Apple iPod 5G user reviews (30GB, video)

Pros user friendly, bright screen, slim, good sound

Cons i suppose the lack of radio and recoding capabilities, mediocre battery life, comes with bare bone accessories

Summary alright, there are way too many whiners, complainers and idiots that have reviewed this item. and you know what? it gives no friggin useful information to anyone...so let a wise guy give the definitive review here to silence the squables.

audio...excellent. no big suprise here. all of the ipod series have produced good quality music even with so-so head phones/earphones/earbuds on. there are plenty of EQ settings to keep people happy, i know there are a few that want manual EQ settings...but seriously, the amount of people that can hear the difference between the "Rock" setting and if i eased the treble up one notch are few and far between. if you can, you should probably go work at Bose or something.

battery life...the biggie here. its not great, if left running continously, according to CNET it will run 14 hours. with the way i listen to, changing songs about ever 7 min or so, it lasted me....i'm guessing 12 hours (i had to recharge it after day 3 with about 3-4 hours of listening per session). that was achieved with close to the loudest setting and no backlight. your mileage may vary, but whichever way you cut it you can always use more battery life..

video...the culprit of the whole bash sessions i read here. i tried the video, and honestly, i'll go with steve jobs here. its just an extra damn bonus...nothing more, nothing less. before y'all get your knickers in a twist, watching a tv show on a 2.5 inch screen was already tedious...lets not even get into watching a full length feature film. yes i know there are other PVP players out there, or MP3 players with video capability and i'll still say the same thing. you're nuts if you're gonna watch Lord of the Rings on a screen, any screen, maximum size of your hand. i let my friends try to watch videos on it and we all eventually held the ipod closer and closer to our faces. so did it matter to me that with video the battery life gets cut down to 2 hours? nope. for those who posted on here saying how great some other PVP or MP3 player with video capabilities has made their life...seriously, you're watching a tv show/movie on a screen smaller than the size of sliced bread. how comfortable is that anyway? i agree it makes for pleasant distraction for those who utilize mass transit systems frequently but for those who got the ipod for jogging/studying/easy listening/or drive their car to work...i doubt they will give a bunny fart about watching some tv show they missed. that being said, watching a music video on it...ok. watching an episode of sex and the city...err do-able. watching a ripped dvd/vcd/whatever...your eyes will die long before the ipod's battery dies.

user interface...if my tech challenged parents could use it so can you. if you can't, then my friend, you and i need to have a serious talk about your scholastic/academic/mental capabilities. jesting aside, it's hopelessly easy. you either scroll up or down, press the button (the big fat white thing in the middle) to select the option/menu you want and press back to get back out.

things i don't understand...why can't apple stick a radio on their? i see how it maybe ironic to have 30 gigs of music and still need a radio but who knows right? bare bones acessories? what the hell is going on here? i shell out 300 bucks the least they can do is give me a decent case, dock and charger to go along with it.

as for the rest who complain about how apple is a great big evil company...well get over it cafone. either you never took a course in business or your just too stupid to realize the most basic rule of business...to make money. if you have lots of shareholders, then you must make lots of money. of course they are going to change the ipod around at some point forcing other companies to either renew their contract or something. of course they are going to pump countless millions in PR to get their product out in the open. of course they will charge you money to buy video/music to go along with their products. and if they are really competitive they will limit their products to be only compatible with the videos/music they offer.

you don't like that? well tough luck. i'm not saying this because i like/dislike apple. to quote the Godfather on this, "it's nothing personal, it's just business" whether you folks out there like it or not, microsoft, apple, creative, iriver, samsung...are all about making money first. do you not think, that given the chance, creative or anyother company would kill to do exactly the same thing? but sadly apple was the one company that beat all others to the step.

and finally, to quote a previous reviewer...most people want to be able to plug their mp3 players to their computers and have it sync without extra configuration. ipod does that. most people want to get videos on their ipod by just plugging it in. apple does that. most people don't care whether it has video streaming, bluetooth, wifi, infra-red, manual equalizer, dolby digital, PIM tools, mpeg 1,2,3,4,....1098354 support, wma, ogg, rma and God knows what else. all they care about is that its easy to use and it works. apple does that. yes you can smirk with your all knowing smile thinking that 75% of the people out there are idiots for buying an ipod. you can smirk till you're blue in the face and it won't change the fact that the ipod, as hated as it may be, is still a very good MP3 player. but the truth is, in the end, will your superior wonder gadget be obsolete within 2 years, most definitely. will the ipod? yes. so whats the difference really?

this is the best and most freaking complete review so far that is UNBIASED. so i better not see anymore of you pezzanovantes come up with another smart remark about this subject. that's it boys, watch your backs and keep your noses clean.

Pros Finally can do video.

Cons The true video iPod will be out sometime next year (ThinkSeceret)

Summary ThinkSeceret stated that this is not the "killer app" that Apple has planed to come out in 2006. Steve Jobs said that the iPod will succeed because its primary app is still music, and the market is still not ready for video, acording to NY Times

I agree with ThinkSeceret in that they are working on a true video iPod, and that this is just a really cool iPod with video capablilty. When the "real thing" comes out it will have a widescreen, and the next "iTunes" will have full length movies.

Pros shape,memory,color screen, photo viewer, video player, width

Cons cannot play every video file, scratchers easily, battery life is shot when viewing photos

Summary This is my first time owning something from Apple. I bought it yesterday at the Apple Store on Bay Street, Emeryville. When I brought it home, i uploaded some of my songs, but my wma songs had to be converted, which took a long time. And then when i tried to drag my video files into itunes, it did not work because it wasn't in the right format. So i checked on the apple website and found a quicktime Ipod Video guide, and it said that my files could have been converted through quicktime. I downloaded quicktime and tried to convert them, however that feature was avaible on Quicktime PRO which costs 19.99$. So i upgraded it, and converted one of my 30mb files, it took an 1hour and 30 minutes. When it was done, i uploaded it to my Ipod, and there was no sound,whatsoever. So I ended up buying the same exact video file on Apple.com for 1.99$
Video-not a fun feature.

Afterwards, i spent an hour or so listening to my ipod and was scroling through my photos which shot the battery life down 50%. The Ipod gets hot sometimes and it scracthes soo easily.

**Sugestion: Think about it. not for a few days, but for a few months before buying it for yourself, or as a gift.**

Pros Beautiful, incredible screen, video, almost perfect in every way.

Cons Still want a radio tuner. Earbuds don't do the sound justice.

Summary Just got my black one today. Let's do the music player first.. As expected.. everything you love about the iPod is here.. best-in-class interface, great sound (though those earbuds still aren't up to par). The new screen is a stunner. Bright and big. Photos are better than ever. It's the best small-format screen I've seen.

But let's face it.. the sell here is the video component. Here's what nay-sayers are missing: quality, content, and ease-of-use. No other player delivers on quality the way this player does. It plays at 30 frames-per-second. Many other players will only do 15. The codec is clean and playback smooth. Desperate Housewives looks fantastic on the screen. It's not blocky or blotchy at all. Motion is fluid. Compare with other players before you think you know what you're talking about.

Now.. the most important point that everyone who dislikes this iPod is missing: CONTENT. Yes, $2 bucks for a music video is silly, unless it's a concert performance. But Apple has put together a delivery system that makes sense, and the implications should not be missed.

Imagine missing your team's ball game or a favorite T.V. show and downloading it the next day for $2 bucks for playback on a T.V. or checking out over a lunch break. That's the future. And you do all of this legally, and you own the video. The long-term implications of all of this are pretty amazing. How about downloading a video of the Green Day concert you went to last night.. again.. they have a delivery path that makes sense.

The last part of my argument is ease-of-use. Ever try and encode/decode/compress a video for a music player? Not simple even in it's kindest form. The Apple way? Push a button and it's yours. Just copy it to the iPod. Simple, easy and fun. You can't do this with other players. This is an impressive display of technology. Kudos.