iPods
SoulSkorpion
Join Date: 2002-04-12 Member: 423Members
<div class="IPBDescription">and iPod-like devices</div>I've had an iPod mini for about a year and a half now, and ever since a few months after I got it it's been steadily declining. At the moment, the batter barely lasts two hours, it takes ages to charge (when it charges at all), and the playback even has gaps in it at times.
I've heard a lot of similar stories about the quality of iPod batteries, and my thinking is that even if I send mine in to get fixed there's no guaruntee that it won't start acting up in another year or two (especially because, as far as I know, Apple's "battery replacement program" actually just replaces the entire iPod). I don't like the idea of a "disposable" mp3 player.
So what mp3 players do you guys have? Are you happy with them? What would you recommend? Because if this crap goes on for much longer, I'm soon going to be in the market.
I've heard a lot of similar stories about the quality of iPod batteries, and my thinking is that even if I send mine in to get fixed there's no guaruntee that it won't start acting up in another year or two (especially because, as far as I know, Apple's "battery replacement program" actually just replaces the entire iPod). I don't like the idea of a "disposable" mp3 player.
So what mp3 players do you guys have? Are you happy with them? What would you recommend? Because if this crap goes on for much longer, I'm soon going to be in the market.
Comments
It does its work.it was cheap,it came with ITunes (which is a nice program)
and it doesnt run on standard batteries like most other mp3 players of the same size do.
batteries last a long time and im quite chuffed about it.
<3
really easy to use, 15 hour battery.
it works just like an external harddrive. you plug it in and drag files on or off of it, and it plays them.
If you haven't purchased any content from the iTunes Store, then I'd also consider some of the alternative players. My first choice for an alternative would be Creative's players. They offer a lot of features the iPod lacks, some of which I'd like to see Apple start offering in their player. The downside is that Windows XP is required.
Another brand to check out is SanDisk. The Sansa players are pretty small and cheap, but still offer some nice features. I haven't used one of these before, but have heard good reviews about them.
iriver players are often very stylish, offer features beyond what the iPod offers, but are also rather expensive. I've heard good reviews of this brand, but I'd certainly choose them last, unless the style of the players appeals to you.
Finally, there's always the Zune. While the software is pretty bad, the hardware (the player) has been reported to not be all that bad, actually. Now, it's a large player, and noticeably larger than even the largest iPod available. However, the screen is much larger and the interface is much more colorful. There is the added WiFi capability that is relatively useless, but could be opened up more in the future. It also unfortunately doesn't offer podcast support.
Personally, I chose the iPod line. I liked the readily available accessories, the iTunes Store, iTunes itself, and the user-friendly interface.
It'd be nice to be able to see the album as well as the artist and song title (the mini doesn't do that), but mostly what I'm after is something that's going to last a good five or six years without ****ing up. And I'm curious about what different mp3 players people have, just out of interest.
I was thinking along the lines of IPodish - no batteries, quite a lot of gig and USB in/output and... well not too expensive.
they have an all-you-can-download music program for $15 a month... for those to honorable or lazy to pirate <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
I believe microsoft have some uber mp3 player in the making that will kick apples ######.
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Is it this big bulky old-style nokia brick like MP3/4 player? Currently known as <a href="http://www.zune.net" target="_blank">Zune</a>
<img src="http://images.usatoday.com/tech/_photos/2006/11/30/zune.jpg" border="0" alt="IPB Image" />
But it only lasted 2 years due to the remote breaking and I'd prefer buy a CD player than a new remote. I still use it as an external HD.
I think the iPod did a good thing and a bad thing for the mp3 player world at the same time. They made EVERYONE want one. always good to have the market push for newer better smaller faster technology. But it also made every new mp3 design form obsessed. Every mp3 player must have touch screen panels and a scrolly bit and buttons that light up and ice cool screen displays. Leaving function far behind.
Also as an extra tid-bit, apple outsourced the interface design of the ipod to a different, smaller company. (See ipod on wikipedia and search the page for 'pixo').
I use my iPod to have good music on the move, and for that I'm very satisfied. For my audiophile moments, I stay at home and pop out my (uncompressed) CDs on my HiFi equipment, far away from all the noise and disturbance that subways and buses have. It's sad to see that people believe that because they encode in FLAC or something, they enjoy their music much much more... Like if your audio-p33n is proportionally sized with your encoding format and bit rate.
Thread over.
Just... No competition, seriously. It beats an ipod video in literally every category except physical size, and that's only because it's a centimetre thicker.
Most video formats? Check.
2x longer video play time? Check. (2h of video on an ipod vs the 4h on a vision:m)
DRM? Ahahahaha... (DRM is supported tho. If you're into that sort of thing. I in turn, like to spend my Fridays with large black men called Bubba.)
Not an I-Pod? Hell yesh.
Thread over.
Not an I-Pod? Hell yesh.
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Why the extra? All you really need.
Because some of us care at what the player is actually capable of doing and how good it feels rather than jumping into a pro/anti bandwagon.
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Thus, other reasons were stated. Thou faileth.
Thread over.
Just... No competition, seriously. It beats an ipod video in literally every category except physical size, and that's only because it's a centimetre thicker.
Most video formats? Check.
2x longer video play time? Check. (2h of video on an ipod vs the 4h on a vision:m)
DRM? Ahahahaha... (DRM is supported tho. If you're into that sort of thing. I in turn, like to spend my Fridays with large black men called Bubba.)
Not an I-Pod? Hell yesh.
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Can you replace the battery on the zen yourself or do you have to send it in?
2x longer video play time? Check. (2h of video on an ipod vs the 4h on a vision:m)
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<a href="http://www.apple.com/ipod/ipod.html" target="_blank">http://www.apple.com/ipod/ipod.html</a>
<i>Or, if you’d rather watch, you can feast your eyes on movies and TV shows for up to six-and-a-half hours</i>
<a href="http://playlistmag.com/weblogs/ipodblog/2006/10/5gbattery/index.php" target="_blank">http://playlistmag.com/weblogs/ipodblog/20...ttery/index.php</a>
<i>The pre-update iPod played... nearly four hours and fifteen minutes before giving up the ghost.
But get a load of what happened once I updated the iPod software to the latest version:... nine hours and ten minutes of video playback.</i>
Thus, other reasons were stated. Thou faileth.
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I wasn't answering to you, but to the previous post. Sure, I can totally understand that people don't like iPods because they don't have many formats accepted, but not everyone's the same.
Most video formats? I don't watch movies on my portable player. Though that now that you can adjust brightness, I'm sure it's much more than 2 hours
2x longer video play time? Ditto.
DRM? I don't use them either, I still prefer having CDs and ripping them, but I think that being iTunes store compatible is much better than any other DRM compatibility at the moment.
Basically, it all comes down to what each prefer. I myself have had an Archos which was a pain to use, I've hesitated with a Creative Zen, and I've even borrowed a friend's Cowon M3 to see which one felt the best to use, and I've ended up with an iPod. However, someone who already ripped his collection into ogg or wants to watch movies comfortably obviously won't take the iPod
Video support
Custom backgrounds
Flash games
32 hours of audio playback
Dimensions 45 x 96 x 14
Incredibly crisp and quality sound
FM Recording
1,5" display 128x128 pixels
Formats: MP3, WMA, ASF, OGG, AVI, SWF, TXT, JPEG, MPEG4
Equalizer
Can double as remote control
Very durable shell, I've dropped it a couple of times but not even a scratch on it!
Cost: 200€ aprox
Havnt seen a site yet to give lower then 8/10 in score. The ONLY drawback: you have to use a custom cable and iRiver plus program to sync files.
My E10 is b0rked, it sometimes freezes but that's because I dropped it 1,5m on a brick floor <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />