ipods - sorry to ask....

[Oscar]

Sorry, but can someone just tell me if these mini ipods are any good? And is £140 a good price? I always get hot flushes when parting with cash so I need some reassurance here. Thanks

 

[maffew]

queue MYOB...

 

[Cian]

No, they're well overpriced for their capacity.

 

[Bluejuice]

They are good yes, and the new versions are meant to be even better.

I have an original iPod mini and my only gripe is that its battery life isn't great but aparantly the newer ones have improved that so go ahead, jump on board the apple train.

£140 sounds a good price to me though do shop around because you can get cheaper MP3 players than iPod's and many of them will have improved battery life. It's all a question of fashion really as the iPod still looks the business.

 

[Cian]

How the hll is it a question of fashion? Only iPod owners are wankery enough to wave them around in public anyway?

An MP3 player is an MP3 player. Thats all it sodding is

This is like people buying a Mac over a different UNIX workstation because its nice and shiny. Its neophyte phonys that have kept Apple in business for the past then years.

 

[Rougvie]

John Lewis are selling there Mini iPods for £125 something about a new model coming out.

I like mine, it fits nice and snug into my pocket and is simple and reliable.

 

[Rangdo]

An MP3 player is an MP3 player. Thats all it sodding is

I don't understand most of what MYOB says but I agree with this. iPods are ok but at the end of the day it is an mp3 player. Look around and compare the price of others with the same capacity to that of the iPod and then make your decision.

 

[REDLAND]

This is like people buying a Mac over a different UNIX workstation because its nice and shiny. Its neophyte phonys that have kept Apple in business for the past then years.

Well said that man

 

[Bluejuice]

Because like it or not an MP3 player is a fashion accessory for the 21st century.

Whilst there are people like you MYOB who just want an MP3 player as a functioning tool to be hidden away there are a great number of people out there who like the status symbol of an iPod showing on their person.

Apple have designed them to be appealing to fashion conscious people and this is true of all their products these days. People will say they buy a Mac for its graphics processing and it's reliability over a Windows machine but this is bollocks. They buy a Mac because they look cool.

Incidentally I'm losing track of the number of times we've had this argument

 

[Cian]

So you walk around, looking like a TOTAL WANKER, with your MP3 player in your hand and your very poor quality white headphones, then?

the only time my JazPiper is out of my pocket is when I'm not wearing something with decent pockets, so I use the beltclip. Its ancient, its huge, but its got a 1GB SM card and it does the job. I use it with boring, black Sony headphones that are very good quality. Doesn't look worth nicking - after all, its got 32MB written on the front of it...

Only WANKERS buy stuff because it looks cool. I get my technology for its internal power.

 

[Bluejuice]

Well I pesonally don't wear my iPod showing, and I don't have the white headphones either. But I consider myself reasonably tech savvy.

To the regular joe however the iPod remains an attractive conformist option because it looks good and is very popular.

Those not in the know are going to go for iPod for the simple reason that they are popular and fashionable, whether you like it or not.

You are forgetting that iPod's are breaching a market that is not just tech-heads, but the regular common man who may know little about the rest of Apple's portfolio.

 

[Cian]

They're also destroying AAPL - when Sony announed higher than expected Network Walkman sales, AAPL lost $2.27. About 5%

The company is hanging on to dear life through the iPod. And when it stops being fashionable - which it will, just look at the other kit the same guy designed, like the original iMac, and the bog seat iBook - the company is f***ed. Dead. Gone.

 

[Oscar]

hmmm interesting. Not being a tech head or someone who's bothered about the fashion status of having an ipod, I might just look around at other players. I just want something small, relatively cheap that works and doesn't die in a couple of months because its obsolete or is unsupported by software.

 

[Cian]

The iPod is very poorly supported by software due to the need to use iTunes to put music on it - pure drag and drop doesn't work 100% right, if at all (depends on model)

Also, when Apple abandon a product, which they will, they ABANDON it. Try using an Apple Quicktake (their digital camera), a Messagepad (their PDA), an eMate (their tablet PC), Geoport/Geopod (modem) or Personality (video in card) an old Apple monitor, microphone, keyboard, or mouse with their recent hardware or software.

 

[METALMICKY]

Bottom line is that the average joe with limited interest in the 'techie' side of things and limited time or inclination to do some research may choose the Ipod on the strength of the marketing alone. That;s just the way it is MYOB whether you like or agree with it.

Personally i think the Ipod is overated and expensive and with just a little reading up there are much better options in the hard disk MP3 market. I must admit i've also never felt the need to be able to carry my whole record collection around with me. I have a little 1GB IRiver flash based MP3 player that holds around 10 albums, the sound is great and its size makes it great for all environments particularly the gym.

 

[tinx]

I like my ipod mini because its nice and small and does everything I expect of an mp3 player and does it well. I got mine form the states and it cost me about 100 quid something like that and for that money its a great investment. Add to it the itrip and powerpod in car charger and you have a quality mp3 player in your car as well.

 

[tinx]

The iPod is very poorly supported by software due to the need to use iTunes to put music on it - pure drag and drop doesn't work 100% right, if at all (depends on model)

Well i can do drag ad drop on my ipod altohugh using itunes is much earier and neater and a great piece of software.

 

[Cian]

Well i can do drag ad drop on my ipod altohugh using itunes is much earier and neater and a great piece of software.

EASIER? you mean faffing around with 'smart playlists' and the 'copy to device' options is EASIER in your eyes?

I was reared on Winamp. I use the filesystem to sort my music out. The freedom to dump a folder onto a memory card thats in the slot on the front of my PC and put the card in the player is much, much better that using iTunes, which is the worst audio player ever made, quality wise (according to verified, double blind listening tests)

On older iPods, drag and drop of MP3 files left files with no artist/song info as iTunes doesn't respect ID3v1....

 

[Oscar]

Sorry this is dragging on...but has anyone played their ipod (or whatever) through a tape adaptor in the car? What's the quality like?

 

[Cian]

One word - shite. Tape adapters are never good quality, and the MP3 hiss (from compression) or the AAC rumble (from iPod compression) sounds much much worse when run through a system that thrives on hiss and rumble (cassette tape systems).