Apple iPod 40 GB White M9268LL/A (4th Generation) OLD MODEL

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Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5 x 3 inches ; 3 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0002OZXGU
• Item model number: M9268LL/A
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (122 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #16,022 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 26, 2004

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Incorporating the fabulous Apple Click Wheel that was first introduced on iPod mini. Offering up to 12 hours of battery life. Weighing in at just 6.2 ounces. And getting slightly thinner with each new generation. iPod continues to define the perfect digital music player for Mac and Windows.

A musical dream come true, the fourth-generation iPod offers huge capacity, letting you easily slip up to 10,000 songs into your pocket. And enjoy it wherever you go. In the car. On the treadmill. At the office. Around the house.

In fact, the new fourth-generation iPod includes features that make it even easier to access -- and have fun with -- your music. Take, for example, the Apple Click Wheel. With the Click Wheel, you can select playlists, scroll through a long list of albums or artists and choose just the song you want to hear without ever lifting your thumb from the wheel. Feel like mixing things up? Now you can choose “Shuffle Songs” right from the main iPod menu. We think you’ll also enjoy iPod’s long battery life -- up to 12 hours. And with the 25 minutes of skip protection iPod provides, you can jump for joy and the music will keep playing.

A Click in the Right Direction iPod now incorporates the same touch-sensitive Apple Click Wheel that debuted on iPod mini. Without lifting that trusty thumb of yours from the wheel, you can easily select playlists, scroll through thousands of songs, and start the music playing. Want that song to play from the beginning again? A single click will do the trick. Do the iPod Shuffle You can put the Apple Click Wheel to use the next time you want to set your music to shuffle. Right there on the main menu -- where it’s very easy to find -- you’ll find a new option --Shuffle Songs. Everyone’s favorite option for mixing things up, Shuffle Songs randomly plays songs in a selected playlist or your entire music collection. You’ll never guess what’s coming up next, so you’re always surprised by startling juxtapositions -- like a melodic Coldplay song setting up an aria by Caballé. Play Your Music for Hours…and Hours And you can shuffle your way through a lot of songs now that iPod lets you play your music for up to 12 hours on a single battery charge. Imagine: you could fly from New York to Paris and still have hours of listening time left over as you stroll the Champs Elysée. While you’re on the move, iPod keeps you aware of its charge level, and when it’s time, iPod’s quick to recharge. Plug it into your computer or a handy wall socket (via the included power adapter), and you can fast-charge iPod in as little as 2 hours.

Music and More
But, guess what -- iPod lets you do more than listen to music. Much more. iPod provides you with up to 40 GB of storage. True, you’re likely to use a good portion of that storage capacity for your music and audio books, but you’re bound to have a little space left over. You can use the FireWire or USB 2.0 cable that comes with iPod to connect the iPod to your computer and copy files. Word documents. Keynote presentations. Excel spreadsheets. Photoshop files. You name it.

Apple's fourth-generation iPod features song shuffling from the main menu, as well as Calendar, Games, and Alarm functionality.

Where am I at 2 p.m. Tuesday? If you’ve ever forgotten a dental appointment, you’ll be pleased to hear that iPod also lets you take your calendar with you. Many applications -- iCal, Microsoft Entourage and Palm Desktop, to name a few -- export calendar files in vCalendar or iCalender formats, both of which iPod supports. Sorry, Wrong Number Little black address books are so last millennium. Thanks to its support for industry-standard vCard files, iPod lets you store and access all your important contact information -- names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses -- with the spin of a Click Wheel. Play Games You know what they say about all work and no play. Navigate to Extras and you’ll find Games: Music Quiz, Solitaire, Brick and Parachute, four popular games you can play anywhere (like when you’re waiting for the movie to start at the multiplex). Store Text Notes You’ve got playlists. You’ve got To-do Lists. And you can carry both with you on iPod. iPod’s Notes Reader lets you take text-based information such as news downloaded off the web, stock tips, your workout regimen, restaurant reviews, directions, your shopping list with you on your travels. Just transfer it via FireWire or USB 2.0 to iPod from your computer (Mac or PC).

Rise and Shine
Did you know that iPod has a sleep timer that lets you fall asleep to music? It’s true. And if you like to wake up to music or to the sound of an alarm clock, iPod is just as accommodating. You’ll find settings for the Alarm Clock and Sleep Timer in the Extras menu. Both features work very well, by the way, when you connect iPod to a pair of portable speakers.

Product Description

Apple iPod Digital Music MP3 Player M9268LL/A - Includes: Rechargeable Battery, Dock, Earbud headphones, AC adapter, FireWire cable, USB 2.0 cable, iTunes software, Electronic documentation, getting started guide, 1-Year Apple Warranty The iPod is becoming a reigning icon around the world. It's no wonder. This 4th generation model is thinner, easier to use, more energy efficient, and a greater value than ever. It can simply work with Apple and Windows computers. iPod now incorporates the same touch-sensitive Apple Click Wheel that debuted on iPod mini. Without lifting that trusty thumb of yours from the wheel, you can easily select playlists, scroll through thousands of songs, and start the music playing. Save multiple On-The-Go Playlists Adjust speed for Audiobooks Enjoy seamless integration with iTunes Use as a portable hard drive ? take your files with you Remind yourself with Text Notes Play games Keep appointments using the Alarm clock/Sleep Timer Stay organized with contacts/calendars/to-do lists Sync and charge with FireWire or USB 2.0 cables As for all of those CDs you already own, iTunes makes speedily transfers your favorite songs and albums. Just pop a CD into your Mac or PC, and click the Import button Voice Recorder (when used with optional microphone) - perfect for seminars and lectures About 4 hours (2-hour fast charge to 80% capacity) yields up to 12 hours use Unit Dimensions - 4.1 by 2.4 by 0.69 inches / 6.2 ounces Audio support AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 (32 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible, AIFF, Apple Lossless and WAV

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

824 of 843 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Some useful things to know, September 16, 2004

By	Bowen Simmons (Sunnyvale, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Given that the amount of press that this device has received, what is there to say about it that hasn't been said a thousand times already? Well, here are some things that are worth knowing but that you might not already know:

(1) When you untangle the headphones (and you will spend a lot of time untangling the headphones), untangle from the jack end first (pull that end through the knots). The buds act like little hooks on the cable and don't pull through well. What's more, there are two of them and it is easy to confuse the cables of one with the other. It will save you time and aggravation to untangle the jack first. Try it and see for yourself.

(2) To put the little foam cushions on the earbuds, put the cushion against the bud with the hole facing you and roll it back onto the bud on so that it turns inside out as you put it on. You will want to use the cushions - the earbuds aren't very comfortable even with the cushions and can be downright painful without them.

(3) Memorize how to reset the iPod (plug it into power, push the hold button on and off, then hold down the "menu" and "play/pause" buttons at the same time for 6 to 10 seconds - repeat as needed). iPods are real nice, but every model still locks up every once in a while (less than once a month in my experience). When I first had an iPod, I took it on a trip, and it locked up so I couldn't use it and I didn't know how to reset it. Very frustrating - don't let it happen to you.

(4) Since you're looking at a 40 gig iPod, I assume you have LOTS of music (if you don't - save your money; you don't need this). Anyway, a great playlist for people with big collections is a "smart" playlist (a smart playlist is one constructed from rules rather than by hand) that consists of the songs you haven't played yet (or haven't played in a while) and which you then shuffle as needed. Once you play a song, it automatically drops off the list (neat, huh?) leaving you with just the music you haven't heard yet (or lately).

(5) If you have a big collection, you may have more than will fit on a 40 gig iPod. If so, you should know that you can choose to have your iPod sync only particular playlists (like, say, your automatic list of unplayed songs mentioned above), and the size of an automatic playlist can itself be capped to a particular size limit. This method gives you a way to sync your iPod with only very slightly more effort than a fully automatic sync (which doesn't work if you have more music than will fit on the iPod) because once you set a playlist to be included, it stays that way until you change it.

(6) If you're looking to save some dough, the ability to sync only some playlists makes the smaller iPods perfectly usable even if you have a large music collection . It's just a trade-off of management effort vs. space. Even the smallest iPods can hold enough music for any but the longest trips away from your computer.

(7) For your CD's, you can change the bit rate at which they're compressed. The higher the bit rate, the better the sound, but the bigger the file (and the shorter the battery life - those big files take more juice to load off the hard disk). If you're getting an iPod this big, live a little - change from the default bit rate to something higher when loading your CD's.

(8) Use the dock with your stereo. It has a line-out on the back and you can plug it right into your stereo (extra stereo cable required) and use the stereo remote to control the volume. You can also get a third-party IR remote from Ten Technology right here on Amazon to control pause, play, forward and back - and even program your universal remote. If you'd rather use the dock with your computer, think about getting Apple's stereo connection kit, which you can also get right here on Amazon: you get another dock, another power supply and cable, and a stereo cable.

(9) Get a car adapter and use it with your car. There are dedicated ones that can also recharge it, but any generic cassette adapter will do - assuming of course your car has a cassette player. For those living high, Alpine is coming out with a really neat looking adapter in September that lets you control the iPod through your car stereo; for those living higher yet, get a BMW and get the special adaptor BMW makes available for controlling your iPod through your CD changer buttons.

(10) To extend battery life, don't let it go completely dead. Your battery can last for years and years if you keep it topped off as much as possible.

(11) Check your free hard disk space. If you want 40 gig of music on your iPod, you'll need 40 gig of free hard disk space on your computer. Also, think about whether you want another hard disk to back it up - forget about CD-R's or even DVD-R's for this much data.

(12) Check the websites of your favorite artists - lots of them have free tracks you can download perfectly legally and then load onto your iPod.

52 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Some practical advice, October 2, 2004

By	Karczag (New York) - See all my reviews

The iPod is awesome. That's a fact. So let me dwell on some practical advice here:
1. This is the 40gb iPod to buy. Do NOT buy the older version (manufacturer cat no. M9245LL/A), it looks the same, costs the same, but has only 8 hours play time instead of 12. Even if you have to wait a little, get THIS one. BE SURE TO LOOK AT THE CAT NO.
2. Most likely you'll need a carrying case. Budget that in. The Apple one is nice but is around $50.
3. If you import a lot of CDs, your desktop or laptop might not have enough space on the hard drive. We're talking 40gb here! A good solution is to buy an additional hard drive. This can also serve as a backup (it's very depressing to import CD after CD and then have your hard drive crash...).
4. A very cost effective way to get an extra hard drive is to shop at your local computer store (e.g. CompUSA), look for the ATA drive that's on sale this week, and then, if you have a laptop, also get the "enclosure" that makes it into an external USB 2.0 drive. (...)! Also great for backup of your music + pictures + hard drive etc.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Music Lover's Essential Hardware, March 16, 2005

By	Robert Haven (Eugene, Oregon United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've owned a 20GB iPod for 6 months and now that it's full, I'm replacing it with this 40GB version, now, before it's no longer available. This Amazon price is a real bargain. This model was just discontinued and replaced with the more expensive iPod Photo that comes in only 2 sizes: 30GB and 60GB. I don't care about displaying photos, so this 40GB is what I need.

Although it has its (minor) faults, I love the iPod and I use it every single day -- when running on my treadmill, working around the house, doing yard work, and reading in bed. I have ripped (converted) over 400 of my CDs and put all that music on my iPod. I've never had it freeze up on me, but once I had to reformat it after an error occured when copying songs to it. That's pretty disgusting, but it didn't take too long to reformat it and copy my music library to it again.

Here are some comments or pointers you might find helpful:

* Plan to buy some good headphones. Maybe they're OK for some people, but I find the included ear buds highly uncomfortable and unusable.

* If you have a Windows PC, make sure you have Windows XP or you're willing to upgrade to XP. The iTunes software that manages your music library won't run on Windows 98.

* You don't have to buy tunes from the Apple iTunes store in order to use your iPod Apple makes it confusing because they use the same name "iTunes" for both their music store and the software that manages your music library on your computer. I've never bought a song. I use the iTunes program for ripping my CDs (converting them to computer files that get loaded onto the iPod), and organizing all of those songs.

* If you have a lot of music, you may end up buying a larger disk drive. If you want to fill your 40GB iPod, you'll need at least 40GB of free disk space, obviously. I got a 120GB drive, and now I plan to get a 2nd 120GB drive to use for backup. Trying to back up this much data onto CDs just isn't practical, and I don't want to have to rip over 400 CDs again if my drive goes bad!

* Get a padded carrying case. Before I got one, I dropped my iPod a couple of times and I feel very lucky that it continued working. Case Logic makes a great, small, padded nylon case with a belt loop and removable arm band. (I think Case Logic makes the best-designed cases for cameras, laptops, and other devices, by the way).

* You'll probably want to get adapters for playing your iPod through your home stereo and car stereo. After all, when your entire CD collection is in a unit the size of a deck of cards, why would you want to lug around old-fashioned physical CDs anymore? I got a generic brand cassette player adapter for playing the iPod in my car's cassette player. And a simple "stereo miniplug to RCA plugs" adapter from Radio Shack will let you enjoy the continuous play and shuffle features on your home stereo. Don't pay exorbitant prices for these accessories -- just go to Radio Shack and tell them what you want to do.

* When you set up your iPod and install the software for the first time (at least on a Windows PC), it is pretty confusing. I'm an expert computer user, and I had difficulty getting through it and had to start over a couple times. I can't believe how lame the user interface and the instructions are for this process! But once you get through it and you start using iTunes to manage the music on your iPod, it's a much better experience.

* I've read complaints that the instruction booklet is not thorough enough. That is true. But there is a complete manual on the CD that comes with the iPod. When you install the software from the CD, I don't think the User Guide is copied from the CD to your computer, so it's no wonder people never see it. So make sure you look on the CD for the User Guide PDF file.

* It took me forever to figure out how to shuffle the songs within an album, but you can do it. Doesn't Apple test the user interface on real people before releasing an important product? Apparently not. It's confusing because there are 2 Shuffle options on the menus. The "Shuffle Songs" option on the main menu is what most people see and use. It shuffles all the songs on your iPod, which is great fun. But if you want to play just one album and shuffle the songs that are on that album, you have to go to the Settings menu. On the Settings menu, there is a Shuffle setting with 3 options: Songs, Albums, Off. If you select Songs, then exit the Settings menu, and then play an album or playlist, the songs within the album or playlist are played in shuffled order (yay!). If you select Albums, then albums are played in shuffled order (but not the songs within the albums) when you play a series of albums.

* I've read complaints that when you shuffle songs, you get things like audio books playing in your shuffle mix. You can avoid this from happening by using a combination of the song information (tags), playlists, and the above tip on how to shuffle songs within a playlist. For example, make sure all your audio books have something in common in one of their tag items (e.g., make sure the Genre includes the word "book" for each of your audio books) -- you can do this in iTunes with the "Get Info" operation. Then create a playlist named "Just Music", say, by selecting all files where Genre does not contain "book". Now, you can play your "Just Music" playlist in shuffled order (see the above tip). You can use the same idea to create playlists of classical music only, rock music only, etc., so that you don't get an ear-shattering Jimi Hendrix jam in the middle of your bedtime soft music shuffle! Why doesn't Apple read peoples' complaints here at Amazon and elsewhere, then improve their software, User Guide and on-line help? Sometimes I think I should be the product marketing manager for the iPod, but then I'd have to move back to the Silicon Valley. No thanks! LOL!

* Like so many others, I guess, I just love playing all of my thousands of songs in shuffle mode. I never know what's coming next, but I know it's something I will like, because it's from my music collection. It's surprising how many songs I can't identify, because they are from CDs I don't play that often. It's a solitaire game of Name That Tune! And I have discovered some great songs that I never really noticed before, simply because they are played out of context from the rest of the CD that they appear on.

So, although the installation, some of the user interface, and the available instructions are sometimes brain-dead, the iPod itself is an incredible device. For an extreme music lover like myself, I'd almost say it's "life changing", but that may be going a bit overboard!