Rating: 
Summary: NO SERVICE/NO SMILE
Review: I purchased a 15 GB ipod for a bday gift for my husband in August. He didn't want it so instead of returning it we put in the safe until Xmas to give to our son at that time. Unfortunately, you only have 90 days for free technical support. We didn't even turn it on until after Xmas and 3 1/2 months had passed. We had problems immediately. I called tech support. No help there. They want to sign you up for a service contract for 59.00. They won't answer the most basic of questions. I asked for an address to send it to. This guy told me to look online and it would cost another 35.00 to mail it back. When spending 400.00 plus converter etc, I thought they would be more helpful.It is extra for everything on an already expensive toy. I found the customer service to be rude and not helpful at all. This was an expensive mistake. Buy another brand.
Rating:
Summary: Problems with Windows XP
Review: I recently returned my creative nomad jukebox zen. It had worked great this last year, especially on those long convoys between Iraq and Kuwait. The reason i returned it was the earbud port was loose and sound was poor. I went to Best Buy and purchsed the 30Gb ipod. I did this while I was on leave and had nothing but problems for those 15 days of trying to add my music collection to the ipod.The first problem i had was compatibility. Even though it is advertised as usb2 compatible, you need to purchase and aditional usb2/firewire cable. So off i went back to Best Buy and decided instead of buying a cable, to upgrade to a firewire card. I had many problems having my computer recognize the ipod i even reinstalled windows xp, after many failed attempts at reinstalling the ipod software. Finally after reloading windows i got my computer to recognize the ipod, but this took me a couple of days(I was also doing other stuff). The next problem I have is the musicmatch jukebox software. First off it loads a cd by artists, and if the individual song has a featured artist, it will file it separately from the rest of the cd. This is a huge problem when you want to browse your music collection by artist, for instance Dr. Dre's Chronic 2001 cd, which has a featured artist on almost every track has 20 different listings when you browse by artist. Also each individual listing leads you to that one individual track. In order to view the entire cd you must browse by album and if you have a lot of albums by the same artist then you are searching through each individual album. I know it sounds like just whining but when you have a large music collection, you want to access you music as fast as possible. The creative nomad jukebox filed everything perfectly one artist and one album, and if the artist had more albums they would be filed under the artist no matter how many artists are featured on the album. Last of all my leave ended and i am now back in Kuwait and my ipod is constatly freezing. When I ran with my ipod on my waist it froze (the creative nomad never froze) and I had to reset it and it has never worked properly again. It constantly freezes even after having the hard disk reset a few times. I really want to keep the ipod, I like the way it looks and feels and hear great things about it, I believe I just bought a bad one and am returning it and going to give it a try again. I wouldnt recommend the ipod for windows users. Im hoping when I return it and get a new working one, I will have to come back and change this review.
Rating: 
Summary: Problems running with Ipod?
Review: I had problems with the hard drive freezing up when I ran with it attached to my waist. I started holding it in my hand instead and have had no problems since. Otherwise, the ripping of songs is seemless and Itunes puts to shame to other mp3 players.
Rating: 
Summary: Not perfect, but pretty darn good
Review: I put in many hours of research on this item, including on the internet, speaking with people directly, and demo-ing the unit in stores as best I could. I downloaded iTunes for Windows when it was released back in October, preparing for my Ipod purchase. After downloading iTunes and updating when needed, I ripped several dozen CDs. I put the rip factor at AAC on the highest available settings. I know this uses more space, but I don't want to sacrifice quality. My own tests of AAC vs. MP3 left AAC as a slight winner, and iTunes, I believe, allows higher sample settings for AAC (but I might be wrong about this). I have little or no interest in the iTunes store, so that wasn't a factor, but my research led me to believe that AAC might be superior. My CD collection rips went fine, though it did take a while, and some needed to be reripped as there was some distortion. Now, enter the Ipod. I had ripped approximately 75% of my music collection (around 200 CDs) and I discovered that a 20 gig unit would probably not be enough. I went ahead and purchased the 40 gig unit (on sale) with the intention of using is as a hard drive in addition to a music player. I got home, unwrapped the unit and started the installation process. Since I'd already downloaded iTunes and ripped CDs, I anticipated little work. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite that simple. I have Windows 2000, and the Ipod software (specific to the unit, not iTunes) required a Service pack installation to the OS I didn't have. I had to download and install that, which took a couple of hours. But once I got the software up and running, the Ipod mounted to my Windows machine fine and the installation was fairly easy. The only concern I had was being able to use the unit on another computer as a drive, but iTunes has specific settings for mounting and unmounting the unit that will allow you to do this. The sound is fantastic. Other than the earbuds, the only real complaint I have is that the buttons are inconsistent. Sometimes I hit a button and it won't respond, and other times, when sitting on my desk, the button gets hit by paper or a folder when the unit is off, turning it on. I've learned to turn the hold button on while not using the unit. The earbuds are useless for me, so I need to find some portable headphones. Also, depending on how you set up your music collection, moving through menus can be tedious. This isn't a complaint as much as an observation as I don't know if there is any other way to effectively do this. But be aware. There is a clicking sound when moving around the menus (don't worry, you can turn this off if you want to), and in my view, there is no pressing need for a backlight, unless conditions call for it. That is good, as I don't have the backlight on at all, saving battery life. Ahh, on to the battery issue. Unfortunately, Ipod is notorious for short battery life to begin with and a battery that slowly refuses to hold a charge over time. I've only had my unit about 2.5 weeks, so I can't comment on the "over time" issue, but I did find that my unit played over 8.5 hours continuously on a charge. I set up a playlist of 8.1 hours of music, let it go, and came back and it still had a charge. I played anouther playlist of a time I've forgotten, and it got through that, but shut down quickly afterward. This is with AAC files encoded at the highest rate, so the files are even bigger than what Apple recommends the user has, and is supposedly a battery waster. 8 hours isn't great, but I can live with that for now, and have a warranty to deal with it if it becomes a problem. I'm happy with the purchase, though I do think I overpaid a bit -- even for a unit on sale.
Rating:
Summary: a library in your hands but...
Review: This is a fantastic machine. I have one 5GB and the 40GB sounds a bit better, more volume,etc.
A serious problem...
Battery goes down very fast if you have 37GB library already complete.
Rating:
Summary: SWEET
Review: What an incredible product! I bought mine to take with me on future deployments to the Middle East. I just wish that I would have bought one sooner!
Rating:
Summary: Perfection
Review: Santa was kind enough to wrap up the new 40GB iPod, and leave it under my Christmas tree. This is my first Apple product. I have Windows XP, and had no problem downloading my 4500 songs (took a few days), and transferring them over to this little white magical machine. The sound quality is amazing -- to my untrained ears, it's as good as CD quality (even though the box says "almost" as good). The iPOD's slightly sensual circular middle is perfect for scrolling quickly or slowly. It is an amazingly liberating feeling to know that I have my entire music collection in the palm of my hand. iPOD is the best, by far. Get it. Now. Don't even think twice about the cost. The many years of enjoyment that iPOD will give you is more than worth it. Trust me: You will not regret it.
Rating:
Summary: Bravo! Apple has reinvented the already supple iPod!
Review: I had the 2G iPod and now I just bought the 3G 40GB iPod. First, Apple had it shipped directly from Shanghai, China (assembled there) and it took less than 1 wk. to reach me on the East Coast of the United States - excellent! There is absolutely no issues with compatibility for both Macintosh & PCs (I have both and used them both). I really didn't think Apple could improve on the 2G iPod, but they did . . . the ability to connect to my Bose stero system is just awesome (you should hear this on the Bose LifeStyle 35). Also, the base station makes it even easier to charge and download music. It is now even slimmer than the 2G iPod. My only complaint is that Apple didn't make this available with Firewire 800 (I'm sure that is coming in the 4G iPod). Anyway, BRAVO to Apple - hard to believe that only several years back, Apple was struggling to make it!!! This is the ONLY portable MP3 player worth buying for PC & Mac - it is worth the high price tag!!!
Rating:
Summary: IPOD is Art
Review: I got the 30 Gig iPOD for Christmas(Thanks Santa!). This is my first Apple product. I was prepared for all the problems I might encounter with windows after reading alot of these reviews. First I had to upgrade my computer as windows 98 just doesn't cut it anymore. Windows XP is great and has made my computer run better than ever now. Then I upgraded with a firewire card(IEEE1394). It was easy to install and not to pricey. Hey, I am an amatuer at installing computer parts. If I can do it, by god, anyone can. So after upgrading, I installed my IPOD software. It took a little while to make it work but as soon as I got the hang of it, I had no problem and I am now full on my way to music bliss. I can tranfer tons of songs in no time with the firewire. Musicmatch works just fine for me. I don't see what the big problem is with other folks. The IPOD's controls are so cool. I love rating my songs. It just feels so good in your hand. You have the power to listen to over 8000 songs that you want to listen to. No more skipping past unwanted junk. Play it through your home stereo and in your car. As a music lover, I am in love. Sure there are a few things that can annoy you about it but as a whole, this product has changed my life. Not too many times you can say that and mean it. Peace Through Music in 2004
Rating:
Summary: Converting CD's onto your computer
Review: Download the latest version of musicmatch v8.1. This is a music jukebox and one version is free.
Open up the jukebox
Insert the CD into your machine.
Go to View and make sure the recorder button is checked.
Then click record and it will convert your CD into mp3 files. Hope this helps
| 
