Originally Posted by alect
I am looking at a buying an iPod (probably 20gb version) for mrs alect - as her "push present" (our first child is due any day now).
I found that there are HP Apple Ipods - how are these different to the standard Apply iPods? Just the branding?
also even for the 20Gb versioin, there seem to be different generations and models. Is there only one current model and generation while the others are older discontinued ones? And if so is there a real downside to buying one fo the older models?
The Ipod + HP is identical to the Apple Ipod except for a small hp logo on the unit and the packaging. Other than that they are identical, and both made by Apple.
The only real difference is the support. HP provides one year unlimited support for free. Apple's warranty is 1 year, but only provides single incident phone support for 90 days. So the HP warranty is better. The HP version comes formatted with the FAT filesystem, the Apple one comes formatted with the Apple filesystem. The first time you plug in either one, it will format it for whatever you need, either way. (You can go back and forth, but it's a reformat, so you have to re-download all the music.) Also, the HP version seems to be available with better discounts.
I bought the 40G version. It comes with the dock. The 20G version doesn't come with the dock. When you factor in the dock, the $100 extra for the 40G version seems like a much better deal. 2x the space plus the dock. I bought mine from the Apple store. First time I plugged it into my PC using the USB cable, it reformatted the drive to the FAT32 file system.
You want the newest 4th generation model (dock + click wheel) ipod.
-David