Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38071 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Apple
• Model: M9244LL/A
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .35 pounds

From the Manufacturer
From the Manufacturer The super-slim iPod defines what a digital music player should be. It’s lighter than two CDs, can hold up to 10,000 songs, thousands of digital photos and works as a personal voice recorder. Now you can sync with iTunes for Mac and Windows at blazing speeds, and take your entire music collection with you wherever you go.

15 GB, 20 GB and 40 GB Models
At just over half an inch thick, the iPod fits comfortably in the palm of your hand and slips easily into your pocket -- and your life. Merely 5.6 ounces, it weighs less than two Compact Discs, and even many cell phones. And yet the iPod gives you a huge 15GB, 20GB or 40GB hard drive -- big enough to hold 10,000 songs. Do the math: that’s four weeks of music played continuously, 24/7 -- or one new song a day for the next 27 years.

The new iPod sports a sleeker design and an improved interface

The iTunes Music Store. Now for Mac and Windows.
Build a collection of music on your iPod with songs downloaded from the iTunes Music Store. Choose from hundreds of thousands of songs you can preview and buy with just one click. The iTunes Music Store stays open 24/7 -- right on your Mac or Windows PC. Within a minute of finding a song you like, you can own it. You can make unlimited playlists, burn individual songs to CD as many times as you like and take all your music on your iPod wherever you go.

Autosync your iPod with Mac and Windows
iTunes 4 lets you organize your music on your Mac or Windows PC and automatically transfer it to iPod. Whether you’ve ripped your CD collection to mp3 or AAC, bought music from the iTunes Music Store or made your own track with GarageBand, you can take it with you wherever you go. Your iPod offers high-speed transfer from your Mac or PC. In fact, you can move an entire album from your computer to your iPod in seconds flat. With the industry’s only true Auto-Sync, your iPod is always up-to-date, mirroring the latest changes you’ve made in iTunes. And if your collection on your computer is bigger than iPod, you can let iTunes automatically choose a selection of songs to fill it up.

Ahead-of-the-curve Design
Its hassle-free functionality and stunning, well-considered design place iPod far ahead of the curve and the competition. The Touch Wheel makes scrolling through an entire music collection quick and easy, and the all-touch interface enhances durability and sensitivity. With an LCD screen and buttons that feature a backlight for clear visibility in low-light conditions, iPod is designed for easy one-handed operation. So the best way to take an entire music collection anywhere is now even better.

iPod makes all the right connections

High Fidelity
Designed to give you the best portable digital music experience ever, the iPod delivers the highest sound quality from i nput to output. iPod supports the most popular audio formats -- including MP3 (up to 320 kbps), MP3 Variable Bit Rate(VB R) and WAV -- giving you access to a wide range of audio file types. And iPod is the only portable digital music player that supports the AAC format used by the iTunes Music Store for Mac and Windows. AAC features CD-quality audio in smaller file sizes than MP3, so that even more songs fit on your iPod.

All That And More
The iPod features a sleep timer, so you can fall asleep to your music. And with the iPod’s alarm clock, you can choose either an alarm tone or your favorite music to wake you up.

The iPod lets you do a whole lot more, including contacts, calendar and to-do lists. iPod also includes Music Quiz, Solitaire, Brick and Parachute, four great games you can play anywhere (a feature you’re sure to appreciate the next time you’re standing in line or waiting for someone). You can even use your own music as the soundtrack to a game.

iPod also includes a notes reader that lets you download text-based information and read it on the screen. This way you can have the information you need -- on everything from restaurant reviews to nightlife guides, and from news articles to exercise routines -- at your fingertips.

Customer Reviews

Small, stylish and large capacity
I bought the 15Gb iPod in summer with $385 (which is equivalent to the 20Gb iPod now).

Pros:

(i)Synchronizing. Songs transfering in the first time might take longer time, but after that synchronizing is amazingly fast (only with iTunes; MusicMatch is pretty slow compared to iTunes). Songs are screened through and only modified songs are synchronized. take bout 2 seconds per song)

(ii)Useful Playlist. With iPod and iTunes, u can create a wide range of playlists (songs that u rated 5 stars, songs that u never played before, songs that u've recently played, christmas songs..etc)

(iii)Easy navigation. User interface is easy to use. iPod has cascading menus that provide easy navigation. In addition, the touch-sensitive buttons are really 'cool' to use.

(iv)Small. Really small and light. and it's really good looking (See others and u will realize :)

(v)Songs organization. iTunes organizes my songs pretty well according to artist and albums. I only have to name then once in iTunes and iTunes does it all (creating folders for artists/albums, arranging the songs, deleting them when I delete them in iTunes)

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Cons:

(i) Battery life. One of the reason i chose iPod was it can last for 8 hrs (which is the longest in last summer). However, recently more mp3 players could provide up to 16hrs and some PDA can play mp3 up to 35 hrs too.

(ii) File transfering (using iPod as hard drive) is not convenient for Windows user. Calendar, text notes function can only be used with Macs.

(iii) No recording & radio. Most mp3 players today has built in mic for recording and Radio functionality.

(iv) The ear buds provided has pretty good quality but not excellent. Hardly heard low range notes when commute. Would prefer headphones.

(v) Expensive. with the same price u can get another mp3 player for 40Gb or more.

(vi) Couldnt play WMA files (but, do u care?)

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I would still give 5 stars because this is what I want for a mp3 player : Small, Stylish, user friendly and large capacity. Personally, I don't think I would need recording, radio, WMA.. functionality for my mp3 player. Several other mp3 players like Creative Zen NX is pretty good too (from what I heard), with larger capacity and better price, but if u have the money, go for iPod, u'll definitely LOVE it!

P/S:
(i) Don't buy the 10Gb iPod, as it comes without remote, leather case, docking, and docking cover. These things costs about $100 so go for either 20Gb or 40Gb if possible

(ii) Apple.com has FREE laser engraving recently, which costs $19 previously and it's not available at amazon.com

title for my review
i own the iPod (just got it) and the creative Zen (1st generation-had it for a year).

main advantages of the iPod:
small and lightweight,
looks friggin cool,
intuitive and very easy to use menu's,
can sync outlook contacts, appointments, notes, etc...
can be used as a hard drive,
iTunes is a good program (for ripping, burning, playing music and organizing the iPod),
scroll wheel is amazing.

disadvantages:
price,
doesn't come with non firewire cables (if you don't have a firewire card, you need to purchase another cable ($20) to use the iPod (with USB - either 1.1 or 2.0),
"on the go playlists" - you can build a playlist on the iPod while you are out and about, however, you can't save it on the iPod. you can save it with iTunes when you sync, but only if you are using "automatic sync" - which i don't(so no spur of the moment playlists which can be used again for me). note that you can create as many playlists as you want on iTunes and save them to the iPod.

overall i am very happy with the iPod.

compared with the Zen -

Zen is bigger and heavier (while still small overall, compared to the iPod it is significantly larger),
Zen is sooooo much cheaper and for more memory,
Zen has much better "on the go playlist" functionality (i.e. it lets you create a playlist on the unit and save it, create another one, save it, etc...).
Zen has a que of songs that can be added to, changed, etc... on the fly - the iPod does not

i would reccomend the Zen as well, as a much cheaper alternative, with superior mp3 playing functionality (que and "on the go playlists"), though you can't sync outlook information, it doesn't have games, is heavier and larger overall and is certainly not nearly as cool looking.

Simply AWESOME!
This is great. Now I have two of them. I bought one of the original 5 GB models and thought at that time they were expensive, but soon found out that even the smaller model would keep as many songs as I would ever want for a business flight.

I realized the iPod was so much more when I had disk problems on my Macintosh. Luckily I had a backup copy of my OS on it and used it to boot my machine. I was back in the saddle in a minute, and in fact, I accidentally continued to use the iPod as the startup disk for that whole session while working on huge graphics files!

The iPod can be used to transfer files from work to home and vice versa. Contacts and calenders make it easy to keep track of things without a PDA (even though you can't add anything without using a PC/Mac). I have used both iPods with an old Pentium III PC and the music transfer is smooth as silk. I did a lot of shopping this time around and the other players out there just don't have what it takes. Either the controls are in goofy places or the software isn't intuitive. While you CAN learn to use anything, why should it be a pain?

I now have one of the 20 GB models and can store large presentations on it when I travel, and since they usually have a PC at the other end, I can leave my laptop at home and am much happier not having to lug that around.

PC and Mac users will benefit from this device, especially if you are innovative, or you happen to find innovative software which is widely available and cheap or free. One example is: Before my flight, I can download newsbites and sports scores and quickly transfer it to the iPod for a diversion at the airport or on the flight. For the person visiting family, you can bring along the latest digital pics, long lost recipes, etc. and transfer/print them when you get there. (My parents don't do email that well)

While the iPod isn't a PDA, it has many of those functions and is a lot more fun. Most importantly, the iPod is an AWESOME and versatile music player.