Customer Reviews
5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
 This really isn't THAT good - ridiculous price, May 3, 2023
Back in December 2004, I picked up an iPod while I was visiting New York. The price was the same as it is here on Amazon. Now that I think about it, I'm actually not sure why I bought this over another player. I simply wanted an MP3 player and it was the first thing that came to mind... I barely considered the others because I thought of them all as rickety and not solid in terms of construction.
At first, getting the thing up and running was a little harder than I expected. I was expecting to just plug it in and go. Of course, I was on vacation in NY, so I ran to the nearest internet cafe and plugged the thing in, ready to rip a CD I'd bought the day before. For whatever reason, this just didn't work the first time and at first I thought I'd bought a dud. I had to make the journey back to my hotel room, plug the iPod in, and reset it using insructions buried in the manual, to try again. Luckily, I could transfer music this time.
I became a little uneasy when I noticed a few scratches on the back of the iPod. I knew it was pretty much inevitable (please Apple, fix the design), but I was a little dismayed that the $35 leather case I had bought to keep my new toy safe from harm was actually scratching it up. I've learned that this player is almost definitely going to get scratched, that's a given. So now I don't bother with the case anymore. If you're in a good mood, think of these scratches as personalization.
Stability. Not as good as I was hoping for I'm sad to say. It's now May 2005 and ever since owning it, the iPod has crashed about 8 times. A lot of users won't get this. It's usually due to me skipping back and forth around tracks very quickly. But it is insanely irritating at the start of a long work shift (I get to listen to music since I work at a library) to fire the thing up and have it freeze. My brother who owns a Creative player asked, "Well, why not take the battery out so it resets itself?" Ohohohohoh! No, you see, the iPod is just SO spiffy and minimalistic and easy to fit into your lifestyle, that Apple conveniently made opening the device up as hard as possible. So no, that's not an option. You have to return home, dig out the power adapter in the box, plug it in, and press a button combination listed in the manual. A player at a price like this should NOT crash.
Sound quality. Ranges from good to poor - very rarely is it excellent. Again, a huge thing to forgive when you look at the price tag. Using Eyomotic Research ER6i headphones (which are specially made for the iPod), the sound is extremely poor compared to my computer's sound card, and to make a more fair comparison, my brother's Creative mini player. It's hard to describe - it's tinny and lacking in bass, yet even on the best headphones, it produces that rippling effect you get when you tape paper onto a speaker, or play really heavy bass on a set of weak speakers. I find that turning on "Hip Hop" mode on the EQ fakes some of this bass back in, but that can sometimes cause more harm than good. I know it's not the (excellent) headphones because as I said, they sound great on other stuff.
File types. This player plays MP3, WAV/AIFF, AAC, and a few others. What they don't tell you though is that if you like to skip around a lot, it doesn't play all of them that well. The iPod handles MP3s with ease, but if you have any of the other file types in your playlist, expect the device to take longer pauses when skipping between them. I decided to avoid the other formats and just use high bit-rate MP3 files to get around this problem.
iTunes. Personally I don't think it's THAT good. I do miss Windows Media Player sometimes - iTunes is considerably slower and I'm not sure I like it's text-heavy presentation too much. All too often, iTunes has lied to me about my iPod update being complete, so I have the nasty surprise of finding that the latest song I supposedly put on it the night before actually isn't there, when I power it on on the bus the next morning. Why can't I just drag and drop MP3 files onto it like I would do with a memory stick?
Usability. 99% of the time, it is VERY easy to use. Unlike the Creative Players, the scroll wheel doesn't take getting used to at all.
To sum up, I think that this is a highly serviceable music player with some obvious flaws that really should be corrected. The reason I'm only giving it 2 stars is because of the ludicrous price, and the appearance - when you buy it, consider this... sure, it looks nice to start with, but is it going to look like a year down the line? Rather more scratched up, I would imagine. There are far too many problems here to warrant the premium price tag, and I think Apple should really sort this out.
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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Love it, May 3, 2023
I got an ipod for my birthday (September 2004) and loved it. It can fit all my music on it, and it's easy to use. However, the battery had gradually deteriorated. The 4 hours it took to charge it gave me only 4-5 hours playback on a playlist without skipping tracks. However, I took my ipod into Apple on thursday and today (tuesday) I was given a replacement ipod (brand new) at no charge. I suspect that I will have to pay for my next battery though, as my friend, who has had hers since Christmas replaced hers last month as her battery lasted 2 hours on a full charge. My only other complaint is the headphones, in a word, are crap. I used mine for about a month, then they became very static. It wasn't too bad in the morning, but by lunch time they interference was so bad I got frustrated and plugged in my cheap earbuds I got with my walkman. These still work great, with better sound than the ipod ones and have lasted for over a year (I used them previously with my walkman). On the upside, I find Itunes very easy to use, and creating playlists with the On-The-Go feature is great for when you feel in a ...... mood. I suggest that if you have a lot of CD's, and listen to them a lot, then you should consider an ipod. But get other earphones.
3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
 waste of money, May 2, 2023
I bought my first ipod 10 months ago. Toward the end, the battery life slowly got shorter and shorter, until finally it wouldn't even turn on. I called apple, and the said they would replace it for $30 shipping. Fair enough. I mailed the ipod to them, 5 days later, i got a "new" ipod. Opened the box, charged the player, and what do i see? The EXACT same error message! I called apple, VERY upset, and they informed me there was nothing they could do unless i purchased the "apple service care pack" for like $60!! I was irate!
This product is worthless. Apple customer care is worthless. PLEASE do research before you purchase this product, there are many other better players, it's not worth it to be "in style". I had to learn the hard way.
2 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
so advanced so fun, Apr 30, 2023
you know those boring car trips where everyone is silent or just argues or talks about buissness?scientific cure found!pack your i pod with hot songs and you won't be bored.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
 iPod RULES!!!, Apr 30, 2023
I found this a great product, maybe a little expensive but worth it!!! It is extremely conveniant. But the bad parts are:
-the earphones hurt without the black covers which fall of a lot
-even though i got the iPod socks i had to take it out to play and it got all smudgy and scratched, which is why the iPod skins would be useful
-if you dont have the patience to download 5000 songs (or if u only know 1000 or less songs) you should get the iPod mini
-i wish it came in colors like the iPod mini, and also the iPod mini doesn't get scratched as easily
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