Rating: 
Summary: Owners of Windows laptops with USB 1.1 and Firewire BEWARE
Review: First of all, this beautiful machine's compatibility with Windows XP is at best random (if you count random as 1 successful connection over 20 attempts), with frequent disconnections, one crash and countless reinstallations and resets.But let's assume it is compatible and it works. Apple seems to have decided that, for charging / uploading, anybody with a 4-pin firewire connector was a sucker. You see, the iPod's cradle has only one connector. If you have a 6-pin (powered) firewire port on your PC, that's fine as the iPod will recharge and sync or be updated at the same time. But if you have a 4-pin firewire port, you need first to charge the iPod with the provided power supply and then sync on battery. And since battery life is dismal, it is more than likely that the iPod's battery will die before synchronization is finished, especially for a 40 Gig. model. And to top it all, they do not ship a USB cable with their proprietary plug on the other end. So, even if you have USB 2 (USB 1.1 being way too slow), you'll need to purchase an extra cable from them.
Rating: 
Summary: Ipod Stinks
Review: Got one for Christmas. Tried for a week to get the software installed and configured correctly. After many reconfigures and downloading of updates, the best the Ipod would do was skip like a three legged dog. Went online to Apple and found others with similar problems. Called Apple customer service and afer being on hold for 45 mins, the call was droped by Apple's answering service. After that the Ipod was on it's way back to the store and good ridance.
Rating:
Summary: Worked for 10 minutes then never again
Review: Got very excited. Bought the ipod. In the middle of loading the songs, the software froze up. The "Do not disconnect" message on the Ipod screen would not go away, even when I turned off the computer. I followed the steps in the manual to do a hard reset but that didn't work either, and now I have [expensive] piece of junk with "Do not disconnect" written on it. It is going back to amazon for a refund first thing Monday morning.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful. Perfect. I'm in love.
Review: Having access to my entire (and sizable) music collection wherever I go is a dream come true, and the iPod is the perfect vehicle to accomplish this. The user interface on the iPod is perfect, and the integration with iTunes is brilliant. And as for the reviewer who claimed the battery only last one and a half years and is unreplaceable, the former claim is questionable and the latter is false. Replacement batteries can be ordered from Apple directly for $100 or from ipodbattery.com for $50. Enjoy the iPod, a wonderful musical beast.
Rating:
Summary: iPods: It's Plusses and Minuses
Review: Here are the reasons why you should buy an iPod:
1. It is compact, you can take your ENTIRE CD collection with you. The iPod slips very easily in your pocket and is pretty light.
2. It is extremely easy to use. Plug it in and it automaticcally all the songs from your computer (iTunes) to your iPod. Very very fast connection and updating. It only takes about 4 seconds to update an average sized album. Amazing huh?
3. It's very very convenient. One thing I really about the iPod is that you can create playlists so your songs can play in a particular order. You can make as many playlists as you like and it'll take like 10 seconds. If you want to burn the songs into a portable CD player, it'll take a good 20 minutes, AND you get worse music quality. You can change your playlists as many times and you want.
4. It's got a lot of other features on it. The games are really fun. You can also put notes, calendar, and contacts on it.
5. The sound is really good. You get equalizer and you can adjust to maximize the quality of music depending on the genre.
6. The design ROCKS!
Some not so great points about the iPod:
1. It scratches very easily and unless you don't mind that, you're gonna have to buy some kind of case for it, which will make it slightly bigger (but some will make it more fashionable).
2. The battery really doesn't last that well compared to some other mp3 players out there. To get the most out of your iPod battery, do not fully discharge it before you recharge it. (There's no memory effect.)Supposedly it lasts 18 months if you listen to 6 hours of music a day. (Still not that bad!)
3. The price is pretty up there... But say, you use it everyday for the next 1.5 years, the iPod costs 75 cents a day. (Referring to the 20GB version). And chances are you ARE gonna use it for more that 1.5 years. Some final words:
Go for it, you really won't regret the purchase. The iPod is a timeless thing. The iPod really opened my eyes to music. I now listen to a wider variety of music. With iTunes, purchasing songs you like can never be easier. Once again, GO FOR IT!! NO REGRETS!!
Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable Apple Product!
Review: Hey - I have been an Apple and Sony fan for years. I did tech training for Sony when they intro'd CD's in the 80's. So I love innovative technology! And the Ipod is it! Essentially it is a 40gb hard drive in a case that is thinner than a pack of cigarettes. You can use it a few different ways... The easy way is just let itunes put all your music on it and update it automatically. Take it with you and enjoy up to 10,000 tunes at the touch of your fingertips. Make your own playlists, take the ipod in your car and enjoy the drive. The music quality is great - it is easy to use - the documentation is poor as it is with all Apple products but that is the ONLY negative. I purchased a Belkin FM transmitter and even though I am in No California the music is endlessly repeated here. Now I have tunes in my car again. It sounds as good or better than my factory Honda CD player. So now I listen to NPR and have my music also! The other really neat thing is that since it is a 40gb hard drive you can basically set it up as a firewire drive and when you plug it into the dock (supplied) your MAC sees the ipod as another HD and you can use it however you like - even as a startup disk. For me though probably the biggest benefit is that it got me in touch with all my older tunes which I have not listened to in years. Brought back great memories of great music and put me back in touch with my music 21 century style. P.S. Two kewl accessories FM transmiter for your car and new memory card adapter allows you to store pictures on your Ipod on the fly. Ipod, the missing manual book (Pogue press ISBN 0-596-00477-x) tells you most everything that the manual does not.
Rating:
Summary: I love it
Review: I am a windows user and this thing is great. Having it powered and charging through the firewire on my audigy 2 card works flawlessly. I tried others and returned them for this work of art. It is easy to navigate, fun to use, and the sound is outstanding. I now understand why it is the standard for these types of devices.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Product - Better than expectation
Review: I am an audiophile. I must have spent thousands and thousands dollars on audio equipments and upgrades. To me, music quality is important. MP3 is not exactly a quality music format. I bought this 40G model for my son as gift. The ipod must be one of the most beautiful consumer electronic product ever made, if not the most beautiful one. The look, the feel, the touch - the smooth and glass like surface, the smooth edges, the respnsive buttons and dials, high quality plastics, perfact fitting of the parts, extremely beautiful and carefully done packaging told me this was made by an artist, not just an engineer. I tried to use the ipod. Using the AAC format, instead of MP3, the music sounded so good, it is hard to tell the music file was compressed so much. It sounded as good as a discman or a MD. As a result I bought another 40G ipod for my wife. The key words for the ipod are: Beautiful, Fun and Enjoyable. Some reviewer commented on the difficulties of installation. I found the installation a bit longer than expected but was an easy one. The interface, created by Apple, is a bit different from what a Window user used to. I do not find it to be a problem at all. For your window computer to recognize the ipod, you need to install the softwares that comes with the ipod. For managing your music, you may want to download the new and free Windows iTune from Apple's website. It is very easy to use and works well for me. Once the software is installed, every time your ipod is connected to the computer through the firewire or USB, the new songs automatically get uploaded. The only thing I want improved is its earphone. Earphones are like speakers, the better the quality the better the sound-provided the source of music is good. This is not to say Apple's earphone is poor. I think many people find it quite ok. I just prefer a even better quality one.
Rating:
Summary: Returning Apple IPOD
Review: I am returning my Apple IPOD. It is difficult to work with Windows. I wanted it to work with BOTH my desktop and my laptop but forget that. Then I found out the battery only lasts a year and a half and it is not replaceable. The charge only lasts 6 hours. I was so excited because it is so small and so neat looking. I was totally disappointed and have to return it. Now I am looking at the Rio Karma. Much more user friendly and the battery last longer.
Rating: 
Summary: Do your homework first!
Review: I am writing this review to help keep someone else from going through what I did. I am a heavy-duty MP3 user. I have about 10GB of music stored on my laptop and a 192MB iRock MP3 Player (64MB on board, 128MB Smart Media Card). I run quite regularly and enjoy listening to music while running. As you can imagine I was constantly changing the music on my iRock, which was beginning to be a pain. I have a number of friends who have iPods and I was fascinated with the devices. None of my friends had an iPod with a capacity greater than 20GB but I knew the form factor was the same and that the 40GB was just slightly heavier. One critical aspect that the iPod needed to meet was being able to fit into my armband carrier. Ages ago when I got the iRock I bought a Family Radio System (FRS) Receiver (i.e. Walkie-Talkie) band from Radio Shack that made running with the player a breeze. The iPod did fit the sleeve so I was pretty sure it would work out great for me. Then the day comes when my 40GB iPod arrives. Having never felt a non-tethered 40GB-er I was surprised that it was noticeably heavier than the 20GB version (Ping #1 - While the iPod has an incredible capacity it is not without a trade-off and going from a 2oz Flash Player to a 6oz Disk based player is a huge step. The weight difference is clearly obvious). This did not deter me though as the available space made me salivate. Within 15 minutes of removal from the packaging I noticed a scratch on the shiny chrome back of my iPod. I was shocked. All I did was lay it down on my desk! (Ping #2 - The iPod itself is incredibly delicate. You must handle it with kid gloves. A protective sleeve is a must). The final true test came when I took it out for a run. I am a fairly intense runner and usually average around an 8:30-9:00 minute pace per mile in my daily runs. I was absolutely flabbergasted when the iPod just all of a sudden quit playing. I set up a block of songs from a particular artist, slid the Hold button over to lock the player, and took off. When I stopped running to see what happened (irritating enough), I found that the iPod had reset itself to the initial top menu option of selecting songs by artist. The iPod also stopped playing one time while I was simply walking on the street with it nestled in my coat pocket! (Ping #3 - A disk drive based player, be it a 1.8" Drive, 1" Microdrive, or Cornice Storage Device, is a disk drive at heart and will skip and stop if vibrations or movement reaches a certain threshold.) As a final note, I know that many people love the dial pad feature for navigating though menus and the audio files but I personally thought it was irritating. If you have a lot of music you will be spending a lot of time going round and round! So now here is my advice. If you have a ton of music and you do not intend to exercise with it the iPod is a good choice. BUT if you ever intend to run or workout you might encounter the issues I faced. If at all possible borrow a friend's iPod first, so you can get a good feeling and comfort level with the device (I know, good luck getting a friend to let you borrow theirs). I had the iPod for less than a week and fortunately Amazon did take it back (kudos to Amazon for such great service). Now I am looking into another solid-state player. The Rio Cali and Chiba are leading my list (they are expandable to 768MB - no iPod but a lot of music nonetheless). I just wish they had the same form factor as the Rio Nitrus.
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