Apple iPod 15 GB White M8946LL/A (3rd Generation) OLD MODEL

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Product Details

Product Manual [1.39mb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B00009J5VZ
• Item model number: M8946LL/A
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (105 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #37,225 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 29, 2003

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

The super-slim iPod once again redefines what a digital music player should be. It’s lighter than 2 CDs, can hold up to 3,750 songs (15GB model), and downloads music at blazing speeds. Now you can take your entire music collection with you wherever you go.

Smaller than ever (just 0.62 inches thick), this iPod fits comfortably in the palm of your hand and slips easily into your pocket and your life. At 5.6 ounces, it weighs less than 2 compact discs, and even many cell phones.

Once again, Apple turns the portable digital music player market on its ear with hassle-free functionality and stunning, well-considered design that place iPod far ahead of the curve and the competition. Building on the success of the touch wheel (which made scrolling through an entire music collection quick and easy), the new iPod has been re-engineered with a all-touch interface for enhanced durability and sensitivity. With an LCD screen and buttons that feature a backlight for clear visibility in low-light conditions, iPod is designed for easy one-handed operation. So the best way to take an entire music collection anywhere is now even better.

The 15GB iPod model comes with a dock that makes charging and syncing easier than ever--no more reaching around, looking for the right port. An elegant, convenient home base for iPod on a desk or connected to a home stereo system, the dock provides syncing via FireWire or USB 2.0 (Syncing with USB 2.0 (Windows-only) requires optional USB 2.0 + FireWire Cable and free software update, available in June), charging via FireWire and audio line out for connecting to powered speakers or a stereo system.

Designed to give you the best portable digital music experience ever, the iPod delivers the highest sound quality from input to output. iPod supports the most popular audio formats, including MP3 (up to 320 kbps), MP3 Variable Bit Rate (VBR) and WAV, giving you access to a wide range of audio file types. And iPod is the only portable digital music player that supports the AAC format (Mac-only), which features CD-quality audio in smaller file sizes than MP3, so that even more songs fit on your iPod.

The iPod now lets you do a whole lot more in addition to maintaining your contacts, calendar and to-do lists. iPod now includes Solitaire, Brick and Parachute, three great games you can play anywhere (a feature you’re sure to appreciate the next time you’re standing in line or waiting for someone). You can even use your own music as the soundtrack to a game.

iPod also includes a notes reader that lets you download text-based information and read it on the screen. This way you can have the information you need, on everything from restaurant reviews to nightlife guides, and from news articles to exercise routines, at your fingertips.

The iPod features a sleep timer, so you can fall asleep to your music. And with the iPod’s new alarm clock, you can choose either an alarm tone or your favorite music to wake you up.

The new iPod was designed for listening to digital music away from your computer, whether it’s a Mac or Windows PC. One simple connection does it all. A handy new dock connector on the bottom of the iPod enables the device to link to a computer and sync files via FireWire 400 (Mac or Windows) or USB 2.0 (Windows only). The result? Blazingly fast transfer speeds that let you load an album in as little as 10 seconds.

For Mac users, iPod ships with iTunes 4. iTunes 4 supports ripping music into the new AAC format which combines pristine CD-quality sound with smaller files sizes, compared to MP3s. And iTunes 4 lets you share and stream playlists from your personal music library to up to three other Macintosh computers for personal use. Mac requirements are: Apple computer with built-in FireWire port; Mac OS X v10.1.5 or later (Mac OS X 10.2 or later recommended); CD includes iTunes(7) for Mac OS X.

For Windows users, iPod includes the award-winning PC media player MUSICMATCH Jukebox Plus. As you add new songs or rearrange your playlists in MUSICMATCH Jukebox, the music will automatically update on iPod the next time it is connected to your PC. Windows requirements are: PC with built-in FireWire or USB 2.04, or Windows-certified FireWire or USB 2.0 card; Windows Me, Windows 2000 or Windows XP Home or Professional; CD includes MUSICMATCH Jukebox Plus 7.5 software.

The new iPod is also highly customizable. With iPod Scripts, you can create and manage text notes on new iPods with this free downloadable set of AppleScripts. Have a particular set of songs you want to hear? Queue up as many songs as you like in a playlist while away from your computer. Want to customize the iPod interface to fit your musical leanings? Now you can. Just look under settings in the Main menu.

The 15GB model comes with a wired remote control that lets you fast-forward or rewind a track, play, pause and adjust volume, using just one hand.Additionally, it includes an elegant carrying case with belt clip that protects your iPod from the elements. Clip it to your belt, purse or backpack for hands-free operation.

The iPod’s earbud-style headphones offer a strong 20Hz to 20,000Hz frequency response range for high-quality sound with minimal distortion. Thanks to their Neodymium drivers, these headphones are five times more powerful than digital music player headphones that use aluminum, cobalt or ceramic drivers.

Product Description

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars So far, So Good on the PC, June 13, 2003

By	Maurice Richard "The Rocket" (CT United States) - See all my reviews

I was reluctant to take the dive on a cross-platform product, especially after reading some of the other reviews on problems with the PC hookups. However, I really wanted a player to take running that had the capacity for both songs and Audible books (at high quality).

I brought it home yesterday and hooked it up to my PC in about 1 hour and it's working fine with both the MusicMatch and Audible. There were some little hiccups that I cured by reformatting the iPod (2x-takes about 2 minutes) until everything was setup properly. I got the idea from the other reviews! The fact that the PC sees it as a separate drive doesn't have any impact on how the different software works with it. I loaded a 120MB book in less than 30 seconds. Now I have music and stories to add to my runs.One thing that might have helped is that I'm running this on a fairly new computer (3 months old) with FireWire and Windows XP.

I held back the 5th Star for 2 reasons. First, is that I'm waiting to see how well it holds up after taking it on some long runs. Second, I would have liked 1 place to go to add both books and music - maybe that will be fixed with iTunes for the PC.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful experience, June 16, 2003

By A Customer

Last week I received my new 15Gb iPod (for Windows). It has turned out to be everything I expected. It's wonderful to have all your music in one place and be able to carry it around. The sound quality is great.

My only disappointment was with the Tunecast FM tuner thing that Belkin sells (via Apple). It only broadcasts on 88.1, 88.3, 88.5, and 88.7 and here in SF they are all full. Also, the sound quality was terrible. .... The direct line-out from the dock into my home amplifier also gives very good sound quality.

Like several people here I had some problems with Musicmatch, which is a very un-Apple like piece of bloatware, so I am using ephpod, which is free, looks like Apple software, and works flawlessly (after some tinkering).

I did hit a few snags during the installation, so here are a few tips to get you going once you get your iPod:

1. First install all the software from the CD that comes with the iPod. This also configures the iPod. I used an Orange Micro firewire card for my laptop.
2. Then uninstall Musicmatch, using the Windows Control Panel. Don't forget to uninstall the Musicmatch iPod plug-in as well.
3. Get Ephpod from www.ephpod.com and install it. It's free.
4. Make sure your iPod is fully charged (takes about two hours).
5. Plug your iPod into a firewire port and start ephpod.
6. Go through the wizard and find your iPod (it was drive G: in my case)
7. Use the config button to select which directory holds your music (My Music in most cases).
8. Hit the synch button.

If ephpod crashes halfway through your first synching operation, reboot your computer and change the cache to 512k in the ephpod configuration menu (advanced options). I also clicked the Windows API thing (no idea what that does, but someone recommended it). After that it worked smoothly. Took about 15 minutes to download over 2000 songs.

One thing to remember: when you change tags in ephpod's menu it only changes them on the iPod. Synching afterwards will create duplicates, because the unchanged songs on your hard disk will be loaded onto the iPod in addition to the songs you changed. So you should either make sure all your tags are good before you synch the first time or just download single directories after your first synch. (All of this sounds more complicated than it is in reality).

Don't forget: make sure the iPod is fully charged. Downloading all your music takes a lot of energy and you don't want the iPod to die in the middle of your first synch, which is going to be far longer than any subsequent ones.

Finally, if the iPod does die just uninstall everything and reinstall using the original Apple CD. It only takes 10 minutes or so. Don't forget to uninstall Musicmatch!

Enjoy!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 15 GB Ipod Honest Review, August 12, 2003

By	Justin Miyasaki (Pleasanton, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I purchased my 15gb ipod and I decided to put down the extra $[$$] for the 15gb instead of the 10gb, which i think was a very good idea. One of the reasons for my choosing the 15 over the 10 is actually the price. Many do not realize, but in the long run, the 15 comes out to be cheaper. This is because of accessories. At first, I was planning on buying the 10 and then adding on sme accessories such as the dock and remote (which come free with the 15 and 30 models) but once i got to the shoping cart, i soon realized that it was actually more expencive than the 15!

Now if you are smart (like i was hehe) you are probably reading this review to get some insight from real people who have real opinions on the purchase you are about to make. I, a windows xp home user, have had no problems whats so ever with synching, charging, or installing. You will also [hear of] users complain about music match. I am not sure what program [they]'ve been using, but my experience with music match has been a dream. By far, music match is the best and most user-friendly media player out there for windows. And with music match jukebox plus (witch is what ships with all ipods) the limits are endless. If you download songs off the net, you wil often fnd yourself with incomplete song tags. Feilds such as "artist" "album" etc will often be missing. With music match plus, all one has to do is use the feature "look up tags" and music match will automatically connect to their servers and repair the tag and even download the album art! All in a matter of seconds.

I think that the sensitivity was perfectly calibrated and apple has sone a fantastic job with the design of this mp3 player. The touch wheel makes scrolling through thousands of songs a breeze and the backlit buttons and screen look amazing.
Besides the AAC file format (which will be available to pc users by the end of 03') all extra features are available to pc users. Its easy to creat contacts, notes, and calender dates on the pc using microsoft outlook. And to add them on ur ipod, you simply just drag and drop like it were a hard drive instead of an mp3 player, which it is!

Probably like you, before purchasing anything, i compare it to its leading competetors. Currently, the only competition that even comes close is the nomad zen. Both are firewire400 and usb 2.0 compatable, but the zen just cant match up to the style, ease of use, and compactness of that of the ipod. Just the box of the ipod alone says it all. Everyone knows the most fun out of recieving a gift or making a purchase is opening the box and laying your eyes on it for the first time.
This is definately the best mp3 player out there.

I admit that the ipod is not cheap, but the price is very fair for what you get. If you are gonna spend over $$$ for a portable music player, you should buy the best, dont settle because you will regret it later.