Apple iPod 40GB MP3 Player (Apple-M9245LLA)

Reviewed by: sandyebauer

Duration of ownership:

Strengths: Size and quality. Ease of converting music with iTunes. Ease of loading iPod from iTunes.

Weaknesses: Lack of support for WMA, headphones could be a lot better.

Overall Evaluation: This is the second MP3 player I've purchased. My first was the Nomad Jukebox (6 gig) and I quickly ran out of room for my music collection and also had the hardware die. I waited quite a while to buy another system but after hearing so much about the iPod, I jumped in and bought the 40 gig model. It was so easy to convert CDs via iTunes. Wish I could say it was simple to just point to my directory with all my .wma files (previously converted CDs with Dell Jukebox software) but I found I had to point to each individual directory/folder to convert all the music I already had on my laptop (8 gig).It was very easy to connect to my Bose Wave radio I keep on my nightstand and great to use the sleep timer to listen to some ocean waves music to put me to sleep. Since I already had the cables from my Nomad Jukebox I was in business - Apple should include cables with the system considering the price of 40 gig model. Case that came with the 40 gig is nice, sleek and seems to have sturdy clip to attach to waistband or whatever.Sound quality is great. Earphones could be better as everyone has noticed already. I'm debating which earphones to replace with considering all the high-quality in-ear sets out there. I'm also looking forward to purcashing the Media reader so I can off-load digital camera photos and the voice recorder so I can use it to make notes to myself.All in all - I'm a very happy iPod owner and appreciate the quality Apple has designed into this product. I definitely would recommend the iPods to anyone looking for purchase a portable MP3 player.