Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/867
The holiday season is typically the time that manufacturers pull out all the stops in an attempt to produce the perfect holiday gift. Consoles from Nintendo and Microsoft finally hit the shelves after much anticipation, chipsets from AMD and Intel provided new motherboard solutions, and new PDAs bedazzled technology lovers. Even an unlikely company managed to wow a large number of electronics enthusiasts around the globe with the launch of a product touted as revolutionary. That company happened to be Apple and the product happened to be named iPod.
Announced on October 23, 2001, the Apple iPod received raved reviews well before it hit store shelves. The Wall Street Journal proclaimed the iPod "simply the best digital music player" while The New York Times called the iPod an "absolutely ravishing machine." The critics were quickly impressed with the iPod's ease of use, small form factor, and striking looks.
Although the bulk of most iPod reviews were filled with words of praise, almost every article included at least one sentence that pointed out what many felt was a fatal flaw in the iPod design: it would only work with a Macintosh computer. This left the majority of computer owners and MP3 listeners out of luck, since out of the box an iPod would be about as useful as an expensive paper weight when hooked up to a PC.
What the reviews did not point out is that there is a way to connect an iPod to a PC. A company named Mediafour has been working on PC software for the iPod and is currently on their third technology preview of their product, entitled XPlay. Today we take an AnandTech look at Apple's iPod and show you how the iPod works with a PC, picking up the slack left behind by previous iPod reviews.
The iPod
Apple's iPod looks more like a prop from Star Trek than an MP3 player. The player is a display of Apple styling at its best, with the polished stainless steel back seeming mirror-like and the white acrylic face giving it the trademark Apple touch. Over all, the iPod measures 2.43 by 4.02 by 0.78 inches, weighs in at 6.5 ounces and feels very similar to a slightly heavy deck of playing cards.
The front of the unit is dominated by the iPod's large, 2-inch, 160x128, 0.24mm dot pitch, backlight screen and very intuitive scroll wheel interface device. Flipping the iPod over reveals only product information which is stylishly etched in the steel.
The top of the iPod is where the firewire connection, headphone jack, and hold button all lie.
Once powered up, the iPod's screen comes to life brilliantly. We were more than impressed with the quality of the LCD, as text and graphics appeared dark and crisp. The display seemed to hold a dpi advantage over even more advanced LCD displays, such as the one found in the grayscale Palm devices. The iPod display does not appear to be completely black and white, as the charging screen shows 2 levels of grayscale (being white, light gray, dark gray, and black). The gray color is not used frequently in the interface, only appearing during song playback to fill in a time elapsed bar.
The backlighting of the iPod's display was equally as impressive. Turning on the backlight on the display causes the display to glow white, matching the iPod's color motif quite nicely. Unfortunately, taking a picture of the backlight display did not work as planned, but it does look brilliant.
The other item dominating the face of the iPod are the controls. Centered around a circle that encompasses the majority of the width of the iPod, all of the iPod's features are controlled with 6 buttons. The bottom button acts as a play/pause button as well as the off switch on the unit if held down for three seconds. The buttons located on the left and right side of the iPod serve as track skip buttons if pressed and released and act as seek buttons if held down. The top button on the unit, titled the menu button, acts like a back button. Hitting the button once will take you back one level in the iPod's interface until the root menu is displayed on screen. Holding down the menu button for two seconds turns on or off the display's backlight for a user definable amount of time.
The iPod, continued
The button found in the middle of the unit acts as an enter key of sorts, allowing the user to select a function. Hitting this button in the "Now Playing" screen switches the time display from time elapsed to time remaining. Navigation through the menu systems is achieved using the scroll wheel, which is rotated clockwise to move down and counterclockwise to move up. The wheel has acceleration, so initially the display scrolls slowly but gradually gets faster the more rapidly the wheel is turned. This comes in quite handy, especially when you have lots of songs to navigate through. This wheel also serves as the volume control while in the "Now Playing" screen.
The controls are laid out in such a way that one hand operation of the unit is not only possible but also natural. With the hand resting on the back of the iPod, the user's thumb is able to access every button, from the scroll wheel to the play button.
Besides iTunes
software for the Macintosh, the iPod comes with a pair of earbud-style headphones
that utilize 18mm drivers. The headphones produce a frequency response from
20 to 20,000 Hz.. Also included in the package is a 2 meter, 6 pin powered firewire
cable The firewire port is located at top of the unit on the left side. Like
much else in the iPod package, the iPod's firewire cable is white.
To the right of the headphone jack lies the unit's hold button. Since any button turns on the iPod in its off state, the hold button becomes quite useful.
The final item in
the package is the travel charger. When the iPod is connected to a computer
it is powered by the firewire connection but on trips a computer is not always
available. To solve this problem, Apple includes a travel charger with the iPod
that can be plugged into any outlet. Power to the unit is brought via the same
firewire cable used on the computer. One nice aspect of the charger is the ability
to change the socket connection depending on the plugs available in your area.
The Interface
The iPod's interface is the best we have seen to date on an MP3 player of any type. Turning on the unit is instantaneous. The only time that the unit requires time to power on is immediately after the unit connected or disconnected from a computer. This power on process occurs automatically and takes approximately ten seconds, during which the iPod displays the Apple apple icon. The unit's hard drive spins up at this time as well.
Hitting any button on the iPod instantly brings the iPod's screen to life. The root menu is displayed upon power on.
From here the user has a variety of options from which to select. The first option, entitled "Playlists" allows the user to choose to play a group of songs stored in a playlist that is made on a computer.
The second menu option, entitled "Artists" brings up a list of every artist which has songs on the iPod. As with all other song information on the iPod, the artist information comes from the MP3's ID3 tags, which it pulls and stores in a database for easy access. No hard drive access occurs during this process, suggesting that the database information is already present in memory.
The next menu item, "Songs", brings up a list of every song that is on the iPod unit. Song titles, grabbed once again by ID3 tags, are organized alphabetically. Scrolling through numerous songs is painless thanks to the scroll wheel's acceleration.
The "Settings" menu brings up a list of user definable settings.
The final item, the "About" screen, shows information about the iPod unit, including how much space is used, how many songs are on the unit, and other useful information. The rest of the about screen is devoted to copyright information on the unit and the software.
An Easter egg is actually included in the iPod software and is accessible in the "About" screen. Holding down the middle select button for five seconds brings up Apple's version of the classic Breakout game. Paddle control is accomplished using the scroll wheel.
When a song or album is selected, the "Now Playing" screen comes up. This screen shows information including how many songs are currently queued, the song name, the artist name, the album name, and how much time is elapsed or remaining (depending on your preferences).
Selecting a song is as easy as hitting the middle selection button. Once a song is selected to be played, the unit spins up the hard drive for approximately four or five seconds. It is in this time period that the iPod reads initial song information from the hard drive into its 32MB of onboard memory. The iPod will read as many full songs as it can into memory in order of what is queued. Skipping past the buffered region, which typically lasts about 7 full length songs, causes the unit to pause for about three seconds while the hard drive spins back up to read and buffer the proper region. It takes approximately 10 seconds of hard drive access to buffer the full amount of onboard memory. This process is transparent to the user and the unit only pauses for a few seconds when the hard drive is initially spun up. During this time the unit makes a very faint noise and sits at the current screen.
If any of the ID3 tag fields are too long to fit properly on the iPod screen, the display will scroll to reveal the full information.
It is interesting to note that the iPod's OS was not actually developed by Apple. For this task, Apple turned to a company named Pixo. Pixo business is making OSes for a variety of "wireless applications" such as cell phones and PDA's. It seems that Pixo was a logical company for Apple to turn to while designing the iPod.
Beneath the Surface
There is quite a bit more to the iPod than just its fancy facade and intuitive interface. There is more than a share of interesting hardware behind the iPod; hardware that makes possible the unit's small size and large storage capacity. Dismantling the iPod is a tricky task so we got in touch with the kind folks at iPoding and they were nice enough to send us pictures of the iPod's guts. Let's take a look at what lies below the surface.
The first item that jumps into view upon dissecting the iPod is the battery. Made by Sony-Fukushima, the battery is a rechargeable lithium polymer one that is rated at 1200 mAh and puts out 4.15 volts. The battery is 3mm thick and typically lasts 10 hours during playback.
Removing the battery reveals the unit's hard drive. The hard drive is incredibly small, fitting a 5mm specification, which corresponds to the 1.8-inch drive profile. In comparison, typical laptop hard drives are made to the 9.5mm specification, which corresponds to the 2.5-inch drive profile. The drive is made by Toshiba and bears the model number HDD1242. This appears to be the same hard drive utilized in Toshiba's PCMCIA card hard drive solutions. The drive weighs a meager 55 grams, has a 15ms average seek time, and supports the ATA66 specification. Power consumption varies from 1.3 watts during read/write to 0.23 watts while in standby to 0.05 watts in sleep mode. The drive is a 5.0 GB model and could be upgraded by the end user if a larger capacity 5mm drive were released. The drive is clearly a step in the right direction for non solid-state media and is sure to find applications in other electronic areas. For more information on the drive, take a look at Toshiba's site.
The Dissection Continued
Removing the hard drive allows us to get a look at the heart of the iPod: it's system board.
Three chips on the PCB stick out. The first of these chips is the large rectangular chip located in the back end of the PCB. This is the iPod's memory, where it stores buffered song information. Made by Samsung, the chip's markings show it to be a 32MB SDRAM chip capable of operating at 100MHz.
Image courtesy iPoding
The second large chip on the board is located at the top of the unit, almost directly behind the firewire port. As you can imagine, this chip is the IEEE-1394a controller used by the iPod. The chip used, model number TSB43AA82, is made by Texas Instruments and is your standard firewire controller chip.
The final noteworthy item on the iPod's PCB actually turns out to be the unit's CPU. The chip is a PP5002B-C chip made by PortalPlayer. Although the specifications of the version of the chip used in the iPod are not available on PortyalPlayer's website, specifications on their P5001 controller are available. Bearing the similar product names, we can speculate that not much has changed in the Apple specific chip. If this is in fact the case, then the PP5002B chip has a ARM7 TDMI based core with a coprocessor dedicated to real time encoding acceleration. The processor is able to not only decode MP3 and wma files (note that the iPod's chip can decode MP3 files up to 320 Kbps, MP3 variable bit rate, WAV, and AIFF files), it is also able to encode on the fly (a feature which Apple did not take advantage of in the iPod). The chip also features an integrated 32KB of SRAM and 8KB of cache. We are unsure of the operating frequency of the chip or how many MIPS the chip can handle, but the iPod never functioned slowly suggesting that there is plenty of power.
The rear of the PCB (front of the iPod) houses no major chips. The LCD sits on the upper half of the PCB, while the iPod's controls are mounted directly to the bottom of the board. .
After a bit of disassembly, it is clear that the iPod's beauty is more than skin deep.
XPlay: Making it Work With Windows
The iPod is clearly an impressive product, but many out there must be wondering why a Macintosh only product is being reviewed on a site like AnandTech. Our whole office is PC based and with exception to the Apple IIe sitting on the floor of our lab for old times sake, not a single Macintosh computer resides in our ownership. Well, as we hinted at before, the iPod is not only for Macintosh owners any more, thanks to a company named Mediafour.
Mediafour was founded in 1994 and has based their company off a much used product called MacDrive. Initially released in 1996, MacDrive brought cross platform computing to the masses. MacDrive allows Windows based PC owners to access Macintosh based disks and files from within Windows. For years, after continually making improvements to their MacDrive product, Mediafour had been looking for other applications to which they could apply MacDrive technology. The release of the iPod was just the opportunity they had been waiting for.
Ever since Apple's announcement of the iPod, Mediafour had been hoping that their MacDrive software could serve as the backbone PC iPod software. Although Mediafour is on good relations with Apple, it was not until the public launch on November 10th that they were able to get their hands on an iPod and see what they could do. They were pleased with what they found and confident that they could bring PC compatibility to the iPod.
The XPlay team, which consists of 4 people, has been working feverishly ever since. XPlay is based around the MacDrive software, but is unique in the way that it interfaces with the device. Although XPlay uses MacDrive technology to read and write to the iPod's HFS+ file system, many new aspects had to be added in order to make the iPod recognize that the MP3 files on the device actually contained playable music. On top of this, Mediafour had to develop a front end by which the user can copy files from their PC to their iPod. While talking to the company, Mediafour was quick to note that XPlay is not MacDrive in a new package.
The tricky part with getting the iPod to work on a PC was not getting the device to be recognized by the computer. All that is necessary for communication with a PC is a powered IEEE-1394 card, which can be found for as little as $20. In general, the tricky part was getting the iPod to communicate with the HFS+ file format on the iPod and making it properly recognize MP3 music files.
As mentioned before, MacDrive allowed the communication link with the HFS+ file system. One major area where XPlay differs from MacDrive is in its ability to write to the iPod's database. The iPod stores ID3 tag information in a database. This database, which contains at least title, album, track, and artist information, is not composed of text lifted from the ID3 tags. Rather, the ID3 tag information gets interpreted and stored in the database in a way that is intuitive to Apple's iTunes software. Figuring out how to write this information to the database properly was crucial to getting XPlay working properly. It is for this reason that the first technology preview of XPlay allowed for files to be written to the iPod but music files could not be played on the iPod itself (since the iPod's database did not show that the songs existed).
XPlay is currently on technology preview 3 and many advancements have occurred along the way. XPlay is now rather functional, allowing the user to copy music and data to the iPod using either a Windows explorer namespace or Windows Media Player version 7. We were quite impressed with the intuitiveness of the software, as well as how well it was able to interface with our iPod. After a quick install, we had music on our iPod in less time than we thought (thanks in large part to the firewire connection).
XPlay: What To Expect
The explorer interface makes the iPod appear as a drive letter when connected to the computer. To access your music and copy files, all one needs to do is enter the "XPlay music" folder on the iPod's hard drive. Here one has access to the MP3 files stored on the unit. Songs can be displayed grouped under albums, artists, or not at all, depending on what you want to see. Once again, this information comes strictly from the ID3 tags and not from the filename.
Clicking on the "Albums" folder brings up a list of every album stored on the iPod device. Selecting one of the albums listed brings the user to a list of tracks and songs on that album. The "Artists" folder operates in a similar way.
Copying songs to the iPod is as easy as clicking from the PC and dragging to the "Songs" folder listed in the iPod under the "XPlay music" folder.
MP3s can also be copied to the iPod using Windows Media Player version 7. When the iPod is connected to the computer, Windows Media Player sees it as a portable device. Files can be played off the unit or copied from the PC to the iPod.
Of course, since XPlay is not even in a beta or alpha form yet, there are still some limitations to the software. Perhaps one of the most bothersome limitations is the inability to delete music files from the iPod once they are already on the unit. Clearly, it is one thing to expand to a database and another to strip information out of it. An internal beta build of XPlay does include the ability to delete music files from the iPod and should be made available shortly. Another limitation is that playlists can not yet be created and used on the iPod. Like the issue with deleting files off the iPod, the current internal build of the software allows for the creation of playlists. The reason these items have not been implemented in the technology preview yet: Mediafour wanted to get the product just to work on a communication level with as many machines as possible before attempting to add extra features.
Other features to be added to the final version of XPlay include a more robust interface, the ability to accept playlists from a multitude of playlist creators, and (cross your fingers) a firmware updater. Mediafour is currently talking to Apple in an attempt to bring a firmware updater to XPlay and the company seems optimistic that eventually one will find its way into the final product one day. The company is also very open to user based feedback and is concerned with what PC iPod owners want, so who knows what the future holds.
One feature that will not be added is the ability to copy files from the iPod. Apple designed the iPod as a one-way device when it comes to music, meaning that it was only designed to accept MP3 files but not to send them back to a computer. Apple's iTunes software does not allow the user to copy MP3 files from the iPod to a Macintosh, and in a similar manner Mediafour's XPlay software will not allow the user to copy MP3 files from the iPod to any PC. Copying MP3 files off the device is not a difficult feature to implement, but Mediafour decided to respect Apple's wishes with the iPod and maintain the copy protection feature.
XPlay has been met with quite a bit of excitement, since many PC enthusiasts were eager to get their hands on the iPod but were worried about compatibility with Windows. Since XPlay's announcement, their technology preview versions of XPlay get "thousands" of downloads each week and site traffic has increased 5 fold. Serving as the only product that brings the iPod to Windows, we were not surprised at all with XPlay's popularity.
The final version of XPlay is scheduled to be released on February 26th of this year, with a street price that promises to be "under $40."
Conclusion
So what did we think of the iPod? Well, if you couldn't tell from the review, we liked it, we liked it a lot. The iPod is the best MP3 player we have seen to date, with plenty of storage space to fit our ever expanding music libraries. The packaging is great, the hardware behind the device powerful, and the interface a breeze to sort through whether you have 9 or 900 songs. Add to the mix the time saved by using a firewire connection, and it is clear that the iPod is a winner.
We do have a few gripes about the product itself. First off, the $399 price tag that it carries makes it one expensive music player. Non hard drive based MP3 players have fallen drastically in price recently and can be found at around the $100 or $150 mark. The problem with these players is that the memory available for songs rarely grows above 128MB. Other hard drive based solutions offering similar storage capacity, such as the Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox and the Archos Jukebox 6000 can be found for around $250. Then again, none of these solutions even come close to the iPod's size.
A second complaint we had with the iPod was the fact that the unit does not ship with a carrying case. The polished stainless steel on the back and the acrylic face are prone to not only fingerprints but also scratches. Apple does not offer a case of any type for the iPod, forcing users to turn to third party case manufacturers.Would the inclusion of a protective case really have pushed the price up that much?
Our final complaint, and perhaps what would have been our largest one, has already been solved. Initially we were quite concerned with the lack of PC support that the iPod shipped with. Thanks to Mediafour, we no longer have to worry. Their XPlay software brings to the iPod what Apple left out: Windows support. We are quite happy with the way that XPlay is shaping up, with an intuitive user interface, seamless communication with the iPod, and effortless synchronization with a PC. We are excited to see what new features future versions of XPlay bring.
There are quite a few rumors floating around the internet discussing a Windows version of the iPod set to arrive sometime in the first half of this year. Although we cannot say if this rumor has any substance to it (Apple is great at keeping secrets), it only seems like a logical transition for the company to take. Naturally, Mediafour is concerned with this but questions if Apple will need to create a PC version of the iPod if their XPlay software is selling iPods to PC owners. Word has it that even some Apple representatives are referring PC using iPod owners to XPlay. Ideally, Mediafour would like Apple to recommend XPlay as the software solution for iPod owners who use Windows. Even if this does not occur, Mediafour is confident that even if a PC version of the iPod is released that their XPlay software will be just as good if not better than Apple's offering.
So the iPod is the best MP3 player we have seen on the market to date and XPlay software that allows the device to work with a PC is coming along nicely. Should you go out now and get one? That depends on how much you want one. Right now, bringing an iPod home for use on a Windows system costs approximately $60 more than bringing home an iPod for a Macintosh. $20 of these dollars go towards a firewire card (assuming your computer does not have one already) while approximately $40 goes towards XPlay software. If the rumors are true and Apple does produce a PC iPod, it is almost certainly going to come in with the same price tag as the Macintosh version. But is the PC iPod going to come out?
Well, it is really just a matter of waiting. If Apple does not release a PC version of the iPod in a few months, other companies are sure to produce PC compatible iPod knockoffs as soon as they can ramp up production. The decision of whether or not you get an iPod to go with your PC is dependent on how bad you want an iPod. Just like everything in the fast paced world of electronics, a superior product is sure to come out some time. Those needing the best MP3 player now should go for the iPod: although it is quite an investment, it does pay off, rewarding its owner with stunning looks and great usability. Those who are not as pressed to get a new MP3 player may want to play the waiting game until prices fall and native Windows support comes to iPod or iPod-like devices. Regardless of what your decision is, it is clear that the future of portable MP3 players is exciting.
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