Apple iPod user reviews (20GB, fourth generation)

Pros Nice Color

Cons The product was bad; service worse.

Summary Wow. Where to begin. My daughter loved this and used it a great deal. It was a wonderful Christmas present which survived until May. She always had a difficult time maintaining the 'connection' with the pc, the device's memory was awful. But then it froze up. We followed all of Apple's instructions online and eventually had to send the device back to them in their packaging. Next thing we know, they claimed we opened the device (which we didn't) and it was cracked, which it wasn't when we sent it in the packaging. Apple simply doesn't want to back up a poor product. I've often thought people who purchase Apple products buy the sizzle instead of the steak----but I bought an ipod for my teenaged daughter. Heck, the steak was lousy and the sizzle was poor. Oh, to fix this cost more than a new Dell Digital Jukebox. I've always had great luck with Dell products so that's where my money is now.

When you see an Apple on the product label, choose a different product!!!

Pros The Click Wheel makes navigation much easier, the screen is very clear, and the words are very large and clear. It is also wrapped in a sexy little case.

Cons The accessories are really expensive ($20 for a silicon case).

Summary I have both an Iriver and an Ipod, and of the two I would have to say the Ipod is the best. Yes the Iriver has more packaged features for the same price, but the navigation button is poorly constructed. After a while the button looses some of its ability to move back into place, it is also really annoying to have to hold the button to scroll down the lists.
With the ipod it is a whole lot easier to manage music files. The iriver (20GB) that I bought made it very convenient for me to transfer my music because you could cut copy and paste as if it was a separate hard drive. Though this is a very good feature, when it came to trying to manage my music it became tiresome to have to search through each individual artist folder, and then each album folder to find what I was looking for.
The other great feature that the ipod has that the iriver doesn't is the ability to create playlists at my leisure. The whole point of an Mp3 is not only to carry your entire music collection in one place, but it also serves as a device that can give any combination of songs and artists at any given moment. Which was a very large negative for the Iriver that I bought.
Some people complain about the music quality, but as far as I can tell it seems pretty clear and crisp.
One thing that I do not like about the Ipod is the earphones, after a while listening to them they begin to heart my ears. To solve this I went to Target and bought some wrap around earphones that was in the Ipod accessory section (they are perfect).
As far as customer service from each company, they are about equal, what apple lacks in comprehensive and affordable service, it makes up for with the fact that the reps are able to speak clear english, because I believe Iriver is a korean based company, their reps tend to be from Asia making it very hard to understand them at times.
Overall, I would say the Ipod is a good buy when it comes to Mp3 players. When you buy it, it would be best if you considered accessories in the pricing (they add up). But it would be better if you bought it at places like CompUSA, and Sams Club, because these places offer package deals. At compUSA I received the Itrip for free, and Sams has a package that includes the itrip and the carcharger for 319. Hope this review is helpful to those searching for the right mp3 device.

Pros Storage space

Cons battery life, tech support, $ wasted

Summary I waited a year to buy this item and I am soooooooo disappointed! I should have kept on waiting and purchased another vendors model. The battery life is 4 hours! They say it is 12. It is not even close. I called Apple tech support (my ipod is 2 weeks old!!) and they only give one complimentary call. So, you pay a fair bit of money for no support and a sub standard item. I paid $99 for an MP3 player at Best Buy a few years ago and got better technical support, battery life and overall product. Don't buy and IPOD. I never will again.

Pros Good Sound Quality, It's an iPod

Cons Mediocre Battery life, no Voice Recorder or Fm Radio, not really worth the price

Summary 1 - The most defining factor about how overrated iPod’s is that they offer no extra features (excluding the pricey Photo) apart from the Mp3 player.
2 - Mp3 purists may well argue that iPod was designed as a dedicated Mp3 player but it is an admitted fact that the sound quality of the iPod's sound quality is not the best that is on the market. Mp3 players with better sound quality include iRiver's H10, the Creative Zen Micro and the Sony NW HD5.
3 - Apple's Clickwheel is ONE of the best User interfaces on the market, but their are other UIs that are as good, in not better than the Clickwheel, Such UI's include the touchstrips included in the H10 and the Zen Micro as well as the NW HD5
4 - The iPod's battery life is still disappointing lasting a mere 12 hours while the Sony NW HD5 offers over 20 hours
5 - Apple's iTunes may well be the current King of online music stores; however it only works with iPods (okay that was oblivious) however stores such as Napster and Real Rhapsody come extremely close to beating it primarily because of their compatibility with multiple players
6 - Another Con of the iPod is that you can not replace the battery, which is extremely annoying as when the battery of the iPod gives out it turns into a paperweight if you don't want to shell out $100+ replacing it. While with a player like the iRiver H10 you can replace the battery yourself and the spare one only costs $40 maximum.
7 – About the CS of Apple, they are just as good as other top notch brands such as Sony and Creative