Apple iPod Classic - 4th Gen

it works ok, and I love the appearance

Fantastic way to listen to many thousands of songs when on the go, that is, when it works. This ipod model is Incredibly unreliable. 2 of the last 3 ipods have suddenly had hard drive crashes and never restarted. I'm awaiting my 4th ipod photo (3rd replacement) in less than three years! (I bought the 4 year extended warranty). The longest any one Ipod has lasted for me has been 18months, and each time i get it replaced under warranty i have to wait about 6 weeks. Compared to the video Ipods, the screen is tiny for photos.

I would recommend that you don't buy an Apple iPod Photo 40GB!!! If you do - KEEP YOUR RECEIPT!!

This iPod is something brand new for me and I can't believe the quality and value for money of my new toy - I just turned 70 years old and am always learning new things. Janet

The Apple iPod Photo has lots of memory, but it breaks, and support is no good. If you don't buy their warranty you can forget about it, unless it's over a year, then Best Buy or Future Shop will take it. Under a year and you have to pay $50 for shipping. I've had 2 of these MP3 players in 3 years, and I will never buy another one.

My main purpose of purchasing an MP3 player was really to 'jukebox' my music collection and port it with me around the house and on the move. A friend of mine has one of these, and I'd been umming and ahhing about an MP3 player for a while, in particular the iPod 60Gb Photo, and when the new iPod video came out I renewed my interest.

I'd never seen any bad reviews of the Photo, but even after a few months the new Video was getting slated a bit, even if it was just for not supplying all the kit that came with the Photo. So I thought I'd better act fast whilst the Photo's were still around.

I saw a new 60Gb at £214, which I thought was a bargain, and a price that was a one off, so I took the plunge.

Let's put the iPod in perspective here. There are MP3 players out there with better sound quality etc., but the overall iPod package is pretty much unbeatable if you don't mind buying into the whole Apple thing.

Anyway, I'm really pleased with this purchase. I've only managed to load about 60% of my CD collection (300 in all), but it's just amazing. I'm now 'jukeboxed'.

The sound quality is good to excellent depending on the production of the CD, and of course what you're playing it back on. The iPod sounds really fantastic on the kitchen and bedroom stereo, and as good as the CD's. A little less so on my separates, but you really have to be picky to notice. Sucking eggs to some, but note that different CD's are recorded at different sound levels. There is a feature on the iPod called soundcheck, which levels all the playback to be about the same volume, but it's not an exact science. There is some degradation with this switched on, but I only use this when playing shuffled playlists, and it's acceptable all things considered. If you prefer the better sound then switch it off and use the volume control, which is what I do when listening to entire CD's.

There are some very good features, which I know will be present on other players, but the spin wheel menu system is unbeatable.

The other great thing about the iPod is that all accessories seem to be made for iPod's first, with the other MP3 players playing catch up or missing out all together. I've now got the player hooked up in the car, and I have some really quite fantastic portable speakers for travelling. I've got an Onkyo cradle/dock for the separates stereo, speakers made specifically for the iPod in the bedroom and, Monster iCables for the kitchen and front room. All specifically made for iPod's, and they are all fantastic quality. You just don't get that for other MP3's.

I'm now so blown away with iPod's and MP3's, that I've bought a USB turntable and started digitising my old vinyl collection.

I've not had any problems with the iPod at all (touch wood). This might be down to me getting one of the last ones available, so all the glitches were solved. I don't know. But I do know several people who have had iPod Photo's in the past and now have the Video versions, and they are disappointed for one reason or another. The one great shame about the iPod 60Gb Photo is that that Apple stopped making these in favour of the Video. The Photo really is the king of iPod's, and it's crown is still firmly in place.

If you have aniPod photo and it works, you won't find a better iPod. Keep hold of it. Tight!

"FIVE", that's right "5" Apple Photo iPods stopped working within the first 2 hours on playback. Thanks to Circuit City they replaced all of them and finally a full refund for the fifth. I've heard of having high hopes and patience with a product but this was ridiculous. This represents over $1750 worth of iPods that all failed each within only 2 hours. They all freeze up, some stay on and you can't turn them off or do anything else. Others just go blank and nothing will bring them back to life. Evidently there's quite a big problem with this model from what my dealer said and for those of you thinking of taking a gamble on the iPod Photo ... may the force be with you.

The Apple iPod Photo (40GB) is my dream MP3 player/photo album. I love the color LCD screen, it looks great! I've had it for a month now, and at first I thought since it was bigger than the mini, it'd be to big to carry. But the slim design made it an easy fit for my pocket whenever I go to the gym. I use it mostly for music and I have plenty of room for all my songs that can run forever on the long battery life. Plus, it's real easy to enter and scroll through the few photos I have. Besides the initial problem of figuring out how to wake it from "sleep" mode, the main problem is the EXCESSIVE price. If I wasn't able to get it for $40, I wouldn't have been able to get it.

The Apple iPod Photo (60GB) is the third iPod I have had experience of using and for my money is the best of the bunch. The memory size is fantastic and well worth the money, this top of the range version of the iPod is an essential for music lovers with a substantial CD collection. There is no substitute for having your tunes on tap when you are out and about and this will be as important to my holiday needs as my factor 15 suntan lotion.

The specifications of this product are simply mind-blowing. It took me just over a week to transfer my 1000 CD collection to the MP3. It was a week well spent. Once that initial donkeywork is out of the way though its all good and with the iPod Photo there is still plenty of room for many more musical masterpieces on my player. Photo-wise this little beauty is just as impressive, with the capacity to store 25,000 photos I will never need to invest in a disposable camera again. There is also a neat function whereby you can produce slideshows of your photo collection with your favourite tracks providing the background noise.

You really need a PC or Mac to get the best out of the photo features so if you haven't got a PC I suggest you your hand in your pocket. The headphones, while making me look like a cool cat, are slightly uncomfortable, and people with hairy ears (ie, The Wife) will certainly struggle to find any level of comfort from these.

This iPod is definitely the best in an already powerful Apple armada so that leaves me with one piece of advice. If you have to beg, steal or borrow, then do it, because once you get one of these there is no way back to the land of the portable CD player.

A big thumbs-up for the Apple iPod Photo (40gb) from this reviewer! This player is just as easy to operate as other previous models of the iPod but brings so much more to the table!

This player allows you to not only listen to music in the best way possible, but also allows you to view and artwork from the iTunes website along with the singles and albums!

The iPod Photo also plugs into your television set so you can set up a slideshow on your TV whilst setting up an ultra cool playlist. Sweet.

On top of all that you get to play some stonking games and view your schedule on your colour screen . This player is undoubtedly the epitome of cool.