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

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Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 6.3 x 6.7 inches ; 5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0002ZAEX6
• Item model number: M9585LL/A
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #26,520 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 26, 2004

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

From the Manufacturer A delight for the ears. A feast for the eyes. Though it's no bigger than a pack of playing cards and weighs in at just over 6 ounces, iPod photo delivers a one-two sensory punch, letting you carry an entire library of your favorite music (up to 10,000 songs) or enough photos (as many as 25,000) to fill nearly 200 slide trays or cover nearly 5,000 square feet of wall space. Got a really big den?

iPod photo displays 25 full-color thumbnails at a time, which you can scroll through the same way you scroll through song titles.

The new iPod photo features a razor-sharp LCD display that lets you see your photos in vivid color--65,536 colors, to be exact. And with its built-in backlighting, you'll be able to admire those photos indoors or out. Take Your Photos for a Spin Like its famous siblings, iPod photo features the touch-sensitive Apple Click Wheel that's the envy of the industry. You'll use it to navigate iPod photo's new menu. Now in living color, it's easier to read than ever. That's thanks in part to the clarity of the display--it offers a resolution of 220 by 176 pixels resolution--and in part to the new Myriad typeface. Spin the wheel to Music, and you can scroll effortlessly through dozens of playlists, hundreds of albums, or thousand of songs. Or you can highlight photos. iPod photo displays 25 full-color thumbnails at a time. And you can scroll through them the same way you scroll through song titles--quickly. Just spin the wheel to see more. And when you see a photo you'd like displayed all by its lonesome, just click the center button and voilà! No one will have to say "cheese" as long as you have iPod photo around. Whether you're listening to tunes or checking out photos, you're sure to be all smiles.

Get Brownie Points for Sharing If you'd like everyone else to smile right along with you, iPod photo makes it easy. Sure, you could let them take the Click Wheel for a spin themselves, but here's a way to get extra points for style. Use the included AV cable to connect iPod photo to a projector or TV. You can mesmerize friends and family with a glorious multimedia experience, offering them a breathtaking slideshow accompanied by the music you already have on your iPod photo. Of course, you get to choose the songs, albums, or playlists. And talk about smart--iPod photo optimizes your photos to fit on a standard (4:3) or widescreen (16:9) TV. iTunes 4.7: Your Photo Passport Wondering how you're going to get all your digital photographs into iPod photo? iTunes 4.7. The new version lets you import your images directly into iPod photo from a folder on the hard drive of your Mac or PC. Spent time organizing your photos using iPhoto on a Mac or either Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0 or Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 on a PC? iTunes 4.7 rewards your diligence by importing the albums you've created in iPhoto or the collections you've created in Album or Elements. You'll be able to choose them from the Photos menu on iPod photo.

Wait, there's more. iPod photo features even more robust autosync capabilities. Now, in addition to offering the industry's best music syncing, iTunes offers stellar photo syncing as well. Update your photo collection by adding images or creating new albums, and the next time you connect iPod photo to your Mac or PC using the included FireWire or USB 2.0 cables, iTunes 4.7 will automatically synchronize your photo collection.

And did we mention that iTunes 4.7 also autosyncs album art? It's true. The album art downloaded when you purchase music from the iTunes Music Store is transferred to iPod photo along with the music. So while iPod photo plays your tunes, you can enjoy the album art--in color, of course--on the Now Playing screen.

Enjoy Improved Battery Life
Whether you're on a transcontinental flight or an extra-long hike, if you plan to listen to music for hours and hours, iPod photo has you covered. Fully charged, it lets you enjoy up to 15 hours of continuous music or up to 5 hours of continuous slideshows with music. Use the iPod photo dock or FireWire or USB 2.0 cables to quickly charge the batteries.

See a comparison of the different iPod music players

Product Description

iPod photo. Love what iPod did for music? See what it can do for photos. Instantly view and share slideshows set to music anywhere - on your iPod photo or on a TV. An incredible combination of storage and portability. The size of a deck of cards, iPod photo packs a color screen, up to 14 hours of battery life, a 40 GB hard drive for holding up to 10,000 songs, 25,000 photos, or any combination in between.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

409 of 420 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars you *MIGHT* love this iPod -- guide 2 upgrading to iPod_foto, October 31, 2004

By	D. Chung "danzig_111" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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).

[...]

77 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful upgrade path for your current iPod, December 3, 2004

By	Ricardo Carreon Quinones "http://ricardosblog... (Sao Paulo, Brazil) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get the 40GB iPod Photo while it lasts, March 4, 2005

By	Adam Block "bluecow" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.