Along with the imitation suede sleeve, the 80GB iPod ships with a USB charge/sync cable, and earbuds. There's no longer a bundled CD, since iTunes can be downloaded online. The earbuds are smaller than the old iPod earbuds, and they have silicone rims around the edges for better comfort. The new buds also have different transducers, which let the bass and highs extend a bit farther, resulting in better overall sound.

The new iPod still sports the click wheel, my favorite way to get around lots of content, but it also has new search and power-scroll features, which makes for even easier track navigation. You can choose Search from the Music menu and locate songs, videos, podcasts, artists, and albums by letter or keyword. If you're scrolling quickly through a long list, a shaded square appears in the center of the screen with a letter on it. This means the power-scroll feature has been activated automatically, and you'll be scrolling by first letter instead of individual list items. Although I like this ability, I would prefer to the option to invoke it manually, the way you can on Creative's and Archos's players. I also like that you can customize what appears on the main menu, but it would be nice to have the option of adding Repeat there, since I change that setting frequently.

The iPod's now-legendary integration with iTunes and the iTunes Music Store has been the key to its success. (This is why Microsoft is now spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a similarly integrated system.) Check out our review of iTunes 7 for a gander at the software's newest iPod-related features.

For audio formats, the iPod supports WAV, AIFF, AAC, protected AAC, Apple Lossless, and MP3. It can also play Audible audiobooks. Images can be viewed if they are stored in JPEG, TIFF, GIF, BMP, or PNG formats, as well as PSD files if you're using a Mac. Video compatibility is far more limited; basically you are limited to MPEG-4 files, H.264-encoded video with the .mp4 or .m4v extension, and MOV files. Videos can be up to 30 frames per second, at VGA quality with maximum bit rates of 2.5 Mbps for MPEG-4 or 1.5 Mbps for H.264. The audio format for videos is AAC-LC at up to 160 Kbps. I'd love to see broader video format support, specifically for the AVI file format and for videos with MP3 soundtracks. Most videos not acquired via the iTunes Store need to be converted in iTunes or with a third-party video transcoding utility.

Gapless playback is an excellent addition to the iPod's playback capabilities, especially for listeners of classical music and live albums, as well as studio albums that have tracks that are meant to be played one after another seamlessly. The gapless playback is actually a sophisticated cross-fade, according to Apple, and it works quite well. Playlisting options are still good. You can create multiple playlists directly on the device without a PC, but you can't edit, rename, or delete saved playlists. — Next: iPod Hands On