San Francisco User Group Meets iPod.

By Brad Cook
When iBook owner and technophile Bess Moffitt fell for the latest love in her life, she fell hard.

“It’s adorable,” she said as she cradled the tiny thing in one hand, a look of affection in her eyes.

What has captured Moffitt’s heart so completely? iPod, Apple’s new ultraslim, ultralight and ultraportable MP3 player, which many say is the best portable music player they’ve ever seen.

“I want to be in the store Nov 10, buying one,” she exclaimed.

Nov 10 may be the day iPod begins to appear on store shelves, but Moffitt and her friends in the San Francisco BMUG (Best Macintosh Users Group) had the opportunity to see iPod up close and personal at a special event weeks before.

The Center of Attention
SF BMUG gathers monthly in a theater at the Exploratorium science museum. During the group’s Oct 29 meeting two Apple product managers — Zeene Chang and Mark Tozer — demonstrated iPod’s capabilities.

Of course, in the Exploratorium’s theater even the sight of iPod — projected four feet tall on the theater’s screen — was impressive enough. But when the crowd saw how easy it is to scroll effortlessly through hundreds of songs, albums and playlists, they really tuned in.

That’s when Tozer woke up his iBook, connected it to the iPod with a FireWire cable and showed everyone how iTunes 2 automatically recognizes and synchs with the new MP3 player. The iPod, he explained, is the first digital device actually designed to talk directly to an application — in this case, iTunes 2.

Add a CD in Just 5 Seconds
While Tozer transferred a few songs to the iPod, Chang explained how quickly you can transfer music from iTunes 2 to iPod. Thanks to FireWire, you can download the music on a 40-minute CD in just 5 seconds. Compare that to the 3 minutes it would take to transfer the same 40-minute CD to other MP3 players via USB — rather than FireWire.

Murmurs of approval rippled through the crowd when Tozer pointed out that it would take only 10 minutes to transfer 1,000 songs from iTunes 2 to iPod. With other hard drive-based MP3 players on the market it would take far longer — hours — to transfer a similar amount of music. 		  For their efforts (and the capabilities of iPod), Chang and Tozer received thundering applause at the end of their demonstration. They then let SF BMUG members get a close look at iPod.

A First-Day Buyer
Chang and Tozer stayed, responding to a flurry of questions, until David Morgenstern, who runs SF BMUG with Raines Cohen, David Schwartz and Lorca Hanns, flashed the lights in the theater and declared that the Exploratorium staff had to close the museum. Even that announcement didn’t deter Moffitt.

She followed the speakers out into the parking lot to ask one final question. Since she’ll be in New York City on Nov 10, Moffitt wanted to know where she could buy an iPod that day and was relieved to find out that she’ll be able to purchase her iPod at any Apple retailer in New York. And there are quite a few.

“I travel with my iBook constantly,” she said, “so the amount of weight I’ll save with the iPod is very important to me. I don’t like to carry a lot of things around, so when I use my CD player and have to bring CDs with me, I end up leaving it at home. I wouldn’t have to leave the iPod at home.” Ultralight, iPod weighs just 6.5 ounces and is no bigger than a pack of playing cards.

One Device, Many Uses
Even after the group left the Exploratorium, many members were still extolling the virtues of iPod.

Schwartz was particularly impressed by the care that went into its design. “The wheel is very solid feeling,” he said, “and I like that. It has audible feedback, to make it feel like it clicks, which is nice. And the little hold button that locks all the controls in place where you set them is well thought out.”

On the Ground and in the Air
Like Moffitt, Morgenstern saw the potential for traveling with the iPod. “It has enough battery life to take you from the ride to the airport, up in the air and then back down at your destination across the country,” he said. “That’s a real-world situation, where you really have music available to ease your day.”

He also liked the fact that iPod, with its spacious 5GB hard drive, could do double duty. “I’m a big believer in back-up, so anything that makes it easy for people to back up their files is a great thing.”

If you’d like to see a demonstration of iPod, we have good news. Apple is currently firming up its plans to visit many user groups across North America.

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