Rating: 
Summary: I am blown away
Review: Wow. The ipod is truly a thing of beauty. I must confess to being new to the whole "MP3" gig, so this is not a review written by a technophile know-it-all. Far from the case, up until getting this baby for Christmas, I knew virtually nothing about the whole process (and even less about the software, save for a wee bit of dabbling with "Real Jukebox"). As such, I bring no pre-conceived notions to this review. If you're new to the whole thing like I was, this is the review you want to read.MusicMatch software? A pain in the tail to be sure. It took me most of the first night to figure it out (and I'm still learning). Though I am far from a fan, it is at least as easy to use as the aforementioned "Real Jukebox". I can tell you that I'm transferring tunes with no problems, tagging songs, creating playlists, etc. with relative ease. I think that, being new to all this, I don't really understand some of the features that I'm suposed to be furious with. This helps. Overall, MusicMatch gets the job done for me to an acceptable degree (again, it being the only way I've ever done the job). As for the ipod itself? Yowza, baby. I have the 20GB windows version, and it is an absolute stunner in every way. It's a gorgeous little item, with features that, literally, a beginner can master in mere minutes without ever cracking a manual. I can say this, because it describes my initial attempts perfectly, and I'm pretty novice, as you've likely gathered already. This thing sounds like a million bucks. The packaging is like art (I felt bad opening the box, it was put together so nicely!), and all the controls are gasp-inducing. So, if you're new to all this and want to get going in the right direction? ipod is the one -- who knew music could be this awe inspiring?
Rating:
Summary: iPod = easy on my 40+ year old eyes
Review: My last overseas flight (14 hours with a screaming 2 year old sitting right behind me) convinced me that I need to get with the program and get a more portable MP3 player. (I have the early Nomad Jukebox, but don't carry it due to size/weight/battery issues). I had narrowed the field down to the iPod & the Creative Zen when I walked into my local electronics store to see which one I wanted to get. They had an iPod on display and it looked compact and elegant. The Zen was in a locked case, so I asked the guy if I could take a look. He took it out of the box & powered it up. Within about 5 seconds I had made up my mind. I'm only 41 years old and I am still on the lowest power reading glasses :), but the Zen display was barely readable -- especially compared to the large, clear iPod display. Apple has always made very crisp monochrome displays and this device is no different. I checked to make sure the power adaptor was 100-240V and 50/60Hz since I plan on using this overseas and then made my purchase. I was a little concerned about my decision due to the complaints about MusicMatch, but I thought I could figure it out. It's not that bad. The ripper seems pretty fast. I found it easier to play with the MP3 tags with the MusicMatch software than with the Creative PlayCenter. Making playlists was fast and fairly intuitive. One of the other reviewers complained that when he synced the iPod, it would re-load everything. That hasn't been my experience. It might *look* like it is reloading everything since it displays your whole music library initially. But, loading 50 albums the first time took about 20-30 minutes. Loading a playlist and then later loading a few more albums I had ripped was much faster. The iPod itself is nifty. I like the touch "wheel". I like loud music, and it is plenty loud -- any more loud and it would be painful. The iPod firmware is pretty zippy too -- much better than my 1st gen Nomad Jukebox. There are a bunch of options for equalization. You can shuffle sounds or albums. The sound quality is good enough for me. And, it's lightweight and compact. The only complaint I have is with the included earbud headphones. I don't have especially small ears, but the earbuds were too big for me. Also, Apple is still in love with the "one button doing a bunch of things" UI idea --I had to look at the manual to figure out that to turn it off you hold down the play button for a few seconds...yeah...that's intuitive..NOT. But, really these are minor complaints. Overall, I'm quite satisfied and I would recommend the iPod to a friend. In fact, my girlfriend took a look at it, and I think I might be buying another iPod soon :). I did buy an extended warranty...since I read about problems with battery life in other forums.
Rating: 
Summary: Looks nice until you touch it
Review: Ok...lets face it. This product is so sleek, we could not resist it. As a matter of fact, we bought three! (no joke) Reasons why we don't like this product: 1) For Windows it uses Music Match Jukebox (This product is a whole other story...come on, Apple, you can do better) 2) Just touch it...your fingerprints are all over it. 3) Not very user friendly. 4) It will frustrate you to the max (we know how you get when something doesn't work after the ninth time) 5) Its white! (What were they thinking?) 6) Very sensitive and scratches easily. 7) The case provided cannot makes no sense. You cannot opperate the unit with it! 8) The earphones are uncomfortable The best optional accessory: - iSkins. (We ordered two of them and they are great. As a matter of fact, I like them more than the iPod itself. You can get them in any color from Orange to Lite Lime. Check it out if you decide to get one. We got them from AppleLinks...)
Rating:
Summary: The Future is Now!
Review: 400 CD's or about 4000 songs on a little machine the size of a deck of cards. The ipod is what they meant when they say technology will make things more conveinent for us in the future. I put all my CD's, about 200 and a bunch of my dad's music as well. That took up 8.5GB so I still have about 10GB left! The functional capacity of the 20GB Ipod is 18.5GB. About the whole MusicMatch vs. Xplay vs. Ephpod debate, I downloaded all three. I have been using MM with the new Dell I got, so it made sense for me to keep on using it. I reccommend to future buyers that they give MM a chance and not spend the money on Xplay right away. Yes, xplay isn't free any longer, just the trial version was free a while ago. MM is kind of weird though, sometimes changes you make to the tags in MM won't make it to the songs in your music library. The sound the Ipod produces is great, just as good or better than music from a CD player. I don't like ear-bud style headphones, they sound fine, but I prefer my $90 over the ear Sony's. The Ipod sound just as good with those huge headphone as with the ear-buds. The touch-pad is very cool, a little tricky at first, but you get the hang of it soon enough.
Rating:
Summary: Best Xmas present ever
Review: I received the 20 gig Windows Ipod for Xmas (from myself) and I love it. A couple weeks prior, I bought a Rio 350S, which I liked, but was severely lacking in capabilities(no playlists, only 128 meg of ram). Upon getting the Ipod, I bought Xplay software, and ripped 30+ cds to my computers HD and then uploaded them quickly to my ipod. People can't believe how much music I have on my MP3 player, in addition to a gig or 2 of data files. Simply amazing. There was a guy writing several reviews (yes, it was the same dolt over and over) saying the Ipod skipped and that Apple acknowledged that the Ipod skips and isnt intended for jogging. He's full of it. When I went to the Apple store where I bought the Ipod, I asked them if this were true and they laughed, and then picked up an ipod that was playing through external speakers and started shaking it like crazy. Never skipped once. I took mine jogging in the included case and never had a single glitch. Awesome performance. The included earphones (buds) sound and feel exceptional. For the price of the Sonic Rio and a 256 meg memory upgrade, you can get yourself a 5, 10, or 20 gig Ipod.
Rating:
Summary: OVERPRICED!
Review: Go To mysimon.com and search archos studio 20, you will find an mp3 player that costs 150 dollars and has the same storage capacity, you are paying 350 unneccesary dollars to buy this when yuo could be getting one much cheaper, comparison shop, the IPOD is FAR more expensive than most other mp3 players, try the Archos Studio 20, I have one and it is great and I don't wish I had payed 350 dollars more
Rating:
Summary: Nobody does it better...
Review: I recently bought the Nomad Zen, but it wouldn't work on my Mac (beware Mac users - the newest Creative Lab Mp3 players are NOT compatible [I spoke with a tech guy there who said there is no support whatsoever for Mac users with Nomad's new machines]). So I sold the Zen player on [website] and put the profits toward the iPod. I really liked the Zen's FM wired remote and was devastated to see it go. Until I got the iPod (very easily coverted a "sale" 20 GB PC version into a Mac). Zen what? The iPod is a miracle machine. Now if Apple will just make an FM remote - at [$$] a pop, the company would make millions!
Rating:
Summary: Best MP3 Player Available
Review: I own the Mac version, so my rating is based on that experience. But I found one of the PC reviews interesting. It said: >Downloading songs can be lengthy and battery intensive so the battery may only last for an hour or two while downloading via a non-powered FireWire card and so you will have to recharge before downloading to the iPod again.< You can download 4000 songs in about 20 minutes or so. What is this "hours" problem? Sounds like a really bad firewire card problem.
Rating:
Summary: Over all very good product...
Review: I brought it today, from best buy. And i have previously put all my mp3 in one folder(i have around 11GB of them) and it's takes just 11 minutes to load them into Ipod...personally i don't care about the title display that much, but most of them displayed the correct titile of the songs...i like the wheel style very easy to use and the back light is great too...i don't know much aobut hooking it up with Microsoft outlook or anything like that, but as a mp3 player this is a good one, and for those who have problem with it....you just need to learn how to use it becuase i didn't even read the instruction book.....just pop into the installation CD let it install plug my computer with IPOD...done...and just so you know im a chinese user it also display chinese character correctly....GREAT PRODUCT...
Rating: 
Summary: Hardware Five Stars
Review: As other reviewers have pointed out, the defect with your purchase comes not with the hardware, but with the attached software. The small gripes, 'can't jog', 'shiny case gets fingerprints on it' etc, are just that, small. They go to prove what an excellent machine the IPOD actually is. However, it's hard to see any excuse for the bundling of Music Match software. There are so many alternatives that actually work that you have to believe that Apple must own a large percentage of Music Match in the first place. I have crossed over to XPlay and though not as simple as it pretends to be, it does have the benefit of working. Music Match is faster, but it will eat at your patience very quickly. Better to follow the path to Xplay and others. The only other downside I can think of is of both Apple's and Xplay's reluctance to provide 'live' Tech Support. You can end up going around in circles on Web Sites and Help menus trying to find answers that humans could give you in moments. If Apple would only provide an address consumers could write to for changes, there would be no doubt that Music Match would be history. Come on, for [...]we need EASE of use.
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