Thing I noticed about the iPod TV ads
 

They encourage you to dance around and really shake the shit out of your iPod, which contains a hard drive. Hold it right in your hand! Dance around! Don't worry about dropping it on a hard surface or anything!

Will it fail? Doesn't matter to Apple... if you've bought into the iTunes approach you can only replace it with another iPod... because no other portable player will play your iTunes library unless you convert all your files, and that's a royal pain in the ass, and will lead to quality degradation of the music.

The warranty is one year so you should expect to buy a new one every two years... what a fuckin' cash cow for that company.

Did they ever resolve the dead battery issue? I remember hearing a year or so ago that the iPods would stop working after about a year of use, because the battery would no longer hold a charge. That's pretty common for rechargeable batteries, but the problem with the iPod was that they didn't offer new batteries for sale. There was basically no way to replace the battery. I don't have an iPod, so I don't know if that's still true, or if they fixed it.

I don't know if that's shrewed, or stupid. Microsoft is evil, but people still buy their crap. Maybe Apple is deciding to follow suit. They don't care if their customers are pissed off in a year or two. They still make the sale.

Argh get a grip. Batteries last for ages, mine's a 2nd generation, had it for years, still only run out of battery once and I use it every damn day for hours. You can get a new battery fitted by apple for 100 or a 3rd party for 50, kits are even cheaper.

It has a little trouble reading new tracks from HDD while being swung about but keeps 5-6 (depending on size) in ram so it's not exactly a common problem.

I've dropped mine from around 1m onto concrete a couple of times and from a lesser height onto wood floors, thrown it onto the bed and it's bounced onto the floor a few times, scratched but works perfectly. One time it bounced off a bed, into the corner of a radiator HARD and then onto a hard wood floor, thought that was the end of it for sure but it was right as rain. For the record I've given my powerbook similar treatment and it's still working fine (2m onto concrete in a thin case, 1m onto concrete without), if a tad dinted. You can rip music in iTunes in MP3 format, AIFF and unprotected AAC (which is supported by some other players) as well as Apple Lossesss then convert them to something else if it suits you.

I am looking at getting a 4th gen iPod, primarily as I'm interested in using it as a photo dump and mine was before the connector used for that but otherwise I'd have no reason to upgrade, after years of hard use it's as good as ever and I know plenty of others with similar stories. Apple make quality hardware, I guess most PC users aren't familiar with the concept. 1 year warranty is standard, you can buy an extended warranty (3 year) for generally very reasonable prices and with ipods they usually just give you a new one without much hassle.

OK. I'm just jealous. I want one.

I've got a 2nd generation going cheap, battery is in good nick....

Two questions:

1. What competing product offers a better scenario? Isn't the DRM used by all the major music stores kind of icky and restrictive?
2. What's Mr. Tivo doing watching freakin' commercials?????

UT, i don't think it has a hard drive - i think it has flash ram

The smaller ones use ram, but every unit out there that's 5 gigs and up are hard drives.

It's fair to have an iPod but the current ads are for iTunes+iPod. The iPod, and all competition, play mp3 just fine. Most others also play WMA (debbil begone!) and one even plays OGG. Only iTunes and the iPod play the DRM-encoded iTunes files. What I will continue to do is rip everything to fairly high bit rate mp3, as it's a kind of universal format right now. That way I still buy the CD and so I get the full-quality "originals".

I have CNN/Fox News/MSNBC on as background filler all day.

Which one does OGG?

I admit, I have been using 64kbs wma lately when I rip CDs. I can't hear any quality diff between that and MP3 at twice the rate to justify taking up the extra space.

(If y'all don't want to talk to me anymore now that I've admitted voluntarily using a Microsoft "$tandard," I'll understand.)

iRiver does OGG

iPod
 

Heya,

The iPod Mini does have a 1" 4GB Hitachi hard drive in it. The Creative players are the ones with the 4GB CF card that are being bought and cannibalized by photographers, as they are much cheaper than the other options!

I have a 2G 10GB iPod. It's an awesome player, and I've dropped it many times. I've seen the competition, specifically the Archos players, just fall apart and not handle the beatings that an iPod can take.

That, and I have a Mac and a PC with XPlay that I've used it with, and it's FAST. USB 2.0 does not have the speed that Firewire does for long sustained transfers.

Mitch

Before I procured my powerbook I used ephpod, found it to be flawless, is Xplay better these days? Last I knew it was still in beta.

xplay
 

Jag,

Xplay was much better than Ephpod IMHO. I did use Ephpod for 2 weeks, but Xplay let me edit ID3 tags on the iPod itself, and it let me copy to and from. Quite a useful product, and I did buy it.

Mitch

Didn't you see the small text at the bottom of the screen? "This dance performed by a trained professional on a closed set. Dance responsibly, obey all state and local dance regulations, don't drink and dance." ;)

Eh, the iPod itself is only 3 years old, you old fogey.

All i know is that I love my Archos Jukebox recorder and i wouldnt buy anything over it, ever. I t has ruber shock absorbers on the corners, can record from analog and digital sources, and has a built in mic. Also the rechargable batteries are just 4 double A batts so if they start losin life, BAM newones and no hassle. $10 outta pocket. Hell of alot better than $100 that Apple charges.

Well I got it in about june 2002, that's just over two years, which is more than one year and thus justifies the use of the plural, years. Another way of putting it is :p :p :flipbird: :repuke: :smashfrea :joint:

How long do your 4AAs last?

You could use nimh rechargeables and save on getting new batteries at all.

How much is a decent set of those and a decent charger?

The best place I've found for these batteries, at least US, is www.thomasdistributing.com

A set of 4 AAs that will outlast standard alkalines by about half is $8, the fancy 2300 mAh that go twice as long as standard alkalines are $14. The charger is $30 but they have a fancy international one is $45 WITH 4 batteries and a mandatory battery holder. I say mandatory because you would not want these batteries to short out on change in your pocket. :worried:

The down side to these batteries is that they don't hold a charge very long, and so if you have a set around for a month you really have to charge them (for an hour) before using. But they are really ideal for digital cams that use AAs, where you can charge up a couple sets for a week and have them at the ready.

15 hours straight play. :)

I use them for my camera. They do lose their charge sitting around, but they recharge very quickly even in a charger that drains them before charging. I have 2 sets of batteries to rotate and in a pinch just hit the nearest store for Duracells. :)

Wish I could use the frigging huge/heavy ones in the canon pro DSLRs in other things, they just don't die, even after over 1000 shots.

These are exactly the batteries and charger I have, and I've been singing their praises to everyone whenever the topic comes up. One of my favorite things about the charger is that there is a separate circuit for each battery. So if they have different charges on them, they each get a custom charge, instead of some average charge for all of them.

They really are the best batteries and charger.

I only have a MH-C204F. :(
But it works great! :D

OK. I did it. I got the latest 40GB ipod. I'm currently ripping CDs with iTunes.

I have one complain so far: Maybe it's just me. But I hate fingerprints. And polished metal back of the iPod is like a fingerprint magnet!! I'd have preferred a rougher surface that wouldn't hold prints. (Yeah, I know I can wipe them off.)

Oh, yeah, it does play music too. I'd love a smaller font (classical music has long titles). But the scroll wheel is beyond coolness.

"So, Steve, how do you like your iPod?"
 

I'm glad you asked! :D

The good:

Well you can see why it is so popular. The click wheel is great. Sound quality seems just fine (though I'm far from an audiophile). The large disk size is certainly good--I've traditionally taken forever to figure out what CDs etc. I want to take along. At this point I have... I forget.. how many CDs on it, maybe 75 or 80, and am not even up to the 25% mark. It's nice to be able to access music by album, artist, or track title. The handling of multi-disc CD sets (once they've been properly entered, see below) is very nice. All in all, it's great. Which is not to say I wouldn't like to see some changes....

The bad:

The width of the screen means that most titles get cut off. Could we have an option for a smaller font size? Or some clever use of scrolling? (When you're playing, the track title scrolls, but not the album or artist.) Perhaps this is only problematic for the classical listener... all those albums starting with "Symphony" or "Symphonies", you know.

Not iPod per se, but iTunes... the GraceNote database is unbelievably lame. How the hell can you have a 4-CD set and have information for discs 1, 2, and 4, but NOT for 3? And then there is little consistency between the discs. Some albums have Artist and Track Title information swapped. Etc. Etc. Doesn't anybody check this stuff? These inconsistencies and inaccuracies were acceptable for CDDB when it was a free, cooperative effort. Now that companies have to pay to license it, they ought to have more accurate information.

For what Apple charges, I can't believe they didn't include at least a cheap case and/or belt clip.

Maybe I'm just weird, but I hate the earbuds. They are, literally, painful. Maybe my ear canals are just small. (Besides, the little covers NEVER stay on.)

There really needs to be a good way to get two tracks to play sequentially with no pause in between.

And a way to shuffle the songs on an album while you're playing the album, without having to bop back up 3 or 4 menu levels to the settings menu, change the setting, and then go back and change it again before you play the next album that you don't want shuffled.

Maybe I'm just weird, but I hate the earbuds. They are, literally, painful. Maybe my ear canals are just small. (Besides, the little covers NEVER stay on.)

Amen to that. I've never found any brand of earbud headphones to be even close to tolerable.

I like those earbud hybrids that curl around the top of the ear and down the back.

www.etymotics.com

In-ear earphones, the only way to go.

I'm afraid after buying the actual iPod, I'm not going to be springing for $100+ earphones for it!!

Ipod Photo
 

I just ordered the 40GB one.

I want to be able to show photos on the TV or iPod with this, and since I use iPhoto, this is a natural extension.

Plus, my old iPod is a couple of years old. I will give it to my GF :).

Mitch

My Ipod came with a case and beltclip, I don't think they do with the bottom models anymore.

I've got my eye on the 40G photo one as well, christmas present to me written all over it. I want to see how it interacts with the media reader first though, my primary reason to upgrade is that it's cheaper that a couple of Sandisk UltraII or Lexar80X 1G cards. I've got the apple in-ear ones, bass is awesome, quite a funny curve, some people like the sound, some don't.

I got the 4th generation click-wheel version with the 40GB disk! Not exactly the bottom model.

I ended up ordering an iSkin evo2 case.