Released about a month ago, Apple's portable MP3 player—the iPod—features the same design-savvy aesthetics as the company's iBook and PowerBook G4 systems, a generous 5GB of storage space, and yes, a hefty price. But any initial misgivings about the iPod are immediately forgotten when you pull the device out of its elegant box (even the packaging is impressive) and see it firsthand. And the experience gets better, from the iPod's innovative and intuitive UI to its first-of-a-kind integration with Apple's music-jukebox software and speed-shattering FireWire connection. Frankly, I didn't know how I would react to Apple's over-hyped MP3 player until I used one. Now I would have a hard time parting with it: Consider me converted.

If you review the iPod's specifications, the device doesn't seem too impressive. It has a 5GB hard disk, but some other hard disk-based players feature much larger capacities. The iPod ships with a FireWire interface, common on Macs, but not so common on PCs; until this device shipped, portable digital-music players always relied on the more common, but suddenly pokey, USB connection. And the iPod isn't Windows compatible, at least not yet, which limits the potential market to about 5 to 10 million modern Mac users. And at $400, it hits the high end of the price range for this type of device. Sounds like a loser, doesn't it?

It isn't. Instead, the iPod is a trendsetting product that Apple's competitors are destined to copy again and again. The iPod is easily the most usable and elegant portable digital-audio player on the market. Here's why.

Design
The device looks like a work of art, with an iBook-like snowy white fascia and an industrial silver back that, sadly, is overly prone to scratching. A large white disc, or jog dial, sits prominently at the device's bottom center and is flanked by four simple buttons, with a fifth sitting in its middle. The four outside buttons are obviously labeled as menu, play/pause, previous song, and next song; the middle button is used to select items when you enable the menu. The unit's top contains three items: the FireWire connection, the headphone jack, and a lock switch so you can throw the unit in a pocket or bag and not worry about inadvertently triggering its buttons. An LCD display for the menu sits above the jog dial.

And the iPod menu—well, it's a thing of beauty that's based on the new columnar-view style in Mac OS X. When you turn on the iPod, the optionally backlit display presents a list of choices, which include Playlists, Artists, Songs, Settings, and About. To choose an option, you dial the disc with your thumb, clockwise or counterclockwise; a slight clicking sound provides additional feedback. To select an item, click the center button. This interface is immediately obvious and works surprisingly well. The jog dial speeds up as it rotates, which is important when you're scrolling through long lists of songs or artists. To move up one level in the menu, click the menu button. Simplicity.

Here's an example. Let's say you want to hear all of a certain band's music. Turn on the iPod by pressing any button, scroll to Artists, then Select. The columnar view now changes to show a selection called All, followed by an alphabetical list of each artist you've stored on the device. Scroll down and select the artist name, and the view changes to a list of that artist's albums, preceded by the now familiar All choice. Select All. If you'd like to repeat or randomly play the selection, choose Settings from the main menu, and you'll see options for Shuffle and Repeat. You can also use this menu to determine whether the backlight comes on and the duration of the light, set the display's contrast, turn the jog dial's clicking sound on or off, set a sleep timer, and perform other tasks.

The iPod is heavier than you might expect, given its size, but isn't heavy per se; it contains quality rather than unnecessary heft, as with the Creative Labs Nomad, another hard disk-based personal-audio device.

Integration
The iPod is the first portable digital-audio device that's truly integrated with digital-music software, in this case Apple's excellent iTunes. In fact, I can't review the iPod without also reviewing iTunes because the iPod relies on iTunes and won't (yet) work with any other jukebox software. Apple iTunes ships with Mac OS 9.x and X, and the iPod includes an updated version that the device requires (since the iPod shipped, Apple has updated iTunes at least once and all future versions will, of course, be iPod-compatible).

At its most basic level, iTunes provides jukebox functionality ala Media Player for Windows XP (MPXP) or Real Jukebox: The application lets you rip CD music into your music library (in this case in MP3 format only), create playlists, burn audio-mix CDs, and listen to Internet radio stations. The iTunes interface (as with those of most Apple products) is simple, clean, and easy to use, with no extra frills or dead weight. And newer versions include cool new features such as cross-fading between songs for a radio station-like effect, an equalizer with more than 20 presets, and MP3 CD-burning capabilities.