New iPod

Duffman

I was thinking about buying one of the new 10 or 20 gig iPods... Just wondering if anyone has one? or any opinions?

j0e9o

a friend of mine got the 20gig one its good has one cool feature music quiz: it plays u a song and u have a certain amount of time to guess what it is. If you r getting a mp3 player i would get this one for sure very nice and handy.

Makaveli

I got a Creative Jukebox Zen NX.
It's not as fancy looking as the Ipod but the 30gb version is cheaper than the 20gb Ipod.

technobob

does the i-pod support all (music) media types?

Creamy Goodness

i'm buying an iPod tommorrow as a matter of interest they are the dog's bollox tbh.

songs transfer is quick


but be warned if your buying one and don't have firewire make sure u get the USB2 Cable otherwise you won't be able to use it out of the box

po0k

MP3, WAV, WMA, QuickTime probably.

Would be nice to see Ogg Vorbis support.

technobob

does it support RM?

alb

I thought they didn't support WMA... being Mac and all... anyone know for sure?

Rabies

what is the battery life like?
does it use a battery pack or have you to buy them separate?
would like to buy one

Creamy Goodness

battery is about 8 hours long

komplett now only sell the 40gig versions

which i'm really annoyed about cos i was jus about to order a 20gig

Rabies

went to the apple site. they don't do 5gb models. thats all i would need. although if i had enough money i would manage to fill a 10gb model.

Serbian

Originally posted by Rabies
what is the battery life like?

http://www.ipodsdirtysecret.com/

Rabies

Originally posted by Serbian
http://www.ipodsdirtysecret.com/

I saw that a few days ago. Is it true ? Can anyone comment on that.

gobby

that link makes my system hang. can anyone tell me the details of whats this dirtly little secret??

satchmo

"iPod's unreplaceable battery lasts only 18 months"
It has a recording of a guy ringing Apple's tech support saying his battery's dead. The tech monkey says that he may as well buy a new ipod because it would cost as much to send the it in to them for a replacement battery. It sounded like the guy had heard this complaint before too. Amazing if true!

gobby

ohh man. my mates gonna be well pi$$ed off. he got him in the states over the summer...

henbane

According to this slashdot article and this Apple page Apple will change the battery for $99 which is pretty par for the course for a lithium ion battery.

I think they're actually just sending refurbished iPods out to people and then refurbushing those iPods for people who come along later, though I could be mistaken.

yallingup

iPod does not support WMA, nor does Apple's jukebox software iTunes (Mac or PC). That's one of the downers (the other being the relatively short battery life - versus, say, the Zen or Dell's new DJ, coming soon, or god forbid, the otherwise horrible MiniDisk players).

Long-term battery life might be the biggest problem. Mine, the original 5GB, is two years old and playtime is basically two or three hours (and it discharges itself within a couple of days unused). But I don't mind cos it's head and shoulders above the others in usability.

Duffman

I think an 18 month battery life is unreasonably for something that costs €400 and is designed to be used every day.... You could probably slap them with some consumer law if they refused to fix it in Ireland...

henbane

Originally posted by Duffman
I think an 18 month battery life is unreasonably for something that costs €400 and is designed to be used every day.... You could probably slap them with some consumer law if they refused to fix it in Ireland...

What you think doesn't really make a blind bit of difference when you buy something with a 1 year warranty using technology (Li-Ion batteries) which is known to degrade over time. It's exactly the same deal as with laptop batteries - 1 year warranty on the battery no matter what you upgrade the overall warranty to.

They are prepared to fix it - for $99. Slap them down with some consumer law - see where it gets you.

drane2

I don't spend €400 on something and then expect to have to spend another €100 every year to keep it going. It's just Apple being greedy if you ask me. Even the extra battery pack costs €80.

Compare this to (god forbid) minidisc. I've had an MZ-R900 for two years now. I use it every day. Battery life has dropped from 65 hours approx. to 40 hours approx. I got the extra battery pack for free (which when used will extend the battery life by about 20 hours). And even if I needed to get a new battery it would only cost €30 approx.

**** Apple. I'm going to be replacing my minidisc soon and I'm very tempted by those Sony Atrac CD players.

Creamy Goodness

the unreplaceable battery thing is so fake

www.ipodbattery.com

i may cost to get the batttery but it's cheaper to buy battery then buy another ipod

super_furry

The iPod is indeed sexy, but for the same price as a 10GB version, I bought a 30GB Jukebox Zen, which aside from the extra storage space offers better sound quality. Along with that, the battery is as easy to replace as a mobile phone battery, so you've no worries there.

Creamy Goodness

Originally posted by super_furry
which aside from the extra storage space offers better sound quality.

i'd have to disagree the ipod has the best sound quality in the world

Matt Simis

Originally posted by Cr3m0
the unreplaceable battery thing is so fake

www.ipodbattery.com

i may cost to get the batttery but it's cheaper to buy battery then buy another ipod

Its not fake, you are missing the point. Apple have admitted it (what exactly did you think they "reduced" the price to $99 of?). The Ipod wasnt designed with user replaceable batteries in mind and the fickle Apple batteries up to this point cost over $200 to get replaced (by Apple).

http://www.ipodbattery.com/ipodinstall.htm

Notice the alarming amount of screwdrivers in the instructions?




Matt

koneko

i'd have to disagree the ipod has the best sound quality in the world

Wouldn't say that, in fact most (if not all) reviews I've seen so far would say the opposite. Here's a few:

http://www6.tomshardware.com/mobile/20031122/index.html
"A couple of tweaks on the dial give in-ear phones a fuller, warmer and less shrill sound, better than on the i-Pod"

http://www.ipodlounge.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8168
"The creative is sat here with it's better battery life, better sound quality, easier to use PC interface straight out of the box, vastly superior DSP settings" (even though he chooses the Ipod in the end for it's looks)

http://gear.ign.com/articles/452/452815p1.html?fromint=1
"The drawbacks are battery life and sound. It plainly doesn't sound as good as the Zen NX or iRiver."

Buy the iPod for whatever reason you want, and tbh it's puuurdy sexy, but sound quality isn't one of it's strong points.

eth0_

Originally posted by drane2
I don't spend €400 on something and then expect to have to spend another €100 every year to keep it going. It's just Apple being greedy if you ask me. Even the extra battery pack costs €80.

Those batteries on ipodbattery.com aren't official apple one's so I wouldn't put them NEAR my ipod. I've had mine since April and had no degredation in battery life. The sound quality on the ipod is better than any mp3 player or minidisc player i've had.
Apple also now do applecare on the ipod, it's around 45 euro for 3 years. And as it's not cost effective to replace the battery, apple just replace the ipod.

Fabritzo

I'm seriously considering getting a muvo 2 1.5gb
http://ie.europe.creative.com/estore/product.asp?prod=506
but the only thing that is putting me off is the colour silver, why has everything turned silver, is there an equivalent player that comes in black that anyone is aware of?

Duffman

What's applecare? Does it cover all damage?

Serbian

Originally posted by Cr3m0
the unreplaceable battery thing is so fake

www.ipodbattery.com

i may cost to get the batttery but it's cheaper to buy battery then buy another ipod

Like Matt Simis said, those batteries are un-official. Also, he correctly pointed out that you actually have to unscrew your iPod to get the battery into the damn thing. I'm sure this also completely voids your warranty if anything goes wrong.

To get the battery replaced, it costs $99 (and you have to send off your iPod. What are the bets "Please allow 28 days for delivery"). This service is also unavailable in Europe, according to the Slashdot article. With virtually any other MP3 player, you can just go and buy a battery, then put it in yourself. All this without voiding your warranty! Amazing, no?

BeatFreak

i'd have to disagree the ipod has the best sound quality in the world

Lies, all lies... bought a Zen NX myself on the strenght that (I know it's been said a thousand times) 1.) Battery life 2.) Better sound quality. With a little fine tuning of the EQ settings and coupled with good headphones (inears are evilllll) I've got the best portable sound quality I've ever heard and I listen to electronic based music so to say I'm a demanding user wouldn't be an understatment.

It's not as clear cut as most people seem to think, yeah the ipod looks great but it's in my bag/pocket all the time so thats not issue. Maybe that might sway some people away from the hype that surrounds the ipod.

Gandorf

I think the iRiver iHp-120 is by far the best harddisk based player at the moment (that's why I bought one!)

Certainly better than the 3g iPods. Smaller capacity but much better features than the Zens (size + weight, LCD remote, radio, encode mp3/wav, supports ogg, no drivers required etc.)

See my post in the thread below........

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=128622

Buy one they're luuuuvly.

GarGuile

If anyone is thinking about buying an iPod, if you buy online from the Apple Store. You can get your ipod lazer engraved for free.
Free Engraving
Offer lasts till the 6th of Jan.

Creamy Goodness

don't buy from the apple web store they meant to be crap for delivery.

i bought my ipod last nite in pcworld 429 euros (cheaper than komplett,compustore and applestore on web and kildare street.)

plus i got 5 years insurance for 109 euros so if my ipod is stolen (1 year) or damage with within 5 years pcworld will replace it.

no other shops offer this insurance which i think is a god send cos i always drop stuff

drrnwbb

Originally posted by Serbian
Like Matt Simis said, those batteries are un-official. Also, he correctly pointed out that you actually have to unscrew your iPod to get the battery into the damn thing. I'm sure this also completely voids your warranty if anything goes wrong.

To get the battery replaced, it costs $99 (and you have to send off your iPod. What are the bets "Please allow 28 days for delivery"). This service is also unavailable in Europe, according to the Slashdot article. With virtually any other MP3 player, you can just go and buy a battery, then put it in yourself. All this without voiding your warranty! Amazing, no?

read this too: http://das.doit.wisc.edu/neistat.txt

The guy who donated bandwidth to ipodsdirtysecret.com (about two brothers who spraypainted complaints about lousy batteries on iPod posters) is pissed a plenty:

"Jesus, I cannot BELIEVE you guys. In good faith, I put the video back on the basis of the email you sent me, hoping that at least some people would click on the mirror link at at least get the truth, and information about how to replace the battery. Instead, you removed the mirror link entirely, used the bandwidth and resources that I was providing you exclusively on your front page, AGAIN without providing ANY information whatsoever about how users can solve this problem, or the fact that Apple now has an official $99 battery replacement, and on top of it all, put ThruPort's banner on the front page! I've now served 91,629 downloads for you, for over 0.6 terabytes of data transfer. What the f*** is you guys' problem? I guess that fact that you are liars shouldn't surprise me, since that's exactly what your whole site and the video is. Have fun with it, and whatever f***ed up satisfaction you get from having as many people as possible see your video, and not even wanting to tell people that there is a solution."

for some more reading about that ipodsdirtylittlesecret check this out: from the boing boing website

ive read lots of other websites that talk about people who have had ipods for 2ish years with the same battery, its a good thing to know before hand the limitations with the battery, but its not something apple should be taken to court over.

dw

Lex_Diamonds

The new Dell player is meant to be excellent, doesnt look so good though. For looks the ipod still rules.

Matt Simis

Originally posted by Cr3m0
don't buy from the apple web store they meant to be crap for delivery.

i bought my ipod last nite in pcworld 429 euros (cheaper than komplett,compustore and applestore on web and kildare street.)

plus i got 5 years insurance for 109 euros so if my ipod is stolen (1 year) or damage with within 5 years pcworld will replace it.

no other shops offer this insurance which i think is a god send cos i always drop stuff

Extended Warranty! How can I loose!?

Simpsons quote, sorry, couldnt resist

Creamy Goodness

at least it's better than not having no come back at all.

like if i smash it to pieces right now they'll give me a new one. if it gets stolen on the 3rd december 2004 i get a new one.