iPod or Bust?

[Baron Samedi]

[size=1]Do I like a thousand songs...well, let's see. I have 758 songs that are rated as 4/5 stars. Take off maybe a hundred that I don't really listen to or like much any more. Take off a few more. That's around 600 songs. Now, say there are also songs that I'd just like to have on their [i.e. album tracks] and there you go. 1000. I wouldn't say that I need a thousand songs. It'd take me hundreds of hours to listen to all of that, lol. But that's on a 5gb player. That's not even something obsessive like 60gb.

It's just useful so that you can listen to whatever you want, whenever you want. I can fit a bit under half of my music on the 5gb model, and that's plenty for me. I don't know where you're pulling this "You'll have to put on tracks you don't even like" business from though.[/size]

[Lafleur]

[QUOTE=Baron Samedi][size=1]Do I like a thousand songs...well, let's see. I have 758 songs that are rated as 4/5 stars. Take off maybe a hundred that I don't really listen to or like much any more. Take off a few more. That's around 600 songs. Now, say there are also songs that I'd just like to have on their [i.e. album tracks] and there you go. 1000. I wouldn't say that I need a thousand songs. It'd take me hundreds of hours to listen to all of that, lol. But that's on a 5gb player. That's not even something obsessive like 60gb.

It's just useful so that you can listen to whatever you want, whenever you want. I can fit a bit under half of my music on the 5gb model, and that's plenty for me. I don't know where you're pulling this "You'll have to put on tracks you don't even like" business from though.[/size][/QUOTE]
[COLOR=DarkRed]
Whoa. Well, I've never even listen to a 1000 songs, let alone liked them. But, eh, each to their own. I'm happy with my 20-dollar workhorse. [/COLOR]

[SunfallE]

[COLOR=DarkOliveGreen]You don?t have to get an iPod if you are just looking for something that will play mp3?s and hold lots of songs. I bought myself a Sony Walkman D-NS505 CD player earlier this year, as I wanted something that could handle the constant jarring of a Semi Truck and also hold lots of music and not be a battery hog.

You don?t have to keep hitting next as you can organize your songs into folders and albums and the software that comes with it lets you use your computer to created disks that hold right around 490 songs. Which means I carry around two Disks, one with my regular rock music and one with the classical and that?s it. All my original disks stay at home.

You don?t even have to create anything special for mp3?s you just copy them on a disk and it reads them. Basically it works great, it doesn?t skip when you are driving, the batteries last around 50 hours and it cost less than a hundred dollars. I?ve had mine for about 7 months and so far it works great.
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[DeadSeraphim]

[COLOR=Indigo][SIZE=1][FONT=Arial][QUOTE=SunfallE][COLOR=DarkOliveGreen]You don?t have to get an iPod if you are just looking for something that will play mp3?s and hold lots of songs. I bought myself a Sony Walkman D-NS505 CD player earlier this year, as I wanted something that could handle the constant jarring of a Semi Truck and also hold lots of music and not be a battery hog.

You don?t have to keep hitting next as you can organize your songs into folders and albums and the software that comes with it lets you use your computer to created disks that hold right around 490 songs. Which means I carry around two Disks, one with my regular rock music and one with the classical and that?s it. All my original disks stay at home.

You don?t even have to create anything special for mp3?s you just copy them on a disk and it reads them. Basically it works great, it doesn?t skip when you are driving, the batteries last around 50 hours and it cost less than a hundred dollars. I?ve had mine for about 7 months and so far it works great.
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Utilising that method I'd still need to carry about 10 CDs... I know people who would have to carry more than a hundred. lol

And I don't think people are really getting the point of mp3 players that hold excessive amounts of music. It's not that we'd listen to all that music all the time - far from it, I have about 800 songs I rarely play - but it's the fact they want the power to have all their music on them at all times, so if they *do* want to listen to something they wouldn't normally carry, they can. When you have that one song stuck in your head, would you prefer waiting all day to hear it, or just finding it on your mp3 player and listening to it immediately? I know what I'd prefer, heh.

Combined with the fact that they're smaller and more convenient, it's just a better choice for those people who have plenty of music.[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]

[SunfallE]

[QUOTE=René][COLOR=Indigo][SIZE=1][FONT=Arial]
Utilising that method I'd still need to carry about 10 CDs... I know people who would have to carry more than a hundred. lol

And I don't think people are really getting the point of mp3 players that hold excessive amounts of music. It's not that we'd listen to all that music all the time - far from it, I have about 800 songs I rarely play - but it's the fact they want the power to have all their music on them at all times, so if they *do* want to listen to something they wouldn't normally carry, they can. When you have that one song stuck in your head, would you prefer waiting all day to hear it, or just finding it on your mp3 player and listening to it immediately? I know what I'd prefer, heh.

Combined with the fact that they're smaller and more convenient, it's just a better choice for those people who have plenty of music.[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/QUOTE]

[COLOR=DarkOliveGreen]I understand that the point of mp3 players is that they hold a lot of music. But for those of use who don?t have that much music I just couldn?t see paying between 200 to 300 dollars on an iPod when an 80 dollar walkman works just fine for me. I still have room to add more songs to both my rock and classical disks. I just don?t have that big of a collection of music. ^_^

Now if I did have that much, well then it would be a different story. [/COLOR]

[Baron Samedi]

[size=1]I think that mp3 players are definitely the way to go. Granted, you might not have 'that' much music, but you could buy a smaller size player. They're a lot easier to carry around, and you don't need a ton of other things to use with them. Ones that have a navigation or sorting system of some sort also means that you can find what you want to listen to fairly rapidly. No skipping. Long battery life. Ability to easily and quickly change what you have on there. Doubles as a portable HD.

Why is it that you want a CD player?

You can find mp3 players for a lot less than $200, lol.[/size]

[Guest Sean]

[QUOTE=Baron Samedi][size=1]I think that mp3 players are definitely the way to go. Granted, you might not have 'that' much music, but you could buy a smaller size player. They're a lot easier to carry around, and you don't need a ton of other things to use with them. Ones that have a navigation or sorting system of some sort also means that you can find what you want to listen to fairly rapidly. No skipping. Long battery life. Ability to easily and quickly change what you have on there. Doubles as a portable HD.

Why is it that you want a CD player?

You can find mp3 players for a lot less than $200, lol.[/size][/QUOTE]

[SIZE=1]Exactly Baron, my old mp3 player was tiny and only held around 60 or so songs if you got lucky. And what did that cost my parents, £40? Around that, so when you take account on the exchange rates it would costs perhaps around $75.

My current mp3 player, the Rio Carbon, cost me £85 from Edinburugh Airport, duty free. 5GB, it says 1250 songs, but when my sound quality is usually 320KBPS then I doubt as much as that on it.

True a Walkman is going to cost you so little compared to the over-priced iPods out there, but again we can go back to the argument that there is more than one brand of mp3. And personally I think my Rio Carbon is doing a pretty good job, and the stock earphones are damn good.

I used to carry my CD Player to school, and it just got a nuisance to carry in my coat pocket, I'll go to what Baron was just saying, that mp3 players are definatly the way too go.[/SIZE]

[Morpheus]

My main reason for getting an Ipod is finally having a stable portable video device with decent battery life. I already have about 5 GB of music and video with about 2 GB downloading and about 1 GB that needs to be downloaded (By the Way, does anyone here have all or most (or even some) of the episodes of red vs blue downloaded? My computer is tied down by podcasts, and I would appreciate it if anyone could burn me a disk or two).

[quote name='Sean']when my sound quality is usually 320KBPS then I doubt as much as that on it.[/quote]
320Kbps? What is that, 2.5-3MB per minute? Audiophile Alert!

[Baron Samedi]

[size=1]Varies depending on the songs high action/low action areas, but around 2 - 2.8 MB a minute, yeah.[/size]

[Red]

I would say iPod, just because the big difference between the iPod and every other mp3 player on the market is, wait for it, functionality!

It's no surprise when it's Apple. They might have a gigantic bucket labeled [i]design ideas that should never have been[/i], but they made a killing with the clickwheel. It might sound like a potato that's far too small to focus on, but track selection and menu navigation is what you do most with the things - having something that's intuitive & easy to use is of paramount importance.

It breaks away from the age-old tradition of fiddling; someone who has zero experience with technology can pick it up and play with no real repercussions. The amount of times I've had to reset a Creative player when somebody accidentally sets it to record in the worst format possible can become quite a pain, and it only leaves them not wanting to use it anymore in case they do something wrong again.

All that does mean Apple have a huge accessory market rather than extra features built in, and I suppose deciding whether that's for the extra profit margin or to keep the 'pod simple is down to opinion. Bundling things such as a microphone would increase the price & size, though.

Creative have learnt a lot of lessons and pushed some of their newer players, but I completely fail to see the advantage (besides cost) over the 'pod. I found the 'stick' on their older players to be an incredible annoyance, the vertical trackpad being an improvement but still requiring too much effort to do simple tasks. The bundled microphone leaves much to be desired in terms of quality & until recently, they've always been huge!

They do, of course, have the file extension support - a godsend for someone who's ripped their entire collection in .wma. iTunes, though, will change them into AAC on the fly if an iPod was your purchase of choice. They do still blow iPods out of the water in terms of battery life, but Apple have hardly been resting on their laurels; every new generation that comes out extends the time by just a little bit more.

The idea that iPods alone suffer from battery problems is a myth. [i]Any[/i] portable technology utilising a Li-ion battery will suffer from charge longetivity issues after a certain number of cycles - the initial lifetime (~8 hours) decreasing in what seemed like such a drastic manner is what brought scrutiny to the iPod.

With the release of the video iPod, it seems that Apple are beginning to wonder what to do next. They have (somehow) pushed the design into a further state of anorexia, which is all well and good, but I really would love to meet someone who liked watching TV on the way to work in the morning, especially on a half-VGA screen. For a few funny clips or a music video here and there I can see it being used, but other than that it just seems a novelty; rather than a competitor to players developed by companies such as Archos (as it has been touted).

The Nano is a beautiful little machine despite all the [b][url=http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?14@823.1UXDaaTXUpD.0@.68b94d61]complaints[/url] [url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10/24/apple_sued_over_nano/]about scratches[/url].[/b] Although, unless you're desperate for a screen the Shuffle could be the way to go for most.

I personally have a 40GB photo iPod, and am waiting for companies like Hitachi to push the[b] [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpendicular_recording]perpendicular recording[/url][/b] technology so we can have ickle 80-120GB drives in our players. For anyone else I will continue to suggest Apple purely for the ease of use.

[Sara]

You're all missing the best point: iPods are just so darn [i]stylish[/i].

:)

I've been hedging on buying an iPod for a while now. I'm a hopeless Apple fangirl, so you'll have to forgive me that point. (I do really feel like I [i]deserve[/i] to [b]win[/b] an iPod, though. I've used Macs my whole life--and been teased about it just as long--and I really feel like I should get something out of the bargain, heh. :) )

[Raiyuu]

[color=DarkSlateBlue][font=Trebuchet MS][quote name='Lore][/font][/color]iPods are just so darn [i]stylish[/i].[color=DarkSlateBlue'][font=Trebuchet MS][/quote] You think so? Where I come from they're seen as the ultimate yuppie accessory. That's not a label anyone wants slapped on them anymore. Yuppies stopped being cool in the seventies.
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[Noodle]

[COLOR=Navy][SIZE=2][FONT=Trebuchet MS]Wow, gone for 3 days, and already lots of posts!
Anyway, I'm still not very sure about what I'm going to buy(mainly cause I have untill Dec. to decide....) My first [B][I]real[/I][/B] choice was an I Pod mini, but the B****es at Apple decided to discontinue it! Anyway,[B] [I]right now[/I][/B] and really [SIZE=3][COLOR=DarkSlateBlue][B]only[/B][/COLOR][/SIZE] right now, I'm kinda leaning(Only leaning!) towards a Creative Zen player(Don't hurt me :nervous: !) [/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Morpheus]

You can still get Ipod minis. Here is a silver one for $159.99:
[URL]http://cgi.ebay.com/Apple-iPod-Mini-HP-Silver-4-Gigabyte-PW753AA-silver_W0QQitemZ5825356152QQcategoryZ84084QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem[/URL]

[Cheesy Chibi]

I have an iPod mini, I've got like a ton of songs on it and it's not even 1/4 full yet. I'm really happy with it. I'm not always the most careful person, either, as I've dropped it many times, and it still works like new. The battery life is pretty good. But, some advice: the backlight might make it look cool, but it'll suck up your battery a lot faster, so I only turn mine on like at night or when I actually need it. A few of my friends have the Minis too, and from what they've told me, they're pretty satisfied with them as well.

Of course, if I hadn't got mine as a gift, I most likely wouldn't have it. lol
I agree they are overpriced compared, I would try eBay.