographs⁽¹⁾ with you wherever you go. Working in conjunction with iPhoto on a Mac or with Adobe Photoshop Elements or Adobe Album on a Windows PC, iTunes 4.7 lets you transfer images directly from your camera or your photo library to iPod photo. Connect to your Mac or PC via the included USB 2.0 cable, optional FireWire cable or the ingenious, optional iPod photo Dock and sync your photos in a snap.

As with your music, iTunes gives you options. You can choose automatically to sync:

That means you can take all the photos of your children or grandchildren with you. Not just a few. All of them. Want your wedding pics to go? You’ve got ’em. Right in your pocket, purse, briefcase or backpack.

Share with Flair

The next time you want to wow clients with your new product line, thrill the grandparents with an entire year’s worth of family photos or show friends back home what college life is really like, iPod photo makes it simple.

Thanks to the patented Apple Click Wheel, you can scroll through thousands of photos in seconds until you find just the ones you want. Or pick an album — even multiple albums — and treat everyone to an impromptu slideshow, complete with your choice of transition effects, courtesy of a nifty iPod photo software update. Your photos will look great on iPod photo’s crisp color display. View them indoors or out: They’ll practically jump off the screen.

If you want to put on a really impressive show, use the optional iPod photo Dock or AV cable and plug iPod photo into a television or projector. Choose the perfect transitions and just the right music to complement the show. After all, you’ve got your favorite music tucked in right next to all your photos.

Managing your Photos:

A Fine Array of Formats

iPod photo supports syncing photos from the most popular formats (JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF and PNG) and even lets you carry around full-resolution copies of your photos.

25,000 Reasons to Get One

Pile 25,000 photos one on top of another, and you would have yourself a stack of photos some 20 feet tall.

To hang 25,000 4x6 photos, you’d need a wall the size of a football field's end zone.

Like photo albums? You may also want to think about a book shelf...or two. If you can squeeze approximately 250 photos in the average photo album, you’ll need 100 albums to store 25,000 photos.

Play Covers

When you take to the road with iPod photo, you not only carry your music and photos with you. You also get to carry your album art. iTunes transfers it to iPod photo along with your music and lets you view album covers in the Now Playing screen — in color, of course — as you play your songs.

Catch the Shutterbug

Take a lot of photos of the kids? If you took 100 photographs of them a month for the next 18 years, you’d still have room on iPod photo for nearly 4,000 more photographs.

Trick of the Light

iPod photo provides a crisp 2-inch LCD with backlighting. Featuring 220x176-pixel resolution and 65,536 colors, it really lets your images pop.

Storage to Go

Got photos you want to safeguard while hiking the back roads or hitting the slopes? With an optional accessory — like the Belkin Media Reader — you can connect your camera to iPod photo, quickly transfer all your photos and take advantage of its capacious storage space.

Fast, effortless, simple. That’s Auto-Sync. To keep iPod photo filled with the newest tracks in your iTunes library, just plug it in. iPod photo and iTunes take care of the rest.

iTunes for Your Tunes

Whether you use a Windows PC or a Mac, iPod photo offers a superior solution. You can synchronize your music, data and photos effortlessly, without having to tweak settings each time you transfer files between iPod photo and your computer. Simply add new music to your iTunes music library by downloading from the integrated iTunes Music Store or importing from your CDs in MP3, AAC or the new Apple Lossless format. Mac owners can also export their GarageBand compositions to iTunes.

Transfer Your Music Automatically

Once you connect iPod photo to your Mac or PC, iTunes automatically begins to update its contents. You don’t even have to press a button. iTunes becomes aware that you’ve connected iPod photo and displays its icon in the Source column. In fact, if you click on the icon you can see all the music you’ve downloaded to iPod photo at a glance. If your iTunes library exceeds the storage capacity of iPod photo, you can let iTunes fill it for you. iTunes will create a playlist that fits your style — and your iPod photo capacity. iTunes also notes any new On-the-Go playlists you may have created while out-and-about with iPod photo and syncs them to the iTunes library on your Mac or PC. For finer control over your portable music collection, you can turn off Auto-Sync and manually select the songs you want to tote on your iPod photo.

Fast Transfer Times, One Simple Connector

iPod photo can transfer the contents of an entire CD in as little as 10 seconds. Of course, total time varies depending on how much music you want to add or replace. The handy dock connector on the bottom of iPod photo lets you connect it to your computer, recharge the battery and sync files blazingly fast via FireWire 400 or USB 2.0.

The Versatile Dock

The optional iPod photo Dock with its own video-out jack makes charging, syncing and sharing easier than ever. Leave the iPod photo Dock connected to your Mac or PC. Then, when you’re ready to charge or Auto-Sync, just dock your iPod photo, and iTunes will automatically get to work. You can connect the iPod photo Dock to a stereo system or pair of powered speakers and fill a room with music. Or you can connect it to a television or projector and share your digital photos with friends and family.

With iTunes 4.8 you can:

Copy photos to and view them on iPod photo
Search for duplicate songs and delete them
Receive an “Artist Alert“ when music by your favorite artists arrives on the iTunes Music Store
Stream music wirelessly to your home stereo or powered speakers using AirPort Express with AirTunes
Print CD inserts complete with album cover art
Easily backup your music on CDs or DVDs
Create mixes automatically with Smart Playlists
Burn CDs at full speed
Play the DJ with Party Shuffle
Find new music on the iTunes Music Store with Quick Links
Import music in Apple Lossless for highest quality audio at about half the space of uncompressed audio
Publish your playlists as an iMix on the iTunes Music Store

On-the-Go Playlists

Inspiration can strike any place and any time. When you’re sitting in front of your computer or while you’re waiting at the bus stop or standing in line at the post office. Now you can seize those opportunities and create not just one but multiple On-the-Go playlists just by selecting the title of a song, album or existing playlist using iPod photo’s Click Wheel and holding down the Select button until the title flashes. Found a song that just isn’t playing nicely with the other tunes in a playlist? Use the Click Wheel to select and delete it on the fly. Best of all, iTunes will Auto-Sync your new On-the-Go playlists the next time you connect iPod photo to you Mac or PC.