Rating: 
Summary: Yes, it's pretty, but not ready for PCs!!!
Review: I was really excited about getting an Apple Ipod. When I got it, I was impressed with the package, the display, and the size of the unit. However, when I plugged into my new Dell PC, my computer failed to recognized it at first. After several tries, the computer recognized the unit and froze up.
I was instructed, before I purchase the Ipod, that I should upgrade the firmware at the the Apple site and reboot. I did, and the unit crashed on me.
I wanted this unit to work so bad that I worked on it for 2 hours and it still didn't work.
I have seen people with the Ipods and I am sure they are Apple users. There is no reason in the world that this unit, for the money I paid for it, should have problems working right out of the box. Especially, if I used on a new computer.
It just simply is not constructed for PC/Windows use.
I am giving this one star becuase the display and size was nice, but the frustration of getting it to work was too much.
If you have an Apple (based on the other reviews)get an Ipod. If you don't, don't say I didn't warn you.
Rating:
Summary: You might wanna skip this!!
Review: Ok I'm conviced that some of the people who wrote reviews for this work for Macintosh. I was really looking forward to getting one for my birthday. Instead of having it work flawlessly (yeah I know. I guess my expectations were high. This is a MAC product we're talking about here) it froze in diskmode for an hour. That wasn't all that big deal since I was able to figure that problem out. Soon after though, the battery keep indictated that it was out of power. This after it had been CHARGING FOR 4 HOURS AND SAID THAT BATTERY WAS FULLY CHARGED!! The best was yet to come though!!! You need to install musicmatch jukebox in order to transfer music to your iPod. Well it froze each time I tried to transport mp3s to the iPod. The last time it froze it deleted almost ALL of my MP3s!!!! That was it for me so now it's going back to the store tomorrow so I can get my money back. Way to go Mac!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: 1 Week's Worth of Feedback
Review: This is a neat product if you're really into convenience (who isn't?) and music. The pros:
1. Lets you transport a huge music collection with you anywhere in a very compact package. No transporting bunches of CDs around or a laptop loaded with your MP3s.
2. Did I mention that it is small??? Go to COMPUSA or BEST BUY and check it out before you buy. The touch-dial interface may confuse at first but you do get used to it very quickly, like a new cell phone. So don't sweat the controls when you first try it.
2. You can play hours of music on end with no participation needed - great for parties or if you're just plain lazy like me.
The cons:
1. Charges using the same port as that which you connect to your FIREWIRE port which gives me some concern as to its future reliability. It just does not seem as sturdy as your typical circular AC adapter connection.
2. You may find a way to make the IPOD manager software work with your PC & MUSICMATCH software with WIN98 but I could not. I changed my OS to WIN ME to get it to work, and boy ME is really RAM hungry. Anyway WIN98 does not meet listed IPOD requirements so you should at least consider this before you buy. I expected the MUSICMATCH software interface to IPOD to be simple but it took a little stumbling around to figure it out. What do you expect when you don't read directions. The one thing that is a little annoying is, after you download your songs to the IPOD you have to tell the software to "EJECT" the IPOD to stop the interface before you can disconnect it. That takes about 20-30 seconds.
3. If you're considering buying the IPOD, take a serious look at the 15GB version vice the 10GB version. For a little more cash, you get accessories that do not come with the 10GB version including the data/charger dock, the remote/headphones,and carrying case. If you buy the 10GB version and these accessories separately, you'll pay more than the 15GB version price!!! Why the hell would you want these accessories? I think they should help cut down the wear and tear on your IPOD and probably prolong its life (at least the dock and the case) and your investment. Of course I have no data to prove that since I dont work for Apple or Consumer Reports, its just my OPINION.Anyway that is my feedback after 1 week of use. Have fun with it!
Rating: 
Summary: The iPod is amazingly perfect.
Review: I just bought my very own iPod 3 days ago, and I have to say that it is one of the best investments I have made.
To start off, the very box that it is in is elegant, clean, and streamlined. The iPod itself is the perfect size. While it is small, it is not uncomfortable for large hands. The buttons are placed perfectly and with the trackball, you don't have to think about what you are doing at all. Also, the iPod is light, but it doesn't give the impression of being cheap or toy-like.
All together, it took about 10 minutes to install all the software on my computer (which is running Windows XP Professional) and everything went very smoothly. I disagree with the people that think that Music Match is a bad program; I have had no problems with it.
The built in features in the iPod are plentiful. There are over 20 equalizers that all have a distinct sound. There are three games, which are surprisingly advanced; I have seen worse games on some palm pilots. The iPod has a calendar, notes, and contacts (all of which can be imported by synching to Outlook. The backlight is clear and perfect. The iPod can also be used as an external hard drive.
The synching between Music Match and the iPod is smooth and fast (trusting that you have FireWire or USB 2.0). When you make any changes in Music Match and then synch to your iPod the changes are made there too. If you make multiple playlists that have a song in common, your iPod does not double up on the song, and saves you valuable space. I had about 2 GB of music on my computer and it took about 5 minutes to finish synching (via FireWire).
Finding your particular song that you want to play on your iPod could not get any easier. You can browse by: Artist, Title, Album, Genre, or Composer. If you have many songs, it is easy to go though them quickly with the trackball. When you select a song there is about a second of wait when the hard drive recalls the song. There is absolutely no skipping; the box says there is skip protection of up to 20 minutes. When playing a song and pausing it or fast-forwarding, there is no lag in the time between pressing the button and the effect.
The battery lasts eight hours and charges quickly (especially when plugged into your computer via FireWire). I saw someone else saying that plugging it into their wall with the AC plug shorts out the battery, but I have not experienced that, I think that their problem was just their outlet. Don't let his experience put you off.
The only negative thing I can think of is that it doesn't exactly cater to older computers. The iPod will work with USB 1.1 but you have to buy a separate cable (a specialized one made by Apple. This also goes for USB 2.0) I have not seen these cables anywhere else but Apple's website. If you only have USB 1.1 I recommend buying a new USB 2.0 or FireWire card (this is what I had to do). A Belkin FireWire PCI card (which is made almost specifically for the iPod) only cost me 40 dollars. Out of the two I would recommend FireWire. FireWire allows you to charge your iPod and you won't have to buy a separate (and hard to find) chord (as the iPod comes with its own FireWire cable). Also my iPod froze once, but it is easily taken care of by just holding down play and menu at the same time.
All in all, the iPod is a great Mp3 player, the best one out there. I recommend it for anyone with a large CD collection or a large collection of downloaded music. I absolutely love it, and I think it was worth every bit of the 300 dollars it cost.
Rating:
Summary: It's sexy. What else do you need to know?
Review: The new iPod is definitely sexy and sleek, and easy to take anywhere. It holds a lot of music, but is a little more expensive then other MP3 type players. (The Creative Nomad and Archos Jukebox are about the same price with about twice the storage I think, but are also bigger and clunkier.) The iPod is definitely the way to go if you're looking for something with a lot of room for music, but a smaller size. I had a little problems getting my Mac to see the iPod the first time, and syncing it with iTunes took a few tries, for some reason. I'm not sure if it's because I hadn't really used iTunes before, but syncing wasn't really intuitive. (That's probably a fault of the software, though, and not the iPod's fault.) I didn't have the same problem on Windows, though. It worked well the first time, aside from losing what was already on the iPod (see next paragraph). It is worth mentioning that you can't download songs from both your Mac and your Windows machine to reside on the iPod at the same time. When you go to transfer songs from the Windows machine when you've previously synced with the Mac, all the previous songs will be erased because it has to format it in to the Windows format. Probably not an issue for most people, since most are either Mac People or Windows People, but it is worth at least a note. The controls are sometimes really sensitive. If you happen to "brush" the front of the iPod while it's playing, you could very easily end up skipping forward or backwards a track. However, to prevent this, there is a "lock" slide on top of the iPod, so it won't register any button pushes (good for when it's powered off and you don't want it to accidently turn on while in your purse or backpack). Also, as a note, if you ever hand it over to someone to look at (which undoubtably, when people see it, they'll want to touch it), make sure you take off your headphones. The first thing the other person will do is turn the volume dial up. ;) The powering on/off can be a little annoying, since to turn it off, you have to hold down a button for a couple of seconds. I'd prefer just a switch or something quicker. If someone's talking to me, I don't want to wait two seconds to turn off my music. The backlight is really nice, though, and makes it really easy to see the display. You can adjust the time on it so that it's always on, or it turns on for set amount of seconds after you've pushed a button. The battery power seems to last for a good amount of time. I can take it to work with me and listen to it all day. It'll usually run out of batteries about five minutes in to my drive home, so I'd guess it's about nine or ten hours of play time, depending. Overall, it's a pretty great device, it just has a couple of annoying things when you're using it *all the time*. The storage size and the physical size (and admittedly, the look) are worth the annoyances.
Rating:
Summary: a 30th to remember
Review: for my 30th birthday one of the presents i received was a apple ipod 10gb for windows. i receieved the ipod on thursday but could not right away play music. the games and other features worked though. by sunday i had finally gotten my ipod to work and i couldn't have been happier. the ipod is nothnig short of amazing. the easy use of the ipod is strong feature as is the 10gb of space. i have uploaded 219 songs onto my ipod and still have 8.3 gb. i haven't even used 1 gb yet. one thing that many people have stated they didn't like about the ipod was the program musicmatch that came with it. yes, musicmatch had porbelms when i first set it up. other than the inital problems musicmatch works like a dream. a major concern i have about the ipod is its battery. i wish they had given us a longer lasting battery. Another concern is durability but with all that you get it is a small price to pay. other than that the ipod is amazing. now i can listen to cd's i that i have not been listening to. and the only reason i haven't been listening to those cd's is because i don't have a big enough cd carrying case and i don't really don't want to carry that many cd's with me anyway. now i don't have to. now the ipod will never replace my cd's,it can't cause i have too many, or my cd player but it will be something that i will use for as long as i can.
Rating:
Summary: Please read this review about apple customer service
Review: There is no doubt that the ipod is a great mp3 player the day you remove it from the box. However, i have now had two ipods stop working just days after the warrenty runs out and apple has refused to help me with the issue. Both times there were hardware problems not caused by any damage to the unit. Both ipods were in perfect shape and stopped working mid-song. Apple has no idea how to take care of its customers and i will never buy another product from them. I feel like i have been robbed by apple.
Rating:
Summary: The perfect iPod
Review: I recently have decided to buy an iPod and I wanted to research how well it worked. The first thing I realized was that ipod was three-hundred dollars, and that to me at the time was a bit too much, then I looked at the other mp3 players. The next best offer I say was a one-hundred and twenty-eight megabite mp3 player, and it was one hundred witch some people said was reasonable, but when you look at the ipod, for three times the price it has seventy times the memory, and that was just the begining. Unlike any other mp3 player it also has a few simple but fun games, a much cooler and stylish look, a built in clock, calender, and a wake up timer, I made this reveiw on the 10 giga-bite iPod even though the best one is the 30 giga-bite ipod, I wrote this on the one that I planned to buy, I hope that this review will give an i dea of how incredible the ipod is, and to catch your eye before you buy a different mp3 player- your friend mike
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic device even for PC!
Review: I, like many others, was skeptical from reading the bad reviews here. I don't own any other Apple products so this would be my first... Well I couldn't be happier. I have a PC and this thing works GREAT. Don't let the bad reviews here mislead you. Do you know how many button clicks it took to get my entire music collection onto the iPod? ZERO. MusicMatch starts up, it syncs, and then you unplug it from your machine. Here's a tip: Make sure you buy a case, but this is the case (pun intended =p for any hard-disk-based MP3 player. Let me tell you... having the buttons on the front is a stroke of genius by Apple. I use this in the gym, and the easy access is great. Highly, highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Best performance for what you pay!
Review: I recently purchased a PowerMac 12" computer and got a great deal on a 10GB iPod. I absolutely love it! I'm currently in the process of backing up my entire CD collection and putting my favorites on the iPod to use in the car; much easier to use the iPod on the road than shuffling through CDs. There are a few things that don't thrill me about its design: it is rather difficult to change settings on the fly (i.e. EQ). It'd be nice to have the EQ sync with the genre on the mp3 tags (if this is actually available I haven't figured it out). It takes a while to become comfortable with its navigation, however once you do there's really no problem getting around. PROS:
firewire powers/charges/syncs device (no needless, excessive input ports)
sleek, slim design
backlight VERY handy
stores other data files than just mp3/AAC/wav/etc.
screamin' fast firewire connection (compare to USB)
durable; no problem jogging w/ it on a belt clip
solid state buttons/wheel
many features (calendar, games, clock, etc.) CONS:
proprietary Firewire cable (which, in apple's defense, is included)
fairly expensive compared to other mp3 systems (high $/GB ratio)
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