Better than Sliced Bread

Back in July I bought a 20 gig Apple iPod. My primary reason for buying the iPod was to have a backup device for my photos when I was traveling without my computer. When the iPod arrived, I started using it to download podcasts from the internet. I found many podcasts that were really interesting. I also started putting audio books on the iPod. At the same time that I bought the iPod I got the little camera connector. Then along came Hurricane Rita, and I more or less forgot about testing the camera connector.

I had read on some of the forums of the difficulties people had transferring pictures from their camera to the iPods so I did not know what to expect. I read the directions. I plugged in the camera connector to the iPod and turned it on. I then plugged the USB cable into the camera and the connector and turned the camera on. From the iPod’s menu I chose Photos and Import. That was all there was to it. A few minutes later 72 photos were on the iPod’s disk. I can view the photos on the iPod one photo at a time. In order to have a fancy slide show with music, fade effects, etc. you have to copy the full size photos to the computer and let iTunes resize them and send the smaller images back to the iPod. I really do not see any point in having a slide show on a two inch screen.

I then connected the iPod to the computer. Sometimes when I am syncing the iPod, Windows Explorer opens, and I can see the iPod as a drive G: on my computer. Yesterday Windows Explorer was not recognizing the iPod. In the iTunes help information I found that if I changed a preference setting to have the iPod mounted as an external drive it would show up as drive G:. From that point I could use any method I preferred to transfer the photos to my computer.

Apple deserves all the success they are having with the iPods. They are really clever little devices and so simple to use. If I had waited a couple of months, I could have had the new video model for the same price I paid. I really cannot see much value in watching TV shows and paying $1.99 to view them on the tiny screen. I already have found there are not enough hours in the day to listen to all the podcasts that I get for free.