Kung Fu Jedi
Member
Diablos said:
Perhaps a bit of an overstatment, but it's hard to deny the impact of the iPod on the cultural landscape.
Apple 'Special Event' on September 7th
- Thread starter ckohler
- Start date
- Status
Perhaps a bit of an overstatment, but it's hard to deny the impact of the iPod on the cultural landscape.
but a 60GB iPod is only $100 more than that.. 33% more cost for 50% more space.
as for getting songs off an ipod, with the right software you can.. as long as it isn't protected of course.
as for getting songs on or off, the Zen doesn't show up as a drive in windows either, meaning you still need a piece of software to move songs to and from the unit (like the ipod).
nothing wrong with the zen at all, and at $270 it is certainly a better deal than the 20GB iPod... but at $380 online the iPod 60GB is an even better deal. and let's still not forget that those ipods are almost a year old. also you can get new 30GB ipods also for $300 yet still.
I still don't see how the ipod is a ripoff in general though. the shuffle is still one of the most economical $$$$:GB ratio out of flash players, and if you want > 40GB the 60GB photo is still your only option.
as for getting songs off an ipod, with the right software you can.. as long as it isn't protected of course.
as for getting songs on or off, the Zen doesn't show up as a drive in windows either, meaning you still need a piece of software to move songs to and from the unit (like the ipod).
nothing wrong with the zen at all, and at $270 it is certainly a better deal than the 20GB iPod... but at $380 online the iPod 60GB is an even better deal. and let's still not forget that those ipods are almost a year old. also you can get new 30GB ipods also for $300 yet still.
I still don't see how the ipod is a ripoff in general though. the shuffle is still one of the most economical $$$$:GB ratio out of flash players, and if you want > 40GB the 60GB photo is still your only option.
have you seen all of the ipod accessories? you can get ipod car changer adapters, clock radio cradles, I mean they make cupholder sized cradles for crying outloud!!! Do you really think there would be $300 earbuds if it wasn't for ipod?Diablos said:
The iPod / iTunes / Music Store combo is unmatched in my opinion.
There's no point having tens of GB's of storage if you can't navigate and manage that library easily. The scrollwheel and UI is still unmatched because it was arguably the best solution to that problem in the first place.
Apple got the hardware right, the software right, and added services in the form of the Music Store on top of that. That's why they've cleaned up.
There's no point having tens of GB's of storage if you can't navigate and manage that library easily. The scrollwheel and UI is still unmatched because it was arguably the best solution to that problem in the first place.
Apple got the hardware right, the software right, and added services in the form of the Music Store on top of that. That's why they've cleaned up.
Kung Fu Jedi
Member
Does creative not make a 60 GB version of the Zen Extra anymore?
Diablos said:
Simple.
They are simple.
They hold lots of songs, look nice, and are easy to use.
Also, if you have iTunes, its a really really good combination. TBH, without iTunes its just another mp3 player but with iTunes its class leading.
If you care about audio quality above all else - don't buy one. But if you want simple sync, powerful playlist creation, seamless integration of the music store - ipod is what you want.
There is plenty I don't like about mine, but its still way better than the competition.
As much as I disklike the click wheel for making small adjustments, I hate the stupid slide of the creative zen micro more.
As much as I wish it had a shuffle on/off button, or a button to jump to the now playing screen (instead of timing out) - its still better than fiddling around with the crappy display and menus on the zen, trying to get the FM radio up.
Diablos said:
Aesthetically, the iPod is still probably the best player out there, at least in my opinion. And iTunes is a good piece of software and no doubt a big factor in the iPod's popularity. There's plenty of sound reasons for owning the device other than popular trend. Can you get more functional players? Absolutely, but most people just want their MP3 player to look good, sound good (although there are superior players in this regard), and have software that's intuitive, which iTunes certainly is. Personally, I own a Creative MuVo TX 512MB flash-based MP3 player. An HD-based player is just too bulky and overkill for my needs.
Incidently the whole 'other players sound better' thing will probably be a thing of the past with the 5th Gen., as has happened with the past battery issues. Even though arguing about sound-quality when most people will listen to their player with earbuds anyway is a bit daft but hey ... 
The iPod Shuffle introduced new audio circuitry that's meant to be the best of all mp3 players surprisingly. With all the fuss about it's lack of screen this got totally overlooked. Apple are bound to carry this over into the rest of the iPod range.
For the audiophiles:
Rest here:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1778968,00.asp
The iPod Shuffle introduced new audio circuitry that's meant to be the best of all mp3 players surprisingly. With all the fuss about it's lack of screen this got totally overlooked. Apple are bound to carry this over into the rest of the iPod range.
For the audiophiles:
Rest here:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1778968,00.asp
Ignatz Mouse
Banned
I went from Zen Xtra to iPod, here's why:
1) Size. Xtra was too big to fit comfortably in a pocket.
2) Ease of use.
-Much better interface on unit
-iPod works like a USB Drive, Xtra requires software to store files
3) Capacity. My Xtra was 30GB, I wanted to go to 60. There is a 60 GB Xtra, but since I was switching anyway, I went iPod.
4) My major gripe with the iPod-- battery life-- got fixed
I was hesitant at first, but I really love the iPod functionality a lot, lot more than the Xtra.
1) Size. Xtra was too big to fit comfortably in a pocket.
2) Ease of use.
-Much better interface on unit
-iPod works like a USB Drive, Xtra requires software to store files
3) Capacity. My Xtra was 30GB, I wanted to go to 60. There is a 60 GB Xtra, but since I was switching anyway, I went iPod.
4) My major gripe with the iPod-- battery life-- got fixed
I was hesitant at first, but I really love the iPod functionality a lot, lot more than the Xtra.
Kung Fu Jedi
Member
I knew the Zen had a 60 GB version and was just pointing out that there was another option available if you needed that much storage. That said, the iPod kills the Zen in size and interface. To me, sound quality is kind of a wash. The both sound good, and I'm not an audiophile anyway.
I'm thinking of replacing my Karma. I love the thing, and it works great, but I was hoping that a remote would be released for it, and that's never going to happen now that Rio has been killed off. I'm certainly going to see what Apple has in store next week before I decide. The major thing that is swaying to the iPods are the accesories. You can get alarm clocks that serve as charging stations/docks, tons of different cases (important for me when working out), and an array of other very cool add-ons that really extend the iPod.
I'm thinking of replacing my Karma. I love the thing, and it works great, but I was hoping that a remote would be released for it, and that's never going to happen now that Rio has been killed off. I'm certainly going to see what Apple has in store next week before I decide. The major thing that is swaying to the iPods are the accesories. You can get alarm clocks that serve as charging stations/docks, tons of different cases (important for me when working out), and an array of other very cool add-ons that really extend the iPod.
Lord Error
Insane For Sony
They've been around for a lot longer than Ipod
People use and have used devices other than MP3 players to listen to the music while moving around. Many handheld CD players offered (and still offer) better sound quality anyways, which is something where you benefit with such earbuds, as opposed to ipod, where it's more of a gain/loss situation.Also, does anyone know what is the global distribution of various handheld music players? I don't mean just MP3 players, but CD players as well? I think that looking globally, there's still more people listening to various handheld CD players or cheap MP3 players other than ipod. Ipod seems to be popular in big cities, but much less so anywhere else, at least from my experience. Also, how do other higher-end players fare at the market (Iriver, Zen, those made by Sony, etc.)?
Lord Error
Insane For Sony
Good earbuds are exactly what exposes Ipod's biggest sound flaw - it's crappy signal to noise ratio. You can't hear it as much with some other types of headphones, but with in-ear buds (and those are the more expensive ones) you can hear the noise clear as day when the music goes more silent. That's IMO a lot bigger problem with Ipod than it's bass reproduction, which apparently got rectified in the shuffle (that's really a news to me, I'd like to listen to it now, just out of curiosity)
It's just like a game console - everyone has a favourite, and they want to spread the word as much as they can to make themselves feel better about their purchase.Macam said:
I remember my friend always talking shit about my iPod, how the battery life sucked and how people only use it to look cool, etc. Then I realized he couldn't afford an iPod, so he got a Creative player instead, and he slammed iPods as a result.
Kung Fu Jedi
Member
Marconelly said:
I haven't seen any numbers on this, but you have to think that the majority of portable music players sold are still CD players. Anecdotal evidence for me is that when I head out to local parks for a run I see far more people lugging around a portable CD player than anything else. Second to that is an armband radio, followed by, in a distant third, some MP3 player, which is usually some version of the iPod, but not always. I have noticed that I tend to see more iPod minies in my area than I do standard iPods. I think the cheaper price has helped move them and they still provide more storage than most people need. (Or at least think they need!
)http://today.reuters.com/news/newsA...TRIDST_0_TECH-TELECOMS-CINGULAR-ITUNES-DC.XML
reuters is now reporting that cingular will announce on the 7th the release of an itunes phone.
so the rokkr seems like a lock. I really hope gen5 is in there also as I would be pretty disappointed with just the moto phone.
reuters is now reporting that cingular will announce on the 7th the release of an itunes phone.
so the rokkr seems like a lock. I really hope gen5 is in there also as I would be pretty disappointed with just the moto phone.
borghe said:so the rokkr seems like a lock. I really hope gen5 is in there also as I would be pretty disappointed with just the moto phone.
Yeah, I really doubt they'd have this much hype for just the phone:
... and here's 100 songs on a phone! Nah, got to be more than that.
Hopefully
Lord Error
Insane For Sony
Especially considering that already have (or will very soon, not sure) music/video phones with 4GB or bigger HDDs in them. I bet it's not just that.Nash said:Yeah, I really doubt they'd have this much hype for just the phone:
... and here's 100 songs on a phone! Nah, got to be more than that.
Hopefully
Kung Fu Jedi
Member
Cool image of the invite. Anyone tried RSVP-ing?
Lord Error
Insane For Sony
Can someone post the links to the leaked pics of Motorola's ROKKR phone? Suprisingly, search engines are useless in this case.
http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000887049175/Marconelly said:
my problem with it is it takes transflash, of which the largest size right now is 256MB.
wake me when 1GB transflash chips come out.
real edit - looks like 512MB transflash just came out. that would put it in line with the cheap shuffle. much more tempting
Lord Error
Insane For Sony
Thanks, that phone looks pretty nice.
bean breath
Member
Do you think they'll have removable batteries in the new Ipods?
Nash said:Yeah, I really doubt they'd have this much hype for just the phone:
... and here's 100 songs on a phone! Nah, got to be more than that.
Hopefully
So...there's going to be 2,000 songs in or pocket now, or are they just doing 1,000 again? Can't...compre...hend-d-d-d-d...
jobber
Would let Tony Parker sleep with his wife
Kung Fu Jedi said:
Yes they do, but my faith in Creative is sinking til they get new firmware. They're releasing new players left and right yet, they won't fix they ones they have out now.
I'm on the fence with this now. I need a big capacity player, but I don't want the battery to die and I have to send it in for replacement.
Jill Sandwich
the turds of Optimus Prime
From Appleinsider:
I find it amusing that the player on the motorola is nothing more than a bit of mp3 software, yet they are getting huge press for it.
Seems 'ipod on your phone' is more important that whether it sounds good, holds enough tracks.
Its pretty amazing just how engrained 'ipod' is as a synonym for digital music nowadays.
Seems 'ipod on your phone' is more important that whether it sounds good, holds enough tracks.
Its pretty amazing just how engrained 'ipod' is as a synonym for digital music nowadays.
Kung Fu Jedi
Member
I'll be disappointed if it's only the phone. Sure, it's kinda cool to have iTunes work with your cell phone, but the damn phone has been getting hype for months. New iPods, possibly with video playback, would be more deserving of the "here we go again" line. Besides, there are other phones that already play mp3's.
Jill Sandwich
the turds of Optimus Prime
8bit said:
It read "Biggie.....NOOOOOO!" Originally. It all sounds silly
Well if it was the phone, it would have to be a range of phones, not just that shitty e398. Also the leaked manual for that said you couldn't even access the music store. Without access to the music store, the phones really wouldn't be a big deal at all, its just like any of the other media phones out there just with the iTunes interface for it's mp3 player.
Also accessing the music store over the non-3G networks, even with GPRS, would be impractical with the current 128k AAC files. It would take aaaaages.
There was talk a few months back about an Advanced AAC format, which offered the same quality at a much reduced bitrate. Maybe that is what Apple have planned, and part of iTunes 5 will be a mobile music store with the new format. If they start offering different bitrates, they'd probably offer a higher than 128k/lossless option as well. So it would keep both ends of the market happy.
I still hope its more than a load of phones though
Also accessing the music store over the non-3G networks, even with GPRS, would be impractical with the current 128k AAC files. It would take aaaaages.
There was talk a few months back about an Advanced AAC format, which offered the same quality at a much reduced bitrate. Maybe that is what Apple have planned, and part of iTunes 5 will be a mobile music store with the new format. If they start offering different bitrates, they'd probably offer a higher than 128k/lossless option as well. So it would keep both ends of the market happy.
I still hope its more than a load of phones though
no. but allow me to elaborate.
"Here we go again."
What do we now know about the rokr?:
It will only support PC->phone transfer of music, not online downloading.
It will ship in capacities of 512MB and 1GB, meaning roughly 120 and 240 songs.
It will only be carried by cingular and will likely have a price of between $200-300.
The press has known full well about this for a while now (well over a year).
I don't see any of those points that screams Apple would treat this as a huge unveiling. The press is running with it because that is all they know for sure (the motorola invite is a dead giveaway).
Now let's look at some other things:
Apple has contracted a TON of high capacity flash ram from samsung
Apple has contracted ALL 80GB 1.8" hard drives from Toshiba
Apple has courted all the music labels (and succeeded with some) at providing video content.
Apple has made mention of that they are developing a video iPod.
Apple hasn't released a TRUE new version of the iPod in almost a year.
So now, Apple makes mention of the launch of the iPod, and then says "Here we go again." Does it really sound like a 240 songs capacity phone from one provider in the US is "going again"? Has Apple EVER in the recent past made insinuations that they were going to make a big announcement and then made one that collectively let down most people?
I just look at all the options that Apple has to announce AND the fact that they are making a big deal about this, and a phone just doesn't fit in with that.
Either way, there is the music conference next wednesday and the Apple Expo in three weeks. Somewhere in there the new iPods will be announced. I just don't see apple announcing the phone next week at a "music event" only to announce the new ipods two weeks later, and don't see them announcing the phone next week, mac stuff two weeks later, only to announce more ipod stuff 2-3 weeks later after that.
oh well, only 5.5 more days...
"Here we go again."
What do we now know about the rokr?:
It will only support PC->phone transfer of music, not online downloading.
It will ship in capacities of 512MB and 1GB, meaning roughly 120 and 240 songs.
It will only be carried by cingular and will likely have a price of between $200-300.
The press has known full well about this for a while now (well over a year).
I don't see any of those points that screams Apple would treat this as a huge unveiling. The press is running with it because that is all they know for sure (the motorola invite is a dead giveaway).
Now let's look at some other things:
Apple has contracted a TON of high capacity flash ram from samsung
Apple has contracted ALL 80GB 1.8" hard drives from Toshiba
Apple has courted all the music labels (and succeeded with some) at providing video content.
Apple has made mention of that they are developing a video iPod.
Apple hasn't released a TRUE new version of the iPod in almost a year.
So now, Apple makes mention of the launch of the iPod, and then says "Here we go again." Does it really sound like a 240 songs capacity phone from one provider in the US is "going again"? Has Apple EVER in the recent past made insinuations that they were going to make a big announcement and then made one that collectively let down most people?
I just look at all the options that Apple has to announce AND the fact that they are making a big deal about this, and a phone just doesn't fit in with that.
Either way, there is the music conference next wednesday and the Apple Expo in three weeks. Somewhere in there the new iPods will be announced. I just don't see apple announcing the phone next week at a "music event" only to announce the new ipods two weeks later, and don't see them announcing the phone next week, mac stuff two weeks later, only to announce more ipod stuff 2-3 weeks later after that.
oh well, only 5.5 more days...
I actually just signed up with Cingular and got the Audiovox SMT 5600 for $100. If the iTunes phone actually turns out to be a good mix between cell phone and MP3 player, I might consider returning the Audiovox and getting the Apple cell phone.
There was news on the Apple rumor sites about a month or so ago that Apple scored a deal (I think with Toshiba) to get 4 GB flash cards for the same price as 4 GB mini-HDs go. I think this might be the strongest proof that the iTunes phone will be 4 GB. That would be pretty sweet if true.
Then again, the SMT 5600 is pretty highly regarded, so this iTunes phone has gotta be something huge to get me to switch.
There was news on the Apple rumor sites about a month or so ago that Apple scored a deal (I think with Toshiba) to get 4 GB flash cards for the same price as 4 GB mini-HDs go. I think this might be the strongest proof that the iTunes phone will be 4 GB. That would be pretty sweet if true.
Then again, the SMT 5600 is pretty highly regarded, so this iTunes phone has gotta be something huge to get me to switch.
well, someone (an analyst) supposedly already has all the information and the phone will ship in a 512MB and 1GB configuration. Was on tomshardware or anandtech I believe. the phone will play in stereo but will require proprietary earbuds (connector).
it sounds like a souped up shuffle with a screen/control.. thus expect it to cost more than a similarly configured shuffle (over $200 likely for the 1GB version).
it sounds like a souped up shuffle with a screen/control.. thus expect it to cost more than a similarly configured shuffle (over $200 likely for the 1GB version).
- Status