Today is Apple iPod Day

The official release of iPod, Apple's $399 music player and mini FireWire hard drive, is Saturday. Here is Apple's press release. [Curiously, iPod Updater 1.0 that we noted yesterday had been pulled as of publication time.]

Here's a Macs Only! hands-on report by Brian Nakamoto:

Apple saved me $400! I had planned to buy the forthcoming SmartDisk FireFly Firewire hard drive and Firewire Creative Nomad Jukebox II. Now I have the best of both worlds in my iPod for half the price of the aforementioned products' combined (rumored) MSRP's.

My iPod OOBE was awesome! Apple's packaging is a fine art. My iPod came almost fully charged. The only OOBE improvement that I would make is to include some music on the iPod which Apple should be able to do for very little additional cost; especially if they choose singles that the major labels are currently promoting.

I was paranoid about last week's iTunes 2 issue so I downloaded the latest version from Apple's website rather than using the 2.0 versions that came on the iPod and its accompanying CD. (I later read Apple's Technote that states the iPod iTunes 2 installer is safe.) With iTunes 2 installed, I plugged in my iPod, iTunes prompted me to name my iPod and then I ran into my only glitch that was not iPod's fault. iTunes 2 completely overwrote my music library which I'm sure would have been more annoying if I didn't have a backup readily available. Otherwise, iTunes 2 and iPod are terrifically integrated. I can't wait until Cabel and Steven at Panic get Audion for OS X, my audio player of choice, to work with iPod.

The iPod's screen reminds me of my first GameBoy, especially playing iPod's Breakout game. The back of the iPod collects finger prints but also doubles as a crude pocket mirror. If I were to make any functional improvements, I'd suggest:

1. A plug/door for the Firewire port to prevent pocket lint and other bad things from getting in. Third parties around the world are probably all over this already. If so, I'd like a sport arm band too.

2. The ability to use the iPod controls while plugged into my Mac. This would be useful for charging while simultaneously being plugged into an alternate audio output.

3. Possibly an equalizer for headphone use or at minimum, bass and treble controls.

4. A Firewire docking cradle would be a cool accessory.

5. An SDK so that Pioneer (or somebody) could make any P-bus enabled Pioneer car audio system control the iPod.

6. An off switch. Or maybe I just need to figure out how that works or get used to the fact that it turns off fine automatically.

7. Different colors -- probably already in the works....

Finally, I appreciate Apple's approach to DRM. They make it clear that we shouldn't steal music but don't compromise the product's ease of use for law abiding citizens with any futile attempts to enforce the law.

[Update] Check out Chris Newman's photos of the iPod's fabulous packaging.