Good Buy

Had this i-pod 2months now very happy with everything it says real good sound 80G hard drive means alot of tunes can be stored very good buy for the money.

The"player" from hell

Somebody PLEASE save us! We are being sucked into the jaws of the horrid iPod monster! HELP! HELP!

Superb

This is a superb product at a great price. I've really enjoyed watching films on it and 8gb is more than enough space to throw in a few music albums too. The screen is bright with a resolution that makes it comfortable to watch for extended periods. After previously owning an iPod with Firewire, I've not found the USB cable an issue - it's still a quick transfer.

Important info for 1st time buyers of ipods

If you have never owned an ipod and are thinking of buying one for the first time then you should take the following in to consideration. If its just mass storage for your music you are after then then you will be making the right choice to buy this model as its capacity is second only to the 160gb version. Its easy to use and the cover flow and video capabilities make it a very useful and fun player to have. i currently have 6070 songs on it and around 10 music videos and have added three games and its not even half full yet. Now for the important stuff - If its good sound quality your after then you will be very let down by this. The EQ settings are not suitable for all songs and will find that a lot of the songs you put on it will sound too tinny or too distorted but sound very empty. Max volume is poor and around 75% of my songs sound too quiet to enjoy, even at max volume. Apple have made big improvements regarding storage and relyability, for example, earlier models will easily crash and skip songs, but this one hasnt given me any problems in the 6 months i have had it, the only problem is the sound. Ipods are getting better with each generation, and this player is near perfection, except the most important thing - the sound! Apparently Apple are taking this matter seriously after many complaints about the sound. So if you are a first time buyer, then i would wait and see what the next generation of the classic brings us, this one has been out for nearly a year now so a new version should be on the cards very shortly. Just one or two changes and ipods will be worth every penny. But you can find much better sounding mp3 players on the market for much cheaper. Whatever your choice, enjoy!

2nd time lucky

First one delivered had a faulty screen that flickered with reverse colours and was returned to Amazon for a full refund. The second one fortunately works as intended. Hopefully will provide some stress-busting for my 16YO daughter as she takes some R&R between her exams! As others have said, this is an excellent piece of kit and superbly designed. Don't be put off by iTunes - within a short time you begin to realize it is far superior to Windows Media Player.

The Touch deserves its hype.

Let me start by saying that the iPod Touch was as good as I'd hoped it would be. And I had high hopes!

My initial concerns were that the touch screen wouldn't be particularly sensitive, the navigation would be cumbersome, the quality of video playback would be poor, importing files would be difficult and the battery life would be limited. I told you I had high hopes! However after having the 32GB version for over a month now, I can confirm that my concerns have been well and truly allayed.

The touch screen is as good as you'll find on the market. It's sensitive to touch without being over the top and what has probably pleased me most, is that even when you're clicking on small links in the web browser, its accuracy is outstanding. Wirelessly surfing the internet is a breeze and the addition of motion sensors to flip the screen and view websites in landscape mode is a real bonus.

Navigating between albums, video, e-mail, internet etc. is perfectly easy, with options to select from artist, album, genre etc. It's not difficult to find your way back to the start or between albums etc. The best endorsement for this is that I've not had to read the instructions yet, it really is that simple to use.

Using iTunes as the primary source of importing music and videos on to the Touch is, again, as easy as you would have hoped it to be. I had a lot of wma files on my computer and even converting these to m4p files was a simple, albeit lengthy, case of drag and drop. There are a number of websites that allow you to convert DVDs and video to the iPod format, which are very simple to use. Again, this did take me some time to convert, although it was worth it in the end.

My first outing with the Touch was on a long train journey to and from London. During the trip I listened to a few albums, watched a full movie and also watched some other videos that I'd put on the Touch earlier. The screen is a good size for viewing movies in transit and apart from the sun shining on the screen (yes, the sun does shine sometimes in the UK) I had no complaints or tired eyes. By the time I had got home, I still had plenty of battery life left.

I can't recommend the iPod Touch enough. To date, I have four movies, a load of albums and some photos stored on mine and it's only about 1/3 full. If you can afford it, go for the bigger capacity as you'll want to take advantage of every single feature that the Touch offers.

Nearly a five star

The applications on this product are fantastic. The touch screen is great and has obviously been created after 'real use' trials of the product . A protective cover is a must but make sure you buy one where the 'home' button is accessible. After even one day of use you will find the touch indispensable with its contacts, mail (via wifi), notes, weather, utube, calender, appointments and loads of free applications to download. If you like the ipod nano you will love this - it's a completely new generation and it is so straightforward to use.

The only problem I had was moving my ipod nano stuff to the touch. I called the customer support and sadly found all 4 people I spoke to rather unhelpful and basically rude. The product more than makes up for it.

Wow - once again

I recently lost my beloved first generation iPod nano at security in a Spanish airport so I decided it was time to treat myself to the present (third) generation and once again I have been blown away.

This model holds twice the music my old one did, and is capable of supporting video, photo and podcasts. The nano also benefits from a larger screen and more battery life, in order to enjoy your digital media to the full.

If you're familiar with Apple and their iPods then this is an excellent addition to their tree.

Freeze again and again.

Whne i recently purchased an i-pod it worked up untill about a week before freezing twice both within th same week or so.Then not so later after this is went completely black and unfortunately hasnt been working since.

I am touched that Apple cares so much...

If you want your music to be shown in a cool fashion, and you also want everyone to look at you and go,"WOAH!! Where the crud did he get that, Man?" this is the iPod for for you.

Apple has obviously put so much work into this little beauty, that whenever you turn it on, you and it look so proud to be with each other!

I love it, love it, LOVE IT!!!

Also, if you have an iTunes account, you can update your software and get new programs like e-Mail and Maps!

Once again I really love this piece of kit and if you can, no even if you can't spare 250-odd pounds - GET IT. NOW: I implore you!

Note: if ANYONE says that this is anything less than brilliantly fantastic and vice-versa don't give a DARN. This is way too good for any of that nonsense!!!



Get it.

I wish I had not purchased this item

The New Apple iPod classic 160GB black arived last week, I opened it charged it, it wouldn't charge, I tried again, eventually I managed to get it three quarters charged, it won't charge any more than that. I'm now trying to return it to Amazon, who don't really want to know, they are fobbing me off saying go to Apple to get it fixed, be warned when purchasing this or any other item that is so expensive that you may end up with a dud that you cannot return.

Does What It Says On The Tin

If you're the sort who likes to have their gadjets big enough to flaunt or so you can easily bore your fellow Dan Dare reading chums with the latest stuff then the Shuffle may not do the trick. It does not have a screen or a keyboard and it doesn't make tea in the morning. Smaller than a matchbox or book of stamps, and clipping on to your clothes, it simply delivers top level music (shuffled or unshuffled) for someone with a moderate desire for their library. And it does it for around thirty quid.

Its limitations are clearly size of library, and then there's finding it if you've put it down somewhere. Other than that, it is spot on.

Disclosure

I'd give this version of the iPod a full five stars... for a few gigs more, cheaper video releases from iTunes, plus either a screen protector or a simultaneous release from an Apple-partner who makes cases!

As a novice the the world of digitised personal music I loved my iPod shuffle (G1) so much that I bought a (4gb G2) nano... and was then given an 80GB (G5) iPod with video. I found the latter disappointing. I spend a lot of time on 2+ hour train journeys and was looking forward to the ability to watch films/favourite TV shows during my travels. In the end, the promise of iPod-release movies was not brought to fruition (other than a small quantity of expensive Pixar shorts available via iTunes) and the hard-drive based format, though portable is still on the clunky side and far from pocket friendly.

With the third generation of nanos built around flash memory technology, Apple has brought video playback into a pocket-friendly format. (Yay!) The new nano is narrower, shorter and about 4x thicker than a credit card. A number of TV shows have now been made available to download via iTunes (still no films outside of the US iTunes site)... though since these are, in a number of cases, significantly more expensive than their DVD counterparts it's hard to imagine anyone favouring the downloads. At the time of writing, feature films are not yet available via the UK version of iTunes... although the Apple UK website and promotional literature do not reflect this, focusing instead on the new nano's technical abilities in terms of video playback.

After the scratching problems associated with earlier versions of the nano, it was disconcerting to receive my brand new nano without a screen protector... and I found myself unwilling to take it anywhere for the first few days of owning it, since the dimensions of the new nano are completely different to those of previous generations (of any model) so that the only currently available case/protection system appears to be the iPod sock. Since iPod socks are only designed to protect the unit from knocks when inside the sock, I'm still constrained on video playback when travelling!

Please, Apple... when releasing a new format of player, could you make sure there's an appropriate case for it to allow usage and protection, because otherwise iPods might be portable, but they ain't useable.

Excellent

I bought this to replace a Creative Zen Nano 1GB MP3 Player (which has developed an annoying habit of switching itself off for no reason). The sound quality is not quite as good as the Creative (which has a built in graphic equalizer function for listening to different styles) but having said that it is excellent for such a tiny compact, convenient device. The clip is extremely useful to me as I listen to music while working out in the gym and it clips easily onto shirt/shorts.
The reason I don't give it 5 stars is that the headphones supplied by Apple are awful - they blast out at high volume but it's like listening through wet cotton wool. I use a pair of Sennheiser CX300 Ear Canal phones which are immensely superior to the Apple ones. They take a bit of fiddling with to get the right size and then to form a seal around the ear canal but once they're in they sound great with the ipod shuffle.

excellent machine provided all you want is music

At the time of writing this review there are 68 others already on here, but I thought I would tell you of my own experience with the ipod shuffle.

I go the gym and used to have a MP3 player - just a basic"memory stick" type that I plugged into my computer to recharge and I could drag & drop songs onto. Unfortunately it died so it was time to look for a new one. Now I was undecided whether to buy a basic model by a less well known company, or go for a leading name. It seems to me that if you're prepared to go for a relatively unknown manufacturer you can get a basic mp3 player for half the price with twice the memory, but eventually after much deliberation I plumped for the apple ipod shuffle, swayed by a combination of the reputation of apple & (hopefully) a better build quality.

I have had it just over a week now and I think I have made the right decision.

Yes, there is no screen, but I knew that when I bought it. I know from my prior experience at the gym that I just tend to switch it on and let it play so I didn't really need one. Also, I have a mobile phone that takes pictures, plays videos, games etc and I hardly use any of those features so I figured I wouldn't need a screen to watch tiny videos on. The earphones are great - several reviwers say they fall out but I've used mine on the treadmill, rower, cross trainer, exercise bike and wave machine and they've stayed in throughout! I've got about 14 hours out of it before I had to recharge which is impressive, and although initially I missed the simplicity of the"drag & drop" method of my old mp3 player, its just a question of getting used to itunes and once you have it seems simple enough.

All in all, an excellent purchase and having never had any previous experience of apple or ipods I am very pleased with my purchase.

Very faulty product

i have had my ipod classic for 7 months now but because i bought an i touch soon afterwards i have barely used it. The ipod screen all of a sudden developped a massive white line, probably a row of dead pixels that cannot be fixed by resetting or upgrading its software. I have looked at forums and loads of other people have had this problem too. I am sending mine back. Unfortunately they send you a refurbished one, not a new one or your original one repaired.

Their support sucks, I went to the apple store today and they made me wait an hour and a half before they sent me home saying they couldnt deal with my repair today. It is their faulty product, THEY SHOULD be apologising to their customers and do the best they can to accomodate them rather than have you chase them around and waste your money and time to go into central london to repair a bad product they have sold you. Really unhelpful and rude customer service and not even an apology for the break down of my product even tho it's almost as fresh as just out of the box They asked me to book an appointment for another day but i'll be damned if i spend my time or money to travel back into central london AGAIN for a process that will literally take them 2 seconds. Cause basically all they do is take a look at it and give you another one, problem solved in 5 secs. A member of the staff when i dared complain told me"are you aware sir that we are the busiest store in the world ?" Make your own minds up about apple's care for its customers


UPDATE

I got me refurbished ipod back from the repair centre today. I plugged it in and a red cross appears on the screen. The ipod is frozen, can't reset it or charge it or plug it in or anything.
Apple are surely taking the piss

UPDATE

So it seems i was sent a faulty product as a repair to my original faulty product. It has a faulty hard drive and needs to be taken back again!!!!
I am leaving in 1 week for a 2 month holiday, does Apple think its customers have nothing better to do than play this sending back and forth game simply because they aren't resposible enough to provide a reliable service/product?


UPDATE

apple just sent me back my ipod saying it passed all its tests and found no faults with it
i took my ipod to a friends computer and tried uploading mp3s from his collection. Again the same problem!!! As soon as it hits 33Gb it freezes and doesnt upload anymore. It cant be that both computers and both music collections are faulty, clearly this must be a hard drive problem. What am i supposed to do now that apple refuses to repair it?
I have paid a heap amount of money for a 160GB ipod which as soon as it hits 33Gb it freezes.
What am i supposed to do??????????????

If you go on apple's support page you will finf 557 pages (!!!!!) of probelms with the ipod classic

excellent machine provided all you want is music

At the time of writing this review there are 68 others already on here, but I thought I would tell you of my own experience with the ipod shuffle.

I go the gym and used to have a MP3 player - just a basic"memory stick" type that I plugged into my computer to recharge and I could drag & drop songs onto. Unfortunately it died so it was time to look for a new one. Now I was undecided whether to buy a basic model by a less well known company, or go for a leading name. It seems to me that if you're prepared to go for a relatively unknown manufacturer you can get a basic mp3 player for half the price with twice the memory, but eventually after much deliberation I plumped for the apple ipod shuffle, swayed by a combination of the reputation of apple & (hopefully) a better build quality.

I have had it just over a week now and I think I have made the right decision.

Yes, there is no screen, but I knew that when I bought it. I know from my prior experience at the gym that I just tend to switch it on and let it play so I didn't really need one. Also, I have a mobile phone that takes pictures, plays videos, games etc and I hardly use any of those features so I figured I wouldn't need a screen to watch tiny videos on. The earphones are great - several reviwers say they fall out but I've used mine on the treadmill, rower, cross trainer, exercise bike and wave machine and they've stayed in throughout! I've got about 14 hours out of it before I had to recharge which is impressive, and although initially I missed the simplicity of the"drag & drop" method of my old mp3 player, its just a question of getting used to itunes and once you have it seems simple enough.

All in all, an excellent purchase and having never had any previous experience of apple or ipods I am very pleased with my purchase.

Great all rounder

Wife bought me this for my 40th birthday to replace my 30gb video ipod which has been played to death.
Have to say what a fantastic piece of kit, worked effortlessly first time synching all my itunes stuff and selected photos. Bought some music on itunes via my ipod without any fuss. Only thing is like any ipod make sure you get a protector for it as it is a fingerprint magnet. And yes I am a Apple fan, always have been, everything just works effortlessly and the ipod works perfectly with my new imac (5 month old). Recommended.

Brilliant Until The Warranty Runs Out

I purchased a 4gb ipod nano in may last year, I never had any problems with it and found it a great piece of kit. Admittedly the battery life is very poor and starts getting worse over time.
After hearing so many people talk about how the ipod generally dies after the warranty runs out, mine has finally fell foul to this too..
About a month ago my ipod started crashing everytime it was synched in itunes, I then had to reformat my ipod and restore all the songs on it.
After about a month or so of this happening it's just completely given up.
To repair the ipod would cost just as much as it would to buy a new one, VERY ANNOYING!
I would very much like to buy a new ipod but a product that lasts just over a year for how much you pay is ridiculous....