Tell me : should I buy an ipod?

Nick I've had your iPod for weeks now, I keep waiting for you to drop by and pick it up

Dr C - the general consensus among most people I know is YES BUY ONE!

2. i hope not...

3. 40 GIGABYTES, not MB! 40GB approx 10,000 songs, 20GB approx 5,000 (depending on whether we are talking ramones or yes).

4. mine was got off ebay where i think you can get a decent price from ppl upgrading to swanky new ones, but usual ebay rules apply (mine came all the way from muswell hill which helped!)

5. yes, they're great, although if you currently measure your journey to work by the length of an album as i did, it takes a bit of getting used to having it on random (and you *will* end up with it on random most of the time, listening to whole albums is now a thing of the past to me...)

Nick how long have you been waiting?

True, and it goes for all rechargeables - they all last a few hundred recharge cycles, some suffer from memory effect, some don't. But the NiMH cell in my MD player, for instance, pops out on demand and costs less than a tenner to replace. The issue with the iPod battery, as I understood it, was that it was integral to the unit and Apple didn't offer spares. Now they do - how much does it cost, out of interest? Can you fit it yourself?

The supplied earphones don't bring out the best in them either.

I've detailed other moans on the main iPod thread. But overall - great, yeah, esp. for taking on holiday or round to friends and plugging into speakers.

I sometimes put mine on random if I can't think of anything I really want to listen to but most of the time it's just been brilliant at helping me listen to all the albums I buy/get from the library. In the past I wouldn't have got the chance to listen to albums properly in the way I can now.

It's the best thing ever though, I would recommend it whole heartedly. I run it on a PC with no problems using iTunes which is also great.

John Lewis do free 2 year guarantees on all electrical goods I think, so they're a good bet.

e.g. "unwittingly" "stolen" by fellow ilx0rs? :D

What about these new things that Dell has put out? Sexy, small, similar interface to ipod, $269 for 20G. Also comes with voice recorder standard. It is 2 oz heavier than the ipod though, but very slightly thinner.

This is the only possible form of portable audio equipment

Ideally what I'd like is a stereo that can connect directly to the iPod and either allow realtime playback or downloadability of the iPod tunes to the stereo's hard drive...surely this must exist? I need to research this, yes.

i thought it does have moving parts?? how does the hard drive inside work otherwise?

Dr C - another thing. The Windows iTunes reportedly uses a lot of memory, so if your PC is quite old then it might not handle it very well.

* Get at least a TWO YEAR WARRANTY. Some batteries are better than others. But you never know. But get the goddamn warranty at the store you bought it at.. cuz you never know what might happen to it, and it's densely valuable. And if the rumors about the 18-month battery life are true, this warranty, probably another $50 or so, will make it worth it. And don't lose your warranty. Keep it in your computer accessories drawer or something.

* When you delete your playlists off the iPod, MAKE SURE YOU DELETE THE SONGS FROM THE PLAYLIST FIRST. Deleting just the playlist will NOT delete the songs from the iPod. Instead they will be dangling songs lurking hidden in your iPod taking up space without any real easy direct way to get at them.. (there are ways to get at them, but only through the "Artists", "Songs" menus which aren't turned on by default and might require you to *gasp* consult the user guide handbook to figure out how to use). I learned this the hard way. This is my biggest complaint about the song-upload/playlist-revision design of the iPod.

Otherwise, I use this thing every goddamn day. It's saved my sanity. As someone who works at MS, I have to say MS looks reeaaaaly stupid in comparison for their eventual plans to "compete" with this, and I'm not the only who works here with that opinion. Most of my office mates are jealous that I have one. (I have the 40 gig one)

(Oh, and i HIGHLY recommend getting a Firewire card for your PC if you haven't already done so... you don't technically need one, but it will make iPod life 10 times easier for you, and Firewire cards are cheap.. like $30 or so)

My earphones, of all things, have gone all kerscrewy, with one earbud playing much quieter than the other.

Anyway, my iPod is how I usually listen to music at home as well, so... yeah. It is my stereo and my music library and it fits in my pocket. And it's a portable harddrive. And I guess I could always use it to play Breakout if I wanted to. It's pretty sweet.

(xpost - the Artists and Songs menus are turned on by default, they're under "Browse")

Do you ever.. walk?

My PC is about 2 or 3 years old - no firewire, Windows 98.

My wife offered to buy me an iPod for my birthday so I upgraded to Windows XP (numerous transitional problems, some of them still not completely solved - my soundcard was incompatible, my home computer network is still not functioning as it should). I also bought and installed a firewire card. Combined cost about £100 plus several hours spent. I'm not exactly expert technically and was pretty pleased with myself for managing the upgrade and installation.

My wife then spent £399 on 40GB iPod. I connected up the iPod, loaded the software etc. Problem - my computer did not recognise the iPod, although it was charging the battery.

I tried uninstalling, reinstalling several times. No joy. I went through all the troubleshooting stages at Apple's website. According to my computer's device manager my firewire card was properly installed and working. All this took several hours. I spoke to Apple support and after working through various potential solutions they concluded that the iPod must be faulty.

All this of course took several more hours.

My wife took the iPod back to the shop. They tested it on their own computer. After farting about with it for some time they got it to work. They suggested the problems was with my PC, suggesting two possibilities:

- my firewire card was not working properly (although my Device Manager said it was and it was charging the battery). Solution, take it back, try to get it changed and install a new one. A bit of hassle but it might cure the problem. Or might not.

- there is sometimes a problem if the iPod is connected up to the PC at too early a stage when installing the software. I was sure that the hadn't happened when I first attempted the installation but it might have been when I attempted to uninstall/reinstall. I just can't remember.

Nothing in the instructions pointed out the danger of connecting the iPod too early. According to the guy at the shop, if this was the problem merely uninstalling the iPod software would not be enough - I would have to restore my operating system at the setting prior to the "problem" installation. As I said, I'm not too technical, and this seemed fraught with possible unexpected consequences. Plus, of course, it might not solve my problem.

After much debate the shop reluctantly agreed to give us a refund. This wasn't the perfect solution - it left me with nothing to show for £100 spent, ongoing operating system problems and at least 15 hours farting around. But the alternative was £500 spent, more farting around, and still no guarantee of a working iPod so I took it.

The shop admitted that lots of people have problems installing iPods on PCs. I suggested these were being sold on a false prospectus, just plug in and go, whereas there were all sort of fairly common teething problems that people without a technical background would struggle to deal with. They agreed

I'm sure iPods are as great as everyone says they are if you can get them to work, but a little research unearthed a lot of people with similar problems to mine. So beware.

Um, no, actually. I'm not a student anymore, and I don't live downtown, so everywhere I go I have to drive to (which is mostly to work and back anyway). Also it's fucking -10 degrees out there.

My ipod tip, get a proper pair of headphones, any kind of earbud provides crap sound quality compared to an over ear headphone. plus proper headphones keep your ears warm. And do you really want that little airspace between diaphragm and ear drum?

has anyone else had an experience like this, with one dying that fast? i am saving for one currently but it's going to take me at least six months because i'm a poor college student, so if it dies a year or two later i'll probably go on a rampage.

i'm looking for the main ipod thread in a second though, if i'm missing stuff from that i'm sorry. i don't follow ilx very consistently.

Maria:
has anyone else had an experience like this, with one dying that fast? i am saving for one currently but it's going to take me at least six months because i'm a poor college student, so if it dies a year or two later i'll probably go on a rampage.

(PSSSST! this is why I've been saying.. get the goddamn two year warranty.. just budget the extra $30 to $50 or so upon first buying it. it's good insurance.. it's just over two bucks a month over time AT MOST.)

Personally I find my iPod indespensible; also, I've had no issues at all using it on a PC.

and no maria, that doesn't happen often, but my girlfriend's ipod and mine died on the exact same day in a really expensive sid and nancy-type scenario.

I got mine at Comp USA (which, acc. to some friends of mine, might as well be FuckTech Bendover Electronics) and I purchased an extra two-year warranty.. in fact, they were all in my face about offering it to me, and I didn't have to ask.

(i got both of mine from the apple store, db)

Apple are selling these rubbery in-ear phones as a $39 upgrade. They look like the Sony ones that Michael Jones recommends. Has anyone tried them?

HAhahahahahaha

Haha, moral of the story, don't buy Apple shit at the Apple Store? (weird)

http://www.ipodsdirtysecret.com

Not to say this will happen to you. But it's a sobering lesson in any form of computer/platform fundamentalist worship.

http://www.ipodbattery.com/

http://www.tightaudiosystems.com/see_taz.htm

I've just noticed that the dirtysecret website says that they had no luck with ipodbattery.com and that at the moment it only fits the older iPods. Well, blech. I'm sure it will all work out fine eventually. I'm an optimist.

Re: batteries. Can you install these batteries without some form of toolcase and risk of destroying the internals? If my battery runs out while I'm listening to my iPod on a plane for instance, will it be practical for me to be able to unscrew the back of my iPod, and do all this shit, so I can continue on? Or should I pack my mini-screwdrivers and grounding wristpads along with the iPod?

sell it on ebay, someone will buy it

I think you can get external battery packs for long journeys.

Oh? Well, that's what I was talking about. Is it just this little box with a firewire jack? Do tell.

Hmm, I think Etymotics will beat just about any circumaural headphone under £100, but they are ear-canal rather than earbud, I guess. Many of us feel pretty doofy walking around outside with a big pair of cans on. I've never got on very well with closed-back circumaurals - I find them a bit shut-in and dull - and open-back just isn't appropriate in public unless you want to annoy people.

I understand if people are uncomfortable with the short eardrum-speaker distance, but the acoustic isolation afforded by good ear-canal 'phones means you never need to drive them that loud anyway.

a turntable umbrella with ... another umbrella on top

iPods have a one-year warranty. If your iPod fails in the first six months, Apple repairs it for free. If you iPod fails after six months but before one year, Apple repairs it for $30. After one year if the battery fails you can send it to Apple and let them replace it for $106 or do it yourself for $50.

Applecare costs $60 extra and extends the base one-year warranty to two years. You can buy Applecare at any time up until your normal warranty expires. I assume repairs outside of the first six months will still cost you $30 even if you have Applecare, not sure.

Many retail stores like Best Buy and Circuit City in the US have their own extended warranty plans you can buy. I prefer these since they're not much more expensive than Applecare but are no-questions-asked and you can get service locally... even if you throw it against the ground in a fit of anger, bring in the pieces and they'll give you a new one.

People have recommended the ipod to me as the solution for my storage woes (I am running up aginst the limits of my hard drive). I find this an interesting solution--to pay $300~ for a hard drive that is guranteed to die after a few years.

Hell, the only people who even bought portable DVD players were just poshy geeks, the same bunch who all got PDAs back when everybody was on AOL. The portable digital video thing is so stupid it hurts my mind, like those disposable DVDs Disney tried to market.

You know fhazel, you should probably actually read my other posts on this thread before attacking me for posting a URL. Just a tip. For starters, read what I wrote DIRECTLY AFTER THAT URL POSTING. For fuck's sake.

kind of hard for it to be a sobering lesson when it's completely wrong, don't you think?

the "Not to say this will happen to you. But it's a sobering lesson in any form of computer/platform fundamentalist worship." statement?

Why?

it's bunk for a couple of reasons. first, most ipods older than 18 months haven't needed to have their batteries replaced. second, apple will replace the battery on out-of-warranty iPods for $106 and that policy was in effect before the "ipod's dirty secret" video popped up. "unreplacable" does not mean "costs $106 to replace." the video is catchy (or at least NWA are) but it's still wrong.

like i said, it's a rip-off, but it's not that much of a rip-off.

(And we both are in agreement on your second point, as has been pointed out by either of us several times this thread already)

I actually haven't taken my iPod with me for a couple weeks now, in large part due to the fact that I just moved and have been too busy working on other stuff to bother, but I listen to it at work all the time, and anticipate doing so at home too. I have it hooked up to these Altec Lansing minispeakers--http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore?productLearnMore=T8355LL/A--and they sound GREAT. Seriously, I've owned bookshelf systems that get less volume and clarity than these--though it should be kept in mind that I'm nobody's idea of an audiophile and that I've owned some crappy systems. But they're pretty impressive nonetheless, and cheap. I'm very happy with them, plus they work as a dock, so when it's plugged in there are no battery problems. (Yet.)

thanks. I doubt I'll buy the 1 GB minidisc (prob will be too expensive). I have been thinking of buying one sometime this year tho'.

However, things about iTunes I like: since I don't have the encyclopedic memory that many of my fellow-music lovers do, when I think of a song I sometimes cannot remember what album it is on (gasp!). With iTunes, I can easily find out. Also, I am not very neat and have problems finding albums even if I know which one I am looking for. With iTunes, just search and voila! (My pro-iStatement for the day.)

2. no.

Yeah, I'd love to hear how well it works! I was thinking about getting the Dell DJ, since it is a little cheaper than the iPod and is supposed to have better battery life.

http://images.nomadworld.com/products/jukebox3/images/jukebox3pix2.jpg

also, how much difference is there between usb and firewire?

firewire and usb 2.0 are pretty much on par and very fast

I think it's just the software it comes with. I was getting disheartened at the bad reviews for music match but then I read about another option: http://www.redchairsoftware.com/dudebox/

I'll try music match but it is nice to know there's other options.

1. The touch navigation is difficult; it is sometimes hard to tell if the unit has registered the touch (too hard and it doesn't register), as it is coupled with non-immediate response speed. This leads to double-clicking which makes navigation rather messy, or at least not as quick as one would like once one gets used to the interface. The older generation ipods and the mini ipods are better in this respect.

2. Constant attention to the battery life; if its used with any kind of regularity, it begs to be recharged every other day. The flash player on the other hand lasts through at least ten full album playbacks on a single AAA.

http://www.llanes-thibodeau.com/Marsha/MacStuff/ipodOC.jpg

So far so good, I've charged it and I downloaded the trial version of dudebox and am listening to the streets. sound is pretty nice. It has a nice blue glow too. If your mp3s are tagged correctly it sorts everything so you can browse by song artist or album as you like. I've played a bit with ipods but not a whole lot so I'm not really sure what to point out what's the same and what's different.

1) the batteries are removable, which means that your unit doesn't die if the battery ever does (altho neither of mine have yet - plus i get about 12 hours on full charge)

2) you can pop it open and upgrade the hard drive manually if you want (i bought a cheap 20 gig hd and replaced it with a 60). it voids yr warranty but ipod owners don't even have the option of making this modification

3) it's got amazing recording capabilities, all sorts of ins and plus it lets you choose anything from 64kbs mp3 to lossless .wav as your format. lots of people have added mics and preamps to the thing and use it for sampling in place of a portable DAT machine

4) you can buy an add-on remote control that gives you an fm tuner and lets you record stuff off the radio straight to mp3, handy for radio shows etc

5) it's much, much cheaper than an ipod

6) they just upgraded the firmware so that it does everything you'd ever need it to, v. nice interface

You can do this on an iPod but the hard drives are a little harder to find in the retail channel.

I'm such an iPod whore.

ed if i'm not mistaken aren't the ipod hard drives proprietary and therefore more expensive? the nomads use regular 2.5" laptop hard drives so that helps. i spent $400 CDN last year on a 20 gig hard drive unit, bought a 60 gig hard drive for $300 and sold the 20 used for $100, so when it was all said and done i had a 60 gig mp3 player for $600 cdn. i'm sure you could do it much cheaper now..

ins: optical and line-in
outs: one headphone and TWO line outs
interface: usb 1.1 and firewire

well, unless they made 60 gig ipods with a good recording interface. i guess i would trade it for one of those.

Darned capitalists!

any other mics you'd use with the unit would need to have some sort of preamp or phantom power and would plug into the optical/line in jack. this i think is pretty standard issue for an upscale recording device.

oh also you can do digital monitoring and increase input gain by +/- 14dbs on the unit itself which is also v. v. handy

http://www.psism.com/harddrive.htm

this is why i'm considering springing for the ipod -- i want good customer service and i want to buy my product from a manufacturer that i know isn't going to go out of business in two months. i'm mostly a pc user but i've had pleasant experiences with apple customer service (when i needed to replace a fried keyboard* they sent me a free replacement right away).

*i didn't tell them i spilled beer on it.

ability to change the tags of multiple songs at once (for all those badly tagged mp3s I downloaded)

sort by artist/album/playlist/genre (I really like the genre feature, I use it almost like a wider-ranging playlist feature, like put all my house tracks together and put it on random if that's what I'm in the mood to hear, or I've made a genre called 'moody' for the fennesz, sigur ros, massive attack kinda stuff)

really fast transfer even though I still only have USB 1.1!

getting the adaptor for the car so I can listen to it there, it comes with this little inline remote control that clips onto whatever so it's easier to skip around (pictured way above)

I think I just found something that'll allow me to put my CDs directly on the DJ without ripping them to my hard drive first, but I've been screwing around with this for like 16 hours and I'm going to bed now.

still i'm happy with my ipod, it's small and light easy to use and looks nice and whatnot

and i got it for $80 canadian! so i can't complain

also, has anyone performed vigorous physical activity with their mp3 player? i'm thinking of buying one for my gf's birthday and wondered how feasible it would be for her to run with a hard drive model (the flash memory ones are so expensive and hold so little)...

There are some selling on ebay for about £120, but are shipped from the states. I'm a bit wary about buying something like that, warranties, power supply issues etc, anyone bought anything that way?

What color do you have? (if you have a mini)
I'm hoping to buy a pink one soon.

I've been looking at iPods and alternatives again recently and decided none of them is right for me. My CD player is cumbersome at times and my headphones let too much sound leak in/out, but replacing them would be way too expensive, and when I had an iPod I barely used it outside of my car.

I use it in the car a lot, using one of those tape adapters, especially handy on long journeys.

x-post

xpost, yes they do Jordan

Target had a pic of them out with a "See Salesperson" sign. There were 4 Target sales folk (all teenagers) standing around chatting in the electronics section. So I asked them about the mini ipod and they were like, "Uh, what? The mini what? We don't have whatever that is that you just said." Eventually I found a separate display that they are coming soon, but yeah... I think I'll go to Best Buy.

x-post I can't imagine needing more than - what is it? - 65 or so hours of music?

Also, and this irritates me because I'm anal, it no longer registers in iTunes the songs that were played on the iPod - my favourite feature is that you can follow how many times you have listened to a song, and it doesn't sodding work any more!

Add to that the fact that it's overpriced compared to its competitiors. It does look nice, but functionality very quickly overtakes how pretty it is, especially as it just sits in your pocket.

I just liked looking over to the side and seeing (0) instead of (267).

Also, I hear they last 2 years and then break down. I believe the latter because I had an Archos Jukebox 20-gig player and it lasted about a year and a half before dying from some manufacturing defect.

http://www.ipodlounge.com

which is very informative and might answer your questions. i think your friend means because itunes defaults to automatically update to the library on your computer, so if you delete stuff in the library it will be deleted from your ipod UNLESS you set itunes to not update automatically and just do it manually when you get new cds or whatever.

and i don't know about the "two years" thing but apparently the battery is only likely to last for about 500 recharges, that might be where that one is from.

all is not lost you can buy an adapter for as cheap as £1/$1.60 (or thereabouts)

But, you know, have fun if you do have one.

Basically, it creates playlists based on certain criteria (eg. play me all indie songs under 3 minutes in length released between 1987 and 1993).

Actually, you don't need to fill out the tags for all uses of smart playlists. As jody said, certain things, like 'date added' are of course done for you. I use 'date added' as useful part of managing what's on my iPod.

Yeah - as jon says, the CDDB database gets most of the tag info for you.

Mark - tes, I did spend some time tagging my undated songs the other week. It's not kind to call me an 'anal indieboy' just cause of that, is it?

If you tag as you go, rather than let them all pile up in a mess, it doesn't feel like a chore, and smart playlists are fun and don't necessarily involve anuses.

xpost

Musicmatch Jukebox has a feature called 'Auto DJ', so ner. You can tell it what to Auto DJ from.

I rip my own stuff, but usually someone has helpfully typed in the titles already. Some of them are a bit spazzy though, e.g. 'Sedan Delivery [Omitted from LP]'. And people include the transaltions of Cuban song titles.

I hope you find my attempts to join in this conversation endearing.

I just nearly died of fright when the "Full track recording" talky bit came on in the Orb's 'Into The Fourth Dimension'. I was convinced someone had stolen up behind me.

What?

I think he meant "Why doesn't Mac people wanna tag?"

Jesus yes. I got mine yesterday and have spent a total of 4 hours retagging and renaming mp3s, and I'm not even half-way through yet. Grab a program called Tag&Rename (Windows-only afaik) and make sure that each mp3 has an id3 tag containing track number, title, artist, and album name. This will mean when you tell iTunes to import your music it'll just automatically file everything correctly. (which will save you A LOT of hassle)

I kid you not.

If everything in life was as simple as "well do it properly when you first do it" then, well, things would be much better.

Genre: Children's

I'M TOTALLY EXCITED

I have mine set to give me 2 gigs of recently added files so I can listen to HOTT TRAX I downloaded.

I am thinking I will eventually get an iPod again. Arrgh. Has anybody looked into getting one of those home stereo things that the iPod sits in?

The new Sony Ericcson P910 phone plays AAC!!

have you tried doing a hard reset? (do a google for directions) also, the internal battery cables come unplugged quite easily--apparently you can pry to case open and reconnect it.

I thought my girlfriend's iPod was a gonner a few weeks back. It wouldn't power on, and I tried charging it using the AC wall charger (both her charger and mine), but it did nothing. However, when I plugged it into my computer direct via firewire, it started up & started charging.

what the fuck? who wants to fucking look at photos on a tiny little screen? i could see it being cool if it had bluetooth or wifi to tranfer photos between ipods, phones, tivos, etc but.... jeez

looks like the 60 gig version is photo only...

I guess creepy college girls who take lots of pictures and like to show them to people is the target market....

wow weird... kinda cool... slideshows with music.... surely stuff will let you export presentations to this...

the 60 gig version has both, stupid! what would even be the point?

iPod Photo looks like something that could work very well for them. I'm biased but really the average consumer now uses computers for two things - music and pictures - now you can carry them around. For a pile of money. Still though 60GB portable with FW400/USB2, I could back up the entire contents of my drive, It would be cool to write a kind of Knoppix bootable image to that with all my stuff on it and just carry my entire computing needs around in my pocket, then boot from USB. I mean that's all my songs and everything just about, 60 gigs, I use Gmail to store my schoolwork, and office desktop for work-work.

Now I'm just seeing a future where everybody just plugs into a mobo with optical drive + flatscreen and keyboard attached when they want to use a computer, and everything they need is on a portable battery-powered writable drive.

What game format? I mean besides like Breakout or Asteroids the interface is a little limited don't you think?

I'm amazed the battery life is supposed to be higher with the color LCD, actually.

Okay I have to read books now

http://www.apple.com/ipod/specs.html

says no 60 gig regular ipod

as regards tagging stuff, it would take me so fucking long to put years on all the stuff I have, or even to label it all correctly.

is it? it's definitely slower on my machine, but I can't for some reason have 2 firewire devices on my pc, the ipod disconnects the drive, so I connect the drive through USB 2 to prevent that. It's not so much slower that it's annoying yet though.

That is what I would do.

I didn't know that RJG knew things like that.

I feel kinda insolent taking the cash, but as a total music fiend I want the very best on the market. We can't really return the ipod either. So what should I do? I'm counting on you all.

1) USB 2.0 is technically faster than FireWire 400 if you look at the raw numbers...480 Mbps to 400 Mbps. As Professor Williams points out above, though, it's rarely that simple. USB 2.0 is faster in short bursts, but for sustained transfer, FireWire always wins...which means if you load a bunch of stuff all at the same time, or stream data, FireWire is the one to get. If you're ripping and loading one album at a time, it doesn't matter at all.

2) iPods are fantastic to look at and fantastic to use and fantastic to listen to, and I'd love them to bits if it wasn't for the battery issue...but I guess having a user-accessible battery would kill the clean lines of the design, and theoretically give the user access to the inside of the player, which could mean modding and monkey business, and heaven knows we wouldn't want THAT. If you're willing to pay Apple to change your battery when it inevitably dies, then it may well be worth it for the style element. It's not that important to me. Most of the recent Creative players have user-accessible batteries, and while they aren't as stylish as the Apple versions, they're certainly functional enough for me. The new Zen Micro even adds a "DJ" feature into the menu system, which brings it that much closer. (Considering it gives you access to the battery, and more disk space for the price, too, I'd certainly recommend it to PC users as a great alternative. Alas, no Mac drivers, though.)

3) The U2 iPod may well become a collector's item, so think twice before taking what's behind door #2. The iPod is still a fantastic player, even if it is tainted by Adam Clayton's signature.

Creative doesn't do Mac? Cause until I get a laptop, that would be a massive problem, seeing as I'm doing everything from an OSX.

ouch!

How old is it, what was fixed on it, who fixed it? Is there a warranty of any kind, or any recourse if it up and dies? I saw something about the HP ones being more "Windows-centric", whatever that means. $269 is obviously a good price, but... I don't know, for tech things I can't get in and mess with myself, I like having some kind of warranty, even just 30 days or something.

http://www.macmall.com/macmall/families/ipod/default~family~5.asp

But there are new ones due this week...

(unless you already have another mp3 player)

Anyone ever done the battery replacement surgery themselves or know someone who has? I cannot fathom a) paying the full Apple price or b) waiting for it to be fixed.

In the alternative, does anyone have any battery-boosting ideas? Mine will only get about 5 hours on a charge (it is three years old, so not totally unexpected)

Also things to keep in mind: Apple goes to ridiculous lengths to keep a bod from sharing files. To this end, you cannot (easily) move MP3s from an iPod to a computer, you cannot (easily) burn a CD composed of tracks on an iPod, and your iPod (technically) is "bonded" with your computer and might not be usable on another computer. And the earphones that come with are pretty much shit.

That said: I've had mine for several months and I'm pretty happy with it thus far. My last MP3 player lasted one month past the end of its rather short warranty. We'll have to see how much better the iPod fares.

Also: if your decision to buy an iPod is at all fueled by its video capabilities, you may want to wait for the next generation iPod. The video feature on the current iPod is nice but it's awfully small.

If I could replace the battery on my own, without having to use tweezers and a hairdryer or whatever, it'd be different. I mean, I can replace the battery in my goddammed truck without jimmy-rigging it or voiding a warranty. To hell with it.

Today, I hate people.

i bought the sony walkman thing instead

i was pleasantly surprised to find that my pc-format ipod works fine on a mac, and that senuti let me transfer the songs back to the mac for free...

Also, if you can plug the ipod into the PC and the Mac, why can't you plug your external hard drive into either? My library is on an external drive, and both Windows and Mac iTunes use this to update my ipod with no problems, though admittedly it's easier to have one primary version of iTunes.

-- joygoat, Saturday, May 12, 2007 11:32 AM (Yesterday)

I guess I'm just posting this here because I want sympathy, but my iPod fell out of my pocket while I getting out of a cab. She's gone. Stupid pockets that everything falls out of. Stupid stupid me.

So now I have to buy another one, and I'm annoyed at the demise of the 60 gig. 30 is fine, and I'll probably get another 30, but the only other option now is 80 gigs? That's a lot of damn iPod, man.

Also, why does an 8 gig nano cost the same as a 30 gig regular?

cost of flash memory is higher than HD, also apple are slapping a big margin on their most popular pod.

flash vs. hard drive innit

brrrrrrrng xpost!

I have filled up my 4 gig mini, which I luv (it's pink and all) and I am sorely sorely tempted by an 80 gigger which sounds immense and should last me until I DIE but only black or white??

You can upgrade the hard disks on the minis quite easily if you fancy a diy upgrade. (also put flash in if you like). Just google for tips.

Jaq. Wait till a couple weeks after WWDC ends

I don't know a thing about flash drives, since I've never even considered one. Just too darn small.

Excellent point JW, thanks!

wwdc?

world wide developer's conference

My creative zen jukebox xtra thingy that I've had for years and years has finally kicked the bucket. They no longer make it and I'm sure there's now something better available anyway. So, ilx, please share your tales of ipods here. Should I buy an ipod? Or something else?

The iPod is just fine, but it has a ton of haters, all of whom will submit their lists of absolutely necessary features that it doesn't have but which the X-Tron Media Commando does have. If you were a feature creature, then you probably would know all of these anyways and wouldn't ask for advice here, so just get an iPod.

I just got an iPod Touch, and, now that it is jailbroken, it seems completely awesometastic. THAT is how much a laptop should weigh.

Hmmm. Anyone have a toshiba gigabeat? Or one of the current creative models? Or something by cowon?

what does jailbroken mean? i want something that is just basically like a hard drive that plays music, not something that is a prissy pain in the ass.

Please to advise where I may purchase a X-Tron Media Commando? Kthxbye.

lol get a mac

Jailbroken means you can get past Apple's imposed limitations, install 3rd party apps -- it basically becomes a PDA with a kick-ass interface that, oh yeah, happens to play mp3s. Which is kinda more what I want. I wanted a little handheld web browser.