Apple iPod 5 GB M8513LLA White (1st Generation) OLD MODEL

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Product Details

Product Manual [2.17mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 2.4 x 4 inches ; 6.6 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005S0M5
• Item model number: M8513LLA
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (82 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #48,272 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 31, 2001

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

Apple's iPod is the best music player a Mac owner can buy. Small and fast, with high capacity, superb controls, and a sleek appearance, the iPod combines the best features of a Mac with the best features in Mac OS.

The iPod's 5 GB hard drive holds 100 hours of high-quality music, and it connects to your Mac via superfast FireWire. We were able to transfer a single CD in about 10 seconds and a full hard drive in 10 to 15 minutes. If you lack a built-in FireWire connector, which all new Macs ship with, you can add a FireWire PC Card to most older PowerBooks or a FireWire PCI card to most G3 and G4 towers.

Plug the iPod into the FireWire port and the iPod is mounted as a hard drive. The included iTunes 2 software automatically launches and will synchronize your computer's digital audio collection with the iPod. You can also manually manage what files get transferred. The iPod plays the MP3 music format, but it also plays old AIFF and WAV formats.

The iPod's 10-hour-plus lithium battery also recharges over the FireWire port. An AC adapter comes with the unit for charging away from a computer. The battery recharges to 80 percent of capacity in about an hour, full capacity in about three hours. The iPod has a 32 MB built-in RAM cache that buffers about 20 minutes of music. This is extremely helpful when you're exercising, and it keeps battery life high. When we've used the iPod on long trips and travel about town, it's been hard to run the battery down at all.

The iPod is simply laid out with five buttons and a shuttle wheel. The interface uses hierarchical menus that you select from by rotating the wheel and pressing the selection button in its center. The LCD screen was also large and easy to read, and it has a backlight nearly as powerful as a flashlight.

The one slightly vexing interface detail was the lack of an Off button--attributable to the iPod's overall design aesthetic. You won't really need to turn the iPod off, as the unit conserves power when it's not playing. But we did find ourselves using the Hold button often to ensure that we didn't start it playing or stop it playing when transporting the iPod while in use. You can turn it off by simply holding down the play/pause button for a few seconds.

Apple includes a set of earphones that we felt compared favorably with listening to high-quality speakers in an acoustically balanced room. Volume control, always an important point, is in tiny increments that can be easily set up and down while music is playing. A startup volume level can be preset as well.

A few provisos: the iPod doesn't come with a carrying case, the stainless steel back collects fingerprints like an overzealous FBI agent, and the plastic front can scratch if you're as careless as we are. Also, the unit's initial release has no balance control (left/right), equalization panel, or monaural setting. Apple does plan free software upgrades for the iPod, which may add these features.

Considering its range of features and small package, the iPod is definitely a top contender for best Mac add-on. --Charles Kinbote

Pros:

• High-capacity MP3 player in small package
• 32 MB buffer enables you to use the iPod even when exercising
• Utilizes FireWire for superfast transfers
• Automatically synchronizes with your computer's MP3 collection

Cons:

• Not compatible with Windows (this isn't a negative to Mac owners--it may even be a plus)
• No equalization or balance settings

Easter Egg: For a special treat, navigate on the main menu to About, then hold down the center select button for a few seconds. Enjoy the game, which is also a tribute to Apple's co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Amazon.com Product Description

Special note to customers: An iPod software update (version 1.1) is available on the Apple site. It adds a contacts menu to store your address book and a new equalizer with more than 20 presets and independent settings for each song.

Packing 1,000 songs and a 10-hour battery into a stunning 6.5-ounce package, the Apple iPod is the smallest hard drive-based MP3 player available, about the size of a deck of cards. Just plug it into your Mac and all your iTunes songs and playlists are automatically downloaded into iPod at blazing FireWire speed.

The 5 GB hard drive stores up to 1,000 MP3 song files (at 160 Kbps encoding rate) and also doubles as disk storage for applications and other files. A high-output (60-mW) amplifier provides CD-quality sound with a wide dynamic range, from deep, pulse-pounding bass to sharp, crystal-clear highs.

In addition to its 5 GB hard drive, iPod has a 32MB memory cache. The cache is made up of solid-state memory, meaning that it has no moving parts, so it's not affected by movement of the device. Skip protection on the iPod works by continually preloading up to 20 minutes of music into the cache.

The iPod has a large, high-quality liquid crystal display (LCD) for viewing up to six lines of text. And the LCD features a white-light-emitting diode (LED) backlight for clear visibility in low-light situations--indoors or outdoors. Pocket-sized and just 6.5 ounces, it weighs appreciably less than the stack of CDs it can store music from.

Featuring Apple's award-winning iTunes 2 software, the iPod can synchronize with newly added music files and playlists. Simply plug the iPod back into your Mac and the changes are automatically updated in seconds. And with iTunes 2, you can rip MP3s, create playlists, and burn custom CDs all from one simple interface.

Its rechargeable lithium battery is charged using the FireWire cable when connected to your Mac. You can also recharge the iPod using the included FireWire cable and AC adapter when you're on the go.

The iPod supports MP3 (up to 320 Kbps), MP3 Variable Bit Rate (VBR), WAV, and AIFF files, and is firmware upgradable. To use the iPod with your Mac, you'll need a FireWire port and you must be running either Mac OS 9.2.1 (or later) or Mac OS X v10.1 (or later). The iPod is not compatible with Windows operating systems.

It comes with earbud-style headphones, a FireWire cable, power adapter, and CD-ROM with iTunes 2. It's backed by a 90-day limited warranty.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

72 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Turns heads while pleasing your own, February 2, 2002

By	Jacob A. Boxer (Carlisle, MA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Sometimes, when I'm walking around and I see people with CD players, I just have to wonder how they manage.

The most amazing thing about this device is the size. Not just the size of the iPod itself, which is a lot less than half the size of other MP3 players that hold the same amount, but the amount of space it saves you in terms of CDs. Have you ever seen one of those CD towers with around 60-70 CDs in them? You know, the ones that are as tall as a bookshelf? How would you like to carry that around in your backpack at school or in your pocket on the street? I think carrying this thing around, which happens to be the size of a deck of cards and holds even more than those CD towers, is slightly preferrable.

The next best thing about the iPod is the batteries. This thing goes for 8-10 hours without quitting. That is the same amount of time as a CD player, and twice as long as other multi-GB mp3 players. In addition to that, you never need to buy batteries again. Just plug the iPod into the wall at night and you've got another 10 hours of music when you wake up. That'll work even if you only sleep for 3 hours a night like me! So this thing is saving both space and money (batteries)!

The third thing about this is how well it turns heads. Sometimes I try to hide this thing when I take it out, because strangers will literally come up to me and ask me "is that an iPod?" and want to play with the buttons and stuff. Sometimes, it gets a little annoying. In these cases, the size comes in handy because its very easy to hide while you are using it. But if your in the mood to turn some heads, just put this thing on your lap and play.

There are tons of other great things about this. The interface is beautiful... sometimes, I just stare at the screen while a song is playing, or turn on the backlight for fun. It takes 10 minutes to fill the entire thing, meaning that if you ever get tired of the songs you put on it, you can have them replaced in the snap of a finger.

But it all comes down to this; when you buy this, you will never need another music player again. If you have a Mac, go buy this. The money you save on batteries and future music players will more than make up for the ... price tag.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Using iPod with Windows, April 15, 2002

By A Customer

Works like a champ with Windows using XPlay software..., but you'll have to buy a firewire card for your PC. Some apparently work better than others- recommend you check out the mediafour site for notes on the cards they recommend as working before you buy one.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars iPod is best, April 28, 2002

By	Andrew R.M. Steele (Bethel, Alaska USA) - See all my reviews

This review is for Windows users. With the use of XPlay I was able to finally purchase the state of the art in portable music - the i-Pod. Prior to this purchase I had paid around $400 for a Neo Jukebox which, though its HD is much larger, is clunkier, never worked correctly, was replaced, and then went bad again. The i-Pod arrived this afternoon. After allowing enough time to charge the battery, I downloaded 233 tunes from my WIN98 OS computer to the unit in 10 minutes! All work seamlessly. The i-Pod is a joy of design and handling. I highly recommend its purchase for any user of Windows; just don't forget to download XPlay as the cross platform application. Great. Great. Great.