Manufacturer: Apple Computer Model#: M8946LL Weight: 5..6lbs Height: 4..1"     Width: 2..4" Length: " Average Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars	Retail Price: Unavailable Online Sale Price:
Features: Discontinued by manufacturer, replaced by model #M9244LL/A Mac and Windows compatible; FireWire and USB 2.0 interface for fastest digital transfer available Equipped with a range of built-in utilities and games More than 8 hour battery life on a 3 hour charge (1-hour fast charge to 80% capacity) Features redesigned and backlit navigation; includes earbud headphones, AC adapter, FireWire cable, 4-pin-to-6-pin FireWire adapter

User Submitted Apple iPod 15 GB White M8946LL/A (3rd Generation) OLD MODEL Reviews (cont...)

(i)Personally, i think synchronization is the most important of all for mp3 players. Why getting a 60Gb mp3 player if u would have to wait for an hour everytime u sync with USB? Synchronization is never be better in other mp3 players. First of all, ipod can be connected thru FireWire (which is really really faster than USB!!). I'd switched to use iTunes for Windows and it really enhances synchronization. I was using MusicMatch before but synchronization is much slower compared by using iTunes (Using Music Match, i have to wait for average of 20 mins to let Music match get organized before sync, but using iTunes, i only have to wait for about 1 minute before it starts synchronizing)

(ii) Lazy to organize your songs ?? Most people do not have time in organizing their songs (especially if u have more than Gigabytes of songs from thousands of artists and albums!)and in this, iTunes really helps. Just click on 'Preference' in iTunes, 'Advanced' and click 'Keep iTunes Music folder organized'. iTunes will then organize all your songs according to their albums and artists, and everytime u made changes in iTunes, they will change it in your file name as well. You only have to name them once, and that's simple (Recalling when i was using Music match, i would have to rename all songs in Musicmatch, and the file names as well!)

(iii) Smart playlist (again, only for iPod and iTunes user!). I realized that most mp3 players do not provide convenient playlist. In iTunes, you can create so called 'smart playlist', which enables u to create unlimited amount playlists according to your preferences. For instance, u can create a playlist that would only include songs that are rated '5 stars' (Those u like the most). Not only that, everytime u made changes, iTunes will automatically update your playlist as well. (for e.g., when u changed a song from 5 stars to 4 stars, that song would be removed from the 5 stars' list and added to 4 stars' list). There are much more options to choose, for e.g year of publication (so u can listen to songs of the year), songs that u never played before, genre, bit rate..etc

(iv) Thanks for the FireWire, I can play songs in my iPod from any Macs in school, friend's house..etc. Once connected, the iPod acts as a hard disk, which enables me to choose and play songs from iTunes on the computer. For sure, it's much easier to choose a song to play in a music player rather than on a mp3 player. Besides that, it charges my ipod when i connect it to computer, thus I dont have to worry bout battery life when listening to iPod in school.

(v) Transfering files into iPod is very convenient. Once connected, I can open my files in iPod, transfering it to other computers or vice versa, with blazing speed (Usually just take seconds to transfer). Imagine having 10/20/40Gb of files in your iPod and bringing it wherever u want.

(vi)Touch sensitive buttons (which others dont have!). All buttons are touch sensitive and it's so convenient to click or scoll.. , and besides that, the non-moving parts enhances the anti-shock period and prevent from dust, liquid etc from entering ur buttons.

(vii)Why wake up with beeping alarms if u can wake up with your favourite music from iPod?? Imagine waking up with your favourite music everyday... i doubt u would 'snooze' this alarm.

(viii)This may not applicable to most of u, but it really surprises me when i realize that iPod could read and display chinese characters when they play chinese songs. I wonder if others could do that.

Cons: I should have bought the 40Gb iPod.. as I didn't expect file transfering to hard disk is that simple. (If u do the math, it's more or less costly to buy an external hard disk in such a small size!)

Enjoy your iPod.. u'll definitely LOVE it!

Date: 2003-10-29
Download iTunes
As a Windows user Music Match was the worst part about the iPod. I had so many problems I thought the iPod was broken. I then downloaded iTunes 4 from the Apple website. No more issues. Car adapter from Belkin is great. This has been great on all the trips I've been doing.

Date: 2003-10-15
You've bought a MP3 PDA with a disk drive and a buggy OS
Check out the IPod's support website and you'll see what I mean. The other issue is: Do I really want to WORK this hard to play a few tunes when I go jogging? I don't want to download any firmware or resynchronize, I just want to turn the device on and play music. I don't want to obsess about whether I really have enough charge to last a few hours, or not, maybe. I just want to turn on the device and play music. If you stay with this product, you might begin to wonder if you're doing product research or OS beta testing for Apple, particularly if you're one of those people who discovers issues with sleep mode, non-recognition of your IPod device by the computer or the software, or can't seem to charge the battery enough even though the PDA says it's sort of charged, maybe. In my opinion, these are BASIC issues that a company should deal with in a product BEFORE sending it to market. Imagine having to constantly worry about your computer laptop not working because it may not be able to figure out if it has been fully charged or not? What happened to the idea of: "I put in a battery and the device runs for X hours, and then I recharge the battery"? Imagine paying three hundred plus dollars for a piece of unfinished technology and feeling a debt of gratitude. Doesn't make sense. For this price, the device should work. If I have to work this hard to make it work, it had better cost under a hundred dollars since I'm doing their job helping them get the bugs ironed out. Take a look at all the comments with the positive ratings which make such obsequious concessions to a flawed product. The reality is this is not a finished product. It looks nice, but in practice, it's not a finished product, at least for this Windows user. I get better results with MP3s stored in SD memory on my Windows Pocket PC. Try again, Apple.

Date: 2003-10-05
My favorite thing....
I really, really love my iPod. I've had mine for about 7 months now and use it every single day. So far, my colletion is only about three and half gigs of MP3 files so everything fits onto the hard drive very comfortably. The battery life is more than acceptable, even though I use the backlight almost constantly. There are a few words of advice that people should consider before they buy one. First, you simply must have USB 2.0 or Firewire to use this. In theory, you could use this with USB1.1 but the transfers are painfully slow. You could just as quickly burn your music on a CD to take somewhere. Second, MusicMatch works for synchronizing with PCs but there are much, much better programs such as XPlay. Third, this thing will scratch!! You should really pay a little more for the carrying case by Apple. I really wish I had because this masterpiece of consumer design is now very dinged, scratched, and beaten...but it still plays beautifully, which is what counts most. Like I said, I use it every day and learn new reasons for loving it every time I turn it on. It is impossible to be dissappointed by iPod.

Date: 2003-09-22
Best Mp3 Player.
There is nothing in the market to beat the Ipod. I tried a Nomad Jukebox, before I bought my ipod (15gb - Windows firewire). Nothing better than it. I have most the songs loaded from my Comp and it works like a charm. This is the best mp3 player I ever had. could have /should have bought the 30Gig one...but i am really happy with the space on the this one.