EricW Posted July 17, 2005 Share Posted July 17, 2005 My latest MP3 player bit the big one yesterday. I'm mad as hell and I'm just not going to take it anymore. Well, I'm pretty irked anyway... Anybody make one that doesn't suck? Every 6 months to a year for the last 17 years, I've had to buy a new cassette walkman, cd player, or MP3 player. Yesterday, my Philips MP3 player got fatally zapped through the USB port. Gaaah! It costs what, a nickel, maybe a dime to protect an input?!! Aaargh! How are the Apple iPods holding up? I was going to buy an iPod Shuffle, but by the time I pay shipping, I might as well buy an iPod mini locally... I'm tempted to buy an iPod at Costco and simply return it and buy a new one every six months as a form of protest against overpriced, disposable technology. (Not that I'm organized enough to do that...) Ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clay1 Posted July 17, 2005 Share Posted July 17, 2005 The kid runs an IPOD and bought the extended warranty. Have you looked at Ebay? Sometimes, it might be just as good to get it locally so you can walk back into the store and get a new one if something happpens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Cheely Posted July 17, 2005 Share Posted July 17, 2005 I love my Ipod Mini. Don't need that 20GB of capaity. My 4GB holds around 1000 songs. So I just put what I like at the time on there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhgtyre Posted July 17, 2005 Share Posted July 17, 2005 My kids IPod died after about 5 months. It was dropped, scratched and scuffed all over but we walked into Costco and they swapped it out without any questions. We have since invested in a protective jacket and it is scratch and scuff free so far. If it dies again I will probably try to talk her into getting it replaced and selling the new one on ebay. -ld Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spook Posted July 17, 2005 Share Posted July 17, 2005 I would go for solid state memory. Just bought my brother an iPod shuffle (1GB). Dunno how it will hold up, but it's an awesome device. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidwiz Posted July 17, 2005 Share Posted July 17, 2005 Geez Eric, seems that you give the whammy to anything you touch. I've had my iPod (4th Gen, 20GB) for about a year now w/ no problems. It has a nice home in it's iPod Armor which protects it from getting scratched, as well as shocks, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j1b Posted July 17, 2005 Share Posted July 17, 2005 I've got an iPod mini and I like it a lot. I would recommend going with a mini - for me a shuffle wouldn't be enough. I like the playlists and ability to select artists etc. etc. On top of that, get one of the newer Mini's - the 6 gig versus the 4 gig. The newer one is $50 more. The storage capacity really doesn't matter to me, but the battery life of the new ones are much better. The last thing I'd advise is that if you're old MP3 players are open standard players and you've actually bought music for them online (from Napster, Rhapsody, Walmart.com etc. etc.) then those tunes will need to be modified a bit to get them onto your Apple. The Apple uses a different encryption. You can make them work, but you won't just be able to directly transfer the music to iTunes. If however most of your music has been ripped from CD's you already own then you'll simply have to re-rip to iTunes and you'll be ready to roll. I will note that I not only like the iPod, I really like iTunes as well. A very good, convenient and easy to use service. J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 +7 on the iPod. Apple did this one right. If you are a device beater, then the shuffle will take the beating. If you are a kind, gentle soul, then the mini is probably your best bet. The latest HD's are really rugged and the Apple machines are head and shoulders above vthe "3rd party" Mp3 players you have been using. Apples warranty is second to none and once you migrate into iTunes, you'll never go back. Get on it man! -- Regards, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRe Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 I'll just say this - iTunes is a pig. Why in the heck does a media player need 100MB resident storage on my system?? Sheesh.... Still using Winamp to play stuff, because of that.... I'll say, though, that I like the iTunes UI a lot... If I buy an MP3 player any time soon, it'll likely be an iPod... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 MS Word is 20MB on my system(s) (Mac OS X variants). Adobe PhotoShop is 85MB in size and iTunes is 32MB. Not that big of an app. True, iTunes does reserve some storage space in additions to it's application filesize requirement, but you have to remember it is archiving your song files for you (if you have set it up normally) and moving them into it's own library folder as it adds them to the library (if you left that pref alone after install). Audio media files are typically 2-3MB a song. It adds up in a hurry. This is how a media library like iTunes should work. It keeps all the music and it's library files in a directory called iTunes. My main iTunes music library is approaching 30GB now (it's not that much music, really!) and my portable machine sports about 10GB of music at any given time. If you use iTunes to download and RIP for you and iTunes is set to create AAC (MP4) copies of your media files as it adds them, you will wind up with orphaned original files. Just delete them after iTunes has it's own AAC copy tucked away (iPod needs files in AAC format). BTW, Limewire will add files directly to iTunes if you set it's prefs for that. 100MB for MP3 storage is a problem here? ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfinney Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 Another vote for iPod.... they just work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shred Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 Any player bigger than 2GB today is a hard-drive-based player. The little 1" hard drives in the 4-6 GB models are awesomely tough, but they're still rotating media with lots of little tiny moving parts. Lithium Ion rechargeable batteries have a half-life on the order of 300 charge cycles. The more charge/discharges they get, the less they hold. I don't know any small players on the market that have replaceable batteries, but that might be worth looking for if 2+ year reliability is a need. On flash players, I recently played with the new Sony unit. It's the size of a lighter and totally rocks. Got a cool display of song/track/album/etc, 50 hour play time and all. Supposedly they booted the iPod shuffle out of the #1 spot in Japan after only a few weeks. A bit pricy, but may be worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRe Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 100MB for MP3 storage is a problem here? ;-) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I have over a Gig of MP3 files.... No, if it were just disk storage, it wouldn't be an issue. I'm talking about 100MB of RAM - and by resident, I mean not swapped out. I hadn't fired it up in a while. Just starting it eats 53MB, and if I start actually doing anything that creeps towards 100MB, eventually getting real close or reaching it. That's a hefty footprint for a media player. Besides Photoshop, I only run one other app that takes up anything like that kind of space - Firefox (at 72MB). I'm not saying I don't like how iTunes operates... but geez, RAM ain't free like disk space... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted July 18, 2005 Author Share Posted July 18, 2005 I had the box for the iPod mini in my hand. I was near the cash register. I just couldn't do it. I bought a $50 RCA lyra instead. Having to screw with iTunes is a deal killer for me. There is nothing on this earth I hate more than having to screw with proprietary software to transfer files. It wouldn't matter if the iPod had 50GB and cost $20, I'd never go through that mess again. The controls and the ergonomics on the RCA are a joke, but I don't care. At least I'll only be out $50 in 9 months to a year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yar1180 Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 I only buy flash memory mp3 players because I'm hard on my gear. I'm really into my ipod shuffle at the moment. We had great snow in california this winter so I gave it plenty of abuse. I've wrecked, landed on top of the thing, got the wind knocked out of me, and the shuffle was still rocking. At the gym while on the bench I failed and dropped the bar on top of it. Cracked it slightly at the base but it also kept on rocking. a drop of crazy glue kept the crack sealed and it's still running like a champ. While nothing is bullet proof some stuff that puts the shuffle over the top. It is the loudest flash memory player I've owned. I like it loud and this thing can get my ears ringing afterwards. Second Itunes kicks butt, makes all the other bundled software you get with other players look weak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 I'm talking about 100MB of RAM - and by resident, I mean not swapped out. iTunes is using 40.03MB real memory and 242MB VM (Swap space) MS Word is using 72.3MB RAM and 321.8MB Swap MS Excel is using 52.3MB RAM and 347.5MB Swap MS Entourage (email client) uses 36MB RAM and 284MB Swap Camino (browser) uses 244.8MB Swap iTunes is not outrageous on the Mac OSX platform, I'll bet MS Office is just as bulky in XP (I don't have it) as it is in OSX ;-) Ah MS, the mark of quantity, not quality ;-) Eric, iTunes real power is not in just moving the songs over to a player. It really is the shjt for handling music on a computer. Nothing else compares. The real magic is in the RIPing capabilities, the playlist modes, the EQ settings and so on and so on... This app is magic. I have yet to run into any application that delivers so much for so little (it's free). Think of it as a complete ammo to firearm delivery system. Maybe you will reconsider in six months ;-) -- Regards, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidwiz Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 Oops. I just realized I got EricW and Eric Warren mixed up. Of course we all know that EricW is gentle with his equipment, while the other has a, shall we say, "history" with rear sights. A 1k pardons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcoliver Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 Don't you guys use cellphones that double as mp3 players as well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoNsTeR Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 What are you talkin' about, man? My original 32MB Diamond Rio still works! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRe Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 iTunes is using 40.03MB real memory and 242MB VM (Swap space)MS Word is using 72.3MB RAM and 321.8MB Swap MS Excel is using 52.3MB RAM and 347.5MB Swap MS stuff is definitely piggish - but on XP, Word only seems to take up 11MB RAM. Excel is even less, at 8MB. On XP, iTunes also starts the iTunes Helper and the iPod service in addition to iTunes. They add almost 10MB on top of iTunes itself. For giggles, I fired up StarOffice - 11MB w/ no docs open. W/ a short document open, about 31MB. iTunes is not outrageous on the Mac OSX platform, I'll bet MS Office is just as bulky in XP (I don't have it) as it is in OSX ;-) Ah MS, the mark of quantity, not quality ;-) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Until I just checked, I'd have agreed w/ you I suspect it's cause Microsoft seems to have a lot of stuff embedded in the OS when they're on their OS'es, but on OS-X, they have to compile in a bunch of extra junk to get the same look and feel to the UI... something to that effect, anyhow.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynn jones Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 ericw, and you will know him by the trail of broken mp3 players sorry, had to say it. lynn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianH Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 Another thing to consider when changing from mp3 to IPod is Itunes converts everything to MP4 and you can't go back. You're basically married to Apple....unless anybody knows somthin I don't that being said, 40gb pod a year old no problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted July 18, 2005 Author Share Posted July 18, 2005 Another thing to consider when changing from mp3 to IPod is Itunes converts everything to MP4 and you can't go back. You're basically married to Apple....unless anybody knows somthin I don't EXACTLY why I want nothing to with file management software. Glad I passed on the iPod. Otherwise, I'd have to go burn Steve Jobs' house down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcoliver Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 Another thing to consider when changing from mp3 to IPod is Itunes converts everything to MP4 and you can't go back. You're basically married to Apple....unless anybody knows somthin I don't... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Haven't tried it yet but just in case you need to: MP4 converter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
batangueno Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 Another thing to consider when changing from mp3 to IPod is Itunes converts everything to MP4 and you can't go back. You're basically married to Apple....unless anybody knows somthin I don'tthat being said, 40gb pod a year old no problems. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Mp3 files works just fine in iTunes, no need to convert to Mp4. Unless you wanted to, but iTunes prompts you first if you're sure you want to convert since you can't go back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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