Slide and Tilt

I don't use an iPod, although I tend to talk about them a bit and the iPod vote grows ever slightly each day. This is all in spite of the fact that I stopped using my iPod a while back. My MIT alum buddy at Samsung, Paul Kim, asked me to look at the K5 to think about how it compares to the iPod.

Well, it's hard to compare mp3 players to Apple's iPod because in my mind the iPod = iTunes. Given that iTunes has become increasingly (and painfully) complex, I'm sort of feeling tepid on the iPod's concept nowadays.

The K5 is unique for it's "slide and tilt" mechanism; it also sports the new trend in invisible interfaces like its front face that has no obvious or visible buttons a la law1. There's a great deal of attention to the fancy animations that accompany each of its screens -- counterbalancing the mystery of law1 with a healthy dose oflaw7. After playing with it for months, I still haven't law4-ed how to use the device though most of the time I can get it to play music.

Do I like it? I think the litmus test here is that it still sits on my desk for now. Let's wait and see.