Rating: 
Summary: iPod is best
Review: This review is for Windows users. With the use of XPlay I was able to finally purchase the state of the art in portable music - the i-Pod. Prior to this purchase I had paid around $400 for a Neo Jukebox which, though its HD is much larger, is clunkier, never worked correctly, was replaced, and then went bad again. The i-Pod arrived this afternoon. After allowing enough time to charge the battery, I downloaded 233 tunes from my WIN98 OS computer to the unit in 10 minutes! All work seamlessly. The i-Pod is a joy of design and handling. I highly recommend its purchase for any user of Windows; just don't forget to download XPlay as the cross platform application. Great. Great. Great.
Rating:
Summary: Once again a big hit for Apple!
Review: What a great product!! I love my iPod, it goes with me everywhere. It's so small that it fits in your pocket. The buttons are set up well and so are the menus. I'd just like to mention that it gets scratched easily, so be sure to buy a case for it. I bought a case that is meant for a PDA device, but really anything will work.
Rating:
Summary: Using iPod with Windows
Review: Works like a champ with Windows using XPlay software..., but you'll have to buy a firewire card for your PC. Some apparently work better than others- recommend you check out the mediafour site for notes on the cards they recommend as working before you buy one.
Rating:
Summary: Best at any price...
Review: It leans to "form over function" in some areas (so I do I really...), but I really could not be happier with my iPod (10 GB version). I had a RIO 500 previously and they are about the same size - pretty impressive given the iPod has > 150x the storage! Add the firewire in (I never realized how slow us USB users had it!) and the rechargeable battery and you've got a darn fine player.The only drawback I see is when, inevitably, the battery stops holding charges, there looks to be no easy way to replace it. Hopefully I get years and years of enjoyment before this happens. ...
Rating:
Summary: THE REAL 411 ON THIS PLAYER
Review: This player is absolutely amazing. You have to be out of your mind to pick another mp3 player for the Mac platform.
PROS:
-Marvelously designed.
-Very small :like a deck of cards.
-Durable: I dropped my from 3FT on to the floor and still works.
-Backlit and very readable at night or in daytime(backlight off)
-inconceivably large storage size (10GB in this size? amazing)
-Pretty intuitive Interface.
-Really lasts 10 hours.
-Decent earbud headphones included.
-Really cool charger (uses same firewire port on device)
-The best navigation buttons i've ever encountered.
(specifially the scrolling wheel)
Really dynamic sounds: RICH BASS, CRISP TREBLE.
THE AMPLIFIER IS ACTUALLY LOUD ENOUGH!!!!!!!
CONS:
-NO CASE (and for 500$ I think you should get one)
preferably a soft or rubber case to protect it from drops.
-Firewire port on player is exposed, should have a cover.
-Scratches easily. (The device looked scratched out the case)
-Does not work with PC(which does not bother me, but I do
wish that it would read WMA encoded content.
-wish there was a car mount device, because this thing is a godsend for long road trips. Bottom line: This player is worth getting even at the high price, and anyone who says otherwise is either jealous or can't afford it. One notable point of mention is that the bundled earphones while decent, is not adequate for me. I used a pair of Sony MDR-V300 reference headphones (20-30 bucks) and the sound is amazing. You should plan on forking out the dough to get a decent carrying case. There is a place on the web that has a really good case deal which includes a car charger and other stuff. Search with google.
Rating:
Summary: Coolest mp3 player
Review: This is the coolest mp3 player ! It's the only mp3 player u need for ur mac and no other has come anywhere clost to it , be it the design , the quality, speed ( 10 sec / cd ) easy of use, as a digital address bk and a portable hard drive that upload and download things at amazing speed !!
top directors have used it review dialogue, scripts for their shows. it's worth every single cent !!
Rating:
Summary: I FEEL SORRY FOR WINDOWS MP3 USERS
Review: This POD is the best computer or audio purchace I have ever made PERIOD It has changed the way I listen to music. I have almost ALL of my music with me now wherever I go. AND I can find any song I want quickly. I am afraid I am going to have to get the 10 gig now and when Apple rolls out the 20 I am going to want that too. IT IS SO WORTH IT. The OS is so simple and elegent I figured it out in the store in 2 minutes. I have dropped mine from 3 feet to a steel deck with no damage and it didn't even skip. There are a lot of cases out there now but I kinda like mine a bit scratched up the thick plastic can take it. I would advise you to buy one NOW. [In fact I will make you a sweet deal on a 5 gig so I can go get the 10.] iTunes is a wonderful program too makes it easy to Rip your CD collecton
Rating:
Summary: It never leaves my side
Review: It fits in the palm of your hand and is the size of a deflated wallet (wonder where the money went). I have had my ipod now for 4 months and cannot imagine how I used to get by with my old rio 600 with is 64 megs of ram and.. usb connection. Because of its size this little machine goes with my everywhere and its ten hour battery life means I can listen to stuff all day long. Pros: size, both physical and capacity.
design: It looks beautiful
controls: simple and very easy to use connection: FIREWIRE!! Cons: needs the ability to bookmark. I use my ipod mostly for audiobooks. the ipod needs to include a bookmark feature for those like me.
Rating: 
Summary: Great for going to the gym or a long road trip, needs tweaks
Review: I bought my iPod in December and I have no regrets, even though they just announced a 10GB version. 5GB can hold around 1,000 songs, and using iTunes to manage your play lists, there's no reason why you can't make this work for you. For instance, around Christmas time, I downloaded a lot of Christmas music onto it, but once the season was over, I just removed that playlist. Does this mean I have to redigitize the music next Christmas? Nope, it's still stored on my hard drive ready for me when I want it again. The simple controls and backlight lend itself to ease of use. I use my iPod most in the car and feel I can manipulate the controls without being distracted from driving. It also doubles as a hard drive, but I haven't had a need for this feature as yet. My only suggestions for improvements are:
* A completely stainless-steel case...the plastic does scratch.
* A case (available from third-party vendors), hard to find though.
* A power adapter for the car. This is where I use mine most and it would be ideal to have it plugged in while I do.
Rating:
Summary: Apple Does It Again - But Read On....
Review: I love the iPod. My 11 year-old son loves it too, which explains why I seldom see it. When we bought an iPod, my first thought was "well, let's take a look at the instruction manual and figure out how to work this thing..."
Well, we never looked at an instruction manual, it wasn't necessary to do so. In half an hour we were listening to tracks that we had imported from iTunes. Amazing and totally intuitive - and beautifully designed and realized to boot.....but then again.....that's to be expected from Apple.
Great product, tons of fun - great sound. I also use a $20 cassette tape adapter to hook up the iPod to my car stereo....sounds as good as the CD system in my car. I don't have to deal with tons of CDs slipping and sliding and falling inside my car on long roads trips! A thousand songs stored in a polished, beautiful gadget that is no larger than a deck of cards.
It's hard to rain on this parade, but there are a few small issues I have (although not so much with regard to the product directly).
1) The Price. Yes, it's a bit stiff in my opinion for a glorified 5GB hard drive. But it's a price I was willing to pay, so I suppose Apple has figured out what the market will bear. I suppose we all complain about the price of most things anyway. But with storage and memory costs at all-time low, I wish we could see a price which reflects this a bit more.
2) The Lack Of A Protective Case. Why Apple isn't shipping a protective case for this, I'll never know. A...jewel like this needs to be babied. But there's good news. Waterfield Designs makes an outstanding case for the iPod - you can find them on the web. Personally, I think Apple should work with this company and offer a discount coupon for the case in each iPod box that is shipped.
3) Reading and Writing. The iPod only copies MP3 files one way, from your Mac to the iPod. You can't easily copy tracks from the iPod back to your Mac, for example.....it's a built-in restriction. Perhaps some delightful lawyers came up with this annoyance. There are fairly easy workarounds, however....it involves disk software which can read invisible files. DiskTop is a good shareware choice for this, and it is a decent workaround, but I wish Apple could trust us audiophiles a bit more and give us two-way read/write capability....
4) New iPod Is Coming. This is not a criticism at all, actually. Just a heads-up: a new 10GB version of the iPod has been announced for [a bit] more than the current model. Something to think about....I might have held out for the 10GB model had I known of its release. In any event, I'm happy with the 5GB iPod and it has proven to be one of the COOLEST purchases I've made in the last 5 years! You know you want one.......
| 
