Customer Reviews

Apple 40 GB iPod from HP (MP103)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

First, this HP iPod is the same as the Apple iPod. There is an Apple store 1 block from my office and I took it in and compared them. The ONLY difference in the unit itself is a smal HP logo on the back.

I bought this simply because it was in stock and the "Apple" version wasn't, no other reason.

I really like my iPod for all the reasons everyone else does..it's elegant, works well, holds a ton of music, etc. That said, here are a few cons I thought I'd mention...

-Using the device as a hard-drive in Windows requires a setting that makes you "eject" each time you disconnect the cable. Seems like an odd extra step.

-USB connection charges the battery, Firewire doesn't.

-There are fewer cases/covers available for this new design without the buttons above the selector wheel. These things scratch so easily you need a case.

-Sometimes the wrong song title appears on the display, even though the file has the correct one in iTunes.

I also have a few issues with iTunes 4.6 for Windows, a key component of the iPod:

-The screen doesn't refresh automatically, showing a different song playing than actually is. Sometimes I get gibberish on the screen.

-The music store is often quite slow to respond to searches or even hangs.

-There's not enough information on the music to make purchase decisions, so I find myself browsing at Amazon and then buying at iTunes.

-Different iTunes songs have different volume levels. I think there's a setting to make them all the same, but I haven't found it.

-It's hard to synch all your music onto multiple computers. I would like to have my music on my iPod, work laptop, and home desktop. Getting them all the same isn't easy.

-You really have to watch pricing on albums. Most albums cost $9.99 and most songs cost 99 cents. If there are less than 10 songs on an album, you still get charged $9.99, even if you could get all the songs individually for less.

-I had one of the original Rio MP3 players and ripped a lot of songs using their software, which combined song-album-artist into one field. iTunes doesn't parse these when importing.

-If I import music from a CD without an Internet connection, iTunes doesn't go to the CDDB later when I do have a connection to get track info.

Despite all the above, I'm really enjoying my iPod, I just wanted to point out a few of the shortcomings in the hopes that Apple would address.

This is a great product but there is a difference in support between HP and Apple iPods. I was having problems with iTunes not correctly importing my song ID tags (see below) so I called HP. HP told me that it does not support iTunes, and then I called Apple and they told me that they do not support iTunes for HP iPods-Only Apple iPods!!! Apple verifies that you have an Apple iPod by the serial number, which they require for tech support. Further, I believe iTunes is the only application that you can use with the new iPods, so you don't have a choice to use a program that works better for you. What are they thinking??? I hope they correct this issue as soon as possible.

I believe iTunes may need some fine tuning because my song tags were fine on my old iPod (2G), MusicMatch, Windows Explorer, XPlay, etc., but when I imported the songs into iTunes, many of my songs (a couple hundred of them) had extra spaces at the end of artist, album, and track names, and some genres changed among other issues. It looks like iTunes reverted the songs to their original tags from long ago. It took a couple of hours to get them back the way I had them.

I researched mp3 players for months and months, spent hours in electronics stores, read all the Amazon reviews, and never once considered an iPod. Just some sort of Apple prejudice from my formative years, I guess.

Then I ran into a review for one of the myriad OTHER non-Apple mp3 players on Amazon that basically said, "Get an iPod. You'll be happy you did. Apple just does things right." I looked into the iPod, and after my initial sticker shock I realized the reviewer had been right. Instead of completely revamping designs every year or two, or coming out with esoteric new models with new gimmicks attached to them, Apple has spent the past 5 or so years PERFECTING the iPod. It is truly a beautiful machine, from the pristine exterior to the elegant controls and interface. Case in point--if you pull out the headphones while a song is playing, the player automatically PAUSES the song, and lets you restart it when the phones are back in. This is but one example of the many thoughtful features of the iPod that other manufacturers couldn't even get their kludgy machines to do.

There was a learning curve for me, what with converting everything into iTunes and all, but the trouble it took was FAR outweighed by the pleasure of owning such a stunning piece of electronics. I am sure the iPod will only get better as Apple keeps making new models.

That said, I have some advice for anyone thinking of buying one:

A) Research and choose a case for your iPod BEFORE you bring it home. They're beatiful, but extremely prone to scratches. And you'll want to use it immediately. The case I bought (after a month of searching) was the iSkin eVo2, which came with a screen guard and a click wheel guard. There are products out there that will buff out scraches and dull areas out of your iPod, but getting them on there in the first place just feels bad.

B) It's also a good idea to research how to best extend the life of your iPod's battery. There are proven techniques that can help avert premature battery drain, which is apparently a complaint of some iPod users, due to the non-user-replaceable battery.

My only two (extremely minor) complaints are: ONE, with the player in your pocket, you have to put your hand all the way AROUND the player to access the controls. That's in contrast to having some or all controls available on the top of the unit. But, they make a plug-in device that puts supplementary controls on the top of the iPod now, so there you go.

TWO, unlike other media players, iTunes does not display song titles on the task bar. It's a minor pain to have to click over from what you're doing just to figure out who's singing. On the other hand, with the player minimized and set to "On Top Always", you don't have to deal with that, either.

Buy an iPod. I'm serious. I don't give perfect ratings on anything, but truly the iPod is one of few things in this world close to perfection.

Enjoy!

I bought the 40GB iPod from HP with the intention of putting my entire music collection on it. I was successful. It turned out I only had about 2700 tracks of music (which I thought was a lot at the time), and am only using a little less than a quarter of the the capacity of the 40GB. I really could have saved some money by getting the 20GB model instead. Lesson learned: Take the time to count how many tracks you'll be storing and then select the correct capacity leaving some room for future expansion.

As far as the operation and sound quality go, I am 100% satisfied.

Be prepared to purchase some 'armor' for your iPod. I bought both the silicon and the leather versions of cases. The silicon armor is tough to get on and off of the iPod, but offers pretty good shock and dust protection. The leather armor is easier to take off but it more readily allows dust to get trapped against the iPod screen. I found that you have to remove the armor if you want to use a docking station.

One last note... you will probably want to get speakers to share your iPod music collection with others. Many brands are available, but I'll leave that up to your research.

I have seem so many bad reviews for both the 20GB version of +HP Ipods and the 40 GB version of +hp Ipods. The reviewer seems to not understand the whole concept of the technology share venture between HP and Apple. Apple has good design, HP has its manufacturing and Marketing power. Its a natural combination!
I've been wanting to buy an ipod for quite a while now and IT IS very difficult to find an APPLE brand 20 GB 4th Gen Ipod! Apple simply can't keep up with the demand! The +HP brand Ipod is EXACTLY the same as the Apple Brand Ipod. The only few difference are listed here
- HP Logo at the back of ipod player (Nothing serious here)
- HP support (Not bad either, 24/7 with quick pickup)
- Allows HP Ipod custom printable skins (Nice addition, but the skins would probablly work on regular Apple IPods as well).
- PC Softwares (Does this really matter? +HP ipod would also work on Macs if you download itune for macs)

People kept on complaining about no WMA support. Remember Apple IPOD design is a copyrighted design by apple. If apple don't want to offer WMA support, there is nothing HP can do about it! HP simply helps the manufacturing and distribution!!! Nothing else. BTW, Hp invented is simply a catchy marketing phrase. The main core business of HP is printers and computers, did HP invent either one of these??? Don't concentrate too much on their marketing techniques, what really matters is the product.

Everything else is exactly the same! Even the apple logo still exist on the back of this ipod player.

So the only big difference I can see is apple support or HP support. To me, I don't really care. But if you really want Apple support don't get this. Otherwise don't look any further.

I own a 20G HP ipod...well own is a relative term I think it has spent more time at Hp then with me. I realize this is a different item, but I would like to warn everyone. My original Ipod which I received Dec 2004 broke in March, and was sent back, due to it continually skipping through songs. I received another one from Hp which lasted until...November 2005. That one just crapped out and showed me a file with an exclamation point that meant..the Hard drive had crapped out..so once again I sat on the phone with HP for hours doing what they asked me to before they would agree to service it. So I again sent it back. Well now on my third Ipod in 13 months and guess what???? It too is broken. The click wheel wouldn't work, it froze on certain songs and the computer didn't recognize that it was plugged into it. So after spending hours on the phone with HP for the third time, they offered another refurbished replacement. After I continued to complain they told me there was nothing further to be done because none of the problems were related. I did ask how that had any relevance considering these were three differenct ipods two of which they had sent me as replacements..they had no answer. Only that if I had yet another problem, which I am confident I will..then they will try to offer some other trade. And you can forget about getting an extended warranty they will only give you an extra 30 days from the time you get the new one. Buyer Beware!!! I love my IPOD it's just unfortunate that I have had such a crappy time with its actual perfomance.

I purchased the 40gb iPod about a week ago. My previous MP3 player was a Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox 20gb version. I finally decided to upgrade because the Nomad has a horrible battery life. It would rarely hold a charge over 2 hours, so I decided it was time to upgrade to a new MP3 player.

I've been following the iPod for quite awhile and was very impressed with all of it's positive reviews. Especially the sound quality and it's battery life. When the new HP+ version of the iPod was released I decided it was time to buy. Apon checking my local retailer and online, there really wasn't much of a price difference so I decided to buy locally and save the time it takes for shipping.

There are two versions of the HP+ iPod. There is a 20-gigabyte version and a 40-gigabyte version with about a $100 price difference. I had originally planned on buying the 20gb model because I only have about 10 gigs of music and just don't need all that extra space. Apon closer examination I found the 40gb model also included a dock for easy syncing with my PC. Separately the dock costs $39.95 and I was going to buy one anyways. So for only $60 more I could have 20 more gigs of space. That's great to have if I ever needed to back up any large files from my desktop.

The iPod was very well packaged. There wasn't a lot of garbage plastic and annoying ads telling me to buy accessories. The documentation included with the unit was concise and easy to follow. I had the unit up and charging in minutes although Windows XP did require a reboot to finalize the driver installation when I first plugged it in.

The sound is incredible! My old Nomad Jukebox was junk compared to this player. I'm not sure what Apple has done to make sound quality this good, but it has to be heard to be believed. The iPod's control wheel does take a little bit of getting used to but I quickly learned it can be completely controlled with just one hand. I'm left handed and haven't had any problems with it. It's also touch sensitive. Just lightly rubbing the wheel clockwise or counter-clockwise will adjust the volume or scroll through the iPod's menus. The iPod's casing feels very rugged and strong. I wouldn't recommend dropping it, but I think if I did it would survive.

Apple has designed this unit with simplicity in mind. There are only two ports on the unit. One is for the headphones and the other one can be used by the firewire or USB 2.0 cable. It automatically charges it's self through this cable and doesn't have to be plugged in. If you do wish to charge it through a wall socket, an included hybrid power adaptor is included. It's basically a plug-in adaptor with a firewire port.

I was not impressed with the earbud headphones. Not that they have bad sound quality, quite the opposite, they sound excellent but they just won't stay in place for me. Wrap around headphones should have been included. I know earbuds are quite popular right now, but I really have problems with them. I had an ear operation a number of years ago and just don't have the ear support to keep them in place. I've had to use wrap around earphones for years, which is no big deal since I already have a pair that I bought to use with my old MP3 player.

The bundled software is basic. It's just one program, but it's very versatile. It's called iTunes. There is a little bit of a learning curve, but I got the hang of it in about an hour or so. iTunes automatically sorts all of your music into three categories. Genre, Artist and Album. This makes it easy to find music fast. Burning music to the iPod is a breeze. Just drop your CD into the computer and iTunes automatically updates the album name, tracks and artists for you. Just click the copy to iPod button and iTunes takes care of the rest! Play lists are easy to create and upload to the iPod. I have a travel play list for on the road, and a home play list for around the house. iTunes also gives you the option to preview and download music online. There is quite a variety of music to choose from. Whatever your taste in music, there is something for everyone. I've already downloaded three songs and they only cost $.99 a piece. (Sure I could have gotten them for free, but I have a conscience) Entire albums can be downloaded for $9.99. To pay for the music iTunes can either charge a valid credit card or an active America Online account.

Positives:

- iPod has the best sound I've heard
- 40gb version is the best deal and includes a dock.
- The dock is extremely handy and almost required
- Can display .txt, calendar and contact files
- Works as a backup hard drive
- Excellent battery life
- Built in games

Negatives:
- High Price
- Earbud Headphones
- Only Firewire & USB 2.0 Compatible (No USB 1.1)
- Can only be configured with one computer (No Swapping between 2)

Even with a few minor negatives this iPod gets 5 stars. It's the best MP3 player out there!

Despite the advertising, this ipod (and the 10 gb model, judging by posts elsewhere), is not suitable for active people. The music is stored on a hard drive, which functions only when it is still. To get around this, the unit has a "skip protection" memory buffer advertised to last 25 minutes. The buffer works for only 17 minutes, then the unit locks up and must be rebooted. Mine wouldn't reboot for a long time-- until long after I had finished my workout! Unless you need huge storage capacity, stick with a flash memory mp3 player or casette tapes.

Just a correction to another review - I have the 4G 40 Gig Apple iPod, and it DOES include both USB and Firewire cables. I've seen this one too, and it's another fine product (but then, it's pretty much the same thing as Apple's product, since HP licensed it from Apple.)

No worries, when you order this item it comes with "ipod for PC" emblazened all over it, but it still works just the same on your mac. If you would like to go thru hp and get their warranty, feel free, i don't know if it's better than apple's and i don't know if there's an hp equivilent to "applecare" but with hp's marketing muscle, there will now no longer be problems getting ipods. I had to wait weeks for amazon to even have this item, but now that it's here, i'm in nirvana. :)