IPOD questions

bovril

I have the chance of getting an ipod in the states in a few weeks, what's the deal with the battery life? Will it be dead in a year and I'll have to fork out for a new battery? Also is there any other things good or bad that people can tell me about ipods.

How do Ipods compare size wise to creative mp3 players (not storage), size in your hand?

many thanks

briano

Don't get a IPod.

They're a pain to use on more than one computer, The battery life is no good and the earphones are a magnet for muggers.

If I was getting another one, I'd probably go with a creative zen touch or rio karma.

ZENER

briano wrote:

Don't get a IPod.

They're a pain to use on more than one computer, The battery life is no good and the earphones are a magnet for muggers.

If I was getting another one, I'd probably go with a creative zen touch or rio karma.

Oh change the record for feck sake !! ANY device that uses this battery technology is prone to the same problem - it's not confined just to iPods. These have been around longer than most of the Creative and iRiver devices plus they have sold many more units than both of these put together so there has been time for problems to arise and to be ironed out by Apple.
I suspect that this problem will be minimised by the use of USB that doesn't charge the battery like the original Firewire used to do therefore removing the not very regular charging regime people adopted.

The iPods simple control system and smooth lines and quick response time makes it a dream to use across different platforms and the metal case means it's a bit tougher than the plastic pretenders to the throne. Feels nice too - like it would take a fall if you were the clumsy type - like me!

Either way I'd avoid the Philips yoke - dreadful looking thing and very unfriendly to use. Impressed by the iRiver but there's just to many buttons for a music player but good value. The ZEN I like because they've called it after me :eek:

ZEN

tylerdylan

Hi
I would also recommend a Rio karma.I have had one for 7 mths now and its just super!You also get a cool dock and a huge 20gs storage for less than the price of an Ipod!Battery life is great approx 14 hours!Even better is all the formats that it supports....such as wma!Unless you are a diehard mac user then..... Its very easy to use and the dj feature is great..not to mention the crossfade...
Anyways..you can pick them up at about $150.00 maybe less now.
Check out Bestbuy and circuit city.
I dont think you will be dissapointed.Oh and its supported by wma 9 so plug and play...
Good luck

cormie

This is the BEST option all round.
€370 in Dixons.
Look it up, you will see it's the best. If the ipod was to compete with its features you would spend about €600 and it would still be inferior.

IrishMike

Ok to that guy who gave those downright stupid reasons to not get an ipod, ignore him.
A target for muggers ? Would you not buy a porsche because you might be a target for
muggers ? insanity.
Ok ipod is smaller and lighter than all the other mp3 players of similar storage capacity.
It has the easiest menu system to use.
It looks the best and to be fair is pretty robust seeing as ive dropped mine loads of times.
As for the battery life, i have mine 6 months at least and am noticing no drop in charge
as of yet at least. Dunno bout the future but i heard that new batterys can be gotten
easily and relatively cheaply on the net.
Oh and one last thing is the itrip, allows you to broadcast your song from your ipod
to any fm radio, which can play it through your stereo/car speakers with zero distorsion
Itrip for the car is the main reason i got the ipod and it still amazes me.
The thing is great, go treat yourself !

Creamy Goodness

IrishMike wrote:

Ok to that guy who gave those downright stupid reasons to not get an ipod, ignore him.
A target for muggers ? Would you not buy a porsche because you might be a target for
muggers ? insanity.

it's a lot easier to steal a mp3 player than it is a moving car.

tylerdylan

Did the 'itrip' come with the ipod?

You can buy an 'irock' about $15.00 (or less) does exactly the same thing with other mp3 players! just plugs into the headph slot its small and light.

works great!

IrishMike

Itrip is separate
http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/itrip/

And cremo my point wasnt to do with how easy something is to steal, its that your
motivation for buying something shouldnt really be that it doesnt look well therefore
wouldnt be stolen, a better comparison would be a fone.
You dont buy a crap fone because if its stolen you would care less than if it was a
more expensive one.

big_moe

i've had the zen and have just ordered my 2nd ipod. the zen first of all is bigger and bulkier. doesnt look as nice and the little flicker scroll yoke sometimes jams and i have to go at it with pin to unjam it. i dropped my zen once and the heaphone socket went bust. i have repeatedly dropped my ipod and its fine! it does feel a lot more robust than the zen. i hear everybody moaning bout the ipod but like zener said change the record! the 1st and 2nd gens had battery life probs but it was improved for the 3rd gen and the 4th gen is perfect. i have just ordered the ipod photo and cant wait to get my hands on it. it claims to have a 15 hr battery life, so cant wait!

ubu

IrishMike wrote:

... which can play it through your stereo/car speakers with zero distorsion
Itrip for the car is the main reason i got the ipod and it still amazes me.
The thing is great, go treat yourself !

IrishMike,
What frequency are you using to get zero distortion? ive stopped using mine because the signal is just too weak to get decent sound quality out of it

Lump

ZENER wrote:

Either way I'd avoid the Philips yoke - dreadful looking thing and very unfriendly to use. Impressed by the iRiver but there's just to many buttons for a music player but good value. The ZEN I like because they've called it after me :eek:

ZEN

I have that Philips Yoke, who cares what it looks like? It spends 95% of the time in your pocket. I don't think it's difficult to use, and it was only £120 incl del from america, big price difference.

John

Creamy Goodness

Lump wrote:

I have that Philips Yoke, who cares what it looks like? It spends 95% of the time in your pocket. I don't think it's difficult to use, and it was only £120 incl del from america, big price difference.

John

so true lump, i have an ipod but it's being sold on monday for these reasons.

1. i've fallen out of love with the white plastic.
2. battery life after a year is poop. i use it about an hour a day and i have to charge it every second day.


i'm getting a iriver h140 for the main reason that it's cheap, got a microphone socket, fm tuner, lcd remote (elimates taking the mp3 player out of the pocket.)

Makaveli

big_moe wrote:

i dropped my zen once and the heaphone socket went bust. i have repeatedly dropped my ipod and its fine!

Bit clumsy yeah?

big_moe

i suppose i am! but the ipod can take it and the zen cant!

Lump

Maybe, because it's only retards that buy the iPod, so they expect it to be dropped a lot.


John

big_moe

well then a lot of retards have bought ipods. its the biggest selling mp3. and in the sunday business post today it got 10/10 when the zen got 8/10...

Davey Devil

IT's biggest selling because it is mass marketed. None of the other players are. I have the iRiver H-140, it's a great piece of kit - far superior to an iPod. Most people I meet have never even heard of an iRiver, how can it be sold when nobody knows about it?

Bass.exe

big_moe wrote:

but the ipod can take it and the zen cant!

Um... actually it has been extensively proved that the iPod is more fragile than any of the Zen range. Luck plays a part in all this too, e.g. Any Nokia phone is nigh indestructible. Mine once spent a night in about 1cm of water, and it still works to this day (and it WASN'T waterproof). Another Nokia I had I dropped once, and split the screen and broke the keypad.

The old Zens, the first ones that were the same size, shape and colour of a regular 3.5" HDD were kind of delicate. The Xtra's and the Touch are supposed to be built like bricks. So you trade weight for protection.

Lump

big_moe wrote:

well then a lot of retards have bought ipods. its the biggest selling mp3. and in the sunday business post today it got 10/10 when the zen got 8/10...

Yes, as I've said already, to men with disposible income, whom are having a mid life crisis.....

John

Bri

Cremo wrote:

it's a lot easier to steal a mp3 player than it is a moving car.

Simply plug a pair of headphones (Funtopias etc. are able to be joined halfway) into the remote...no more white showing. Tada.

P.S. Cars do stop moving! You don't leave your iPod unattended in the carpark every night

cormie

Just Read This

ubu

iriver whore
how much commission do they pay you?

Placebo

IMHO

DO NOT GET AN IPOD.

why ?

battery life, when advertised 12 hrs in 4g, lasts merely 7 !
so when they say 15, it doesnt mean 15 !

You will get scracthes on it no problem, mine is already damaged when i never dropped it, some **** at the back of lcd, but that could be just my luck.

But battery is awful, 7 hrs is crap imho, if 7 sounds ok to you then get it.

the new NW-DH1 - sony, is around same price and better, just that compressing an mp3 might make sound quality a tiny bit worse but apparently sony are coming up with new soft that supports mp3.

thats all i know.
Ipod suck ma wingwong.

note: i got my ipod 2-3 weeks back( 4G - 20gb), u can see me moaning about it somewhere in the home ent section.

Placebo

also headphone jack on 4gs is loose, its ok on their crappy headphones but when i connect my sony ones its kinda lose.

also u dont get a remote etc like u used to when u buy a 4G.
also ipod headphones suck my wing wong too.

oh and YES those white headphones are a magnet for theft and what not.
my friends dad is a gardai and he was saying that alot of people were being mugged in town specially.
thats goes the same for flashy phones too i guess, but we dont wave our phones around.

Lump

HA HA, apparently I'm an insulting fool according to some one who didn't post here. I'd like to apologise for my lack of articulation with regards to my use of the work "Retard" in an earlier post. When clearly I should have used the words disabled individual.... although I'm not sure if that is entirely PC!?

John

ZENER

Placebo wrote:

also headphone jack on 4gs is loose, its ok on their crappy headphones but when i connect my sony ones its kinda lose.

On the bright side this might be a good thing, if the unit falls with the 'phones in your ears then the plug will pull out without damaging the socket. I use a set of Sony EX-71 ear buds and the plug is as tight as the original 'phones.

also u dont get a remote etc like u used to when u buy a 4G.
also ipod headphones suck my wing wong too.

This is a bummer in fairness - as you know I have a couple of "old" remotes here for Gen 1 iPods but they dont fit the 4th Gen models.

oh and YES those white headphones are a magnet for theft and what not. My friends dad is a gardai and he was saying that alot of people were being mugged in town specially. Thats goes the same for flashy phones too i guess, but we dont wave our phones around.

Again on the bright side, if apple had made them with black 'phones then muggers would have a go at evetyone wearing them.

On the battery issue - I have an old Gen 1 5GB iPod complete with remote of about 4 years vintage. I ordered a new hard disk and higher capacity battery from these guys on Tuesday at 2PM and got the parts delivered to my door at 08:45 today Thursday. It worked out at about 158 euro all in, great service - tools included - and cheaper than buying a new iPod mini !!!

ZEN