stopped working
I purchased my 30gb 5th generation ipod in December 2006. Now, less than 2 years later, it stopped working. The problem is one known by apple where an electrical short develops that prevents the ipod from playing sound except when the device or the surrounding air is very cold. Sure, I can refrigerate my ipod and get about 1 hour of playtime, or exercise in a freezer, but otherwise it is non-functional. Many people have reported online that Apple has charged them for a replacement since they are now out of the warranty period. I would hope apple could build a product that can withstand normal use for > 2 years (only used for listening in car and at home sitting in speaker dock). And if they can't they should stand behind their product instead of trying to sell you a new one!

Don't buy from here
We ordered a refurbuished Ipod and when it came it froze up as soon as we loaded it. I emailed the seller a couple of times before I ever heard back from him during a one week period. I have sent the Ipod back for a refund and have still not received the refund after 3 weeks. I have emailed the seller again(since there is no phone number to contact him by) and he will not respond. I would never recommend buying anything from this seller. I would appreciate some help from someone in getting my refund.

Easy to steal and great for 300
Last week bought for 0 and stolen the next day. But also, really a nice thing that played lots of music easy. They broke out three of my car windows before setting it on fire. I'm here to buy a new IPOD anyway!

pretty good
this item is worth the price although the volume isn't a loud as the original I already have.

I hate I-pod
I bought this crap about 3 years ago, in this 3 years I waited for a moment to tag all my mp3's but I never find that time, then I find a folder browsing mp3 player and throw this junk out and I am glad that I did that.

So here is why I hate I-Pod

No folder browsing: You have to add tag on your every single old mp3's. there is some other mp3 player that they have this function for less, so you can see all the folders and mp3's like your your pc or mac. "No folder browsing" is very disturbing if you have mixed mp3's.

I-tunes is horrible: you have to use I-tunes to upload music, no drag and drop from drive to drive. I tunes is slow and useless. it is also making you pc slower even if you are not even using it.

File protection: if you upload your mp3's you can have them back to you pc or mac. With any folder browsing mp3 players you can do so.

No volume button: Yes Ipod looks cool but if you need to volume down quickly you have to wait 2 seconds, because volume button is also same as navigation. if you need instant mute you have to unplug your headphone.
and you look lame when you do that because you don't know where you are going to put the unplugged headphone jack.

Navigation button is too sensitive: if you are in the car, car is shaking so %50 of the time you are going to pick the wrong artist or song.
I had some moments that I was almost going to throw this junk out from the window.

Video is a joke: screen is too slow, forget about watching movies, you can watch just for 5 minutes then your eyes get crossed.

Where is the radio, sound recording? my new folder browing mp3 player has this function and works very good.
I don't want advertise what I have just search for folder browsing mp3 players, there is tons of them in the market.

I Never Recevied My Purchase....even though i paid for it
I ordered my product and never received it. It has been almost a month. I would suggest using another seller. I email Lennox216(the person selling it) and i never got an email back. But Amazon is going to handle it.....

iPod Was Junk!
The product worked for 2 weeks and then got flakey. Shortly thereafter it stopped dead. iTunes couldn't restore it. Performing low-level hardware resets wouldn't restore it. The local Apple store said it was dead (AND THIS IS IMPORTANT) they said for the same price, they would have sold us a refurbished model with a 90 day warrant. So this was clearly not worth the money!

Bought this just before 6G was released. Wish I'd waited - short battery life
I purchased the 5.5G just a few weeks before the 6G version was announced by Apple. I was not happy. Just as I expected, the 5.5G's battery capacity is extremely limiting. It just doesn't last that long. The 6G classic has a lot longer battery life. Other than that, it's worked mostly as it should and is a breeze to use when downloading music from my Intel Mac.

It's my understanding that the 6G has, oddly enough, more restrictive video capabilities than the 5.5. Apple is probably trying to push people who want video to a more expensive model than the 6G classic. But since I don't use the video function at all, I strongly recommend the 6G unless you're on a really tight budget.

A new issue I've discovered with the 5.5G is when I have it connected via iPod cable to my car stereo it freezes up. This is a direct input to the stereo, not just an audio cable, so the stereo takes control. When I'm on shuffle mode the most songs I can through (this includes skipping a lot of songs) is about 250 before the iPod just freezes up. I'm not at all accustomed to having my Apple items behave like this. The stereo is a fairly expensive Alpine - maybe it's the problem and not the iPod. However, Alpine specifically set up their stereos to work with iPods so I don't know. I think it's just that the iPod can't handle shuffle mode when it has "too many" songs on it. Again, wished I'd bought the 6G.

5.5G ipod
The product is in good condition. fast shipping. but battery doesnt last as long as would have liked, but its understandable since it's used.

Great, Great Product
I bought mine over a year ago and the battery dosen't last as long as when I first got it. but it still works just fine. I got it because I liked the idea of taking your photos, videos, and entire music library around with you everywhere.
It looked pretty nice right out of the box and only took 5 minutes to fully charge the first time. I was told that it would take 5 hours to upload all my stuff onto it through USB and if I wanted to upload quickly my computer would need "Fire Wire". That was a complete lie. I was able to upload 365 songs and 50 something photos, as well as 6 or 7 videos in less than 10 minutes using good old USB. I still have no uploading problems even now with 1100 songs. Don't bother with Fire Wire.

I hate how it didn't come with a wall adapter. Instead of plugging it through the wall to charge you need to plug it into your computer. That is probably the stupidest way of charging something; it can damage the hard drive, it also wastes a ton of electricity (having your computer on), and you can't bring it on a long trip and expect to charge it unless you have a laptop computer. I realised this before hand and had to spend on a proper adapter that should have come with the iPod in the first place.

Video quality is great. Almost HI Definition(no lies). I don't bother watching movies on it because one movie basically drains the battery. It's good for music videos, TV shows and showing people your home videos though.

The headphones they give you are prety bad. You have to crank the volume more than halfway to hear the bass and other lower sounds. Not only does this damage your ears, but it also annoys the people standing around you when they can hear your music. Buy some good Sony/Bose noise reduction headphones and you will hear the difference in sound quality and you won't have to turn the volume up to high. Trust me your ears will thank you.

Aside form that, it is great for trips. I bought it just before I took a trip to Europe. It gave me stuff to do at night in the hotel rooms.
If you connect it to some speakers you got instant party music wherever you go.

Most people who don't have one, want one after seeing mine. It also has games that you can buy off of iTunes. It gives you three free ones that come on the iPod: Brick game, Solitair, Parachute. If you only occasinally play games, these are all you would ever need.

My battery life is starting to get less and less now. It started out as 5 hours of video watching, and 20 hours of music and now it's more like 3 hours of video and a little less than 20 hours of music. However, most people find that their battery dosen't even last this long.

A few tips on how to make your battery last longer:

Don't skip to the next songs using the left and right buttons on the click wheel. Always select songs directly from the menu, it may take longer but it will help your battery in the long run.

When watching videos or listening to music, keep it on the hold swith at the top of the iPod.

If your Ipod freezes or simply won't turn on; hold down the menu button and middle button until it starts up again.

If changing a battery becomes a problem, I will post an update when that time comes but for now, I really like this thing and I think everybody would be pleased with this model.

Two first gen 30 gigs, one second gen 8 gig...3.0 firmware....looking for a 120gb
Have two first gen 30 gig Zunes (one is mine that I have had since the Zune was first introduced, the other is my daughter's that I got for her two years ago). Excellent players, and with current upgrades....are even that much better. Have never had a problem w/ either of the devices, and they get a complete workout. I use mine to exercise, at work, on the road, plus mounted to my helmet when I offroad/trail ride. Same w/ my daughter's except hers is probably used harder (and she rides offroad/trails too....). Have always kept the software updated on both, and they are getting better with age thanks to the excellent evolution of the firmware!

My wife has a second gen 8gb, and is used just as hard, with the same excellent results.

Having just started to using the video capability of the device, it makes trips a lot more tolerable, as we can download cartoons and educational programs/dvds for our son which he would rather watch and use than watching the dvd player in our suv.

Anyone not sure about the Zune....I was in the same boat when Microsoft first released the 30gb Zune several years ago, and I haven't regretted it since. So much so that I have bought two more, and am currently looking to purchase the new 120 gig version for myself.

Thanks Microsoft for the excellent product!

Continual updates make this thing awesome!
A ridiculous amount of props to Microsoft for continually updating these first generation Zunes. New firmware and software updates make this device better and better as time goes on. New features are being added constantly. New Zune 3.0 software is infinitely better than iTunes. I couldn't be happier with my decision to get a Zune over an iPod.

What problems?? This works great!!
I bought my zune 30gb used for and I had no idea how to use it. It is my first multimedia player and I've never owned anything before this. I had problems at first getting the zune device to be reconized by the software, so I looked for some help on the internet and a website said that the front USB ports on a computer are generally weaker than the ports that are located in the back on the motherboard itself. So i connected the zune to one of the USB ports on the back of the computer. Since then, no problems. It's easy to sync songs, and it's easy to edit mp3 tags so you can organize the music the way you want to. The video and audio tracks sound great! My mp3's are all encoded at 192kbits-256kbits, so everything is high quality. I throw on my Bose Tri-port headphones and I'm set! Everything on it works great: 2,125 MP3's (no wma, or acc), 8 videos, 10 pictures, 2 games. and I've only used 13.11GB, leaving me with another 14.68GB to fill it up with!

My Opinion on the Zune
So I've had the Zune for about a year now and I've liked it alot. It can stand up to my craziness on a bike(including my crashes witch have broken two ipods) and can withstand a drop and not have to be restarted unlike some other players. It also plays movies well and I enjoy watching them on it(though after I got my PSP it went second to that for movies). It plays all my music and I've never had a problem even with some of the DRMed music I had. The only problems I really have is the crappy software and the non-external hard-drive link-up, for it forces the software(though I will say the software has gotten alot better over the year). So atm the Zune would still be my top choice for player(though I dont think I would pay 200 for what I payed 100 for but i wouldnt pay 200 for a mp3 player anyway).

So quick summary of Pros and Cons
Pros = Can play most DRMed Music, Good size screen for movies, Picture Aulbum, and Durability
Cons = Can't be hosted Externally, and the software still needs work(but it is getting better)
Other notes = I've never had a problem with connection to my computer even when I ran Vista and the program worked just fine then. Now that its popular it costs twice as much new as when I bought it, I'm glad I got mine when I did since I would hate spending 200$ on this.

Zune
the product delivers what i expected it to. very nice, i dont mind the color it took awhile though. it was the cheapest (and i am a cheap person). so i cant complain. amazon thanks