Sputnik III is a fifth generation player, 60 gig iPod video, black, slightly scuffed (a "refreshed" product from the Apple Store in Shadyside). It has enough capacity to be really really useful as a data transport, which was something I was never able to do with previous Sputniks. That's the good thing.

There's a few quirks, however. Some of it's adapting to a non-mini, some of it's probably "features" that all color/picture/album art capable iPods share - why the track options go volume -> placement -> album art -> rating instead of volume -> placement -> rating -> art is beyond me. Why some indication of track rating isn't given on the playback screen is also beyond me - there's plenty of space for some indication, even if it's just a few dots in the corner. It would be nice if the time would stay in the title bar, instead of switching to "iPod" when the interface is contacted - I think the mini did this, but my sister's got Sputnik II now so I can't do a quick side-by-side comparison. These two points are useage gripes - I use the iPod as a clock, and many's the time I've whipped it out to make a track rating only to find that I've already rated it at some point in the past.

Fact is, as functional as the interface is, there's more that can be done with it. And I don't mean turning the thing into a portable Atari, either. I mean things like picking up my system Appearance and Highlight settings - this thing is Aqua defaults with no apparent way to change to anything else. It's a really minor nit, but that sort of OS -> iPod integration is something Apple is definitely capable of, and it would be nice to see.

The only problem I have with video playback is that iTunes 7.0 (I'm updating to 7.0.1 as I write this, hopefully it gets fixed*) occasionally - irreproducibly - forgets that I have video on the iPod, and deletes it or renders it inaccessible or something. This has been cause for irritation on the few occasions I've wanted to use the video functionality - 99.9% of the time I'm using Sputnik for disk and music, so it's no big deal if this glitch never gets fixed.

Photo handling is nothing to write home about, as I almost always have larger, higher quality hardcopy of anything I want to show off stuffed in my notebook. It's basic, it's useable, and I found out the hard way that ATC's filenames and constant tweaks and revisions have made the jpeg pile a real mess.

The final bitch is that the thing doesn't come with a belt clip, which is a standard feature of the iPod mini. 30$ for an Agent 18 videoshield, and one of the clips broke right out of the box. Some Gorilla Glue, a clamp, and four hours later and I'm preferring the Video Shield and belt clip to the case protector and clip I was using with the mini - it rides lower on my hip and makes for a more comfortable - and more industrial** - experience.

The capacity is a handy upgrade. Sound quality is fine. Video and photo features may some day actually be useful. The biggest win - aside from the 10x increase in disk capacity - is that my sister has inherited Sputnik II. The mini and ipoddisk and she's an extremely happy camper.

* It didn't - I plugged Sputnik III in for sync on 20061002.14:09 and iTunes 7.0.1 decided I don't have any videos, again. :P

** What with the epoxy and all.