Rating: 
Summary: A Jewel of a Machine
Review: I bought the older 10 GB iPod from Amazon and I couldn't be more pleased. The design is both elegant and functional. All controls are intuitive and well thought out. There are even little surprises, such as if you turn off the player by pressing and holding the "pause" key during a song, when you later turn the iPod back on it resumes the song where you stopped it.I appreciate the well-designed display, the bright white LED backlight, and the ease of being able to select random/repeat modes of play by songs, albums, artists, playlists, or genre. Most of all, the sound is fantastic. I'm a very picky audiophile, and I find that the 20hz - 20khz frequency response continually suprises me. I listen through Sennheiser (HD-580) and top of the line Sony headphones (MDR-V600) and am thrilled with the full bass response, clear midrange and brilliant highs backed up with plenty of volume. I also attach the iPod to a stereo system (using a hi-fi to RCA plug adapter) and the MP3 (190kb) playback sounds wonderful, delivering a high resolution image. All in all this machine is downright fun to use. The first day that I took the iPod to work, people that I showed it to were going ooh-ahh over it. It is simply a beautiful device, though it is prone to fingerprints and scratches. I eventually bought a leather case with belt clip from Other World Computing and I feel quite safe carrying it around now. I did encounter a problem with the iPod. During the very first week of ownership while I was listening to it the machine simply froze. No amount of resetting would bring it back to life. The diagnostic mode displayed an exclamation point and suitcase, which was to be interpreted: "dead as a doornail". Mad as heck, I took the iPod to the Genius counter at the local Apple store. The technician performed a diagnostic and confirmed that the hard drive in this iPod was indeed out of kilter. Since it was still covered under the 1-year warranty, he quickly replaced it with a new iPod. He said that they sell many iPods, which are rarely returned for service. I found the visit to the Apple store to be a pleasant experience. Also, after more than a month of daily rigorous use, this particular iPod has not given me any problems whatsoever. Elegance, simplicity, capacity and performance - what more could you ask for in an MP3 player? p.s. Well, maybe a color LCD screen...
Rating: 
Summary: Overpriced
Review: I cannot get over how much Apple is asking for this device. I was looking at the Ipod and the RioRiot. And it came down to this: 10 gig player: 500$ 20 gig player: 300$ The size factor and apple chic factor is nice, but not worth 200 dollars more for half the storage. As for transfer speed: how often are you going to be transferring a large number of files to it? I loaded mine once and am set. If you are willing to carry a portable that is a little larger you can save alot of money and carry twice as much music with you.
Rating: 
Summary: Great iPod, but be aware that this is not the latest model!
Review: I finally made up my mind to buy an iPod, and it is the best MP3 device that I could ask for -- and I have had several others including the RIO 64MB, and the nomad jukebox 6GB. One thing to be aware of with this model is that this is the older 10GB model and I was both pleased with the iPod and disappointed at the same time. I kept looking through the box for the wired remote and case (being a true geek the temptation to clip anything to my belt is great) but they were nowhere to be found. I had foolishly bought this model thinking that it was the newer, lighter iPod with the wired remote and the case. This is a great MP3 player and probably the best value of all of the iPods, but I would have paid the extra few dollars to get the newer one.
Rating:
Summary: Great tech toy
Review: I got the iPod about 3 months ago, and it has held up to the most important of my standards-- it hasn't broken. I drop it on the sidewalk every few days, but it never even skips. I really appreciate the durability.
Rating:
Summary: No contest
Review: I owned the original 5GB and the bought the 10GB version when available, I had been a minidisc user for many years. I have a 2000 cd collection and was carrying 20-30 discs every time I travelled; now I carry none, just a 'fits in my shirt pocket' IPod. Transferring songs is a snip with Firewire. I use the device as a hard drive and just drag and drop songs onto it, very easy, takes just seconds. The quality is excellent, the sound is excellent, especially through the superb Endymion headphones ER6's - I rarely have to have the volume full up even when listening on the subway, the interface is excellent, in fact the IPod is just ...excellent.
I use it nearly every day and rarely have a probem. The only one being that every now and then (very rarely) it 'locks up', easily solved by pressing the Menu+Play button for a few seconds.
Most of the cons have now been addressed by Apple, ie Remote Control, Windows compatibility, loadness(?) and its cheaper, (but not cheap). I have been using 'walkmans' for nearly 20 years none have even come close to this.
Rating:
Summary: The answer to all portable music problems...
Review: I purchased a 10GB iPod before a flight I took last moth. The purchase seemed pricey but I needed something to keep me occupied while flying cross country. What I expected was mild amusement, what I got was an answer to all my portable music needs! The iPod is, aside from slightly expensive, fast, reliable, skip free, and with proper attachments available from 3rd parties an abundant source for all my audio needs at work, in the car or just walking around. The firewire capability streams the full 10GB from my G4 into the mp3 player in about 6 minutes! And it's synch ability with iTunes makes it versatile and easy to use. While in iTunes you can make playlists that update whenever you attach the iPod. While intrinsically the iPod is a one way device, there are scripts made for extracting music from the escape pod that can be found on various sites around the internet. Perhaps the one single amazement which blew me away was the firewire ability to CHARGE the iPod while transferring information. The rechargable iPod battery takes a one hour charge for 10 hours use- excellent! And there is a firewire adapter to plug you iPod directly into 120V wall plugs when not near a fire wire computer. The simple control dial and its five buttons are easy to learn, and provide accurate or blazing fast access to the 2100+ songs you can store. You can change equalizer settings, backlit display timing, sleep modes, and other variables without any hassle. The iPod will organize your songs by playlists, artists, song titles and so on, so when you get lost in a plethora of information there is a variety of ways to find a specific sound file. There is also the ability to keep addresses and phone numbers in you iPod which can be transferred from Entourage, or any number of personal data programs. The only extra addition I wish Apple would install is a DATA transfer ability so it can be used to transfer files back and forth from computers as a personal, portable hard drive. Maybe next time...
Rating:
Summary: Awesome product
Review: I started looking into MP3 players about two months ago and initially purchased a Rio Jukebox 10. Although the Rio was a nice unit with decent sound, it was larger than I wanted, had a difficult to navigate menu system, and wasn't exactly feature laden. I had never checked out the iPod because I own a PC and didn't think it was compatible. I was reading an article recently about some third party software that made the iPod work with PC's and then became very interested. Well I took the plunge, downloaded the free software(EphPod)and I am absolutely thrilled that i did. The EphPod software is excellent and other developers are working with Apple to produce additional software options for PC owners if ephPod isn't your cup of tea. Other than the software, the only other thing you will need to make the iPod work with your PC, is a firewire card (IEEE1394 $20-$50.) to plug the iPod into. Amazing! This thing is half the size and weight of the Rio, has twice the battery life (over 10 hours), and has an interface that is easy to use with one hand. I can carry my entire CD collection around all the time and hardly notice it's there, except for the terrific sound of course. WOW, is about all that's left to say. This is the unit I was looking for all along. My hats off to the developers at Apple.
Rating:
Summary: I've tried most of them and this is awesome
Review: I'm sure that I have over 1000 CDs and several hundred records. This collection isn't very convenient to use, manage or keep track of. I like to take music with me most places and my PC and Mac drives are stuffed with MP3s. I'm also pretty much into gadgets so mp3 players punch all my buttons. I've owned the original Rio. Kind of cute but what good is it that it only holds about an hour's worth of music. Constantly reloading the player is a pain. I've tried various portable CD players and my CDs take a beating from getting carried around, left in the car. I've tried copying the CDs to take copies, but it's too much work and hard to keep track of them. I've tried a few minidisc players. Great concept, bad execution. The haven't been durable. The atrac conversion makes no sense - why cant' you just copy over mp3s? I have the Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox. Lousy software, poor batteries (they die and have to be thrown away because they lose rechargeability). Slow USB connection. Unit is too big and heavy. Enter the iPod. Finally, small, simple elegant. Easy to use software. It helps that I've got PCs and a Mac. itunes does the best job of ripping of any software I've tried. The iPod itself follows a simple organizational scheme. I can't fit my whole collection on it, but the firewire is so fast the entire ipod can be loaded and reloaded in a short period of time. The iPod is the one to beat. To those who complained about sound quality - you didn't listen very well. The included headphones are just so so, better headphones make a difference. Also, the included equalization is pretty rudimentary but it can be used to make adjustments. I think the sound quality is better than the Nomad or my minidisc players.
Rating:
Summary: Lovely Jubbly
Review: I've had my 10G ipod for about three months now - which by some accounts is as long as you would expect it to last without dying. Mine still works perfectly and there is little that I can say to knock it. The sound is great, the controls are just perfect and the thrill of owning a white MP3er with stunning looks is just brilliant. I've had a great time slipping into Starbucks and laying it on the counter so the geeks serving coffee can wail, "Hey man, is that (like) the new ipod? I've heard it's really cool".
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Value. Best MP3 Player, great external Hard Drive
Review: I've had my 10GB iPod for a day now. It's an amazing little device. Plugged it into my PC, and within minutes I had 1,300 songs on it, and a few large files with room for plenty more. Transfering the files to a friends computer was a snap, and listening to it in my car, on a tape adapter it sounds better than my MP3 CD Player. The dial and general control of everything is weird for the first few minutes of use, but after just a few hours I had no problems controlling it without having to even look at the screen. If you're looking for an amazing MP3 Player, go for the iPod. The fact that it can be used as a firewire hard drive is extremely convenient and it just sounds so good.
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