Customer Reviews
Apple iPod 60GB Photo 
2007-12-27
If there's one thing Apple knows how to do, it's to create hype and not a quality product. This is the second iPod I have owned and this is also junk. Every six months or so, I have to have it repaired. The first time was under warranty, so that was no big deal. Afterward, I bought a 1-year extended warranty for $60 just to protect myself and good thing I did. This iPod broke down again twice during the extended warranty period. Now that the warranty has expired, the battery died and cost $60 to replace. Two weeks after replacing the battery, the whole unit won't start up. I tried connecting the iPod to the computer to troubleshoot, but it doesn't even connect.
Unfortunately, my kids have to have an iPod because their friends have one. So now I've bought them the next generation iPod which also has video. I won't be surprised if the new one breaks down as well. I've already told my kids this is the last iPod I am ever buying and they will have to get jobs (no pun intended) if they ever want another one.
Bottom line:
==> When the iPod is working, it's good.
==> If you must buy an iPod, budget for the extended warranty because you will surely need it.
==> Consider other items, like the Creative Labs "Zen" series. I have owned two different Zens, and I have not had any problems at all.
==> I will not buy any other Apple iPod. I'm hoping a competitor will come out with something similar to the iPhone.
loads of fun 
2007-07-31
I recently purchased this model and I must say,I love it!Cyling with the ipod and raybans is akin to riding in a convertible with a killer system.I really don't care for the earbuds so I replaced them with a different set of phones and it works out fine.The only drawbacks are : my wife and daughter each want one,and given the amount of space it has (actually more than my laptop)-it does occupy quite a bit of my free time loading music onto it.
Not A Reliable Device 2006-08-29
60GB = IPaperweight
I loved it while it worked, but it doesn't seem to work long. I've had 2 of these - each lasted ~7mo. before the drive croaked and began generating "Internal Disk Errors" that prevent the device from being reset, reformatted, or in any way accessed by ITunes or my computer. Apple's warranty is good only 1 yr. from the date of purchase. It covered the 1st one but not the 2nd. ~$250 to repair. I now refer to it as the IPaperweight.
iPod is an excellent and elegant tool 2006-08-19
This (60 Gb iPod Photo) is my second iPod (the first, a G4 40Gb was pickpocketed from my napsack in the NYC subway - beware) and I've had it over a year. Looking over the spate of recent negative reviews here prompted me to respond. Most of the shrieking pans and drooling raves are divorced from reality. I think it's important to point out that iPod is a tool and only a tool - a portable music player - a compact digital device with much in common with a laptop computer. It is highly configurable and the user has many choices about how to encode music - which affects the final results a great deal.
1) About scratching. The front of the iPod is shiny plastic. You'll need to put it in a protective case. There is an extremely lively aftermarket. I bought a nice silicon case with a compliant plastic panel that covers the display for $12 on Ebay. It does the trick and a year later my iPod looks like new if I take it out of the case. A protective case must be considered manditory for an iPod. That's it - now get over it.
2) All hard drive based devices of any kind - iPods included - have limited G-force tolerance. If you jog, it will go into protection - (the music stops and unit appears paused until you hit "play" again). If you drop it while it's running, you might kill it - or cause disk damage that will require a reformat. If you want a player for jogging or sporting (skiing, skateboarding etc...) buy a Nano or a shuffle or competing solid state player. Memory chips have no moving parts and don't suffer these limitations. They just have the size limitation.
3) All electronic devices are subject to RF interference - especially digital devices. The iPod has a nice metal body shield, but it can crash when taken near power lines, radio transmitters etc...
4) Sonically all MP3 players will vary in quality based on how much encryption you choose to use. For best sound use a high bit rate (192K or above). Apple offers proprietary schemes that offer higher performance. Competing open standards exist for just about every format Apple has cooked up. Is this skeevy of Apple? Perhaps. It's similar to what Microsoft did on computers. Love it or hate it - it's part of the whole Apple experience. I use Apple's lossless compression and it works seamlessly with iTunes and yields wonderful high quality rips. Are they portable with any other deivce than the iPod? No. Do they work with any software other than iTunes? No. Am I complaining? Not yet! I personally think the iTunes software is the best software and the iPod is the best player. Down the road if the proprietary format limits me from doing something I want to do I might start complaining. Life is full of compromises and choices.
5) You must turn off equalization if you care about sound quality. Sadly this is true of every portable digital player currently extant in the world. I was expecting better with Apple - but it's not so. Every single equalization setting introduces audible distortion that ruins the experience for an audiophile like me. With EQ set to off I get wonderful sound.
6) About reliability and dealing with broken players - portable electronics take a lot of abuse. Laptops have shorter warranty periods than desktops because rapidly spinning hard drives don't tolerate motion well. This is exactly the situation in the ipod. It's a tough environment for a hard drive. There is a lively after-market for hard drive replacement services. Ambitious folks can buy cheap replacement hard drives on the open market and fix/upgrade their iPods. Sure you'll scratch the case getting it open - but it's better than a dead iPod. Battery life issues - same situation. If you like to tinker you can do this for little cost. If you are paying for the service it becomes more justifiable to just buy a new unit. Is this cost effective? Nope. But if you become addicted to the wonderfuly lifestyle of having one of these players - you'll do it.
7) Audible distortion of the Photo iPod becasue of the video jack? Maybe on early units. I have one and don't have any audible distortion when the EQ is off. This unit sounds noticeably better than my 40GB G4 iPod did. It has better battery life too.
8) What about music services? It's a totally personal opinion - but I don't recommend buying music on iTunes or any other service. They all pretty much use relatively severe mp3 compression. Buy the CDs and get full resolution. Then rip at your choice of compression. That way you have a full backup and you get all the music you pay for. I also feel that music appreciation sometimes takes time. There are many songs on albums that I didn't initally like, but grew to love over time simply because I had them because they were on the album with some more accessible hit. If we only buy the hits - we never get to know the more difficult songs and we end up shallower.
I'll confess I'm a dyed in the wool audiophile - the kind who hangs sonex on his walls and puts specially made sound reflecting pillows on his ceiling. I'm also, like a lot of audiophiles, opposed to digital equipment in general and prefer the warmer fuller sound of analog sources (like my very tricked out turntable). That being said - the system that shows you the most is the one you use most often - and for me that is the portable. For years I had high-end cassette tape walkmen, then portable CD players of various stripes. The iPod completely blows away all previous portables by a WIDE margin. The iPod sounds way better than most stand-alone CD players - the sonics are comparable to a really good DVD player playing CDs. This is a killer sounding portable when used with lossless compression, and etymotic ER-6 headphones. It has better resolution than my big rig (Rocksan Xerxes turntable, Audio Research pre and amp, and ProAc Repsonse speakers). Granted this is digital - so the highs are more brittle and there's less warmth and depth. This is highly dependent on source material. Recent recordings by good engineers sound great - through the headphones or played on a stereo system with a good cord via a line out from the cradle. I get around 1500 songs - about 135 albums worth on my 60gb. The iPod is high enough sonically that it can function as my test source for critical listening of back-end components or sharing music with audiophile friends at their house (on their big rigs). This "library" aspect is the biggest feature of the iPod - and is really life changing. I can't recommend it highly enough.
My main complaint with the iPod is with the headphones. The included headphones are not adequate for musically satisfying listening. I recommend Grado or Etymotic headphones (even the bottom of the line ones). You don't need a separate headphone amp - unless you source material is unusually low volume. "Earbud" type phones are all garbage - avoid them like the plague. Other than that - I'm a really happy camper with the iPod!
music to go 2006-05-31
I am rating this iPod with 5 stars because I have never had a problem with it. Since day one it has been everything I hoped it would be. I purchased it as a combo with my IMac desktop. Due to a combo special and a student discount I picked up this iPod for $179. For that price, it really can't be beat. I purchased it because I have a huge cd collection (approx 1,600) that I wanted to transport. I was tired of lugging around 5-10 discs in my car or in a case on trips. While the 60 gigs didn't quite fit my collection, I have it filled up with over 16,300 songs. That's enough music to last anyone a long time. The first thing I purchased was a clear, hard plastic case. I did this to prevent scratching and damage with a fall. I've heard that these are two issues associated with the unit. That case is a wise $30 investment. It really is a wonderful invention. I haven't had much luck with digital tuner connectors to my car stereo but plugged directly into any stereo it sounds great. Thankfully my wife's new Camry has an aux input jack. I'm thinking of having one installed in my car as well. I find the 'rock' eq preset to be the best sounding overall. It has been wonderful for long trips, vacations and working out. Downloading songs to it is a snap. Anyone who can turn on a computer can do it.
Warning about the Ipod 2006-03-12
plays MP3, WAV, AAC, AIFF (uncompressed), Apple Lossless, and Audible files * displays photos converted from JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF and PNG formats * functions as an external hard drive for backup of computer files * 65,536-color backlit LCD screen * 60GB hard drive holds approximately 25,000 photos, transferred from iTunes, and 2,000 hours of music at 64 kbps (or 1,000 hours at 128 kbps) *
IPODS STINK!! 2006-02-09
Had a 4th gen 40 gig that just causes me headaches. Sent in 3 times to apple and now it does not connect to crappy itunes software.I am ebaying the ipod and getting a creative.
I hate ipods!
Just what I Needed 2005-09-30
I have a large CD collection and a job that makes me relocate frequently. I like to have access to my music between moves, and now, for the first time, I can have all of it conveniently at my fingertips. Not to mention at the office, on the go -- a truly revolutionary product. Works awesome as a music storage and playback device.
The picture function is nice, but don't get it for that. The screen is too small to really enjoy pictures with, and it will get scrathed up. There's almost no way to avoid this. Mine was scratched in a couple days. Not horribly, but you notice it with pics. You don't notice if you're just reading a song or album description.
In short, it works as advertised, it it's just what I needed.
iPod Rocks!!! 2005-09-28
Awesome MP3 Player.
I've been using this for the past 4 months. Wanted to write a review after using it for sometime. It has very good quality audio output. It has high speed hard disk (7200 rpm) which is really great. The photos can be browsed so easily...the click wheel makes it really easy!! Overall its a great product to own.
Easy to carry and transfer data.
Price Dispute 2005-09-27
I think that the 60GB iPod model is really great, as you can back your hard drive up to it and still have room for music, but I was surprised to see the price listed on this website. This site listed the price for the 60GB color iPod as 450USD, but the official Apple price is only 400USD, and the student price is 370USD.
Something's wrong with either the information or the ethics here.
