Rating: 
Summary: Looks great
Review: i know its the best selling mp3player in the world, it looks very sleek, but if you have windows, your on your own. called apple store to buy one and i had 2 questions about it, they basically told me go to go away once i mentioned windows. they were rude to me, didnt fix my problem, and they lost my buisness. so if your thinking about buying one for windows buy a creative or a samsung
Rating: 
Summary: Windows and iPod Do Go Together
Review: I have had my 20GB iPod now for almost a month and don't know how I ever lived without it! I feel sorry for all the people I see on the subway, or jogging, with those old-fashioned, clunky, uncool Walkman-type devices.I am perplexed by the reviews from some of the Windows users that have had problems with their iPods. I can understand the frustration with the missing USB cable, but after doing research it should be obvious you need that additional part. If your computer is fairly new, you probably have a firewire port, in which case you don't even need the cable. The iPod box will contain everything you need. I have a fairly basic Dell Inspiron 5100 (came standard with firewire), and use iTunes, and I have not had any problems. My iPod syncs great, and iTunes is easy to use to buy songs, create playlists, etc. So, Windows users don't be scared off - the iPod works great with Windows! If you are a major techie or sound/music afficionado then maybe you won't be happy, but for the average person that just wants to be able to listen to their favorite songs anywhere, it will suit your needs....and make you feel good just carrying it around. When I am on the subway, I often see other iPod-ders, and we usually nod to each other in silent understanding. I recently bought some very inexpensive ($20) Sony speakers, so now I can listen to my iPod (out loud) around home too. All of my music is now available to me, whenever and wherever I want it, in my little iPod rather than on racks and racks of CDs. And, I can create playlists of favorite songs to fit any mood, without having to constantly switch CDs or listen to tracks I don't like. The iPod is truly a wonderful product, and you don't have to be a teenager or super tech savvy to use it and enjoy it!
Rating:
Summary: Love it, but the battery makes it unacceptable
Review: I love my iPod. I love the way it works, and have had no problems with the iTunes software or the sync mechanism on my PC. It's great. The amount of music it holds it fantastic also. EXCEPT - the battery is unacceptable. My commute is one hour, and even after full charges (left in the cradle overnight) the power is gone by the end of the commute. ONE HOUR! No help from Apple support, either. Not worth it. As it is now, I have to figure out how to use it - it's hard to be limited to one hour worth of portable music. They really need to do something about this.
Rating: 
Summary: wonderful and addictive
Review: The iPod puts even the biggest music archive in your shirt pocket. 20GB is plenty of space to accomodate a very large selection of music, approximately 5000 songs. The iPod is very user-friendly, especially if you are used to Mac OS. Do yourself a favor and go with the itunes software, not musicmatch, the CD database queries and many other features are vastly superior. Be warned that if you switch from musicmatch to itunes you will have to erase your iPod.
The sound quality is really good, the batteries last well, but the battery indicator is a bit funky. Be aware that the iPod only charges in the cradle when the computer is on, so it is worth it to get a second firewire cable and charge directly with the power supply. As usual for Apple, this is an all-around well designed, reliable and versatile product that will give you much enjoyment
Rating:
Summary: This Thing Screams Quality
Review: I've been reading reviews from both Windows and Mac users. I decided after much research and soul searching that the only way to really find out is to give this thing a try. Granted $400 bucks is a lot of money to listen to music but wait!!!!!!!
I just recieved my 20GB Pod. First thing I did was carefully unpack the thing so if I had to send it back I could do so with ease. I don't think so. This thing comes packaged as good as anything I've ever seen. As I removed the many parts I could feel the quality of this product was good if not better than anything I've ever seen. I love quality. That's my thing. First being a PC user I read the book and charged the Pod for about 4 hours as stated. Than I loaded the software. Then I held my breath as I connected and configured the POD. Still waiting for somthing bad to happen, the music I had stored at I-Tunes began to download to my new POD. So far so good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I attached a set of Bose headphones to the POD and could not believe my ears. This thing sounds magnificent. It has the coolest controls and just feels good in your hand. QUALITY!!!!!
If your budget permits, buy this thing and enjoy. I've had several other MP3 players and this baby is light years ahead of all of them. Just read the book, follow the instructions and you will be amazed. QUALITY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Nice Design but Falls Short
Review: I bought an IPod shortly after Thanksgiving and while there are a number of things I like about it, I have to say the battery life is very short. I have never been able to get more than 6 hours out of the battery and seldom even that many. I average about 4 hours per complete charge. Secondly, I don't like all the windows services that get loaded with iTunes. I realize I could use music match but who wants all that spyware loaded. The services can really bring performance on the computer as whole down, not to mention it seems to look up my computer from time to time. iTunes seems conflicts with a number of other software programs I have running like winamp and a CD ripper. The IPod has an elegant design but it is not worth how much it costs.
Rating:
Summary: Not much improved since first iPod
Review: I've been using a Creative Zen for about a year, and recently have been using iTunes Music Store to buy songs. So I bought the 20G iPod last week to be able to use the iTunes Music Store files on a portable device. But I returned it after a week of playing with it. It is simply not up to the standards of a third generation MP3 player, and certainly not worth the extra cost over the competition (Creative Zen, Dell Jukebox, iRiver, Rio Karma). First and foremost, the battery is unacceptable. Yes, the player is small in size compared to most other players out there, so the battery needs to be sacrificed a little. But the iPod 20g couldn't make it through a weekend trip--and probably only 3 hours of actual listening--without getting charged... twice. The battery meter drops a notch after playing about 2 songs on this device. After charging and leaving it off for a day, the battery was mysteriously back at half full. Anyway, I highly question whether it can make it on a cross country flight unless you never change tracks and keep the backlight off. The competition's offerings have battery lives well into the teens, and in Dell's case, the upper teens. Even the Rio Karma, which is comparable in size to than iPod, has something like 50% more battery life. The other main beef I have is that the interface is far too simplistic to be powerful when away from your computer. The iTunes playlist and general integration with the iPod is excellent and very powerful. However, when you're off on a skislope somewhere and you want to reorder a playlist... you can't. You can only add to a new playlist, not even delete from it (as far as I could figure out). Then there are things like, the shuffle option being buried under "Settings" in the main menu. So you have to hit Menu about 10 more times than you should just to shuffle the playback. There's not even a way to view the current playlist in a list format as it plays. My year old Creative Zen has easy solutions to all of these tasks, and it felt like a serious step down to use the iPod. The lack of a dedicated volume control is also shocking. The volume can only be controlled while in the Now Playing screen. If you're in a menu, you can't change the volume. After 30 years of Walkmen with dedicated volume controls, Apple has made their device less usable by leaving it out. The final straw with the user interface is the horrendous solid-state scroll wheel. Whoever thought to do this obviously has never extensively used one of these devices because it requires that you look at the screen to use the device. I'm able to use my Zen purely by feeling the scroll wheel click, which comes in very handy while driving, working out, etc.. On iPod, there is an option to turn on a click sound with the solid-state scroll, but that helps only if you're not actually listening to music (the click doesn't come through headphones as far as I could tell). The first iPod was unquestionably revolutionary. However, this iteration is not up to par with the competition's clones of Apple's work. Once again, someone has taken Apple's ideas and improved on them, making a cheaper and better solution. This time it's not just one vendor though, it's about five (Dell, Creative, iRiver, etc.). And there are other solutions to online music instead of just iTunes now (Walmart sells WMA files, Real sells 192K AAC files), and many will probably end up working with these other players, if not already. I would only recommend this product for people who buy a very large number of songs from iTunes Music Store or are on a Mac. Beyond that, iPod is vastly overpriced for the functionality it offers in light of recent competition.
Rating:
Summary: POOR WINDOWS USERS
Review: You window users are starting to get on my last nerve. If you are having a problem with your ipod on your system THEN SWITCH TO MAC! The ipod is MADE for a MAC not a Window User. Sure they say it is because you guys couldn't stop crying about it--->(insert little whiny Window users voice here) "It's not fair Mac users get everything!!!---->(insert picture of whiny window user jumping up and down throwing a tantrum here). Do I hate Window users? No of course no, I just hate window users who buy an APPLE Product made for---SHUT IT RIGHT THERE WINDOW USER-YES YOU--a Mac computer and they get fliped because it did something to their computer. If I loaded a windows product on my Powerbook G4 what would happen? HELLO!! Am I making a point. If you have windows and not a mac computer..DO NOT BUY THIS UNTIL IT IS REALLY FOR WINDOWS!!! It won't be long before Microsoft can make a copy of it. Also, to the window user who is 15 and crying about his computer.. Yo're a little too young to be going out and spending almost $300.00 on an ipod,don't you think? Put the money in the bank and then go to college and LEARN SOMETHING!!!HELLO!!! ANYONE HOME!!! Do your mother and father know you spent that kind of money? When I was fifteen and I spent $30.00 for a CD (i'm old enough that I was around when CD's first came out) and that kind of money being spent was a big deal- I would catch Hell and damnation for spending that. $300.00!!!! Your young enough to be my kid and if you were mine. It would have gone RIGHT back to the store, that is WAY too much money for any kid to have in their pocket. Way to much. Christmas money or not, your parents let out with that kind of money, there has got to be something wrong with them too.
Rating:
Summary: Great product, but PC users beware!
Review: I received my iPod as a gift this past Christmas. I researched it pretty thoroughly so I knew what additional hardware I needed to make sure it would function properly on my Dell Desktop PC. Don't listen to the people who complain that they didn't know that they needed to buy a separate USB cord...if I figured it out, you can too. I'm amazed that people don't do a little research before they make a $400 purchase. Anyway, after installing MusicMatch and trying to sync my iPod to my PC several times, I always encountered the same problem...the iPod would freeze and continue to flash "Do Not Disconnect". I had to reset it several times and after a few more tries, the thing ceased working. It wouldn't turn on. I had to send it back to Apple for a new one. I had a little better experience with the new one, but it still doesn't work right with MusicMatch. Very frustrating experience, but here are the two most important things I've learned: 1. Don't use MusicMatch! Don't even install it. Not that I don't like the software (I actually think it's great), but it makes sense that a piece of Apple hardware would work better with Apple software. So, download the free version of iTunes from Apple. I've had a much better experience using iTunes.
2. Purchase the extended warrantee. It's well worth the extra $60. It gives you two years of phone support and a replacement battery is covered. Just before your 2 years are up, you can send your iPod back for a new battery. That should give you at least 4 years of service from your iPod. Overall, the product is great. Easy to use, convenient size. I'm not a big fan of the earbuds though, they don't fit right and it seems like half the sound is escaping. Would have gotten 5 stars if not for the hassle of having to send it back.
Rating:
Summary: The best
Review: other mp3 players can do what the ipod does, just not anywhere near as nicely as the ipod pulls them off.
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