Ipod


Overpriced, overhyped, and over-marketed. Way too reliant on bad software (thats right, Apple fanbois. The Itunes interface sucks), proprietary formats (yes, you can put your MP3s onto them... with Itunes. Which turns them into AAC) and "fancy factor."

I find it hilarious that people pay $200 for a 6GB ipod. I paid $200 and got a 30GB Zen Xtra.
 
No i think the hardware is fine yes i do find itunes the ultimate bloatware (and i know i'm in the minority with that opinion) but ml_pod lets you sync using the wonderful winamp anyway. AAC is optional ok its annoying that its by default on and it takes a good amount of reasoning with ipod users to switch back to mp3 but on the whole i dont think its over hyped. The navigation system on the ipod itself is perfect no annoying pauses like on the zen touch its just spot on. But the headphones my £6 sennheisers poo on them so very easily also my only other complaint was that in previous generation ipods the eq didn't really function as it should especially for bass http://www.vrforums.com/showthread.php?t=53864 it truly was a bad situation none of my friends could understand why i thought their ipods sounded so terrible with bass boost on. But the new video ipod is fine definitely my dap of choice especially for the size of drive you get for the price. (i think i'm pretty impartial owning no hard drive based player at the moment but i've been looking for the past few years)
 
GeminiDomino posted on Feb 19 2006 at 12:48 PM said:
Overpriced, overhyped, and over-marketed. Way too reliant on bad software (thats right, Apple fanbois. The Itunes interface sucks), proprietary formats (yes, you can put your MP3s onto them... with Itunes. Which turns them into AAC) and "fancy factor."

I find it hilarious that people pay $200 for a 6GB ipod. I paid $200 and got a 30GB Zen Xtra.


For you maybe, but not for me. Sorry...
 
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ipods sure are pricey.

I sold mine on for £75 to my sister, as i can just use my gp2x or giz for music assuming SD cards continue to tumble down in price.

I am waiting for a 1gb to cost £10.
 
my humble opinion on iPods-

overpriced, ugly, low sound volume, very poor battery life, disgraceful software, poor format support, well marketed, easy to navigate.

and, to anyone saying iPods are easy for non-nerds- I think they are more difficult than the average because of the whole syncing issue. What happens when an average user wants to have content from two different PCs on their iPod? Or when an average user wants to have their CD collection on their iPod but not on their PC? They have to start using other third party software because Apple are idiots.
 
I just stuck iPod linux onto my nano and....wow, doom on the go and I watched an episode of scrubs this morning on my way to uni, the ability to dual boot means that I can get what I want out of my iPod with no fuss.

As for the whole ogg/mp3/acc debate, who cares? Its music all the same, if you need to compress music that much that you want to use ogg, just go out and buy a larger capacity player, and as long as you haven't over done it with the compression rates, sound quality simply boils down to headphone quality. A £29.99 25gmb flash drive will prove that when used with good phones.
 
declaration posted on Feb 19 2006 at 02:02 PM said:
my humble opinion on iPods-

overpriced, ugly, low sound volume, very poor battery life, disgraceful software, poor format support, well marketed, easy to navigate.

and, to anyone saying iPods are easy for non-nerds- I think they are more difficult than the average because of the whole syncing issue. What happens when an average user wants to have content from two different PCs on their iPod? Or when an average user wants to have their CD collection on their iPod but not on their PC? They have to start using other third party software because Apple are idiots.


I have music from at least three pcs on my ipod, all synced fine..........!!!!
 
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GeminiDomino posted on Feb 19 2006 at 05:48 AM said:
proprietary formats (yes, you can put your MP3s onto them... with Itunes. Which turns them into AAC)

I have my doubts that iTunes is converting your mp3 tracks to AAC. If it is, it's the fastest fucking transcoder on the planet. In addition, I've taken music OFF of my iPod to listen to on my PC and sure enough it was in mp3 format, and I wasn't using iTunes to do it so I'm pretty sure it wasn't turning everything back into mp3.
 
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Yep, missed that too! Nope, all mp3s.

Really, as soon as something is popular, the webnerds love to hate it! If winamp was popular, then...

Itunes is simple and straightforward. It does fo me...


(I have around 13mp3 players, but who can be arsed to fiddle and faff. I just wanna listen to music. Most people here are content with whatever they have. Which is nice.)
 
lubidog posted on Feb 19 2006 at 05:59 PM said:
Really, as soon as something is popular, the webnerds love to hate it!
We wouldn't be webnerds otherwise.

Would we like the GP2X as much if everyone had one?
 
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I love my 4gb iPod mini which I bought last year. However I did get it on sale and I wouldn't be prepared to pay normal iPod prices for one as they are overpriced.

I like the menu layouts and that I can listen to cds which previously wouldn't copy to my computer. Battery life is good and they have improved it further since I bought mine. It feels nice and sturdy and I have dropped it once with no ill effects.
The ACC thing did initially concern me but then I found out that you can change it to rip to MP3s in the settings.

Minus points are iTunes because you can only use it on XP. 98/ME users need not apply.
I would prefer to use automatic sync but I don't because both my music and my partner's music are on this pc (because of the OS limitation) and we don't always share the same taste in music. So I have to manually update each ipod. Not a major hassle but annoying all the same.
I also don't like the way it lists your music. It takes a lot of effort to reorganise everything into seperate playlists and folders when really it should just use the folders as they are stored on the computer which the option of adding more if required. I've never really bothered so it's just one huge list of music at the moment.
Luckily I don't buy a lot of new music often so I don't have to deal with iTunes often.

Assessories are also heavily overpriced. How much were those Apple sock cases? Twenty, thirty quid for the set. :blink:

Overall it is a nice product which I've enjoyed immensely but you do pay I think over the odds for the privilege.
 
nickspoon posted on Feb 19 2006 at 11:15 AM said:
lubidog posted on Feb 19 2006 at 05:59 PM said:
Really, as soon as something is popular, the webnerds love to hate it!
We wouldn't be webnerds otherwise.

Would we like the GP2X as much if everyone had one?

Actually, I would like the GP2X if everyone had one, but that'll never be.
 
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spray posted on Feb 19 2006 at 07:09 PM said:
i'll be getting one as i need to replace my rio karma and karmas aren't being made anymore.

i like the menu system but i'm not looking forward to losing gapless playback.


I have a Sony NW-A300, and it's great, you get gapless playback if you encode your music to sony’s ATRAC format, maybe that's something to consider.
 
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i like the sony players

but i also have a 20gb music collection, re-encoding that would mean loss in quality and a huge pain in the ass.

mp3 is the standard format, why not just play that i say?
 
I just have a 4gb ipod nano, works great (not just for a-technical people <_<).
Though 20 hours of playtime.... never, more like 12.

btw. Ipodlinux rocks!
 
aapje89 posted on Feb 24 2006 at 08:38 PM said:
I just have a 4gb ipod nano, works great (not just for a-technical people <_<).
Though 20 hours of playtime.... never, more like 12.

btw. Ipodlinux rocks!

Amen to that. However if you set your backlight to a shorter lit time or completely off it makes so much difference to the battery power.
 
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[OPINION]

I've got a 4Gb Ipod Mini, and have never even filled that up! I sync with a Mac and a PC with no issues. I love the interface, good battery life, great sound quality.

Ummmm - little more expensive than your average player, but the mini is built like a tank (how many other have an aluminium exterior).

Like itunes - in fact was using it for around 2 years before I even got my Ipod.

C'mon people - its only a bloody music player! Why the hell people get so passionate abot it I'll never quite work out... Anyone who gets so passionate about the device you use to play your music, then you surely must be lacking some human contact in life ;)

Go out! There's a whole world out there to explore!!!! People to meet! Places to see!

Hey! You can even take your music with you! Hurrah for technology eh? An if its got an apple printed on the back, or SONY printed on the front, or Archos, or WHATEVER, I'm sure in the end you won't notice if the music you're listening to is actually ANY GOOD...

If the music cant take your mind off what brand of player you're using, then find some BETTER MUSIC :p

[/TURNED INTO RANT]
 
I love that last post.

I have an "old" 40gig iPod from the last generation. I like it, I suppose. It holds more music than I even have a care to listen to. But I like that. Cost wasn't an issue for me, because that x-mas was the only one my parents actually got me what I asked for. I actually use it to store my music on and just play them from my iPod while it's attatched to my computer. That way I always add files there when I rip them, in case I actually want to use it for what it was made to do, you know, go outside ;)

As far as it being Apple, I hate it as much as the next person, but not enough to sell it and buy a different one; it works how it's intended.
 
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