1)Yes, you can easily transfer files, via Firewire or USB2.0, on and off the iPod. You have to set the iPod to "drive mode" before you can do this; you can change this setting in iTunes. The iPod gets recognized as a standard removable drive. Be sure to unmount the iPod before disconnecting, this can be done via iTunes or simply Windows' own "Safely Remove Hardware" util that will pop up in your sys tray when the ipod is connected.
2)I reckon that the iPod is as suceptable to data corruption as any hard drive, especially those in FAT32 mode as opposed to NTFS (did they ever switch the NTFS?). So that is to say, don't worry about it.
When I first came down to Mississippi, before I had my PC shipped to me, my 2nd Gen iPod did double duty as a music player while I did house repair (with no file backups, mind you) and a portable drive storing all my "important data." It got dirty and beat up, and it never gave me one lick of trouble. Not one.
if anything
did go wrong on the hard drive, the iPod comes with utilities to fix it. But it's just safer to have your music backuped up someplace else anyway.
3) I don't know about FM transmitters past the first iTrip, which didn't work for me. I was close to Cincinnati when i used the iTrip and I couldn't find a single chaneel to transmit to without some static. I was told that it was due to my proximity to so many braodcast towers.
Check
iPodlounge for all periphrial reviews.
4) I'm not an audiophile, I don't really care about minute sound quality differences. Some people say the iPod has great SQ, some say it sucks. Screw 'em both. The bitrate of your library is going to matter more than if the iPod sounds better than the iRiver.
If you want to output to speakers, I recommend picking up the iPod dock. It has a straight line out for a mini jack, and you'll probably use the AC power with it, instead of powering the speakers off the iPod battery. Though I don't
know if the line out is powered by the wall or the iPod, the wall just makes more sense.
5) Right before I bought my second iPod, a 4th Gen, I really looked at other players, namely iRiver. I was set to drop over $300 on a player, so the Creative Labs and Dell other low priced shit I didn't even bother with.
I realized that since I had come to Mississppi, I had only listened to around 1gb of my 9gb music collection, just the same stuff over and over. Therefore I really looked at one of the iRiver flash ram drives, which would be much smaller, much cheaper, and the perfect size to hold the music that I acutally listened to. I dropped this idea as soon as I learned that they run on standard AA alkaline batteries. This is the year 2000, or some shit, I am through changing batteries on devices, other than a remote.
So I turned to the standard hard drive based iRivers, which where a little bit more expensive, but came with an awesome display screen remote that I would have paid extra for if I got an iPod anyway, and the Apple remote has no screen. Also the best iRivers have color screens, meaning that i could not only store my "important data" on it, but I could also look at it away from home if needed... and sometimes that's needed. They also threw some ather bells and whistles into the iRiver line, flash ram models included, like built in FM doodads (transmitters?) and voice recording shit.
What made me write off the larger iRivers was that they used USB2.0 to trnasfer data, but they needed a seperate AC power jack to charge. Fuck that. This is the year 2000 and I've already owned an iPod for nearly two years. I'm not going to take a step back and use
two wires to manage and power my player. My PC is so pimped ut with Firewire, sweet IEEE1394, i-Link for Sony heads; I got 2 up front and two inna back. I love Firewire. I want to power my device and transfer data with the same cable. Far as I know, only the iPod does that.
So you see, what kept me from buying the iRiver line, and several other brands, I assume, was not sound quality, but connectivty. You can't top the iPod's connectivity
6) The Apple and HP models are exactly the same, except the HP models say HP on them and don't come Mac formatted. You can get Apple iPods formatted for PC or Mac out of the box, and even if that last statement is a lie, the Apple software, which you can download if need be, can do it so quick you won't notice.
7) The sound issue. The deal is that a lot of people on iPodlounge have found that after the iPod accesses it's hard drive, a few seconds of spinning can be heard through the headphones. The reason this is more prevelant with larger files is that the smaller your mp3s are, the more the iPod can cache and the less it has to spin the hard drive back up. but if you don't have the defect, you don't have the defect. I didn't have the defect. I bought my iPod at Best buy, with a replacement plan, so if I did have the defect, I was assured a replacement until I got one that worked.
8) i'm still talking. The humorus thing about the ipod is that it is more expensive than most other players, and much more durable that likely all of the others. The ipod does not need protection, it is a tank. However, it is just so damn beautiful, with those smooth lines and mirror finish, that many users, myself strenuously included, insist on having an additional case to protect the iPod's surface, which is itself protecting the gear inside. Somewhat foolish. I don't hear about iRiver flunkies blowing $60 on a hard case.
Again the lounge can help you as if helped me when shopping for cases. I use the
Trendy Geek iShield which puts an almost transparent layer of film over the metal back, sides, and bottom of the iPod, as well as the screen. So even if my ipod is out side of it's cases (<--yeah, that was plural) it has a full time layer of protection, against scratches and fingerprints, on the areas that show it most. The iShield is cheap and dock compatible, which you will find is a very rare thing among iPod cases.
I currently use 2 cases, one the Matias iPod armor, which makes my 4th Gen thicker than my 2nd Gen and looks like a 3rd Gen, but is made of metal. It really protects the ipod when closed and hugs it tight from falling when open. $60 product but it's the best peace of mind you can buy for your iPod, if you need it.
I also use a
Lajo silicon skin. This skin retain the form factor of the iPod while giving it a soft skin all over. There's so many different versions, I refused the moels which flip open, for dock access, and insisted on one that covered the wheel, the wheel is still usable. They have screen protectors too, but apparently I didn't order one, not like I need another. One bad thing about the Lajos, and all silicon cases is that they are magnetic to pocket fuzz.
In time I'll get a few more Lajos (glow version stocked the second my clear case shipped), a Showcase hard case, and at least one silicon wheel protector. With the dock, extra cables, remote, and cases I have bought and will buy, I'll match my iPod's price in accessories easy. People with iRivers don't do that.
9) Why is there a new iPod thread everyday? Why don't you just PM me? I've used so much iPod software and pored over so many iPod cases that it'd have to be faster that way. I mean, I'm going to come into every iPod thread I see anyway.
