ARTICLE CRITIQUE

Article Critique



Article Critique: The Effectiveness of Using a Video iPod as a Prompting

Device in Employment Settings

Title

Article Critique: The Effectiveness of Using a Video iPod as a Prompting

Device in Employment Settings

Critical Analysis

Introduction

iPod Video, or "the wide iPod" as Apple CEO Steve Jobs calls it, is the fifth generation of full-size iPods, introduced four years after the original 5GB iPod that started it all. iPod evolved from a simple, yet elegant, music player to a combination music player, voice recorder, and photo viewer, and now to a music, photo and video playback device. With 25 iPod variants to date, Apple's iPod team has had a lot of opportunity to refine the iPod experience. While the latest iPod has a few weird quirks, its new video features are remarkably well thought out, and it continues to refine existing features.

Along with the latest iPod, Apple began selling downloadable videos through the iTunes Music Store, reprising its revolutionary digital music initiative in a new medium.

Delivering more features at the same price point, iPod will continue to sell well on its traditional merits while positioning itself well against feature-rich competitors.

The author says that Apple's trend to more compact packaging continues. The original iPod shipped in a 6" cube box; you removed the box from its sleeve, then unfolded it like a flower. Our 60 GB iPod Video arrived in an attractive flat, square box, matte black with embossed silver Apple logo and text which we found remarkably difficult to get into. This presaged a tricky box-opening experience in which style utterly defeated substance.

We eventually figured out that the visible box was a sleeve with one end open (like a DVD box set), and with much shaking and pulling, managed to extract the inner box. The stylish matte black and precise fit make it hard to extract. The inner box opens in half - one side containing the iPod, and the other a solid black monolith - but where were the cables?

iPod lacks a printed manual, but an electronic manual is included on the CD. We discovered that what looks and acts like a PDF file is actually a Mac OS X application that detects your language and displays the appropriate PDF, so long as your language is English, French, German, Japanese or Chinese. We do wonder why Spanish wasn't included.

The author of the article demonstrates that the top edge of the box is marked with small, unobtrusive symbols for CD, USB and headphones, tipping us off that it was a box flap. We opened it and extracted a white plastic envelope containing a CD, a tiny "Quick Start Guide" and copious copyright statements, a pale grey protective sleeve for iPod, and what for all the world looked like an Apple-white package of instant oatmeal.

The oatmeal package, divided into two halves, contained a USB adapter cable and iPod's iconic earbuds. Too tough to rip open, we fetched a sharp knife and carefully made a ...