Apple 80 GB iPod classic Silver (6th Generation) User reviews

**Before you read some of the negative reviews, please consider this was BEFORE the new firmware update 1.0.3 came out so unfortunately they had unresponsive clickwheels, itunes messing up etc. Also some people simply did NOT upgrade their firmware for whatever reason but A LOT of those problems have been fixed with the new firmware so UPGRADE YOUR FIRMWARE AS SOON AS YOU GET YOUR IPOD! It will make a BIG difference!**

Ok, on to the review..I just got my 80 gb ipod classic recently with a 3 year extended service plan, immediately got itunes version 7.5 and upgraded the firmware immediately to 1.0.3 which seems to have taken care of A LOT of bugs people have been reporting. It must have because I am not getting ANY of the problems other have reported such as laggy clickwheel, itunes freezing etc. The clickwheel is VERY responsive, only a light touch is needed and scrolling through cover art was very quick! No problems whatsoever with the clickwheel. I also have had no problems copying files to itunes and transferring them to my ipod. The ipod itself is a thing of beauty, love the non scratchable surface but the back of the ipod is where you can see all the fingerprints etc so get a good cover for it. The slimness of it is very sleek and heck this ipod just looks cool. I got the ipod up and running in no time after I transferred my music over. Love the search feature as well. There is a lot of features, settings and extra's. Heck I even like the clock.

PLEASE NOTE:TURN OFF & DON'T use the EQ (equalizer setting)if you want normal distortion free sound. I was using the EQ and wondered why a lot of my songs had distortion. I thought it was due to the bad sound everyone was talking about until I turned OFF the EQ. Upon turning the EQ off, the distortion vanished completely, the sound was just fine, pretty good in fact. It's a shame that you have to turn off the EQ settings to get good sound. Hopefully Apple will fix this with a firmware update.

I almost got one of the itouch ipods but the very limited space is what kept me from doing so. 80 gb is plenty of space for my music, a bit of videos etc. It might not have wifi or a touch screen but it's got tons of space for my music and that's what counts! I love my ipod classic, can't find much to be picky about except for the sound when EQ is enabled. It does exactly what it's supposed to, is easy to navigate, videos look crisp/great on it and most of all it holds a crapload of music. Just remember to upgrade your firmware to the newest version, disable EQ and invest in a good pair of headphones. One of the best things about the ipod classic is that because it has so much space, I don't have to worry about how many mp3's I put on it. I've never downloaded so many mp3's in my life! I literally put my entire collection of mp3's on it and still have tons of space left. Overall, I rate the ipod classic 80 gb (black)...absolutely superb.

Apple 8 GB iPod nano AAC/MP3 Player Blue (3rd Generation) User reviews

I bought iPod nano 2nd generation and the sound was just acceptable.

But now, the nano 3rd generation's sound is great.

You can fell the BASS. And the video is unbelievable. Now I'm satisfied with iPod.

Apple 8 GB iPod nano AAC/MP3 Player Black (3rd Generation) User Reviews

I bought iPod nano 2nd generation and the sound was just acceptable. But now, the nano 3rd generation's sound is great.

You can fell the BASS. And the video is unbelievable. Now I'm satisfied with iPod. At last, Steve.

Apple 8 GB iPod touch User Reviews

Well, let me start by saying that I ordered the Touch on a lark. Got it direct from Apple with free engraving on the back. I must say that this is a really fun toy, at 8GB its just big enough to hold my music collection (6GB), a couple of videos and still have space to cache some video streams, barely! As mentioned elsewhere, the interface is quite cute and innovative. I love a touch screen and I love how big the screen is. Ok, here's the things I love about the Touch so far:

1) Big beautiful screen
2) Touch screen interface
3) Wifi connectivity with Safari, iTunes and YouTube built right into the main screen.
4) Changeable background, finally!
5) Sleek form factor slides nicely into my pocket.
6) Don't have to use it as a cell phone.
7) Flips back and forth from landscape to portrait modes depending on how you hold it or what you are viewing.
8) Power button, thank you Apple for finally deigning to put a power button on an iPod!
9) Automatic brightness adjustment, absolute genius!
10) Seems to remember where you left off on every video on the unit, awesome feature I love it!
11) iTunes: for any iPod you have to count the flawless relationship with iTunes as a big plus, you just can't beat it for reliability, ease of use and great features (and believe me I've tried!)
12) Great Now Playing music page, the album art fills the whole screen and by tapping the middle you get immediate access to repeat and shuffle buttons. Now you can now easily shuffle just a playlist, a feature that has been hard to find on previous iPods.
13) Like any other iPod, accessories abound and are easily purchased just about anywhere!
14) Apple customer service is good imo, they stand behind their product and will replace without much hassle as I know from experience.

But of course, nothing is perfect. I give this a 5 stars because it is such a great innovation for Apple and a great product, but that doesn't mean that its without flaws and here's the ones I've noticed so far:

1) Touch screen can be a bit frustrating, often doesn't feel me and often I miss the button I'm aiming for with my fat fingers (they feel fat when trying to hit keyboard buttons on that screen anyway!). I understand that this is a "Capacitance" screen which means you can't use a stylus or your fingernail, you have to register firm contact with your flesh on the screen.
2) Screen flipping: although this is a cool concept it can be annoying sometimes. Occasionally the screen flips as I'm moving around and I didn't want it to. So I sit there twisting the thing to and from trying to get the alignment I want. Wouldn't it be nice if you could lock it into the perspective you want and it would just stay there (is anybody at Apple listening?)
3) Automatic locking: this was a particularly annoying feature, fortunately I figured out how to turn it off. Basically it would lock up the interface if I didn't mess with it for 1 minute, then I have to click power to get it back, slide to unlock, and then make my volume adjustment or whatever!
4) Weird playlist behavior: on my other iPods I select a playlist and it begins playing. This one doesn't seem to do that, and it displays the playlist in a strange touch screen friendly format which I don't really care for. I'd like to be able to display the playlist properly and I'd like to be able to tell it to start playing immediately. This interface needs work imho.
5) Its a bit overpriced for an 8GB player (compare to $199 for 8GB Nano?) so I suspect a price reduction is coming soon.
7) Hard to operate "blind", as I walk around I like to be able to pause/play or adjust volume without having to look at the screen. Very easy to do on my 5.5Gen iPod, almost impossible on the Touch. I have to pull it out of my pocket almost every time I want to pause or adjust the volume.
8) Sound quality is not quite as good as my 5.5Gen Video iPod or my Archos 605, I've tried it on speakers and headphones and the Video has just a little bit cleaner smoother sound especially at high volume.

Overall, its an awesome innovative product and if you really like having the coolest new toy (like me!) and money is not a major concern I say what are you waiting for?

2 month update: Well of course you can get cases everywhere for this thing now. Still very happy with my Touch, although I did have to send in for replacement unit due to dead battery, took about two weeks but they sent me a new one and even engraved it like my original. What the heck got a shiny new Touch for free :) I have updated my review, added a positive point, removed a couple of outdated negative points.

Apple 16 GB iPod touch User reviews

I'd like to make one thing clear from the beginning: this device is the best portable media player I've held to date (I received mine on Sept 25th). *This* is how it should be done. That doesn't mean that it can't be improved (this review shows a number of misses), but in the iPod Touch so many good things come together the right way, it's embarassing how clumsy suddenly all the other devices seem (other iPods included). I have extensive experience with a myriad of other players (I own(ed) *lots* of those: Nomad, iRiver, Zen, Rio, iPods, Zune) and now that I'm holding it, it's blindingly obvious how much better the new interface works. I am really happy with this iPod. Still, there are some annoyances, idiosyncracies and downright silly limitations in this device.

So, let's begin:
First - unless you've recently held a new 'Nano', you won't belive how thin the Touch is. The glass surface feels different from my iPod Classic (yeah, I'm a *serious* MP3 player addict, and have that one, too). I can't really put my finger on it (it's hard to resist puns like that), but it feels somewhat softer when tapping it with your finger nail. Surprisingly (for me at least) the Touch does not respond to finger nails - you need to touch the surface with your finger's skin. This can initially be confusing when you are used to pressure-sensitive touch-screens, and can become difficult when using the virtual keyboard. The touch-sensitive font plate has (so far) proven to be scratch-resistant (i've been carrying it around in my pocket for the past three days).
In my hand it feels surprisingly hefty (sonsidering it's sleekness), and it is noticeably longer than the Classic. Like most other iPods, the Touch has a polished backside that magically attract fingerprints. This backplate also holds the customized engraving that Apple applied free of charge to my iPod.

The headphone connector is on the bottom, and accepts any normal headphone jack (unlike the iPhone). The position of the connector would have been annyoing if you wanted to use it upright in a gym (natch, iPod nano!). But movies are viewed in landscape orientation, and the iPod's interface automatically detects it's orientation. Now that's design for you. The earbuds are the same that come with other new iPods (classic). They are ok, but unlikely to be your first choice. I use the those earbuds for running (with my shuffle), but third-party (B&O) earphones with the classic and touch. I'm no audiophile, so sound quality usually is good for me (this holds true for all my devices). But then, according to some people I'm only listening to trash anyway. I therefore recommend that you look at other reviews if you are in search for a tone perfect device. I like it.
Controlling the iPod is a strange - great when you are looking at it, annoying if you can't see it (i.e. if it's in your pocket). As with all touch-interfaces that have no tactile feedback there is no way to 'blindly' control it, and sadly the Touch does not have a remote nor real buttons except 'sleep' and 'home'. The Touch desperately needs some hardware volume control.

Looking at the screen I have to say that I am amazed at the clarity of the image. 3.5 inches is still too small for me to comfortably watch a lengthy movie, but the 320x480 pixel wide-screen display is stunningly crisp. I re-ripped some TV shows that I originally ripped for the Classic and watched them on the Touch. The problem is that files ripped for the Touch's resolution are roughly twice as large as for the Classic - but the Touch has only a fraction of the available storage. Thus, I can't envision myself using the Touch for lengthy movie watching - but it is excellent for watching shorter clips (while I'm no youTube fan, I do have a lot of short clips shot with my handheld camera). The Touch's sceen is very bright - I can't confirm initial reports of 'inverse black' or other artifacts. It appears to have a light sensor built-in that dims the screen when in darker surroundings, and brightens the screen when in the sun. One small annoyance though: there is no way to control a movie's contrast. The docs claim that the Touch can play 5 hours of video on a single charge. I'm prepared to take this on face value - I'm certainly not going to stare into that small screen for so long just to verify this. It's long enough for one-and-half normal movies, but won't last a transatlantic. Nor would my eyes, though.

Coverflow is drop-dead beautiful, and a real show-off. It requires that you add artwork for all your CD-ripped tunes, though. Otherwise missing covers are replaced by generic grey ones. It's a great way to browse your music if you don't know what you want to hear next. It's a silly way to look for a particular album, though. For this, however, you can still (luckily) use the normal artist/album/song browser with the (again drop-dead intuitive) new gesture-based interface. It works reall, really well.
Like all iPods the Touch can play a large variety of file formats with the (expected) exceptions of WMA (protected and otherwise) and Ogg. I don't have to add that it plays AAC protected (iTunes). It can also display an impressive array of image and movie formats, even though I have the suspiction that some of the listed formats are transcoded on-the-fly by iTunes during sync.
The Touch provides video out signals that can be set to either NTSC or PAL. For Europeans like me this is very important, but may be of limited use for people living in the US. What *really* annoyed me was the fact that Apple chose to change the video out cabling, and thus forced me to purchase new cables to connect the Touch to TV sets or beamers. On the up side, the Touch does work with my (Audi) car integration without any changes.

iTunes integration is exemplary, as expected (this is the part that break most other digital music players: integration with your media library). Synching the Touch with a computer works like with any other iPod: Plug it in, iTunes starts, and you select the stuff you want synched. A strange relict from the 5G iPods: I found out that unlike the newer iPods, the Touch can't use playlist groups. Annoying (my best playlists are built from smaller lists).
While synching the Touch I encountered my first big disappointment: no wireless synching. I would have expected this ability, or at least the ability to connect to a shared iTunes library on my home network (I have a wireless access point at home). Alas, no. The iPod must be physically connected to synch and cannot wirelessly connect to a shared iTunes library. When you synch you can choose to synch music, movies, photos, contacts, web bookmarks, and calendars. Sadly, you can't sync notes (why the heck not?). Synching is done with USB 2.0 (sadly not FireWire) using the Apple-provided USB Dock Connector (no standard USB connector).

When looking for the 'enable disk use' checkbox I was baffled to find out that the Touch can't be used as a mass storage - unlike any other iPod I own, and with the exception of Zune unlike any other digital music player I own. Why? (I suspect this is to lock down the device to prohibit tinkering with it. It feels like an arbitrary, spiteful limitation, though).
The interface is largely similar to the iPhone. It's not as ghastly colorful as the new (G6) iPod interface, but still uses a little too much colors for my taste (I *really* liked the G5 color interface). The gesture/finger-based interface is easy to learn, and is even more intuitive than using a mouse (it took about one 'pinch' and one 'flick' to convince me). As I mentioned above, the drawback is that there is no tactile feedback, so you must always look at the screen while changing a setting (e.g. volume, skip, rewind). The virtual keyboard is OK to use, and I'm happy to see that it automatically changed to Switzerland's 'QWERTZ' layout. So far, fingerprints on the surface have been a non-issue for me (they do look ugly on the back side, though). The keyboard has an optional 'clicker' that provides (very welcome) aural feedback when you press a key (as the other iPods, the Touch has a small clicker built in that can produce simple sounds).
As iPods before it, there are some additional applications provided, updated for the touch interface: Calendar, Calculator (this one is new), Contacts, Settings, and Clock. Calendar holds one the most unfortunate, narrow-sighted and arbitrary product decisions Apple has made in a long time: you can't add new Events. The reason this is unacceptable to me is because the exact same application on the iPhone *has* this ability, and it was taken out as a concious decision; it was not an oversight. Clearly this is an attempt at artificially differenciate the Touch from the iPhone. Shame on Apple - I really hope that subsequent updates will rectify this.
Another disappointment is that there is no Notes application, as this would have been a natural for the gestured-based interface and virtual keyboard. Again, this application exists for the iPhone, but was removed. Sad, sad, sad. In the same vein, it would have been great if I could load PDF documents for off-line viewing onto the touch -- Safari comes with an *excellent* PDF viewer (presumably the Touch's version of Preview). I'm using this feature through a work-around: convert a document to PDF, publish it on my home Mac's web server, and then load it in the Touch's Safari (e.g. 'http://mintel.local/myDoc.pdf'). That way I can read this document offline (did so this morning while being driven to a meeting) - but only this one PDF document can be in-memory. I tried to open a second browser window, and the first document was not retained in the cache, forcing a re-load. So a document viewer (and PDF management from iTunes?) would be a great addition.
Also, the games that I had to re-purchase for my Classic (yes, re-purchased because the Classic can't use games for the 5.5G iPod) will *NOT* run on the Touch. Arrrgh! It looks as if I'll have to re-re-purchase those games again (I'm addicted to Bejeweled and Sudoku).

Up until here, the Touch has been a natural evolution of the iPod -- the first, and long-awaited 'true video iPod'. But the Touch offers one more thing that I feel makes it a killer product: productive WiFi integration. I'm not talking about some half-baked song sharing feature (although that would have been welcome too) but actual useful net access.

WiFi
The Touch has 802.11b/g (but not 'n') WiFi built-in that can connect to the internet through normal hotspots. Since you can expect the iPod to be in many different locations, hooking it up to hotspots is an important feature that must be easy to use. The Touch can (and will) remember hotspots it has connected to, and asks when it connects to a new hotspot very much like your Laptop does. Connecting to open Hotspots is a snap: scan surroundings, pick from list, (enter password when protected), connect. You can turn it off for airplane travel or to conserve battery life.
You connect to protected hotspots (using the virtual keyboard for password entry). Also you can use Safari for those annoying web-page-to-enter-billing-info based hotspots that hotels seem to like (and every one else hates). Connecting to a closed and secure WLAN is a bit more complex. My WLAN is configured to require any device to be known by MAC address, and looking up this info wasn't as intuitive as I thought it would be (I found it in the Info tab). I then entered Network Name and Password, and a few seconds later, my Touch had access to my WLAN.
But what is so special about WiFi? To me, having access to the Web is a killer feature. I'm not talking about music here - but access to Google (but not the Google Apps just yet), Wikipedia, CNN, Amazon, and my web mail account. With just a little tap on the screen I can look at news, check my mail, track a package, fire off a note to someone, or answer a silly question that just entered my head. Anywhere, anytime (when in range of a hotspot. In Switzerland that's practically everywhere). To repeat: this is a killer feature. It turns this digital media player into a nearly fully fledged PDA.
The Touch version of Safari is great (even though Google Docs does not yet support it, and there currently is no support for Flash), and very responsive. Using the virtual keyboard takes some time to getting used to (again the missing tactile feedback is annoying). Navigating the web is quick (provided you have a good connection), and using the gestures to move the obscured parts of web pages into view becomes natural after only a few moments.
The touch also comes with a special version of iTunes, the 'WiFi Music Store'. It allows you to instantly purchase a song (very, very nice). Strangely, once you sync, songs purchased with the Touch will appear in their own 'Purchased on Touch' group (what on earth for?) in your main (iTunes) library. The WiFi store's selection does not provide access to PodCasts (lame!), nor any video content. And don't get me started on iPod games again... Still, navigating the WiFi Store is natural, and the design is intuitive. It's also very robust -- I purchased a 75 track (classic) compilation using the WiFi store. Of course, some time during the transfer the connection dropped, and I switched off the Touch. Later, at home, the Touch resumed download as soon as it re-connected to the net. The WiFi iTunes store is also where allegedly the 'Starbucks Thing' is happening. I'm (somewhat) sorry to say that I havn't tried out this feature beacuse a) I don't frequent Starbucks and b) even if I did, Switzerland is not yet upgraded for this feature anyways.
So let's look at the remaining applications: I'm (again) seriously disappointed to see that Apple chose to cut Mail from the application list (the Touch would have been a great Blackberry replacement - and arguably might be too close a competitor to the iPhone if it had that feature), but at least I can use web mail as a work-around. Apple does include a dedicated youTube application which I have to admit I never used. I simply don't "get" youTube.

Summary:
The Touch is (currently) the best flash-based media player around, with a stunning (even revolutionary) new gesture-based user interface that works. I would have welcomed a significantly larger main storage, but it's very good as it is now. As a media player it's main drawback derives from the purely touch-based interface: it could have profited from a tactive rotary controller for 'blind' control. The feature that separates the Touch from the rest is the addition of another killer feature: WiFi web browsing. WiFi based music purchase is a nice bonus.
The Touch also comes with a number of (sometimes artificial) limitations that I hope will be resolved in the future. All in all I'm very, very satisfied with the Touch, even though the Touch experience can clearly be improved (e.g. by removing application restrictions, being able to pull in shared iTunes Libraries, sharing songs wirelessly, syncing wirelessly etc.).

PLUS
- great "video" iPod
- WiFi web browsing with Safari (killer feature)
- wide range of supported file formats (audio, video, images)
- great display
- phenomenally sharp images
- drop-dead gesture/touch interface
- both NTSC and PAL video out (important for us Europeans).
- iTunes store wirelessly
- TV PAL and NTSC out

MINUS
- no playlist groups
- difficult to use 'blind'
- no contrast control for movies
- no disk mode (huh???)
- non-standard AV connector (again!)
- artificial limitations on Calendar application
- no Mail, Notes, Games applications
- can't access iTunes shared libraries on WLAN
- can't share songs with other Touch iPods
- no wireless synching
- 16GB can be awfully small when ripping movies for Touch's resolution
- no WiFi iTunes PodCasts

Things I'd like to see in updates
- Wireless Sync
- Access to iTunes shared Libraries
- Notes
- Off-line viewing of PDF documents
- Games
- Third-party software development kit (SDK)

Apple 80 GB iPod classic (Black) User reviews

This is my third iPod. My first iPod was a 4G 40GB, my second was a 5G 60GB.

When I upgraded from the 4G to 5G it was a big improvement. I absolutely loved the new features such as color, photos, video, album art, etc...

Unfortunately my upgrade to the 80GB iPod `Classic' has been nothing but a big disappointment. When I heard Apple was about to release a new line of iPods I sold my 5G and was eagerly awaiting Jobs' keynote. First I must admit I was very disappointed they didn't release a high capacity `Touch'... I mean really disappointed... Although I strongly desire all the amazing features of the `Touch' such as WiFi and the fullscreen touch screen, my first requirement would be enough capacity to hold my entire 63 GB music library. I settled for the 80GB `Classic' since I was iPodless.

My first reaction with the iPod `Classic' was that it looked like a much sexier 5G iPod. This 80GB unit was noticeably thinner. The brushed aluminum front looked really great too. Unfortunately it was all downhill from there:

* The `Classic' does not come with the little sleeve case that 5G's came with.

* The screen is slightly lower than the brushed metal front and I am concerned it will begin to collect dust around the edges.

* The click wheel is HORRIBLE (what the hell happened) it completely lacks response and sensitivity. My 5G 60GB was so easy to navigate and after over a week of using my new `Classic' I find it the biggest pain to navigate. For this reason alone I wish I had my old 60GB 5G back.

* Coverflow... I was really looking forward to this feature. I make a lot of effort to maintain my music library and I'd say 95%+ of my music has cover art. Unfortunately the coverflow is so slow and laggy that it renders the feature completely gimmicky and not functional. When I flow through albums all I see are "question mark albums" and it takes a few seconds for the actual album covers to replace the "question mark albums".

* Another big disappointment is that you are no longer able to view album covers full screen as you are playing a song. (You used to be able to do this by clicking the middle button a few times when playing a song)...

* Also overall I find the GUI pretty slow when browsing my library... Sometimes it takes a few seconds to view the next layer of navigation when you push the button.

* I think Apple added some cool visual aspects to the GUI like animation in between menus etc.... Unfortunately these are sometimes choppy making me wish I just had the simple less-fancy old menus back.

* My iPod has frozen a few times. Sometimes I can scroll through the main menu but when I actually click on something (such as Music, Podcasts, or Extras) nothing actually happens...

So yes I am terribly disappointed with the iPod `Classic'. Keep in mind that this level of disappointment is relative to the high level of quality I expect from Apple on their iPod line. Although I am really disappointed this is probably still the best high capacity music player on the market. (Definitely better than the Zune)... It just isn't much better than (and is actually worse) than the 5G Video iPod. So my advice: if you currently have a 5G or 5.5G and are considering upgrading, don't, wait for Apple to release something better.

UPDATE: (9/18/2007)
I previously mentioned that the Classic doesn't come with the white sleeve/case that 5G's came with. Now I know why. When the 5G iPods are in the sleeve the click wheel is still functional.. if you press your finger against it you can pause, skip the track, adjust the volume, etc... (granted you can't see the screen).. Today I tried this with the Classic (in the old 5G sleeve) I can no longer adjust the volume on the iPod when the sleeve is on. I wonder if this is related to the overall click-wheel problem.

UPDATE: (9/19/2007)
Games purchased from the iTunes store for older iPods ARE NOT compatible with the Classic. This means the $20 I spent on four games for my previous iPod is completely wasted. Apple has said to customers that they must 're-purchase' the games in the new compatible format.

UPDATE: (9/20/2007)
I've added a video demonstration to show how slow and sluggish the cover flow feature is. The demo is using the new firmware update which supposedly addressed the cover flow issue.

UPDATE: (9/25/2007)
Two more issues are really annoying me. If anyone knows a solution/fix for either of them please post it in this review's comment section.

1) If you are playing a song and you don't touch any buttons for a while (after the backlight has already turned off) the clock "screensaver" comes on and you cannot see what is currently being played. This is particularly annoying when I am shuffling through all my songs and I have to touch the clickwheel just to disengage the "screen saver" to see what song is being played.

2) When I charge the iPod via USB (using Vista) the backlight on the iPod is ALWAYS on and there is no way to turn it off. So when I charge the unit overnight the backlight is still on when I wake up in the morning.

Update: (10/1/2007)
see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK-rDeD1Lfk

Update: (11/6/2007)
So my iPod totally died... Or rather the screen died. It was covered under warranty and Apple ultimately sent me a brand new iPod Classic. Apple Support handled the issue very fast and efficiently. The scroll wheel on my 'new' Classic is PERFECT!!! It's just as good as the old iPods, I was truly surprised... Also it generally seems to be running much better. Has Apple modified the hardware since the initial release? Or is this all a matter of a software fix? Either way I am much happier with the Classic. (On another note I recently switched to the iPhone and it is the best thing ever!!! 6 out of 5 stars)

Apple 4 GB iPod nano AAC/MP3 Player Silver (3rd Generation) User Reviews

Well I must say, it has taken me all this time to finally succumb to owning an Ipod. When these new little gems came out, I just couldn't resist it. I think it's the best MP3 player I've ever owned, and I've owned quite a few. I'm very impressed with Apple overall, and can see why these are so popular. I love the design and the amazingly brilliant screen.

The cover flow is a really cool feature and I'm really happy I can get a flash Ipod with pretty much the same features as a hard drive Ipod (classic). The best feature for me is the shuffle mode. I usually like to put my music on random and this player lets you access the shuffle mode easily and change it easily. I also like the 3 games that are included. Two of them are really fun, but I'm not as big a fan of the solitaire knockoff, but that's just me. I've never been as much a fan of hard drive MP3 players since mine always seemed to freeze and they are more delicate due to the moving parts, so I wasn't really interested in getting a Classic even though you get more GB for your $. This 4GB Nano is perfect for me since I really don't need much more space than that and I feel I'm not throwing money away. I couldn't see myself ever filling up 80GB of space if I got a Classic, especially not in time for when (inevitably) the next version of the Ipod comes out that I will probably want! I have another MP3 player that I use for my car that is a little bigger and hard drive based, so this is my travel player to use when I'm out and about or exercising. The size is perfect, and I actually prefer the more square design to the long design of the previous Nano. It holds just enough files and keeps me from putting too much music on it that I don't really want to listen to after a while. I've put about 3GB of music on and left the other 1GB for photos, videos, etc. I doubt I'll ever watch movies on it since it's kind of a small screen (and the PSP is much better for that) but I have added some music videos and maybe will add some TV shows. Like another reviewer said, it would be nice if these were offered in other colors too, but it's not that big a deal to me and definitely not enough to stop me from buying it. Silver is a good neutral color, so I'm happy with it. Anyway, I think this is a great deal for $149 and really is worth every penny!