Shauk

Ok so, I'm so confused by the 11 billion flavors of ipod or ipod clones out there.

I understand that Ipod has great support in terms of "aftermarket" accessories as well as parent company accessories and stuff, I'm not so sure whats with the zune or the alternatives. I've tried looking around at ipod's and I just question why the hell anyone would buy anything besides the classic 80gb version. "classic" makes it sound so outdated or something but seriously, I don't need a nano, it'll just get lost, I dont need a shuffle, I like to have control over my playlist, I don't need an ipod touch, it's superfluous to the function i'm looking for in a music player. I feel like i'm missing something because I just don't see what these alternatives with a 10th of the storage capacity (yet similar pricing) are offering.

urg, who's the expert around here on this stuff?

snowy

I have a 30GB video iPod. Love it. Look on the Apple website, in their store, for refurbished iPods. I paid half price for mine and got exactly what I wanted. It was basically a brand-new iPod. Plus, it comes with the same warranty as an actual new iPod.

Yeah, I don't see the point in all that superfluous stuff, but my roommate just got a Touch and loves it. I guess he got sucked into watching YouTube on his Touch the other night.

It really depends on what you're looking for, but like I said, look at the refurb listings on Apple's online store. Chances are they'll have what you're looking for. And their listings update daily, so check back frequently in case they don't have what you want, because they will have it eventually.

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Shauk

eh, i just picked up one on sale at best buy. still loading it up with music, seems fairly intuitive so far.

oh wells. guess I can let this thread die

Manic_Skafe

Wel, what'd you score? I've been through too many DAPs and have never been as satisfied with any of them as I am with my 80gig iPod classic.

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Willravel

I've got a 30g iPod, from the previous generation to the current. I've been very happy with it. I take it to the gym, I run with it, I sit at the dog park with Jack listening to tunskys. I'll be putting up christmas lights with it this week. I don't really have any complaints about it, except that I found that I needed to get a decent case for it to prevent it from getting scratched.

If you've got any questions, the thread may yet live!

Shauk

I got the 80gb classic.

blahblah454

I don't have an mp3 player but I want one for public transit, I hate listening to the sheep talk to eachother.

And I am exclusively looking at the "nano" style ones, the ones with flash drives and not hard drives. They currently run at 8 gigs (although if computers indicate anything the 16gig flash mp3 players should be out soon). Flash memory is more hardy, it can take being smashed around and it will still work fine, no moving parts to break like in a hard drive.

Elegia

I have the nano and I love it

I can keep it in my pocket all day long and select a song without ever having to pull it out to look at the screen. Same with the volume. It's really comfortable.

Oh, and of course it looks nice too

telekinetic

The new nanos are a completely retarded shahpe (really weird aspect ratio), and I hate them.

My wife has a couple ipods. I don't use them because I don't like having to use iTunes to manage my music. Music player just shows up as a drag and drop flash drive? Yes please.

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twisted no more

blktour

I had the 5th gen 30 gig one, but didnt like it, since i update my music alot, and its a pain for me. plus i hate ITUNES.

I really wanted the ZUNE, but will wait for them to come down in price. or maybe just a portable hard drive in my truck.. since i spend alot of time it there. hehe

Derwood

i have no problems with my iPod or iTunes. i like that Amazon downloads are cheaper and automatically load into iTunes when you purchase them

Daniel_

Here's the killer.

iPod have great design, lovely operating system on the player, but iTunes is a pain in the arse.

• I want a player I can drag files to and they just play.
• I want a player I can use on any PC without special software.
• I want a player I can see cover art on
• I want a player that sounds great
• I want a player that will play all the file types I use WITHOUT conversion (and that means some "plays for sure" WMAs and some home-made WMAs as well as MP3 adn AAC).

I have a Creative Zen Micro Photo (8gb) that I've had for a year or so - it's great, but as soon as someone makes a drag/drop player (like this one) with 50gb or more, and something like the cover flow system, I'm a convert.

__________________

╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
Overhead, the Albatross hangs motionless upon the air,
And deep beneath the rolling waves,
In labyrinths of Coral Caves,
The Echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand;
And everthing is Green and Submarine
╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝

Shauk

eh personally i've just been "drag and dropping" stuff into the library and then I just sync and it dumps all the new shit on my ipod, also downloads album covers for me so, I dunno. I haven't had any issues with it. got it up to 30 gigs so far.

Baraka_Guru

Nice, Shauk.

I'm still kicking around with my late-model iPod Mini. It's my little musicbox.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Cynthetiq

i got a 160 classic the other week. promised myself an ipod as a reward for a goal almost 1 year ago. Yet some reason it took me this long to finally get it.

I love it. I got about 5 shows all seasons, and many movies. It's great for waiting rooms, bus rides, subway trips. I love it.

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Jetée

Unreal. That is four times the memory I have on my PC. I never knew the small device to have that much available memory.

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blahblah454

Holy crap 160 gig iPod?!?! I just saw that on their store. With that I could fit my entire music collection and then some on it. Right now I have a little over 100 gigs of music. I thought that was serious overkill, but now it fits onto one mp3 player.

snowy

I have some music videos and shorts on my iPod. When I was taking my two young charges to gymnastics and having to sit there for two hours straight, that iPod became my best friend. It's so incredibly portable, and the screen quality is amazing.

Eventually I'll get a bigger one, but for now I am quite content with what I have.

__________________
If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Derwood

i have album art for all my music on iTunes (shows up on the screen of the iPod too)

Cynthetiq

Is there a way to see how long a playlist is? I can see how much time it would be to play all the songs, but what about an album or playlist? is there a way to see the total time of all the songs?

If I wanted to make a playlist that was exactly 30 minutes long is there a simple way to do that?

__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

Wyodiver33

I still have my 4GB hard-disk Mini. I love it but I kind of wish it would up and die so I could justify buying a new iPod!

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Cynthetiq

figured it out myself... found the smart playlist has a check box to limit to:

just buy a new one... use the 4Gb with an iHome alarm clock and you've got your tunes to wake you up too

I need to figure out how to make smart playlists. I'm having a hard time getting to some of the music that isn't in the front of coverflow, artists, or songs. This means I'm always on the A-G section of music

__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

ubertuber

I have a playlist for my favorite stuff in each genre (pop, classical, jazz, etc).

Then I have a smart playlist for each genre that picks things by the oldest "last played" date. So that's a list of the things I haven't listened to in a while. Every time something is played, it disappears from the list (live updating) and the next oldest thing pops on.

Then I have another live-updating smart playlist for each genre that combines the first two. THAT'S the one I listen to. Put it on random and I get to hear my favorite tunes with enough churn to keep my library fresh.

If you are a mac user, there's a program called autorate that can automatically rate your library every night based on the playcount, skipcount, and last played info -- and you can control how much influence each number has on the rating. If you use that to make your "favorites" list, the whole apparatus runs itself. There's probably a similar script for windows users.

This is how I manage my library of 50+ days of classical music. It's fantastic, and allows me to hear music that I haven't thought about in a long time.

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jewels

Hey, don't make fun of the 4 Gig mini! I keep going back to mine, having handed down 2 nanos to my kids.

My big daughter got an iTouch for Christmas from her boyfriend. It's pretty cool, I must admit. Maybe when my Mini dies.

I'm an Apple girl all the way. Never had any problems with iTunes. I have heard from a couple of people that the Zune was pretty cool for anti-Apple people.

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Baraka_Guru

You mean it gets better than my 4GB Mini?

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Cynthetiq

I had a 4Gb mini... I gave it to my mother in law after I got the 160Gb Classic.

I never filled up the mini because I was always leary of "picking" my music. So it just held my absolute absolute favorites.

With the 160Gb, I have no want for picking music. Actually I have to pick movies and shows, which currently is about 50% of my space, but as far as the music is concerned, an 80Gb would be just fine for me.

If I could have figured out the smart playlist thing, I would have enjoyed it much much more. But I must admit the coverflow eyecandy really made the difference for me, because I loved flipping through my CD collection. I visually knew the music based on the covers. The names or titles, not so much.

Now with the overabundance of music, I have to tame the smart playlist.

__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

Redlemon

Smart Playlists.com. You wouldn't believe the stuff some people manage to pull off with these. And even if their lists aren't exactly what you want, it'll give you lots of ideas.

My key is using the Comments field to put in keywords. First, each song gets either /y/, /n/, or /-/; /y/ gets me the rock stuff, /n/ is the stuff that should never be shuffled (classical, broadway, spoken word), and /-/ is everything else. I also have /f/ for female singers, /c/ for cover versions, /x/ for explicit lyrics, and some others. I can create a large number of useful smart playlists from these combinations.

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kligger

i have a zune, personally i like it alot better than ipods, ive had two in the past that just ended up breaking almost right after the warrenty, the zunes are awesome, better sound qual, the only downside is you cant use them with macs and i own a mac haha but i have a pc at work so i can still use it all the time

biznatch

I still have my iRiver h320 20 Gig DAP. I wish they still made these, albeit with more storage. The thing has amazing sound quality, will play practically anything you throw at it, has a line out, optical line in, built-in mic, radio, and now that I rockboxed it, DOOM. As in, walk around and shoot demons, DOOM. I'm not sure what I'll do when this thing finally dies.

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ratbastid

I had an iRiver h340 and LOVED it, especially after rockboxing it. Eventually its battery started to go, and the iPod Touch was just too damn sexy. I use it for music (often through a cassette adapter in the car) and video. GORGEOUS video playback. Interface is beautiful. When my Sprint cell phone plan runs out in April I'll probably switch over to an iPhone.

It should be noted, you CAN CAN CAN drag-and-drop media to and from an iPod. You have to do it in iTunes still, but you can disable the syncing business and "manually manage" your media. And then you can drag and drop into the iTunes icon for your iPod right from the Finder. (Err.. probably Windows Explorer too, but luckily I wouldn't know.) There are also applications for the iPod Touch/iPhone that make it behave like a usb drive, and provide rudimentary "viewer" applications for common file types--pdf, images, Office docs, etc.

Daniel_

Don't I have egg on face now!

I bought an 80Gb iPod Classic this spring, and very soon after bought an iTrip charger/fm re-broadcaster for the car.

I used to go through 20-30 CDs a month burning stuff for the car. Since I got the iTrip I've not played a CD in the car at all.

I now have a dock on top of the TV that runs into the back of the sereo, and haven't played a CD for months.

I use my iPod every day for a couple of hours and think it's the best DAP I've had.

My daughter has a 1st gen 2Gb nano that I was given free as a cast off, my wife has an 8Gb 3rd gen nano in green and a silver 2nd gen shuffle that she uses at the gym.

So, yeah, we iPod in our house.

__________________

╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
Overhead, the Albatross hangs motionless upon the air,
And deep beneath the rolling waves,
In labyrinths of Coral Caves,
The Echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand;
And everthing is Green and Submarine
╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝

Derwood

i probably won't buy an iPod again, only because i've had 2 and both have been stolen. I can't shell out $300 again

Not Right Now

I recently upgraded to the 160 gig. I couldn't be happier.

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I only came to dance.

Speed_Gibson

My experience with the iTune/Ipod thing has been limited and varied. My sister-in-law has an 8 GB model (must be a nano) that she asked for help with on loading/setting it up. What I found out quickly was that iTunes will not work with win2k on any recent enough build for the newer models. I ended up using winamp (yet another audio program I was done with a loooong time ago) with the sourceforge plugin which works adequately for transferring music.
I have a strong personal dislike for iTunes for several reasons (mainly looks and feels like a bloated pig to me without proper audio codec support compared to Foobar2000) but I did try to install it on my winXP.
My overall impression - nice looking player after I fixed the random white screen of death, but the godawful software and too narrow codec support would push me elsewhere if I was buying an uppity fancy one anytime soon. Ogg-Vorbis and FLAC support if possible are more important to me personally along with a good working interface (which Apple does excel at).

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Started talking to yourself I see.
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Black Adder

Cynosure

I love my iPod! However, I do have one complaint about it, and it's a major one: When I enable the equalizer – whether it be "classical", "rock", "r&b", "bass booster", or whatever – I get slight distortion when the music gets loud, which is especially noticeable with hard rock, heavy metal, and orchestral classical. I get this with the cheap earphones that came with the iPod, and I also get this with my expensive headphones. Thus, I don't use the equalizer for most of the music I listen to.

According to my web research, this is a problem with all iPods, so it's not like mine is defective.

(As for the iTunes software that comes with an iPod: I have lots of complaints about that. But you don't have to use that software w/ your iPod.)

Frosstbyte

iTunes is a beautiful piece of software on Macs and a bloated mess of shit on Windows. I'm not sure why the Windows port is as bad as it is, but it's almost silly to use it instead of some of the sleeker mp3 players out there. I'm pumping most of my sound through my mac these days, though, so that's not a big deal for me.