iPods, fab aint they?

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Taipan

28/09/2005 at 17:42

Don't know much about iPods, but having seen one at the weekend, I've decided I want to get one!

I have a little 512mb mp3 player but it runs on one AAA battery and has limited playtime etc.

Having seen my mate's iPod with god knows ho many albums etc had on it and it's ease of use I have to say I was very impressed. He then plugged it into the iPod station and had a nifty little stereo system with a fair amount of volume too!

:smoke:

The one thing is, I know a lot of you on here are techie types and the iPod seems to attract a fair bit of criticism on here? Is the criticism levelled at iPods by disgruntled lesser MP3 owners? Or is the techies with valid reasons?

I'd be grateful to hear any serious reasons why I shouldn't buy one, as it does seem like a great little system?

http://www.sloganizer.net/en/style7,Taipan.png

Bigger Nige

28/09/2005 at 17:47

and Bose have just brought out a speaker dock for the iPod which has a brilliant sound to it.
Has a remote control and charges the iPod whilst it's playing too.

The Wellsie

28/09/2005 at 17:52

There was a load of crap on TV teh other night about how shite the batteries are on iPods. They apparently are really unreliable at times, and it's not even dependant on the time you charge it for. I'd rather not get one until there's some kind of re-chargeable battery available, through USB. Apart from that, they're amazing little storage systems

. If I were a rich man......... I'd buy an iPod.

You've been silent-kev'd

28/09/2005 at 17:56

Killerkev32 wrote

I'd rather not get one until there's some kind of re-chargeable battery available, through USB

You've always been able to do that, via USB or Firewire....

Jonboy99

28/09/2005 at 17:56

I'd much rather have an iriver or something you can copy music to just using explorer's drang and drop rahter than some shite proprietary interface which tells me what i can and can't listen to.
They do have amazing control systems though - very easy to use on the go.

The Wellsie

28/09/2005 at 17:59

Slenver wrote

You've always been able to do that, via USB or Firewire....

Where have I been hiding then? You're entirely right; I forgot that I have used a mini MP3 Usb player loads lately, god I must have had a shit day today.

How long are the iPods suppost to last in total playback time?

You've been silent-kev'd

loolah

28/09/2005 at 18:00

Reasons to buy one:

It's pretty
It sounds ok
Lots of Accessories
Simple to use if you want to buy music from Apple
It's "fashionable"
It works best when used with iTunes

Reasons not to buy one:

There are players with better sound quality available (iRiver etc)
The iPod and it's accessories are more expensive than the alternatives
Other players are also easy to use
iTunes and iPod DRM the hell out of your music, making it difficult to move to other players/your PDA/your laptop etc etc
Apple have a poor reputation for design faults on the iPods and are very unhelpful about these faults, especially when out of warranty (in the USA Apple were sued in a class action suit about the life of their iPod batteries and now have to replace them for customers. In the rest of the world they do not acknowledge this and won't swap them)
The Apple music store only has music from a limited selection of labels that work with Apple. You can buy your music for any player (including iPods of course) from www.allofmp3.com for far less than the cost from Apple.

Summary: I'm a techy, I was an early adopter of mp3's (almost ten years ago since I first started using them), I've owned a number of mp3 players, and have fairly complex music requirements and run interesting kit like a Squeezebox (www.slimdevices.com) etc. Although I've spent a lot on music and mp3 equipment, I wouldn't spend my own money on an iPod, no matter how pretty and desirable they are.

Bastard coated bastard with a bastard filling

28/09/2005 at 18:01

Jonboy99 wrote

I'd much rather have an iriver or something you can copy music to just using explorer's drang and drop rahter than some shite proprietary interface which tells me what i can and can't listen to.
They do have amazing control systems though - very easy to use on the go.

You can do that with an iPod too y'know. There's no 'proprietary interface', there's just a piece of software they give you to make it easier for the mainstream. Don't use if you don't like it..

I'm always here on these threads and I really have no particular interest in iPods - I just like dispelling myths...

Topper Harley

28/09/2005 at 18:09

most people here slate Apple ipods because most of you use PC's, its almost fashionable to slate Apple.

Taipan

28/09/2005 at 18:13

Bigger Nige wrote

and Bose have just brought out a speaker dock for the iPod which has a brilliant sound to it.
Has a remote control and charges the iPod whilst it's playing too.

I bet that is impressive to listen to. My mate had one of the things below and they gave a nice background sound whilst we were all yakking loudly.

28/09/2005 at 18:19

loolah wrote

Reasons not to buy one:

There are players with better sound quality available (iRiver etc)

Would be genuinely interested to see a group test if you've got a link. Certainly the only serious audiophile test of iPods I've seen (a while ago) raved about the high quality. Pretty sure that was with expensive headphones of course

loolah wrote

The iPod and it's accessories are more expensive than the alternatives

Certainly true in some cases

loolah wrote

Other players are also easy to use

Absolutely..

loolah wrote

iTunes and iPod DRM the hell out of your music, making it difficult to move to other players/your PDA/your laptop etc etc

In what way? Sounds like different points getting mixed up. There's no inherent DRM in iTunes (apart from on a network) or the iPod afaik. And I can't think of anything that would affect other players etc. Certainly there's DRM in stuff bought from the Music Store, but then that's a legal requirement and they use less than the others in the market. And not entirely relevant anyway...

loolah wrote

Apple have a poor reputation for design faults on the iPods and are very unhelpful about these faults, especially when out of warranty (in the USA Apple were sued in a class action suit about the life of their iPod batteries and now have to replace them for customers. In the rest of the world they do not acknowledge this and won't swap them)

Fairly true... but the whole battery thing was very overplayed when the competition were in the same situation and you can buy replacements

loolah wrote

The Apple music store only has music from a limited selection of labels that work with Apple.

Not that relevant though - we're talking about iPods, not Apple's music store. And anyway, to be pedantic, I'm pretty sure it has more music than anyone else anyway, or equivalent at least. 2 million songs is quite a lot..

Screwdriver

28/09/2005 at 18:19

Johnathon Ive is the designer behind Apple's latest iconic status symbols. The big difference is that his designs are married to some of the "best" functional gadgets out there. To understand why iPods are so popular, you just have to hold one. They are so stylish, neat and simple to use, they have instant desirability.

This guy is a genius, no doubt about it.

It hardly matters that iRiver/iJukebox/iCopy devices are "better" in any functional respect. The iPod is more than just a really good MP3 player, it has become a modern design classic.

Oh and iTunes is not as restrictive as Sony demanded. Pop in a CD, press a button and a minute or so later you have an MP3 copy tucked away neatly on your hard drive. It will even fill in all the track details for you. The only thing you can't do so "easily" is whip tunes off the iPod or share your iTunes databased music collection with your mates. But it is easy to circumnavigate this restriction giving you full drag and drop copying if you want it.

Screwd.

It's not necessary to tell me I'm right. Ever. We'll assume it. Nick Nolte, The Thin Red Line

28/09/2005 at 18:22

Topper Harley wrote

most people here slate Apple ipods because most of you use PC's, its almost fashionable to slate Apple.

Wouldn't say it's fashionable, but it's always been a popular hobby.

The thing that's most amusing is that the PC crowd always slagged Apple for being small and having a small market share. Then Apple bring out the iPod and take a massive majority of marketshare and the detractors moan about that instead.

a1laserboy.

28/09/2005 at 18:23

The battery on my Father-in-law's 3G ipod is shagged and needs changing.

There is software out there that will de-autherise music you have bought off itunes store so you can play it on any computer.

If you use winamp (with the ipod plugin), it'll let you plug in any ipod and you can copy the music from it.

Thread killer extraordinaire

zeroseven

28/09/2005 at 18:25

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4286294.stm

Get the Sony, 40 hours battery life, better earbuds, sound, customer support...

Taipan

28/09/2005 at 18:27

Some very interesting replys, thanks everyone.

So, for a div like moi, is an iPod one of the easiest large capacity players to use then?

My mate rents CDs he wants from the local Library and puts them on there. i assume if he can do that I can?

28/09/2005 at 18:33

zeroseven wrote

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4286294.stm

Interesting point on that BBC article, and unusual for the BBC in that it's actually pretty inaccurate - it says that Apple have admitted that there's a design flaw in the nano making it prone to the screen cracking. What they actually said was they completely deny there's a design flaw and that it's to do with the suppliers, presumably banging the boxes around or summat.

No idea what's true, but interesting to see the BBC making such a poor error...

a1laserboy.

28/09/2005 at 18:33

They are easy to set up and get going with. Most importantly, keep your music library on the hard disc of your pc too. That way if you lose, have it nicked, break the ipod, you still have all your music.

You don't need to have an ipod to start collecting music, just download itunes from HERE and off you go

If you get a portable hard drive (or use the ipod, but as a hard disc), you can also lift all yer mates music to give you a head start

but I didn't say that

Thread killer extraordinaire

zeroseven

28/09/2005 at 18:38

vinniedriver wrote

They are easy to set up and get going with. Most importantly, keep your music library on the hard disc of your pc too. That way if you lose, have it nicked, break the ipod, you still have all your music.

You don't need to have an ipod to start collecting music, just download itunes from HERE and off you go

If you get a portable hard drive, you can also lift all yer mates music to give you a head start but I didn't say that

You can do that with any MP3, Creative, Sony, Iriver, Philips et al

They are all better than Apples offerings and cheaper too. Take a look on any hi fi forum, you'll be convinced very quickly.

However if you just want those poofy white (and shitty) earbuds, then ipod is perfect for you.

I'd recommend the Etymotics, but they cost more than 2 x Nano's

Screwdriver

28/09/2005 at 18:48

zeroseven wrote

You can do that with any MP3, Creative, Sony, Iriver, Philips et al

They are all better than Apples offerings and cheaper too. Take a look on any hi fi forum, you'll be convinced very quickly.

However if you just want those poofy white (and shitty) earbuds, then ipod is perfect for you.

I'd recommend the Etymotics, but they cost more than 2 x Nano's

Ouch! Someone didn't get an iPod for Christmas...

Screwd.

It's not necessary to tell me I'm right. Ever. We'll assume it. Nick Nolte, The Thin Red Line