Apple iPod 60 GB Black Hard Drive Portable Media Player

Pricey, but a great device

Strengths: iTunes, Interface, Toyota compatibility, Video and Photo support

Weakness: iTunes, lack of flexibility, cost a bit higher than competition

Let me first start of by stating that I never wanted an iPod and adamently refused to get one. The only reason I gave in is because I provide IT support and for many clients, this extends to their home setup. Ipods included. So I wanted to get a new MP3 player (my 512MB zen died) and figured the ipod was my best bet. Now that I have it, I love it. I've got music, photos and even a few movies on...
Read Full Review

Let me first start of by stating that I never wanted an iPod and adamently refused to get one. The only reason I gave in is because I provide IT support and for many clients, this extends to their home setup. Ipods included. So I wanted to get a new MP3 player (my 512MB zen died) and figured the ipod was my best bet.

Now that I have it, I love it. I've got music, photos and even a few movies on it. (Converted movies using cucosoft software).

I listed iTunes as both a strength and weakness. The strength is that it's really easy to use and has some nice features for creating playlists. It's also a breeze to use with the ipod. I actually setup a playlist for my mom and sync'd hers with it without issue. iTunes is also a weakness however, because the ipod is really only user friendly when used with itunes (I'm not even sure you can get it to work with others). This is a drawback in my opinion as most other players out there can sync to anything (EXCEPT itunes). Still, it wouldn't keep me from getting another.

The Toyota compatibility I mention is a bonus I wasn't expecting. There are a number of devices that allow you to use your ipod in a Toyota or Lexus vehicle. I have a prius and have my ipod tied into it, so I can see the songs and control things via the steering wheel controls. It's very cool!

Overall, I'd definetely recommend an iPod. Just know that you will have to use iTunes and all syncing will be done with it.

By mshulman - May 18, 2006

if you can stomach iTunes...

Strengths: lots of storage, GREAT resolution screen, handles video and pictures fairly well, great EQ settings, fun games included

Weakness: iTUNES, click wheel sometimes hard to go a lot of artists at once, or one single click... , scratches easily, NO INCLUDED POWER/ACCESSORY CORDS. Apple is a control freak.

Get ready for a long one… I bought this ipod thinking it would be the greatest thing ever... play video, pictures, and best of all, ALL of my music! It does all of these functions fairly well, and the battery life is very good (for music; for videos, you might as well bring the power cord... that you have to BUY seperately~~). Sound on the ipod is very good too, with many different EQ settings...
Read Full Review

Get ready for a long one…


I bought this ipod thinking it would be the greatest thing ever... play video, pictures, and best of all, ALL of my music! It does all of these functions fairly well, and the battery life is very good (for music; for videos, you might as well bring the power cord... that you have to BUY seperately~~).


Sound on the ipod is very good too, with many different EQ settings enhancing the sound. I don't use the included classic earbuds becasue they never stay in my ears, but any headphones i plug up work well. I like how it automaticly pauses when you unplug the headphones, and it turns on (if hold is off) when you plug them in. The bass could be a little more pronounced, perhaps by a three-level megabass such as those on many Sony CD players. Overall, though, it sounds great.


Photo and video capability on the ipod is also great. The screen, i must say, is fantastic for such a small size. Videos play smoothely, although i have encountered slight hanging and sometimes, on full length movies (which are a TRICK to get on there~~), the lipsync becomes messed-up. Also, as i said, you can't watch many videos and/or pictures without the ipod drying up.


Playback on the ipod is fairly reliable. I have had the player lock up on me a few times, but it is a HD-based player, so this can almost be expected. Shuffle is extremely handy, although i wish the firmware would allow you to select what artists and/or genres were shuffled; sometimes i am not in the mood to hear rap, yet shuffle does not discriminate.


An improvement that is direly needed on the ipod (aside from itunes... we'll get to that in a moment~) is the way you find music. Especially on a 60gb model, where virtually zillions of songs under zillions of different artists are likely, it is very difficult to find the needed song in any moderate time frame (especially when looking for a specific song under "Songs" view). If you play the click wheel just right, it will zoom incredibly fast through the ABC-ordered songs, but it is VERY hard to get it to stop on the desired letter, much less song. Apple needs to update its firmware so that users can go directly to a letter in the alphabet, so that they don't have to scroll through ALL of the songs.


Some other things the ipod lacks is FM tuner/recorder and voice recorder. this is probably possible through some accessories, but i believe these should be givens for such a "great player". This brings me to my soapbox for ipod. My first erk is the lack of included power adapter. That is just sad. Apple is truly ripping-off America. Another turner-offer is the video-out capability. A great idea in theroy, but you can't easily do this. You have to BUY yet another accessory from Apple, a SEEMINGLY standard RCA cable. Regular RCA cables won't work. That really irritated me.


This brings me to the reasons for which i am selling the ipod. The lack of accessories i may have dealt with grudgingly. However, the hastle you have to go through to put songs ON The ipod and actually FIND them is rediculous. My first problem with itunes was the library itself. I made an attempt to delete all duplicate songs, which itunes has a handy feature which finds them. The only problem is, any songs that are remotely the same show up, and if you delete them (which i thought to be a good idea), i lost both the original copy and the duplicate song. There goes another few thousand songs from the ipod. AutoUpdate was promptly turned off.... Also, my music is organized via folders, and not all of the id3 tags are correct. To find them on the ipod, i have over 10,000 songs to go through and correct. Quite a pain.


FINALLY, when songs go onto the ipod, it renames the filename to a random 4-letter/number combination and sticks the songs into one of 50 random folders. VERY painful if you want to give a friend a few songs from the ipod, or want to put them on another computer (itunes won't let you bring songs from the ipod to your library. big surprise~). This heavily irritates me.


SOOO, even with the moderate plusses the player has to offer, i don't think it's worth the trouble of fighting Apple every time you want to put a song on, or take one off. The lack of features other players possess, such as the iAudio x5, also is a con. Finally, the extremely irritating software (itunes), lack of "drag-and-drop" capability, and no included accessories is just a simple turn-off. This is why the ipod got a 2-star rating from me; the benefits don’t even closely outweigh the hasles that you have to go through. If you’re not obsessive about being in control over your music, and how to actually FIND it, you may enjoy the very simplistic, limited-access ipod. However, for anyone else, I do not recommend.

By decankelor - Apr 28, 2006

Music and Video!

Strengths: -60 GB is hard to fill, even when putting in movies -Nice, clear, crips video and pictures

Weakness: -Price -Video can only be stored and viewed at low resolutions -Battery life for movies is short -No inclusive Video conversion tool

This has been a great gadget for trips. While you can probably only watch one full length movie without recharging, the battery life is surprisingly good for music. Setup was quick as well as interface. There are plenty of video converters for the iPod, but it does NOT come with one. It also does not have any quick DVD to iPod feature.

By kia777 - Dec 29, 2005

60GB iPod

Very good. Had problems with Win XP identifying the iPod, but this seems to be a problem with the recent XP upadates breaking the working system. The updates for XP also trashed the rest of the usb identifications.

By lough - Jun 25, 2006

I Love It

Strengths: Great sound. Great video. Easy to Use

Weakness: Wished it had a wall charger with it.

I purchased this just 3 days ago, it is my first MP3 player. I love all the neat functions. I have had no problems with the ITunes software and the battery life is excellent. I would highly recommend that you use PQ DVD program for conversion of your Video. I researched several converter programs and found this one was the only one that you did not have to be a engineer to figure out. So far I...
Read Full Review

I purchased this just 3 days ago, it is my first MP3 player. I love all the neat functions. I have had no problems with the ITunes software and the battery life is excellent. I would highly recommend that you use PQ DVD program for conversion of your Video. I researched several converter programs and found this one was the only one that you did not have to be a engineer to figure out. So far I have put 400 songs and 8 movies on my IPOD. Three tumbs up.

By russellmarta - Dec 12, 2005