Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7129 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Apple
• Model: MA146B/A
• Released on: 2005-01-01
• Dimensions: .71 pounds

T3 Gold
The best now comes with video playback. December 2005

Manufacturer's Description

Witness the evolution of the revolution. First it held songs. Then photos. Then podcasts. Now iPod adds video to change the way you experience your music and media. Again. The new lighter, thinner iPod is music to your eyes.

Time for the world’s best music player to take the stage for another encore. Available in two colours, the 30GB (1) model will hold up to 7,500 (2) songs and full-colour album art. Yeah, you’ve heard that tune before. Only now, you can watch it, too. With MPEG-4 and H.264 video support and a 6.35-cm (2.5-inch) colour display, the new iPod lets you watch up to 75 hours of video (3). Oh, and don’t forget your photos. The new iPod stores up to 12,500 of them (4).

More and Less
The new iPod boasts up to 14 hours of battery life (5). Plus, you get a bigger display and one more iPod colour — sleek black. But here’s the kicker: at under one and a half centimetres thin, the new 60GB model is thinner than the fourth-generation 20GB iPod. More features in less space? Sounds like iPod.

Hold Everything
Now you can put all your music in your pocket and still have room for, well, practically everything else. Catch up on your reading with audiobooks. Browse your memories with photo slideshows, complete with music. Watch video podcasts and your favourite music videos. Consult your calendar or look up an email address. Even check the time in another city or time your fastest lap. The new iPod keeps it all close at hand.

Spin some Tunes
The Apple Click Wheel gives you access to your entire music, photo and video library — from one thumb. Control volume and browse using the touch-sensitive surface. Play. Pause. Rewind and fast-forward. Rate your favourites. Create playlists on the go. Launch photo slideshows. The Click Wheel puts everything at your fingertips, so you can keep your eyes and ears on the music.

Sync, Look and Listen
Playing your iPod is only half the fun. Try filling it with downloads from the iTunes Music Store. Choose from over 1.7 million songs, 15,000 podcasts or 1,000 music videos, download them to your Mac or PC and sync them to your iPod. Add an optional S-video cable and use iPod to play VJ on your TV. You can perform the same big-screen feat with iPod photo slideshows. And you can do it from across the room using the optional Universal Dock and handy new Apple Remote.

1. 1GB = 1 billion bytes; actual formatted capacity less.
2. Song capacity is based on four minutes per song and 128-Kbps AAC encoding.
3. Video capacity is based on four minutes per video and 750-Kbps H.264 encoding combined with 128-Kbps audio.
4. photo capacity is based on iPod-viewable photos transferred from iTunes.
5. Rechargeable batteries have a limited number of charge cycles and may eventually need to be replaced. Battery life and the number of charge cycles vary by use and settings.

Box Contents

Customer Reviews

hope this helps.
I really want to try and help you if your thinking of buying this, so here goes. I spent ages and ages debating wether or not to buy this model, this brand etc etc, and looked at so many sites and designs i think i've seen them all. The problem was i really couldnt tell if it would be worth the money. I thought that instantly there would be unremovable fingerprints everywhere, a 5 minute battery life, a massive selection of cracks and HUGE scratches. I was sceptical. But when it arrived, and i plugged it in, and after the initial WOW its so beautiful and small and sleek, i really have to say i was happy.
I've had it for about a month now, and the music qualitly is amazing. The battery life is a bit on the short side, and i would really prefer not to pay for a seperate charger. These things i really can live with though. It's me being exceptionally picky. The set up is easy. It takes little more that common sense. Seriously, i'm NOT good with computers and i managed perfectly.

The iPod is something that really should come with warnings about getting to attached to technology. I'm glad i shopped around, and checked out the competition,but i want to save you the time and energy. This really is a amazing piece of plastic.

Very good device but not perfect!
I had been putting off buying an ipod for many years for two main reasons: the battery was reputedly poor compared with Creative products and the ipod is so ubiquitous that I wanted something a little different. With the release of the 5G 30Gb Video ipod I could no longer continue to ignore the fact that my Creative Zen Touch was looking more and more brick-like. Also, all of Creative's recent offerings have compromised on battery life in favour of form factor so they are losing their competitive advantage in terms of battery performance. After much research and deliberation I succumbed and bought the ipod.

First impressions? The box that it came in was much smaller than I expected but given that no AC adaptor is included it should be small (a tenner extra for a generic charger by the way). The ipod looks truly stunning when taken out of the box but with minimal handling it starts to get really smudgy which is very obvious on the black surface. For that reason alone I would go for the white version instead. Is the back surface as prone to scratching as reported? Definitely! Even in the supplied case mine was getting marked. Speaking of which, the "case" that Apple supply is a complete joke so you will have to fork out and get something better (I got an iSkin evo3 - another 20 quid). I have a set of Sony Fontopias so didn't even open the supplied earbuds so can't comment on those.
My main concern about the ipod was the battery life so I decided to stress test the battery. Some people are reporting less than 4 hours playback on a full charge in reviews and forums. With the backlight off I was getting in excess of 12 hours easily. Beware though, the backlight really eats up the battery so for maximum battery life set the backlight either to "off"or 2 seconds. In normal daylight the screen is still totally readable with the backlight off. The ipod sounds great through the Fontopias but I found that most EQ settings tended to distort some part of the audio spectrum so decided to leave it turned off completely for the best sound quality. Video playback looks great but with such limited battery life it is gimmicky and does not make this a proper multimedia machine. The click wheel definitely lives up to the hype though. It is easy to use and very intuitive. Similarly, the iTunes software is way ahead of anything that I have used from any of Apple's rivals. Its brilliance is in its simplicity and ease of use. I now use playlists (thanks to the smart playlist functionality) and subscribe to podcasts which was always a bit of a nuisance with other devices that I have used. Importing tracks and burning are also very straightforward. 10/10 for both the software and hardware interfaces (I now understand why these things are so popular).

I am pleased that I made this purchase. It is a great sounding device with plenty of storage, a superb interface and excellent software. The battery life is OK and nowhere near as bad as some of the forums suggest. The black surface attracts smudges and scratches as does the polished metal back so in order to keep it looking beautiful you have to permanently hide it from view in a well fitting case so if you are buying this for looks alone think again. Lack of AC adaptor is a pain because for me it is a must have for such a device. I would love to have given this 5 stars but the poor case, no charger and its susceptibility to scratching and smudging loses it a star.

Slick, sleek and shiny.
I've had a Creative Zen Extra 40gb for about 3 years, but it's become a bit clunky looking and, shallow person that I am, I fancied something that looked a bit trendier. The ipod certainly scores on this front, but the big difference I've found is not really in the machine but in the itunes software which knocks the Creative stuff into touch (although Creative have probably improved it if they read the feedback on various forums!) It's really easy to organise your music and to find interesting music and podcasts in their store, and within ten minutes I'd found loads of suggested compilations and playlists from Apple that I'd like to buy.
Like the Creative, the ipod benefits from the addition of a good pair of headphones - I use Sony Fontopia - and it sounds great through my car system too, although I'm lucky enough to have an aux input to plug it into.
I haven't used the video function yet and still think this suffers from the "ashtray on a motorbike" syndrome. I can't believe that many people are using this except for "You've been Framed" style clips and, ofcourse, porn. Hopefully I'll find some soon.
I have deducted a star because I feel that Apple haven't addressed the fragility and durability of the shiny casing - you can tell it will be scratched and scraped if you even look at it the wrong way. The black shell also becomes very greasy as you fiddle with the tracking wheel.
Apart from that, it's great. I originally avoided buying an Apple ipod as I thought they were for posers who were considerably richer than me. But it's a lovely piece of kit and I'm well pleased now to be posing with mine.