Rating: 
Summary: So much more than just a portable music player !
Review: OK - by now you probably read all the reviews from 1-Star (freezing software, way too expensive) to all the 5-Star ravings.
What I would like to add are the following points :
Yes - the iPod froze on me as well when I left it connected to my Mac and the computer fell into 'sleep' mode over night. This caused my iPod to completely drain the battery and for some reason, I had to restore the software on the little device. But this was so simple, following the instructions, that it did not have any effect on my enthusiasm regarding this device.
Because, with the 40 Gb hard disk, you REALLY can take all the music that matters to you with you. I have over 4000 Records and CDs and while the 'ripping' takes some time, it is unbelievable how convenient it is, to have every song I like at the tip of my fingers. I used to burn 'compilation CDs' but with the limit of 80 minutes, there were always songs that were left out. I no longer have this problem since I am now able to make any compilation of any length thanks to the 'playlist' feature. Think about it - make your 'Best of the Beatles' or 'Best of Britney' (depending how old you are) without having to decide, what song to drop from your compilation CD. But the most fun is to simply let the iPod shuffle through the thousands of songs. It's a great opportunity to hear 'long forgotten' tracks from my 'back catalogue'. In combination with the Mac Music Store, I am no longer spending hours at CD stores. While it is sad, that CDs are slowly going the way the records went, gadgets like the iPod sure add a new exciting way to enjoying your music. And to everyone who thinks, mp3 files don't sound as good as 'the real thing', I say : Think again ! Especially the AAC format sounds amazing !
Rating:
Summary: The liiitle shiny pice of art in my pocket
Review: This thing is awesome. It has seamless intigration with iTunes. I plugged it in and it worked. I listen to it constantly. I would recomend iSkin from www.iskin protect.com This is without questioin the best mp3 player out there. Apple, you've done it again.pro's : Big hdd, small size, looks good, games, calander, address book Con's : expnsive, but worth it, back scrathes easily
Rating:
Summary: Worth the upgrade!
Review: A lot of people think 40 gigs is overkill for an MP3 player and I'm the first to concur, unless you've got tons of music. The 20 GB model will suffice for most people. However, if you're looking for a drive to backup your data as well, this MP3 player is a great solution for carrying your music as well as your data. The new third generation models of the iPods clean up loose ends from the 2nd generation models. Additionally, they're much thinner. The loose ends that are cleaned up are as follows:
1) The new backlight is a light shade of blue, compared to white for the 2nd generation iPods. Additionally, the backlight doesn't wash out the contrast on the LED screen for battery status.
2) The new players feature an "on-the-go" playlist, so you can set up new playlists without having to connect the iPod to your computer.
3) There are some minor interface changes, but nothing major.
4) Batterylife suffers slightly due to the smaller size, but 8 hours of batterylife versus 10 hours won't really impact the way I use the iPod because I seldom listen to it for that duration of time.
5) The height and width dimensions are basically unchanged, but the new 40 GB is about 20% thinner than the 2nd generation 20 GB model. Works for me!
Rating: 
Summary: Stick with the old iPod
Review: In 2001 when the first 5gb iPods were released, I quickly bought it. The sound quality was amazing. While the quality of play has only risen, I believe that the iPod itself has decreased in its uniqueness. When the iPod was to be released to the PC crowd, Apple knew they had to give something to the customers that was both very easy to operate and with new and innovative features (no moving parts). Enjoy your new iPod, but remember that new is not always better.
Rating:
Summary: The new standard.
Review: The ever evolving design and function of the iPod comes to this. A 40gb hard drive (4 times the size of the one in my iBook laptop) that will hold about 10,000 songs. Or, anything that you care to download and transfer from one computer to another. Mac and Windows compatible, too. Perhaps a little pricey. But now that iPod is into the fourth generation, with over a million units sold behind it, you know that the quality is going to be there. My favorite aspect is the minimalist design. It's clean and does exactly the job that it says it will do. Sounds like a great deal to me.
Rating: 
Summary: Apple once again overthinking its design
Review: The iPod certainly has sleek styling and fantastic packaging, but all I wanted was a 40GB hard drive that could play MP3s. What I got was a system that forced me into its own organizational paradigm--no ability to create my own subfolders, no easy way to move individual files around, and no way to easily read files onto a separate computer such as my laptop. This "one size fits all" system does not work well at all with a large music collection. The Archos MP3 players were MUCH better--whenever they come out with a 40GB model I'm instantly buying one. In the meantime, the iPod is going back to the retailer and I'll "suffer" with my old 20GB player.
Rating:
Summary: Totally AWSOME!
Review: OMG! This thing is da bomb! I couldn't believe how awsome it was when I opened it! I took it out, and it was even better then the description on the internet! I definatly reccomend this item, to anyone who hates bringing the big CD player along on road trips and who hates having to always switch the cd's just to listen to a different song, well, with this, at one touch of the button, you can start listening to music! I am so glad that I bought this! It is the real shiz-niz! LoL!
Rating:
Summary: Happy Technology
Review: I'm not a techie, but I love music. Approached the Ipod with caution, because I don't have time for long learning curves. What a brilliant product. The simplest, most useful technology I've encounterd during thirty years of using computers. I cannot overstate how great this IPOD is...plugs into the car, home stereo, anywhere. Don't hesitate buying this...they're not cheap, but if you love music, the amortized cost of this thing is actually quite reasonable. I use it every single day. Thank you to Apple.
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: Can't be beat...
Review: I've got a 30gb iPod and a old Rio 500 with some memory expansion. I use the iPod for everything but running - I can't bear the thought of dropping it. However, other than dropping it, the iPod is just fine for running; there's no risk of skipping, of course, and the hard drive appears to read in the whole song to memory and then spin down. If you're running on windows, you owe it to yourself to check out ephPod rather than the built-in MusicMatch software. I had issues where after loading up ~3000 songs and trying to synch, MusicMatch would quickly gobble up all the available RAM and then pagefault. MusicMatch was also painfully slow compared to ephPod. Of course, if you're on a mac, you don't need to worry about that...
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