So I got an ipod classic a few weeks ago, which is the 4th ipod that I've owned (5th if you count Kari's nano). And even though my first ipod classic went completely corrupt and I had to replace it... I really do love this ipod. The metal front is nice, 160gb rules, and the soft/firmware on it is definitely awesome.

I know it's been reviewed 1,000 times, but I figured I'd talk about some of the features I like/don't like.

Price point. $350 for 160gb isn't bad at all. $250 for the 80gb is really nice. I mean, remember when the 30gig was like $500? ha.

The random album art on the home screens are awesome. However, I wish that you could somehow choose to listen to the album that's on the screen. Too many times a random album cover has popped up and I've been like, "Hell yeah I wanna listen to that" But then, I have to 1. remember the name of the album, and 2. scroll through all my albums til I find it. It's a little tedious.

And more on album art - it'd be nice if you could browse by cover flow in places other than the top level. The top level cover flow has so many albums in it that it's pretty much useless. On the classic, once you've selected an artist, it displays album art next to the albums (which is a cool new feature, btw). This would be a great spot to have cover flow... And while playing a song, I really like the new size/reflection that you get with the album art. ...Plus there's a little more information on the screen now, which is always nice.

One thing that annoys me is that when you let the ipod go idle while it's playing, it just displays the time, battery level and a big "Play" symbol. It drives me crazy to have to touch my ipod to see what's playing. I'd really like to just have my song info still there with the backlight off... like my old ipods did.

And finally, I've got the search feature. I still don't understand why they didn't roll out an update to old ipods to add search... aside from just making everyone buy new ipods - again. But anyway, the search feature is handy, but it's kind of a bitch to use. Not as awesome as I thought it would be.

I really do wish that you could search on fields other than artist/song/album. See, I store tons of information (basically I tag my mp3s) in the comments field. But there is no way to use that information on the go. Say I'm in my car, traffic sucks, and I just want some ambient music... I have an "ambient" tag that I've added to lots of songs. It'd be nice to be able to search for that... Or if I'm hanging out with a bunch of geeks, I might want to search for my "idm" tag. I can't.

I really, really wish you could keep browsing/searching within playlists. There are some CDs that I don't like every song on. So it'd be nice to go into "My Top Rated" and then be able to select an artist/album.

It'd also be nice if you could turn the click wheel off only through the speakers. I don't mind the device itself clicking, but that sound is awful coming out of your speakers. I mean, in the settings, it even says "Play sound through headphones and speakers." That wording makes me think there are other options like, "Play only through headphones" and "Play only through speakers."

Finally, I like that you can customize the music menu. Turning off some of the less used features really makes navigating faster - especially while driving, heh.

So yeah, overall, it rules. The use of album art alone makes it a much neater/more personal device to use. I just wish apple would put more features into each new generation... but I guess that's how they get us to keep buying the same product over and over again.

I can't wait until I fill up "half" of my 160gb, heh. 88.3gb free - I'm almost there.