Customer Reviews

Apple iPod 40 GB Photo M9585LL/A White (4th Generation) OLD MODEL

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Yes, unlike other reviewers, I do own a 40gig iPod Photo (as of 10/04)... and yes I do also own a regular 3G 15gig iPod (plus I'm not pushing IP Address harvesting scams like the "free iPod" reviews)... so this was quite an expensive UPGRADE decision for me...so this review is geared towards those struggling with an upgrade decision (for those who own a smaller/lighter 10-20gig music iPod)...I own both PC and Mac formats.

1) BOTTOM LINE: Although \very, very\ cool, I do not believe the trade-offs between the large size/weight and photo capability & extra battery life... are worth the enormous price (which includes a software purchase). Yes my 4 star rating is entirely based on how much incremental "stuff" you get versus what you have to fork over. But if money is not an object and you already own the larger/heavier 40gig variety, this becomes a "NO-BRAINER" upgrade - the `wow' factor is huge. If you travel quite a bit for business like I do, this is also a good addition to keep you company during trips.

2) PHOTO QUALITY: Good to "pretty good".. but not excellent... I do realize the size of the screen is only 2 inches, but photos tend to be slightly pixilated, even the full resolution ones that are over 2mb (though you stop noticing after a minute) and color reproduction is not all that great on skin tones and deep reds, but very good w/ greens&blues... which make pics of landscapes quite nice!

3) PHOTOS ON MY TV: Now this is where this thing shines... this is a really cool feature... the iPod includes a mini-plug-to-RCA-out (headphone to 3 pronged yellow/white/red) that produces cool results when you plug it into your TV.. you can scroll through your photos on your big (or at least bigger than your computer screen) TV screen. However, having only 2800+ photos on my iPod (that's more than avg), I got tired of flipping through & showing off my albums in about 2 days...

4) MUSIC: Besides not being able to see the screen as well w/out the backlight, it's the same as any click-wheel, 4G iPod.

5) SIZE/WEIGHT: If you already own a 40gig variety, you won't have much to complain about... but if you have a 10-20gig iPod, you will add more size and weight to your pocket (or bag). Moving from a 3G 15gig, this difference \to me\ is significant, as my iPod usually resides in my jacket pocket.

6) COSMETIC CHANGES: None on the outside, still scratches as easily as the rest, but has a color screen w/ a new font and screen looks very dark w/out the backlight.

7) BATTERY LIFE: Conditional based on the user... i never trust battery reviews on websites, as they vary DRASTICALLY when I employ my personal uses to the device. However, so far it seems to run near spec during mixed use... and much longer than my 3G iPod.

== SURPRISES OUT OF THE BOX==

A) NEED TO BUY SOFTWARE: In order to enable the cooler features - like syncing albums automatically, etc..., you need to purchase or own iLife (iPhoto specifically) 4.03 or better (if you are the rare few that bought your computer in the last few months w/ 4.0, you still have to download an upgrade to 4.03) ... Now I bought my iMac from the Apple website last Christmas and it still shipped w/ iLife 2.0... so I had to purchase iLife 4.0 (according to several company reps, there is no free upgrade from the jump from 2.0 to 4.0)...which took me an additional day to figure out... Yes, you can assign folders and such to sync to your photos to your iPod, BUT having an album editor enables full control of changes and what changes I'm making, to the entire process. Oh Yeah, you need a high version of iTunes as well; my pod came w/ ver. 4.7... IMHO, you \need\ the iPhoto upgrade to enjoy this purchase.

B) TRANSITIONS: Only the "wipe" from right-to-left is included, maybe more will be avail in the future, but you are not given a choice.

C) SLIDESHOWS: You cannot assign multiple music lists in iTunes to specific albums in iPhoto... as of 10/04, you can only assign a SINGLE music list to ALL photo albums when you enable the slideshow feature. Yes, you can change this music list, but need to go back to the menu to do so. Also, you can only display-to-TV in slideshow mode; you can't just flip through your albums in browse mode through your TV.

D) COLOR SCREEN: When not backlit, the screen during regular music playback turns \VERY\ dark, much more so than regular B&W iPods... you need a light source reflecting off of the screen in order to see the letters... typeface has changed too, more like "Arial" and slightly smaller. Oh yeah, with the backlight off, the screen still displays in color.

TECHNICAL DETAILS:

A) You cannot adjust the color quality, size, cropping or transitions of the photos when detached from your computer, so don't bother asking a apple representative on the phone or at the store- they don't make enough money to actually buy one themselves. I've tried two different stores the NY area.

B) Both the 40/60gig packages come w/ an iPod dock (if you don't have one already), but like the old ones, do not allow for use w/ thick iPod skins and covers.

C) Comes with an iPod dock WITH a S-Video output (new) and a solo USB 2.0 cord (finally!).

D) Yes, this is thicker and heavier than your 10-15gig, traditional music iPod.

E) If you never upgrade your iTunes due to the hacks you can employ on earlier versions, then you cannot use the photo feature (yes I tried).

[...]

I recently bought the 40GB iPod Photo. Prior to that I have owned both a 20GB 3G iPod and a 40GB 4G iPod (I use it with a windows XP laptop). I must say that for iPod owners the iPod photo is is very nice upgrade, altough it introduces a $100 premium over similar capacity regular iPods. The $100 can be somehow easily explained by the hi-res color screen and the Picture browsing and display capabilities but for some people might not be worth the premium. I guess it depends on your particular usage models.

Nice attributes of the iPod Photo:
* The hi-res color screen displays song names and the other regular IPod info (battery left, the progression bar, etc.) in a very pleasant a simple, elegant way. The text is easier to read and is definitively far more readable in backlit mode than the regular iPod in backlit.
* The color screen also shows a small window with the artwork of the album which is playing in a given moment.
* The battery lasts 15 hours and it is really a killer feature for people that take long flights regularly (like yours truly).
* The picture browsing mode is nice and intuitive. Even if you don't own the extra software mentioned in other reviews, you can synch your Windows folders straight from your windows folders in to the iPod.
* The picture browsing mode is nice and the iPod interface is pretty intuitive. The screen is a bit small, but again, if you travel a lot, it allows you to look at your loved ones' pictures easily while listening to your music (I don't know why one reviewer said that this was not possible, since its not only possible but also very easy to do).
* The cables to browse on TV are very nice and enable you to do your own slideshows with music for your family or friends. A RCA cable is included. It can get signal out of the headphone jack and provides Video and stereo feed into your TV set. It also has an S-Video output on the cradle. Cool!.

Cons:
* The screen resolution, despite being a big improvement vs the B&W screen is below the resolution available on most cameras. For the premium a higher resultion display should be added.
* Thickness, the iPod Phote is a bit thicker than the regular iPod. This can be an issue for some cases and some docking stations (e.g. JBL onstage speakers).
* Battery charge. Maybe not a big issue if you came from a 3G iPod, but certanly much slower to charge than the regular 4G iPod (5 hrs vs 2 hrs).

NEWS ON IPOD PHOTO (AS OF 3/1/05):
* This week Apple announced the new iPod Photo models and they are reducing significantly the Premium over the regular iPod.
* The IPod photo now comes in two presentations: a 30GB model for $349 and a 60 GB model for $449. This is a great deal vs the former price of $499 for the 40GB and $599 for the 60GB model.
* The new models lack the cradle and the nice three-way cable to get Video and Stereo signal out of the miniplug jack. The cradle and the cable are now optional accessories.
* Overall a great move to make the iPod photo a more accesible player to a broader audience.

In summary a great and very welcome member of the iPod family and specially recommended for roadwarriors, especially those that take long flights. Enjoy.

This review is based solely on the value of this 40GB iPod Photo that was recently discontinued versus the 2nd generation 30GB iPod Photo.

With the price drop on the 40GB iPod photo to clear out the stock, you get a tremenedous value.

This product comes with
- a carrying case with belt clip
- a connector to connect your iPod to your Television set to play slideshows (with music) on your tv
- Firewire connector in addition to the USB 2.0 connector
- Dock Connector.

The new 30GB and 60GB products do not come with any of these accesories anymore. While it is good that Apple allows the consumer to pick and choose what you want and dramatically drop the starting point cost for the product. Given the reduced price for this 40GB model, you are getting a lot more value for the money not to mention an additional 10GB of memory.

The only drawback to the 40GB iPod Photo versus the 30GB from what I can tell is the 30GB version is a little lighter and thinner.

I have long appreciated the iPod and think the general product is excellent and am very happy with this product. But I will defer to some other excellent reviews here in regards to technical information about this version.

**** LATEST update to iPod family ****
- iPod & iPod photo lines merged; no more iPod photo 30 GB
- iPod comes in two capacities - 20 GB ($299), 60 GB ($399) with color screen & photo support
- U2 iPod (20 GB) down to $329 from $349 - with color screen & photo support
- iPod shuffle 1 GB down to $129 from $149
- iPod 60 GB down to $399 from $449
- new version of iTunes (4.9) that support podcasts
***************************************
Today (23 Feb 2005), Apple announced a major change in its iPod lineup and here is how it affects iPod photo models:
> iPod 40 GB is discontinued
> iPod photo 40 GB is discontinued
> iPod photo 30 GB (new product) replaces the 40 GB iPod photo and the regular iPod 40 GB
> iPod photo 60 GB now costs $150 less -- $449 instead of $599
> iPod photo 30 GB costs $349 ($150 less than iPod photo 40 GB and $50 less than regular iPod 40 GB)
> iPod dock ($39), AV cable ($19), carrying case ($29), and firewire cable ($19) do not ship with iPod photo (you may not really need them)
> Now we get three things with iPod photo: earphones, USB (not firewire) based AC adapter, USB 2.0 cable
> In additon to the above, a firewire cable continues to ship with iPod 20 GB & iPod U2 edition
> iPod photo Camera Connector is introduced - this can be used for connecting your digital camera directly to the iPod

As this product has been discontinued, you should be looking at iPod photo 30 GB from now on!

Since I have iPod 40 GB as well as iPod photo 60 GB, I strongly recommend iPod photo for those who are looking beyond the iPod 20 GB. The color screen has much better resolution and it also has a scrolling feature for long texts.

The Apple Ipod photo is something that after you use it for a time it becomes something that you cannot leave the house with. As a person who spends about 8 hrs a day with the stereo on this is something that is used a lot during the day, and needs to be of high quality. This product is that high quality needed. The Ipod is something that you can use almost anywhere, the car, the home, and at work.

Currently my Ipod has taken over my CD collection in my car. The pure convenience of having over 5000 songs with me in the car is something that after having the Ipod I could not go back to CD's. Currently I have the Ipod ran in with a Line In cord into the back of my stereo for people who have a line on your stereo this is the way to go. The FM transmitters are something that works, but not well and any audiophile will frown upon. If this is the route your looking into the best way to run this is the 1/8'' to composite cable with the SIK line out adapter. The SIK plugs into the Ipod and then the SIK's 1/8'' runs into the stereo. This provides the best quality connection to the car.

At my house my Ipod has become my new CD changer. Again having over 5000 songs on one stereo component is something that becomes so convenient, you can't go back. The Dock that came with the Ipod is something that is very convenient and provides a great place to place the Ipod to avoid scratches. The dock provides a Line out port so it is easy to hook up to a stereo and provides a great sound quality. Also the dock can be used on the computer to sync the Ipod with your Itunes music library or used just as a charging base.

At work my Ipod is just hooked up to a pair of computer speakers. With all my music right there next to my computer typing all those boring reports and fixing computers (I'm a computer tech. at a hospital) goes a little bit faster. Also sharing music at work becomes a little easier because of the Ipod's easy interface anyone can figure out how to play a song.

Overall the Apple Ipod is a great product that can be used anywhere. Though pricy the quality really makes it worth it. I've had other MP3 players and none of them just feel as good as this one does in the hand. Ipod is a great tool for anyone who loves music or someone just looking for a good way to carry a few tunes around with them.

The big question with the 40 gb iPod photo is whether to get it or the regular b&w 40gb iPod. The price difference, around $100, requires justification. Is the color screen and whirligig pizazz worth the cost?

Well, it isn't just the color screen, improved battery life, or ability to view pictures that you're getting with that $100. The iPod photo comes with hardware extras that you don't get with the regular iPod. These include:

- Case with belt clip
- Docking station
- Firewire *AND* USB cables
- Cable to hook up the iPod photo to your TV

When you can spend up to $20 for a USB cable in a store, having one right in the box is convenient. And if you add in the dock and the case, you've already found out where a chunk of that $100 is going. The color screen has nice brightness and the pics add a niftiness factor; the new generations of iPods will all have color screens, so if you get a b&w now you may regret it later when your iPod starts looking "old". "Grandma, why is your iPod gray?"

In the end, I decided the upgrade to the iPod photo was worth the price, considering how much I was already going to pay for a regular iPod. It's like choosing a Lexus over a Camry. If you can afford to splurge, why not go for the better model?

Also, despite what another reviewer said, you don't need a special program like Adobe Elements to import photos. In iTunes you can import them straight from a folder. The programs mentioned in the other reviews make it arguably easier to sync a photo collection or create "albums", but they aren't necessary. My iPod works just fine without them.

I recently caved and forked over $500 for this little number and I can tell you that, provided you can afford the price tag, the iPod photo will not disappoint.

Having migrated from a 15GB 3rd Gen. iPod, I can tell you that 40GB is more than enough for the average music afficionado. I've got just under 3500 songs (a combination of MP3 & AAC files) loaded on it and I still have 20 1/2 GB left to play with. Not bad at all. Being able to see the album art for each song is a nice touch too. The core features that have made the iPod such a big hit haven't changed. Most people know what the iPod does already so I'll focus this review on what makes the iPod photo such a leap from its predecessors.

The interface has been reworked (new Apple font, blue highlight over a white backgound) and it benefits greatly from a color screen. The backlight illuminates the 2" screen nicely and it works great if you're only glancing at it to find what you're looking for (i.e. using it hooked up to your car stereo). The games are now in full color too, making Solitaire actually playable.

Now for the photos.

First, I've heard complaints that photo syncing through iTunes is rather clunky but I've experienced quite the opposite. It's no harder than changing any of iTunes' preferences. What I do is have both iPhoto & iTunes open, start with iPhoto and remember the albums I want to copy over, then Command+Tab to iTunes and check off the albums I want. Simple as that. It takes a bit to sync up (especially if you have over a few hundred photos, I have over a thousand) but luckily it's not processor-intensive so you can surf the net, answer email on your computer while iTunes is working.

As for the photos themselves, sure the quality isn't like looking at an actual photo print but for the screen size the pictures look great, and navigating through them is remarkably easy. You can either go backwards & forwards by pressing Next or Previous on the scroll wheel OR by using the scroll wheel itself to cycle through them. Looking through albums is as easy as picking a playlist and the screen accommodates 25 thumbnails at a time, making finding the photo you want a snap.

Finally, the incidentals. The battery life has been increased substantially to accommodate for the color screen; I have yet to run the battery down completely once. This also adds to the size of the device itself, making it a bit thicker and a tad heavier but it's by no means anything to get worked up over.

So Apple managed to do it. They took a device that was without argument the best in its class and made it better. If you're looking to carry around a lot of photos and your music, look no further. It's worth every penny.

My wife and I share our MP3 players and this one now brings us up to 4 or 5 we've been through. This one is by far the best, and that includes experience with an iPod Mini just last year (which is still going strong).

Interestingly, we didn't buy it for the photo features. I bought it because we were frustrated waiting for our local dealers to get the 40GB iPod back in stock. We decided to upgrade from the mini back before Christmas because we were tired of swapping music off and on it's puny (ha, can't believe a year ago I thought it was huge) 4GB hard drive. It's a champ and we're still debating if we should actually sell it now....but onto the iPod Photo.

The two negative themes I have read over and over again about this unit is the pricing and the poor integration of the photo capabilities in the iTunes software. Well the integration is poor. You do need another piece of software to organize your photos and then the key piece for loading it is buried as an option in iTunes. Tonight however, I did try loading some of my photos and it worked very smoothly. And despite the potential software integration issues I had a couple hundred photos on it loaded on it withing about 5 minutes. Within the next 5 minutes I had it plugged into my TV dazzling my family with a slideshow and one of my daughters favorite playlists as background music playing through the TV as well. Slick! It will be interesting to see how much I and my family actually use this feature. I have been concerned with what I should do with all of my family's digital pictures, the photo albums seem...well...so yesterday. And have you tried printing a stack of 20 photos on your home printer? I've got better things to do...

As for music, it does that too with typical iPod style and grace, but even better. The click wheel seems to operate even more smoothly and navigating the menus is faster. A big plus is the vibrant and crisp display. The bigger and higher resolution screen is much easier to read (especially for those of us wading into bifocal territory). The battery also gets a boost with a runtime north of 15 hours. Of course the 40GB disk is very nice to have. I look forward to moving even more of my music collection onto it.

For the same money you can also get one of the new Personal Media Centers by Creative Labs or Archos (and I'm sure many others). Those may be highly worthwhile depending on your needs (I would have loved one when I used to commute via train), but you need to factor in the cost of your time to record and load the media. I have spent some time this past year also playing with PC based TV tuners and capturing digital video. It hasn't quite evolved to be the simple and smooth experience the iPod and iTunes have become. My wife and kids aren't as enthusiastic nor as patient as I am. After my experiences with other digital media I was pretty confident a portable media center would collect dust in my house.

To wrap this up, I highly recommend the iPod Photo as an MP3 player--despite the $500 price--and the fact that it displays photos is just icing on the cake.

Well, let me start by saying that this is a very good product. But it is FAR from perfect. I have many complaints, often quite petty (after all, this is my first iPod), but for the $400 or so price tag I expect CLOSE to perfect...

Quibbles:
1. You can't load pictures directly from the camera/memory card onto the iPod. Or, rather, you can't view photos loaded directly. In order to view photos, they must be moved to your computer and loaded through the iPhoto software. This is a MAJOR dissapointment for anyone travelling with their iPod and camera.

2. The (necessary) iTunes software is not compatible with Windows 98 or ME. Devastating to those of us with older computers full of MP3s.

3. The iTunes software is constantly redirecting me to their store. Very obnoxious.

4. I firmly believe that any product that costs me over a week's salary should come with all the necessary accessories. Noticably absent: a carrying case (if you dont want it severely scratched), flash card reader, fire wire, decent headphones, etc. etc. All told, be ready to sink another hundred (or three...) on "fun add-ons".

5. Could they not add some better games?? My cell phone has way better games than this. My TI-83 calculator (yeah, I was a bit of a nerd in high school) had better games than this. What a waste of a color screen...

Complaints aside, the iPod still rocks. The sound quality and design are unsurpassed; the software and database style song sorting are strong - there are clear reasons why the iPod is becoming a cultural icon of the digital age. But, given the price and potential for improvement, I wish I'd waited for a better version.

This pricey piece of machinery was a gift to me from my boyfriend this past xmas. I instantly fell in love with it the first month I had it. Although after six months, I'm ready to throw it into the depths of the ocean. These are some of the positives:

1) I primarily use this in my car while driving. I bought the itrip, which transmits to an open radio station. I use to do some interesting driving tricks so I could flip through my rather large CD case, find the one I wanted and change the current CD in the player and replace the other in the case. This ipod has probably saved a lot of lives since I'm no longer running people off the road to do this.

2) This is a great way of protecting your music. My CDs would get ruined in my car or home no matter how hard I tried to keep them in immaculate condition. The ipod stores all the songs nicely so I no longer worry about that.

3) I do love the photo feature where I can store all of my pictures on them. It's about as compact as some of these bulky wallets I see but you can show off about a million more pictures.

ALTHOUGH there have been a HOST of really annoying problems:

1) I can't run with this ipod, which is a tragedy for me since it was the number one reason I wanted it. I have never gone running with this thing where it hasn't froze or broken down. I try to reset it only to have it break down 10 minutes later or refuse to reset at all.

2) It has erased all of the songs it holds at least 4 times for no apparent reason. I have a thousand songs saved on it and it becomes aggravating when I constantly have to reload them.

3) If you really want to adapt this into your daily use be prepared to spend an additional few hundred dollars on new headphones (the ones they come with are awful), a new holster (the one provided doesn't show allow access to the front of the ipod and the clip isn't functional), an itrip and holder for if you want it for your car, an italk if you want to record etc. etc. Bottom line the $600 you drop for this is only the beginning. Oh and mine started to scratch the first 24 hours I had it, so you'll need the skin also.

There is barely a day where I don't use my ipod but then again every time I use it I have so many problems that I consider getting rid of it and just going back to CD players or getting an MP3 player. Apple had an amazing idea but their merchandise isn't reliable or functional most of the time.