Apple iPod (20GB, fourth generation)
Manufacturer: Apple Part number: M9282LL/A
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Accessories
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- Apple's fourth-generation iPod delivers notable improvements to an already excellent product--and at a lower price.
Read more
Where to buy
| store | customer rating | inventory | tax & shipping | price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon.com Marketplace |  | See Site | Enter zip code to get total price: Price +Tax +Shipping =Total price | as of 12/08/2009 |
CNET editors' review
Apple iPod (20GB, fourth generation) price range: $249.99
- Reviewed by: James Kim
- Edited by: John Morris
- Reviewed on: 07/23/2004
- Released on: 07/21/2004
The good: Click Wheel improves user experience; better battery life; useful firmware enhancements such as multiple On The Go playlists; more bang for the buck.
The bad: Dock, remote control, and carrying case not included (dock is included with the 40GB version).
The bottom line: Apple's fourth-generation iPod delivers notable improvements to an already excellent product--and at a lower price.
User reviews
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iPod vs Zen Touch vs Sony NW-HD1
Pros: first, I have owned all three of these! Zen Touch vs NW-HD1 vs 4th Gen iPod iPod PROS: -Good support from Apple forums -Abundance of aftermarket accessories -Small dimensions and light weight -iTunes music management software easy to use -FireWire port
Cons: -
21 out of 21 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Awful with dreadful customer support
by john7852 on May 26, 2005
Pros: Nice Color
Cons: The product was bad; service worse.
Summary: Wow. Where to begin. My daughter loved this and used it a great deal. It was a wonderful Christmas present which survived until May. She always had a difficult time ...
Summary: Wow. Where to begin. My daughter loved this and used it a great deal. It was a wonderful Christmas present which survived until May. She always had a difficult time maintaining the 'connection' with the pc, the device's memory was awful. But then it froze up. We followed all of Apple's instructions online and eventually had to send the device back to them in their packaging. Next thing we know, they claimed we opened the device (which we didn't) and it was cracked, which it wasn't when we sent it in the packaging. Apple simply doesn't want to back up a poor product. I've often thought people who purchase Apple products buy the sizzle instead of the steak----but I bought an ipod for my teenaged daughter. Heck, the steak was lousy and the sizzle was poor. Oh, to fix this cost more than a new Dell Digital Jukebox. I've always had great luck with Dell products so that's where my money is now.
When you see an Apple on the product label, choose a different product!!!15 out of 23 users found this user opinion helpful.
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IPOD the Best!!! (And I have an Iriver too!)
by tn.howard on June 30, 2005
Pros: The Click Wheel makes navigation much easier, the screen is very clear, and the words are very large and clear. It is also wrapped in a sexy little case.
Cons: The accessories are really expensive ($20 for a silicon case).
Summary: I have both an Iriver and an Ipod, and of the two I would have to say the Ipod is the best. Yes the Iriver has more packaged features for ...
Summary: I have both an Iriver and an Ipod, and of the two I would have to say the Ipod is the best. Yes the Iriver has more packaged features for the same price, but the navigation button is poorly constructed. After a while the button looses some of its ability to move back into place, it is also really annoying to have to hold the button to scroll down the lists.
With the ipod it is a whole lot easier to manage music files. The iriver (20GB) that I bought made it very convenient for me to transfer my music because you could cut copy and paste as if it was a separate hard drive. Though this is a very good feature, when it came to trying to manage my music it became tiresome to have to search through each individual artist folder, and then each album folder to find what I was looking for.
The other great feature that the ipod has that the iriver doesn't is the ability to create playlists at my leisure. The whole point of an Mp3 is not only to carry your entire music collection in one place, but it also serves as a device that can give any combination of songs and artists at any given moment. Which was a very large negative for the Iriver that I bought.
Some people complain about the music quality, but as far as I can tell it seems pretty clear and crisp.
One thing that I do not like about the Ipod is the earphones, after a while listening to them they begin to heart my ears. To solve this I went to Target and bought some wrap around earphones that was in the Ipod accessory section (they are perfect).
As far as customer service from each company, they are about equal, what apple lacks in comprehensive and affordable service, it makes up for with the fact that the reps are able to speak clear english, because I believe Iriver is a korean based company, their reps tend to be from Asia making it very hard to understand them at times.
Overall, I would say the Ipod is a good buy when it comes to Mp3 players. When you buy it, it would be best if you considered accessories in the pricing (they add up). But it would be better if you bought it at places like CompUSA, and Sams Club, because these places offer package deals. At compUSA I received the Itrip for free, and Sams has a package that includes the itrip and the carcharger for 319. Hope this review is helpful to those searching for the right mp3 device.10 out of 11 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Battery life
by ginasanderson on March 9, 2005
Pros: Storage space
Cons: battery life, tech support, $ wasted
Summary: I waited a year to buy this item and I am soooooooo disappointed! I should have kept on waiting and purchased another vendors model. The battery life is 4 hours! ...
Summary: I waited a year to buy this item and I am soooooooo disappointed! I should have kept on waiting and purchased another vendors model. The battery life is 4 hours! They say it is 12. It is not even close. I called Apple tech support (my ipod is 2 weeks old!!) and they only give one complimentary call. So, you pay a fair bit of money for no support and a sub standard item. I paid $99 for an MP3 player at Best Buy a few years ago and got better technical support, battery life and overall product. Don't buy and IPOD. I never will again.
6 out of 7 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Grossly Overrated
by taruniyer on July 12, 2005
Pros: Good Sound Quality, It's an iPod
Cons: Mediocre Battery life, no Voice Recorder or Fm Radio, not really worth the price
Summary: 1 - The most defining factor about how overrated iPodâ??s is that they offer no extra features (excluding the pricey Photo) apart from the Mp3 player.
2 - Mp3 ...Summary: 1 - The most defining factor about how overrated iPodâ??s is that they offer no extra features (excluding the pricey Photo) apart from the Mp3 player.
2 - Mp3 purists may well argue that iPod was designed as a dedicated Mp3 player but it is an admitted fact that the sound quality of the iPod's sound quality is not the best that is on the market. Mp3 players with better sound quality include iRiver's H10, the Creative Zen Micro and the Sony NW HD5.
3 - Apple's Clickwheel is ONE of the best User interfaces on the market, but their are other UIs that are as good, in not better than the Clickwheel, Such UI's include the touchstrips included in the H10 and the Zen Micro as well as the NW HD5
4 - The iPod's battery life is still disappointing lasting a mere 12 hours while the Sony NW HD5 offers over 20 hours
5 - Apple's iTunes may well be the current King of online music stores; however it only works with iPods (okay that was oblivious) however stores such as Napster and Real Rhapsody come extremely close to beating it primarily because of their compatibility with multiple players
6 - Another Con of the iPod is that you can not replace the battery, which is extremely annoying as when the battery of the iPod gives out it turns into a paperweight if you don't want to shell out $100+ replacing it. While with a player like the iRiver H10 you can replace the battery yourself and the spare one only costs $40 maximum.
7 â?? About the CS of Apple, they are just as good as other top notch brands such as Sony and Creative5 out of 5 users found this user opinion helpful.
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It's been a very good year
by virtualRick on June 22, 2005
Pros: Good battery life
Cons: The shell scratches too easily.
Summary: I purchased my 4G back in August 04. The experience hasn't been perfect, but close. The battery life has been good. I haven't had it die on a ...
Summary: I purchased my 4G back in August 04. The experience hasn't been perfect, but close. The battery life has been good. I haven't had it die on a flight, or during any period of extended use. Perhaps that's because my iPod spends so much time connected to my PowerBook.
The headphones didn't last long, but were easily replaced with a better product. The sound of AAC is good enough for my ears.
The iTunes Music Store has worked well, but I have 25 years worth of CD purchases that filled it up rapidly.
It's frozen on me twice during the past year, but a restore of the firmware/software with the most recent updater brought it back to life and iTunes had everything ready to reload. No sweat.
I like smart playlists, but I wish iTunes would let you assign more than one genre to a song -- is it Rock? is it R&B? is it Pop? you get the idea. Since so much music is hard to categorize by genre, how about a second field for a second genre setting?
It's not a perfect product, but I'm happy. I wish the surface of the product were more scratch resistant, but otherwise it's a tough little product.3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Poor Quality Player for the money
by Audioman on March 11, 2005
Pros: Ease of navigation
Cons: Terrible sound quality, Buggy, itunes is poor interface
Summary: Okay, after doing all of the research, I finally bit the bullet and bought an ipod...and now I wish that I had bought ANY other player out there. Here ...
Summary: Okay, after doing all of the research, I finally bit the bullet and bought an ipod...and now I wish that I had bought ANY other player out there. Here are the issues I have with it:
1. Audio quality: poor. Even with MPEG4 (apple lossless) quality recordings on the PC, quality on the IPOD is still tinny, muffled, with stretched, indistinct bass. Put any IPOD up against an iRiver or Creative player and you will hear the difference immediately. Wonder why Apple won't release their signal to noise ratio or total harmonic distortion rates?? BECAUSE THEY STINK, THAT"S WHY.
2. File Format: No support for WMA. I'm sorry, but MP3 and AAC are lossy, truncated codecs with way too much slashed off the high and low registers...they just can't compare to WMA. WMA is more flexible, better quality, with smaller files. I have always used WMA for this reason, and after making the forray into AAC and Apple lossless, I can say unequivocably that WMA smacks the tar out of AAC, MP3, and MPEG4.
3. Software interface: iTunes is a marginal program that doesn't allow you to do very simple things that any other player does. For instance, you cant change the names of the composers of the songs...so if you have a compilation album with one artist, but many authors to the music (Like Paul Okenfold for example), then you can't group and search for his work by artist...only by album, and in the meta-tags it mixes all of the artists up. Even with the "group compilations together" feature on, it only effects it at the level of the album. Further, if you play iTunes and any other program side by side, head to head, you hear a distinct difference in audio quality. Then there's the issue of not being able to transfer (or rename) files from computer to computer. Sure, copyright protection...but if I own the CD, I've already bought it, and I shouldnt have to burn my whole friggin collection three times to get it on all of my PC's and get my pod to sync. All in all, Creative Media Source and Windows Media Player are much better software interfaces.
4. Customer Support: Abysmal. TAKE HEED!!! DEPENDING UPON WHERE THEY'RE PURCHASED FROM, MANY IPOD'S ARE NON RETURNABLE!!! I bought a 60 gigger brand new from a major and very reputable online certified apple retailer and tried to return it two weeks later and was told that it was an unreturnable item. So I called Apple and they told me that yes, it is unreturnable. Unlike every other player out there, if you get it and dont like it, you cant take it back. CAVEAT EMPTOR.
5. Audible.com support: Sure, it supports all of audible's codecs all right, but it has no controls to skip to parts of the books, no way to bookmark, no quick fast forward or rewind, and no skimming feature. If you have a 7 hour audiobook and are at say hour 4 and accidentally bump it wrong and it resets (or it freezes up and you need to hard reset), you have to either spend 20 minutes holding down the fast forward button to find your old spot, or just turn it on and let it sit and play for 4 hours and hope you come back and catch it at the right spot. Further, if you want to review a portion of the book or return to a section later, you have to manually hold down the fast forward (and it only skips in increments of 20 seconds....SLOWLY). TOTALLY RIDICULOUS. So what I have done is burned the books to DVD from the Audible manager and then burned the DVD's back onto the computer in wma format (where I can modify the file to place bookmarks or track numbers using media player, then convert to MP3, and uploaded it from there to the ipod. PAIN IN THE BUTT. If I knew I was going to have to go through that, I'd have just bought an iRiver.
6. Battery Life: Terrible. They say 8 hours...it's more like 6. These things absolutely SUCK power. Every other player out there beats the snot out of the IPOD in battery life. I travel a lot, and I am constantly charging this thing...LAME.
7. Appearance and controls: Scratches way too easily. Control wheel is okay, but I much prefer either a pushbutton or the vertical navigation bar on the Creative model. Turning your thumb around and around gets to be a pain in the butt especially when you're driving, and the ease of a single bar or several buttons would be welcome to that infuriating wheel.
All in all, if I could return this thing, I would probably buy either an iRiver or a Creative Zen. I really do not like the player, iTunes, AAC, or the lack of controls for audible files. A total waste of money and time. I will never buy an apple product again7 out of 13 users found this user opinion helpful.
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ipod doens't live up to hype
by grissom_chan on April 3, 2005
Pros: easy to use...
Cons: delicate... bad service... problems upon problems...
Summary: so... my problems with my ipod include... lcd cracked... skipping... not playing songs... wont' respond to computer... freezes the update/restore program... itunes not recognizing it... basically it is now ...
Summary: so... my problems with my ipod include... lcd cracked... skipping... not playing songs... wont' respond to computer... freezes the update/restore program... itunes not recognizing it... basically it is now a paper weight worth of about 400 canadian...
second rant is with apple's so called technical service... problem one... there are no apple store in canada to bring the ipod to for help... lied to me about not being able to fix the lcd screen... insisted that i should just buy a new ipod... in truth, i found a place who will fix it for 130 canadian... three... apple has made it so that the ipod is not as friendly towards the pc users like the mac users... apparently, some say.... some problems involving nonresponsive ipods when connected to the computer via usb is fixed when using a firewire... and forth you have to pay for technical support...
in other words... check out the discussion forum on the apple website before you buy one... read about the problems that can happen to you... yes... that is practically the only place to get help...4 out of 6 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Why does everyone have these???
by Reviews1991 on May 16, 2005
Pros: No, go with Creative
Cons: Its so boring, blahh!
Summary: I hate iPods. Everyone has one, that makes me dislike them. Get something different, more stylish like a Creative Model like The Zen Touch, or the Zen Micro. Apple minis ...
Summary: I hate iPods. Everyone has one, that makes me dislike them. Get something different, more stylish like a Creative Model like The Zen Touch, or the Zen Micro. Apple minis are horrible, and so is this, My friend has one and i can barely work the scroll wheel. Bad choice. Everyone was so amazed to see what an mp3 player really was, and they all went out without thinking and bought an iPod. NO! not the way to go. Poorly built. Nothing interesting. Boring. Get Creative!!!!
3 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Why I finally gave in and bought an iPod
by vela1 on June 29, 2005
Pros: Simple, easy, nice design, iTunes play list easy
Cons: no mp3 record
Summary: I've had Rio, HP-120, Sony... and now I have the iPod. I've fought it. I liked the iRiver hp-120 with mp3 record feature... I would plug into the ...
Summary: I've had Rio, HP-120, Sony... and now I have the iPod. I've fought it. I liked the iRiver hp-120 with mp3 record feature... I would plug into the line in on an airplane and record music I liked... but I lost the player. Now I went with iPod. I wanted something that was easy for my wife... and for me. The iPod reminds me of the palm pilot... simple, and it does what you need most... PLAY MUSIC... so the interface was key. I use iTunes, and it's easy to buy music and make a play list... There are programs out there if I want to rerecord the music as an mp-3. Overall... the design is great. One stop player, computer interface, etc. They win.
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Apple
- Part number: M9282LL/A
- Description: A musical dream come true, the fourth-generation iPod offers huge capacity, letting you easily slip up to 10, 000 songs into your pocket. And enjoy it wherever you go. In the car. On the treadmill. At the office. Around the house. Though ease of use has always been the hallmark of iPod, Apple believes in constantly moving perfection forward. So iPod now incorporates the same touch-sensitive Apple Click Wheel that debuted on iPod mini. Without lifting that trusty thumb of yours from the wheel, you can easily select playlists, scroll through thousands of songs, and start the music playing. Want that song to play from the beginning again? A single click will do the trick. You can put the Apple Click Wheel to use the next time you want to set your music to shuffle. Right there on the main menu - where it's very easy to find - you'll find a new option - Shuffle Songs. Everyone's favorite option for mixing things up, Shuffle Songs randomly plays songs in a selected playlist or your entire music collection. You'll never guess what's coming up next, so you're always surprised by startling juxtapositions - like a melodic Coldplay song hot on the heels of an aria by Caballé. And you can shuffle your way through a lot of songs now that iPod lets you play your music for up to 12 hours on a single battery charge. Imagine: you could fly from New York to Paris and still have hours of listening time left over as you stroll the Champs Elysées. While you're on the move, iPod keeps you aware of its charge level, and when it's time, iPod's quick to recharge. Plug it into your computer or a handy wall socket (via the included power adapter), and you can fast-charge iPod in as little as 2 hours. The perfect companion to iPod, iTunes lets you easily build and manage your digital music collection. Since the iTunes Music Store is built right in, you can browse through hundreds of thousands of songs and audiobooks until you find just what you're looking for. Jazz, Reggae, Pop, Electronica, Hip Hop - the iTunes Music Store has it all. And it's open 24/7. All year long. In the US and Europe, too. On both the Mac and Windows PCs. As for all of those CDs you already own, iTunes makes it easy to quickly transfer your favorite songs and albums. Just pop a CD into your Mac or PC, and click the Import button. You can import music in a variety of formats (such as MP3 or AAC) and at whatever quality level you'd prefer. You can even choose the new Apple Lossless encoder. Music encoded with that option offers sound quality indistinguishable from the original CDs at about half the file size of the original. And with FireWire and USB 2.0 support, you can transfer the music from an entire CD to iPod in just 5 seconds or less.
General
- Product type Hard drive
- PC interface(s) supported FireWire, Hi-Speed USB
- Flash memory installed No built-in memory
- Digital storage Built-in 20 GB Hard disk drive
- Weight 5.6 oz
- Dimensions (W x D x H) 2.4 in x .57 in x 4.1 in
- Color White
- Available body colors Silver
- Included accessories Earbud headphones, AC adapter, FireWire cable, USB 2.0 cable
- Software type Apple iTunes for Mac, Apple iTunes for Windows
- iPod Generation 4G
Carrying Case
- Case type Optional
Digital Player / Recorder
- Supported digital audio standards AAC, AIFF, MP3, WAV
- Playback modes Playlist, One track repeat, All tracks repeat, Random play / shuffle
- Edit functions Erase
- Response bandwidth 20 - 20000 Hz
- Supported bit rate 32 - 320 Kbps
- Shockproof memory 1500 seconds
- ID3 tags support Yes
- External hard drive function Yes
- Additional features Variable bit-rate compatible
Built-in Display
- Audio system built-in display LCD
- Diagonal size 2 in
- Resolution 160 x 128
- Backlight display Yes
- Display illumination color White
- Display menu language Dutch, Danish, French, German, Korean, English, Finnish, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Japanese, Norwegian, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional)
- Features Adjustable contrast
Audio Features
- Sound output mode Stereo
- Timer Wake, Sleep
- Built-in clock Timer, Digital clock
- Additional features Notes, Calendar, Phone book, Hold button, Built-in games, Upgradeable firmware, Playback speed control, Rechargeable capability, Battery level indication
Video Playback Features
- Games included None
- Video software included None
CD System
- CD system type None
- Playback modes Skip playback, Random play, Repeat one/all
- Digital audio standards supported MP3, AAC, MP3 VBR, Audible, AIFF, WAV
Equalizer
- Equalizer factory preset qty 20
Radio
- Tuner type None
Remote Control
- Remote control None
Microphone
- Microphone type None
Headphones
- Headphones type Binaural Ear-bud
- Sound output mode Stereo
- Response bandwidth 20 - 20000 Hz
- Impedance 32 Ohm
- Connectivity technology Wired
Connectivity
- Cable(s) included 1 x, IEEE 1394 cable - External, USB cable - External
- Connector type 1 x Headphones / remote control Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm, 1 x Docking station
Battery / Power
- Battery Lithium ion Rechargeable Player batteryBuilt-in
- Mfr estimated battery life 12 hour(s)
- Recharge time 4 hour(s)
- Power device type Power adapter
System Requirements
- Peripheral / Interface devices USB port, IEEE 1394 FireWire port
- Operating system Apple MacOS X 10.1.5 or later, Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional SP4
Accessories
Manufacturer info
- Apple
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Apple products on Shopper.com
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- Website: http://www.apple.com
- Address:
One Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA 95014 - Phone: 1-408-996-1010
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