Apple iPod 20GB 4th Gen. MP3 Player

When looking for an Mp3 player, I researched all t ...

Posted Dec 11, 2004 - When looking for an Mp3 player, I researched all the possible models to purchase. Since most of my Mp3's are CD based, not from an online store, I had no problem with gettting a WMA-only or iTunes-only player. After reading all the reviews possible, I came to the conclusion to purchase the #1 Mp3 player of all: ipod. When I got it, it came in very nice packaging: a cube-shaped box, NOT one of those plastic packaging which requires a jackhammer to open. Upon opening the box, I quickly transferred the ipod into a silicone case that I bought separately. I highly recommend buying a case in which you can still have access to the screen and controls without taking out the ipod, because the silver back is very prone for fingerprints and scratches. After popping the ipod into the case, I plugged it into the wall charger for its initial charge. Apple has come up with the neatest idea: simply use the same firewire cable that you use to hook ipod to your computer and plug that into the small block that goes into your wall outlet. It is really neat. (In fact, you don't need the wall charger at all to charge ipod. It charges when you plug it into your computer too.) Upon charging, I plugged it into my pc. iTunes recognized it immediately and set about to move my music collection over to it. Once done, I plugged in my Sony earphones (I've yet to touch the included Apple ones) and turned on the device. VOILA! I couldn't believe the music quality. It was unbelievable. I tinkered with the equalizer settings and found that the "Hip Hop" setting works best for me, as it brings out the bass sound nicely. I really didn't want to go to bed that night, since I was having so much fun with the ipod. A quick thing to beware: Although you are buying the "20 GB" version, you only get about 18.5 GB of space on the iPod itself. My Bottom Line: After using ipod, now I know why it is so immensely popular. You will definitely not regret buying one. EDIT: I realized that I should mention that the battery life on the iPod is DEFINITELY NOT CLOSE TO THE ESTIMATED 12 HOURS! The most I get (usually on continuous play w/o the use of the backlight) is approximately 7-8 hours.

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I purchased the new 4G iPod, after getting sick an ...

Posted Aug 4, 2004 - I purchased the new 4G iPod, after getting sick and tired of waiting for the iPod mini to be delivered. The wait times for that are just way too long. iPods are primarily an impulse luxury buy (especially given their price!). It is frustrating that you have to wait, and some people may not be willing to do so. I was one of them - and I switched and purchased the larger 4G 20 gig iPod instead. The interface for both is practically the same. But since I purchased it through Apple's Education program for college students, the price difference between the 4G and the mini is only $40. Not bad when you consider the 5x storage capacity and 50% longer battery charge. I have only had it for a day, but with iTunes software, it took me less than 15 minutes to transfer my (admittedly small) music collection to the iPod and off I went. I am a PC user and this has to be one of the easiest user experiences I have had in a while on the PC - just install the software, plug in the iPod and the software does the rest! One word of caution. Out of the box, the battery had about 50% charge. You should charge it to full capacity (that is, until the iPod tells you it is "fully charged" on the screen) and then run it down completely so that the battery is fully depleted (it shuts of and can no longer be turned on). Then charge it back up to full charge again. This is called one full charge cycle. You can now start using your iPod regularly. It is also recommended to repeat this process at least once a month. Keeps the battery healthy for a longer time, especially important since you can't change the battery yourself - and Apple charges you $100 to replace it.

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Someone who has had one longer than a few days has to write a review

Posted Jul 14, 2005 - After having the iPod for 6 months I have extremely mixed feelings on the product. Yea, like many of the other reviewers, I LOVED it when I first got it. It was easy to load CDs and mp3s onto it and even store files from my computer. But now that the "newness" has worn off I can give a clearer review. Recently my iPod has begun to crash randomly and not play songs all of the way through. The battery life for me has decreased to about 5 hours. The crashes have a simple remedy by restoring it to factory settings with iPod restore. BUT BEWARE everything is erased when you do this, files, contacts, calendar and music. The music isn't such a big deal losing since everything I have is also kept on my computer, but if I want to store files on it and it decides to crash, I end up with nothing. BE WARNED if you want to use it as a drive only store things on it of which you, for whatever reason, need two copies. Also when you are listening to music on your iPod, you use the playlists from iTunes or you can just scroll through your library or create an "On-the-go" playlist (such a misnomer--it takes TIME to make these). There is nothing wrong with that, but if you have at least 2,000 songs, it's annoying to scroll through all of them to find one, then scroll through it again 3 min later to find another (this method also doubles the loading time between songs). Playlists you create at home are best. TAKE NOTE: In order to replace the battery you have to spend $100. The headphones that come with the iPod are not only of low quality, but if you live in a large city they mark you as a target for mugging. Your best bet in the long term is to buy an iPod mini and selectivly load playlists onto it. I'll probably max out at about 5,000 songs leaving half of the drive empty and wasting space and money. 20 GB is too much space just for music, and the iPod isn't too useful for much else. But if you think you can fill an iPod with 20 GB AND you don't mind using a click wheel to scroll through it all ONE SONG/ALBUM/ARTIST at a time, go ahead, it does the job.

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My iPod stopped responding after just 6 weeks of u ...

Posted Oct 7, 2004 - My iPod stopped responding after just 6 weeks of use. It suffered from flaky performance from the minute I got it - poor batter performance (max 2 hours, even with conservative use), sometimes would stop responding completely, hard disc whine, etc. I have sent it back to AppleCar - hopefully they will send out a replacement - I would not want to spend all this money and receive the same defective product back. I have still waiting on a response from Apple. Having said that, when it was working like it was supposed to, it was the best MP3 player I had the pleasure of using (hence the 4-star rating). The interface combined with the iTunes software is a killer combination that the competition has yet to better! I will update here once I hear back from Apple - hopefully my defective unit gets replaced with a new one. Update: Apple sent back the same iPod but it now seems to be working properly. I have no idea what was done - if anything - to fix the problem. Total turnaround time from my sending it in to receiving it back was two weeks. I hope I am just an anomaly (as the glowing reviews here indicate), but I am just glad I purchased the extended warranty. Apple still should give some indication of what was wrong or what was fixed on the unit. But nothing. So my rating stands at 4-stars and I would still recommend the iPod - just buy the warranty.

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once you get over the fact that this precious litt ...

Posted Sep 15, 2004 - once you get over the fact that this precious little machine cannot avoid being scratched, the true enjoyment begins. there's no feeling quite like having your entire music collection in the palm of your hand. after a few days of use, everything feels solid and worth the hefty price tag. the click wheel works intuitively and the menus are quite easy to navigate. the on-the-go playlist feature is very handy. file syncing with itunes is very quick - both over firewire and usb 2.0. i believe i managed something like 10gb (around 2000 songs) in approximately an hour. it's just so cool to look at the ipod. to me, it looks smaller in real life than in pictures. unfortunately all surfaces of the ipod are quite susceptible to scratches but after the first day or two i managed get over it. i guess the bottom line is i bought this to listen to music, not to showcase in a display case. get a decent case to protect the ipod from the most egregious blemishes and be done with it.

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As is true of so many Apple products, the iPod was ...

Posted Sep 25, 2004 - As is true of so many Apple products, the iPod was ridiculously easy to set up initially. Syncing my music and contacts from my home computer to the iPod periodically is effortless. I own a discman, but I never used it much--too much trouble. Now I can say my life has changed. It has a soundtrack. Buying the iPod was an indulgence I haven't regretted for a second. The click wheel really does make for easy one hand operation. If you can afford it and your CD collection is large, consider springing the extra $100 for the 40GB. I'm squeeking against the ceiling now and, although nobody could need to carry around more than 20GB of music at a time, there's something so satisfying in knowing that it's my entire collection in there. And so convenient, in that I don't have to pick and choose what goes in or out.

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Ipod 20gig 4G Click Wheel

Posted Oct 17, 2005 - I love my ipod, oh well my replacement ipod. My original baby died two weeks ago without warning and was replaced within a week by Apple. The last thing it did was show a battery symbol with a ! and then nothing. It wouldn't charge or connec to a computer. I have purchased Applecare and would highly recommended factoring this added cost into the intial purchase price, so you are covered for two years in the event of malfunction (which seems to be a frequent occurance with many users). All in all, the ipod is a great little product but it is not without its problems.

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The only debate on this product is "can I afford i ...

Posted Nov 10, 2004 - The only debate on this product is "can I afford it?" and nothing else. However, consider only $50 more from Creative's Zen and almost the same as Dell's hence no brainer it's the winner. Strongly suggest buying the case ASAP. The back shiny metal case kept all your fingerprints and scratched easily as mentioned by many other owners. Dropped on the tile floor and nothing changed. My heart stopped for minutes and said "there goes $300+!" Small scratch and dent in the corner where it hit the floor. May be the leather case kept it from breaking apart. Please don't try this with yours. lol. My 8 yr-old picked it up and used it w/o any instruction from me, nor any prior experience with MP3 players. iTunes installation and connection was done by my 11 yr-old. However, it doesn't download album cover (images) on your existing collection. Only those you buy from Apple. While Microsoft Windows Media Player will download every album cover for your entire collection. Hear that Apple? Was worry about the battery that I can't replace myself but I figured this will last 2 years and by that time my daughter will want whatever new thing available instead of carrying 2yrs old device connected to her ears. lol. It may be the phone/PDA/DVD/MP5 combo with 500 GB... 2 years is a long time... The biggest secret ingredient of this device, and the key selling point for me to justify the cost, was that I used it as my digital camera pictures storage on vacation. Before, I have to carry my laptop to download pics from the camera. With this, no laptop is needed. ONly need to buy the Belkin Media Reader, or Belkin USB Link (they're same size as iPod). If you have a lot of music, may consider the 40GB. Better yet, jump to iPod Photo 60GB. They weren't available when I bought mine and I was going to a cruise vacation so I need it bad. lol. Otherwise, I may holding the iPod Photo instead (wishful thinking...) Hope this help. BTW, Apple products are solid but Apple.com is the opposite. Stay away from it.

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This thing rocks. Highly Reccomended! the apple i ...

Posted Dec 21, 2004 - This thing rocks. Highly Reccomended! the apple ipod is great. It is really worth the 300 bucks to get it. It has good sound quailty. If the apple ipod is to expensive for you then i reccomend the mini or the dell DJ or dell pocket dj.

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Clearly the class of mp3 players. The Ipod in pea ...

Posted Dec 26, 2004 - Clearly the class of mp3 players. The Ipod in pearl white is still a classic look. The sound quality and ease of use of the G4 click wheel are best in class. Very nice and compatible appearing extras, such as the Griffin Itrip are available online; some are even reasonably priced. The 20Gb Ipod is a bit large for exercising, but fine for walking or travel. The mini would be fine for exercising. I purchased a Creative Nomad Muvo2 for exercising. It is smaller and lighter than the mini, but the screen, controls and software and not nearly as good.

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overall, a very good product. extremely easy to na ...

Posted Nov 15, 2004 - overall, a very good product. extremely easy to navigate (just make sure you label your songs in itunes good, the more intricate data the better organization in ipod). playlists on the go are actually very handy and useful, not to mention pretty easy to make. other generations had less capacity and battery life for the same price and this comes with even more features. an excellent mp3 player, and very impressive (in performance and visually) compared to similar products.

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When i first wanted to buy it, there were some set ...

Posted Oct 2, 2004 - When i first wanted to buy it, there were some setbacks, but after finally purchasing it, i do not regret buying it at all. Not only is it good for my music, but its my hard drive that i carry around for my projects.

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I am very pleased with this unit's simplicity and ...

Posted Oct 8, 2004 - I am very pleased with this unit's simplicity and size. It is much smaller than the Archos Jukebox I was using and easier to use. Files are managed by "tags" and this is nice-you just need to famaliarize yourself with ID3 tags to get the most out of it. I recomend getting a third party progam such as Anapod to manage you files. With iTunes, you cannot move files off of the iPod and cannot access them through Windows explorer. Getting another program greatly increased my experience with this great player.

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I am please with the new IPOD. It is the smallest ...

Posted Aug 18, 2004 - I am please with the new IPOD. It is the smallest 20GB MP3 player currently in the market, but that comes at a price. The click wheel is very sensitive. I have to lock the unit, otherwise I would accidentially adjust the volume when I put it in my pocket. I have drained the battery twice and at most I got 8 hours per charge. I have no idea how Apple came up with 12 hours playtime.

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This is a great buy because it is so stylish and i ...

Posted Nov 29, 2004 - This is a great buy because it is so stylish and it can hold an insane amount of music. This works well with I tunes and other programs.

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