Rating: 
Summary: Battery life is very, very short
Review: The new generation of iPods has sacrificed battery life for smaller size. I had an old 5 gig one that was fine for what it was, but it died after a year of use. That was a very expensive year's worth of service. And while I am an Apple fan, they're certainly not very good to their customers.The new one? I'm highly disappointed. This thing gets nowhere NEAR 8 hours of play from a charging. And if you listen to tracks that are longer than about 7 minutes each, your battery will die sharply faster. I believe this has something to do with the fact that longer tracks require more reading from the hard drive. That requires more spin-ups, and hence more power. I don't think I'll buy another MP3 player with a hard drive. I'm waiting for huge-capacity flash memory ones with no moving parts. This is a definite transition technology, and is in no way worth the very high price.
Rating: 
Summary: Beware "The Gap"
Review: The iPod is an amazing portable electronic device with a very annoying problem known as "The Gap" - a silent pause between music every track. Can you imagine listening to The Beatles "Sgt. Pepper" or Queens of the Stone Age "Songs For The Deaf" with pauses between the seamlessly mixed tracks? No serious music lover will be able to ignore what the iPod does to their favorite music. Apple has a serious issue to resolve if it expects its download music service to replace CD's. I refuse to purchase any dowloaded albums knowing I may not be hearing what the artist originally intended. Beware "The Gap"! I cannot give the iPod more than three stars without a fix for this bug. However, my review would easily jump to 4 1/2 stars if "The Gap" didn't exist.
Rating: 
Summary: I LOVE THIS LITTLE MACHINE!!!
Review: Awesome piece of hardware! I use it to put 15 gigs of music on it, and another 5 gigs of data that I backup from my laptop! I've used the CREATIVE mp3 players, and while they are good, they are very slow and tough to use........ the iPod, with its remote, is so easy to program, put in your pocket, and then get on with your way! The newer iPod has an even better case! My GF spilled starbucks all over this thing, and its still ticking! There is no cracks in the casing, so absolutely nothing can get in or out (except for data)! I highly recommend this item --- especially for backing up your data too! (...)
Rating:
Summary: Problems
Review: Freezes and crashes even after re-installing the software. Apple says they will "fix" but will not refund or replace it.
Rating:
Summary: Running or joging causes skipping and crashing of iPod
Review: I loved the idea of having all my music on a device so that I would not have
to load new songs before going for a run. But I have had a poor experience
with the iPod I bought 2 months ago. It crashes and restarts anywhere from
15 to 30 minutes into a run. I have to stop, reset it, and find the playlist.
The last time I could not even reboot it. (after running for 8 minutes,
one mile) Not the experience that I expected. I took it to an apple store and they
discounted what I had to say. They said that they would test it to see if
it met specifcations. I am sure that it meets spec. but I doubt that spec.
includes running. If you are training for a 10K or a marathon or just
running or joging be careful you may be better served with a solid state
MP3 player. I specifficaly asked the salesman if the ipod worked for running.
He stated that it worked great for running. If I just used this for walking it would be great. Just another note, I tried to reduce all the vibrations I could while fitting
it into a fanny pack, including packing it with foam. It did not help.
Rating:
Summary: I B Jammin' on my Motorcycle Now!
Review: I ride a motorcycle 15000+ miles a year, 24/7/365. During the summer, I take several 15 hour day trips. I needed a player that could store a lot of music. I bought an Archos 20. the Archos played well on the table or car, but locked up every other song on the bike. Couldn't take that. Traded WAY up to a Ipod 30. This thing is rock steady. Hasn't missed a beat yet. Yes, the interface between MusicMatch is somewhat aggravating for me, but I expect this is more due to my ignorance than a real problem (I'm a man, for Pete's sake! I don't read the instructions!). The more I use it, the better I get. Ipod does work with MM version 8. I haven't been able to edit tracks (Artists, Album, Genre) after the song is in the Ipod, so I keep a complete back up on my computer, edit them there, delete the file from the Ipod then drag and drop the edited file from the PC into the Ipod using MusicMatch. I've need to delete it from the Ipod first, then replace it. I have not had any luck having it "replace" a file. If it see's the file in the ipod, it seems to ignore the transfer request for that file. No big thing, just a makes editing after the fact a little more time consuming. I've set up my genres in the file edit tags to reflect fifties, sixties, etc., country, ... By doing this, it's like setting up continously updating playlists within Ipod, since Ipod will segregate by artist, album and genres. To say the least, it is an "experience" to download into it, but again, the more I learn, the better I get at it. Once I download my songs (currently 4568 songs, one heck of a bike trip), I don't plan on removing them. The buttons do seem to be ultra sensitive and I feel that I will wear out the "hold" button from the excessive use of it out of neccessity. The Archos loaded up a whole lot easier than the Ipod, but it wouldn't play without locking up every couple of minutes, and using it to PLAY music is the ONLY reason I wanted a MP3 Player and Ipod is does this very well!
Rating: 
Summary: Music for all occasions
Review: This is a review from a Mac user, so I have not tried any of the windows applications. I do have issues with the fact that you cannot simple drag and drop mp3s. And the ways they store all the mp3s info into separate files. For example if you did gain access to the hidden files by using applications like OMNI Web you will only see mp3s labeled like F40 or something. This prevents you from figuring out which song is which. Yes, there's applications that get around this, but why does Apple make it so complicated? I guess they want it more complicated for IPOD users to share music. Of course there's applications that also syncs two ipod together so they can both share music. Actually all I want to do is make my work computer have the same songs as my home computer. Is that so complicated? What else is annoying is trying to simply play ipod songs from the ipod when it's docked and mounted. You can't without special software. With all its short comings, the ipod rocks. It works as a firewire hard drive, PDA, and digital book reader. During the Blackout of NYC 2003 it was playing music from 3:00pm until I made it home at 2:30AM... and it keep me busy playing games, and reading notes... and using it as a flash light to read a few pages from a book. I think the Zen looks interesting, but they don't have a Mac version and it is a little larger. All in all ipod has it all... 4 stars because it kept me sane, minus 1 star because the way it stores sound files.
Rating:
Summary: A great unit, but beware of Apple
Review: This is a wonderful unit. Like most of Apple's products the design is very slick (and wait til you see the packaging - it ought to be in the Metropolitan Museum of Art). Integration with iTunes on the Mac is flawless - it's easier than syncing a PDA. BTW, I'm actually a long-time PC user who happens to own a single Mac - a PowerBook G4. The touchpad controls are pretty intuitive and easy to master. A few minor gripes/caveats: -- The earbuds sound pretty good, but I find it hard to get and keep them positioned correctly in my ears. To me, that's the flaw with all earbuds. Given that this gizmo costs $..., you'll probably want to consider a set of headphones. I ended up getting a pair of compact, folding Sennheisers, which are a decent trade-off between ultimate sound quality and convenience. -- The touchpad controls are so sensitive that it's too easy to accidentally change the programming. Apple has included a hold switch to disable the controls to prevent this, which you'll probably use 99% of the time the unit is on; flipping it back and forth is a small inconvenience. -- Beware of Apple. I virtually never buy extended warranties or replacement insurance, but given my past dealings with Apple w/ my PowerBook, I plunked down $50 for a two-year replacement contract with Circuit City, which I'd strongly advise. In fact, I'll go farther and say don't buy it if the merchant doesn't offer replacement insurance. If the unit were to fail, you can plan on spending a long time trying to get through to Apple and get them to do something about it. It's like buying a Lexus, BMW or Mercedes and then getting Ford or Chevy service. I love Apple products, but hate the company because of its service approach. I'd probably be an Apple switcher by now if it weren't for that. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: WhyPod?
Review: I recently sold my 2nd generation 20gig iPod after living with it for about 9 months. While all of the technological gimicry is very cool and the device is well thought out and easy to use, I found myself constantly wary when using it. Carrying about a device whose sole purpose is to play music, (and dont gimme that B.S. about the cheesy iCal app...clearly a device to add pragmatic value to what is otherwise just a toy) that costs [so much] is unnerving. Plus why would I want to spend untold hours riping my entire CD collection onto the iPod for this price when I can spend 1/4 as much for a CD based player which is just as portable and not have to worry every time i drop it or bump it or sit on it, etc if a CD player breaks, its [more] to get it replaced...its like carrying around a ming vase. Amazon and/or Apple ought to offer Insurance for the dang thing. I think that people who own an iPod and are Orgasmic about it are just fooling themselves because they have to justify the wad of cash they blew on it. Its like the opposite of buyers remorse. When Apple makes the iPod alittle more robust (Lose the mirror finish backing that gets scratched the instant you breath on it, ) and a little less expensive...I might be back, until then... ...save your money. Get an iRiver... P.S. I own a MAC!
Rating:
Summary: Almost right
Review: By far I'm glad we purchased the 30G model as several months later we already have almost 20G on our iPod. We purchased ours primarily to integrate into our 1976 Triumph Spitfire convertible. Needless to say it is a blast to use for playing music. Battery life has been not that bad for us. On a couple of long 6 hour road trips it almost made it to the end. Frequently I have to "reboot" the iPod which is more than slightly annoying. The wired remote is a bit flimsy and the plastic sheathing has exposed the wires though hasn't affected playback (yet). For the price I would've expected better quality from Apple. The touch interface is not entirely intuitive and even after having the unit for a few months we still find ourselves punching the wrong button and losing our place. Musicmatch (Windows) is not an impressive application either and bogs down as you add to your music collection. Transferring the music to the iPod also takes an extraordinary amount of time so don't think you're going to update your music and run out the door. Plan on spending time transferring data. Would I have something else currently on the market? No. This is probably as good as it gets right now if you have a lot of music to listen to.
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