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Steely
Dumped Comcast for FiOS
Premium
join:2000-10-15
Princeton Junction, NJ
| Am I the only one not thrilled with my iPod? I'm curious....am I the only one in the universe who doesn't think the iPod is the greatest gift to mankind since maybe fire or the wheel? Someone bought me a 40GB click-wheel (for full price) last January and I keep trying to love it. So far, I don't. The only good things about it that are obvious to me are the compactness, the responsive control wheel, and the fact that they make a gazillion (mostly overpriced) accessories for it.
What don't I like about it??? First of all, it doesn't use normal Windows directory/folder structures for organizing songs. It relies on ID Tag info for its database. And even though the majority of my four-or-whatever thousand songs ARE fairly well tagged, many aren't. And now they have strange names and designations on my iPod. Of course my carefully selected descriptive file names don't help because the iPod wants to use its own file-naming system (and doesn't display or sort by file name anyway). Then there's the issue of iTunes shoving Quicktime and some "services" down your throat. There's also the semi-permanent (read: hard to change) battery issue, a future annoyance in my case. Another thing: Sometimes I want to quickly know the bitrate of the song. (If there's a way to check that, I haven't figured it out yet.) And Apple wants you to store your music in their proprietary file format. Boo, hiss. How about when you want to move songs OFF your iPod and back onto your (or someone else's) computer? Not that straightforward from what I understand.
Yeah.....I know there are workarounds (some of them 3rd party) for a lot of these things. But the bottom line is that I find the iPod to be more of an overpriced, semi-alien annoyance than the perfect holy grail it's usually touted as being. Now to be fair, other than owning a very old Archos Jukebox (which works well), I've never tried the competing modern products from Dell, Creative, etc., but my gut feeling is I would like them more, not to mention they're almost certainly cheaper.
So please tell me why my thinking is faulty so I can love my little $400+ toy the way I'm supposed to. Please. | |
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tke711
Premium
join:2001-03-31
Everywhere
| Re: Am I the only one not thrilled with my iPod? We went with the iRiver H10 for many of the same reasons you listed. Primarily because we didn't have to install any software. You can simply transfer to the device using WMP or MusicMatch.
Also, it comes included with an FM radio.
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You can't reason someone out of something they weren't reasoned into. -- Mark Twain | |
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imrf
Premium
join:2002-06-06
Utica, MI
 ·Comcast
·WOW Internet and C..
| Have you ever been to »www.ilounge.com ?(I know you posted about the "workarounds" and 3rd party apps) Almost all your "issues" have been covered there. You are not forced to use iTunes, there are at least half a dozen different programs that you can use, including MusicMatch that tke711  says he uses. Also, Apple doesn't care what audio format you use, the iPod doesn't convert MP3s to AAC, they keep the form they were transferred to. Moving songs off the iPod is easy, you can either copy the directory right off the iPod to later transfer back on, or use one of the many 3rd part apps. None of the third party programs are workarounds.
Also note, the new Dell Junkbox now doesn't have a removable battery, so it seems as if the other manufacturers are now following Apple even more. I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't the last to do it. | |
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ajlarue
join:2001-01-29
Coronado, CA
| I like it, but I don't like the fact that it is hard to shut off. Just pushing the off button sometimes you have to do it a bunch of times then it'll finally shut down (it goes to pause then play then pause) And Itunes is not so user friendly either. | |
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fegul
Premium
join:2004-08-23
united state
| The main problems I've seen on Ipods are bad HD's and bad batteries. Those two things kill more Ipods than you'd believe, so get flash based MP3 players unless you want size. And yes, the Ipod is a proprietary piece of crap (IMHO) because I like playing different format audio files, and keeping my own structure.
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Jehu
Premium
join:2002-09-13
MA
| HypePod!
I splurged and bought a 40gig 3rd gen a few years back. Cool-factor was definately involved.
It is a nice device.
I'm pretty sure that no portable music player is going to change my life significantly, but next go around I'll not get an ipod. There are plenty of other options out there that do a better job than the ipod, for quite less money.
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A new drink for the old drunk | |
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chRoniX10
Peace sells, but who's buying?
Premium
join:2004-05-22
Tarzana, CA | I am enjoying my 4G 30gig photo IPOD. 
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~Smooth Operator~ | |
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justin
Australian
join:1999-05-28
Brooklyn, NY
Host:
IPv6
Business Connectiv..
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Console Tech
1 edit | Why should you love it? the ipod is a mass market device. Face it, most people reading and posting in these forums are geeks of one kind or another. We sometimes have different ideas about what is important in a device.
My ipod addicted friends have no idea what a "bitrate" is, they are not interested in learning intricate computer things and itunes, for its flaws, actually works without crashing and gets their music onto their ipod or sells them new music so they don't have to buy CDs anymore.
These people got bit by limewire or whatever, bit torrent is too complicated, and they don't have time to find out whether or not taking a copy of someone elses mp3 collection has been made in a practical sense a crime yet.
The music they get is all nicely tagged. It is backed up (on the ipod and on their PC). It sounds good. They can get on with doing whatever else they are like to do.
All that sense, I still think the ipod is cool, especially the nano. This probably is the secret to its success. Not only is it appealing to the masses, it is also at least partially appealing to the techno cognoscenti.
They did what AOL failed to do: made something easy to use that is also bearably good for (most) geeks. | |
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aliasrlz
Premium
join:2000-09-01
the world
|  Re: Am I the only one not thrilled with my iPod?
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"Long-winded diatribes are not necessary for one-liner comments (regardless of THE POINT). Something some will never get." | |
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Sunsetstrip
Go Kings
Premium,MVM
join:2000-07-08
West Hollywood, CA
clubs:
| I am in a 100% agreement with the tone of most posters here,when I was shopping a mp3 player iPod was being sued in a class action suit over the battery issue,the way that was handled by Apple was enough to make me not even consider a iPod.
The battery,the propriety files which I hate from any source,the cost all made iPods not viable,for $170 I bought a 30GB Creative Zen Xtra that has a 11 Hr battery,replacement batteries are available for a decent price($40)plays mp3,wma,wav,looks good,easy scroll wheel navigation,equalizer(wish it was 6 band not 4).To buy a iPod of the same size I would have to have come up with about $300,and I could care less about the "coolness" factor,I don't need nor do I want my player to do anything other than play music,I don't want to look at pictures on a tiny 2" screen,I don't want to make phone calls,I don't want it to be a PDA,and most of all I don't want anything else besides black,white,or silver...no neon pink,sunburst orange,apple green ....yuck 
Yes iPods have every conceivable 3rd party add on and accessory but I have no need for a Swiss Army Knife type device thank you.
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GeekNJ
Premium
join:2000-09-23
Waldwick, NJ
| I have 2 iPods (one for me, 1 for my wife). My kids both want iPods - deciding whether it's the Nano or the new Video one.
I've never had an issue with the 2 I own. We use iTunes and all music is either purchased through the iTunes Music Store or "ripped" into iTunes for a CD we already owned.
I've never had to help my wife or kids use either iTunes or the iPod. They (and I) use it every day. I don't think there's any better product/software integration then iTunes. Any product a wife and kids can use that doesn't require a techy dad to help with gets top marks in my book.
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Corona
It's cool, I'm takin it back
Premium
join:2000-03-14
Aubrey, TX | Apple is a marketing GENIUS. Everything else they do is "so-so". | |
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signmeuptoo
Folding and Crunching Not just Breakfast
Premium
join:2001-11-22
LOSTinSpace
clubs:
 ·Future Nine Corpor..
 ·AT&T Southeast
| First off: I LOVE MY iPod! I bought a mini, next to new, from another member here at DSLR. It is really nice how the click wheel works, it is so easy to use really. It has USB *and* firewire support (the new ones don't, major suckage IMHO). I happen to like that it is colored blue, and I **love** the aluminum chassis, it is a brilliant idea that they were stupid to abandon. There are tons of things that will work with it and some of them I dream of getting if I get my hands on some cash. The screen is clean and clear, and the illumination is awesome and looks pleasing. There is plenty of software out there (though I would like it if there was more). I can use it in Linux (I am a recent convert to Linux, a very dedicated convert, if you haven't tried to learn and use Linux, you are really missing out, it's a dog to learn and set up, but, considering the shear huge variety of versions out there, it **IS** the Swiss Army knife of OSs).
...
OTOH:
Unless you wanna spend money, it is likely, if you are a legal minded soul, that you will *have* to live with iTunes. Now, iTunes really ain't that bad, in fact, it is almost partially intuitive (ALMOST, but not quite, it can be a PITA to use in many ways). The other iPods (not the mini, thankfully) get scratches and cosmetic crap as easy as New Orleans is "The Big Easy". They have abandoned some of the few really neat aspects of it, such as the extended headphone port and firewire capability. They eliminated the included wall charger, a rotten move. My mini cannot record, let alone support an FM tuner (MAJOR suckage that I am bummed about). The clickwheel can get smudged because they insist on their goofy white theme. Everybody and their brother and sister have to sport and flaunt their iPods as though they are hip or something, all of the fitting in and keeping up with the Joneses gets on my NERVES. There are major limitations to the directory structure and navigation system. It is the most popular to steal, and it stands out too much. If you unplug it without safely disabling it, the thing gets borked, though not always.
That, including the above objections that others have stated.
Nevertheless, I am still pinching myself because I am poor and can't believe I actually have a 4 gig capacity digital music player. I only wish it were 10 gig, but 4 ain't too bad, it just means that I have to update it more often.
Now don't get me wrong, I love my player, my iPod. At least it ain't a chinzty plastic thing. It does it's job fairly well. It sounds ok, though I expect others might sound better, I would love to see some comparisons of sound quality, if there are any. It is pretty compact which is nice, it is good because I ride a bicycle to and from everywhere I go. The earbuds are better quality than those of some other players so I hear (though I prefer my Shure E2cs and I laugh at all of the dozens and dozens of clueless Cornell Student posers that are happy living with the stock earbuds (Lame, because these ARE rich spoiled kids who don't know any better, not a single one of them that I have seen had a good set of 'phones on, and just today I saw at least 20 Cornell Students with iPods alone. Not a single other personal digital player was to be found. Call them digital cattle, if you ask me.
I am a poor old bum of a guy, and it felt good to show that I had one too and was "just as hip as a spoiled rich kid", though I am not, and couldn't even care the less, I just like rubbing noses in it, it takes away their illusions that it is cool to own one.
For now, I will remain very thankful to God and the Universal Energy of space (as well as the member who took good care of it before selling it to me), that I own it. If I ever get my hands on the cash, I will get one of the superior players, like the two great ones posted about in this thread. I will also get some Shure E4c's or one of the other really good ones out there. I'd like a pair of dual driver phones though, so I could have great bass AND great uppers too. These E2c's are a little bit upper side heavy, though not so much that it isn't unpleasant.
Just my heartfelt opinion. When the battery dies, if the HD is still good I will replace the battery, because it is pretty easy to do on the mini 2nd gen., and even if it wasn't, I have well trained soldering skills. If the HD goes out, I still might fix it if HDs show up cheap enough, because these aluminum players are a great idea that shouldn't die, as a technician of engineering, I consider the chassis to be VERY elegant and well thought out, and well made (though I haven't yet taken it apart).
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I support freedom, something that our government is betraying, thumbs up to the EFF. Learn the truth about Taiwan, they've never belonged or been part of Red China, ignore the lies to the opposite. | |
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aliasrlz
Premium
join:2000-09-01
the world | Re: Am I the only one not thrilled with my iPod? Geezuz! Is every message you write like 10 pages long? Where do you find the time? | |
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signmeuptoo
Folding and Crunching Not just Breakfast
Premium
join:2001-11-22
LOSTinSpace
clubs: | Re: Am I the only one not thrilled with my iPod? Why how nice of you! | |
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dumwaldo
Premium
join:2001-03-12
| i actually agree with justin on this one. the ipod goes hand in hand with AOL. its designed to be used by the most computer illiterate people on the planet and that cost the device features.
if you are routinely outsmarted by your pet then the ipod is the right choice.
if you know how to hit the space bar instead of spending 20 minutes looking for the "ANY" key then you would probably be better off with a competent player that supports a variety of file formats and does not require extra software. | |
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GeekNJ
Premium
join:2000-09-23
Waldwick, NJ | Re: Am I the only one not thrilled with my iPod? Thankfully, there's all us below average AOL users to make someone as mediocre as you look so good. | |
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dumwaldo
Premium
join:2001-03-12
| Re: Am I the only one not thrilled with my iPod? said by GeekNJ :Thankfully, there's all us below average AOL users to make someone as mediocre as you look so good. and this has what to do with the OP's discussion? oh yeah it has nothing to do with it. it is just another pea brained troll.
incidentally, if you were not so below average you might recognize that i am far from mediocre. now shouldn't you be looking for an "ANY" key? | |
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GeekNJ
Premium
join:2000-09-23
Waldwick, NJ
1 edit | Re: Am I the only one not thrilled with my iPod? said by dumwaldo :said by GeekNJ :Thankfully, there's all us below average AOL users to make someone as mediocre as you look so good. and this has what to do with the OP's discussion? oh yeah it has nothing to do with it. it is just another pea brained troll. Hah - Seemed to be an appropriate response to the arrogant "I'm better then any iPod user" post of yours that I replied to.
said by dumwaldo :incidentally, if you were not so below average you might recognize that i am far from mediocre. Sorry I gave you more credit then you deserved! | |
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dumwaldo
Premium
join:2001-03-12
| Re: Am I the only one not thrilled with my iPod? said by GeekNJ :said by dumwaldo :said by GeekNJ :Thankfully, there's all us below average AOL users to make someone as mediocre as you look so good. and this has what to do with the OP's discussion? oh yeah it has nothing to do with it. it is just another pea brained troll. Hah - Seemed to be an appropriate response to the arrogant "I'm better then any iPod user" post of yours that I replied to. interestingly enough you had no problem with it when justin said it so apparently you have no problem with the POPULAR OPINION in this thread. you just seem to have a problem with trolling me specifically. | |
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GeekNJ
Premium
join:2000-09-23
Waldwick, NJ
| Re: Am I the only one not thrilled with my iPod? said by dumwaldo :interestingly enough you had no problem with it when justin said it so apparently you have no problem with the POPULAR OPINION in this thread. you just seem to have a problem with trolling me specifically. No, you didn't say what he said. You said:
said by dumwaldo :its designed to be used by the most computer illiterate people on the planet if you are routinely outsmarted by your pet then the ipod is the right choice. Justin didn't say that at all. He made comments like:
said by justin :We sometimes have different ideas about what is important in a device. The music they get is all nicely tagged. It is backed up (on the ipod and on their PC). It sounds good. They can get on with doing whatever else they are like to do. I still think the ipod is cool, especially the nano. This probably is the secret to its success. Not only is it appealing to the masses, it is also at least partially appealing to the techno cognoscenti. They did what AOL failed to do: made something easy to use that is also bearably good for (most) geeks. It would be like calling anyone that's excellent with computers an AOL user because they use Windows instead of the latest nightly build of some Linux distro.
I have an iPod to listen while I commute (train and subway). I listen to music (mostly what my wife has purchased from iTunes or ripped from her CD collection) and I listen to podcasts. Before I leave in the morning I plug the iPod into the computer and everything gets synced including any new podcasts which iTunes downloaded over night. Not one button needs to be pressed. When it's done, I unplug it and put it in my briefcase. When I take it out, on the unit I can quickly find any song or podcast.
It's a tremendous integration of software and hardware. No thought required - true plug and play in multiple ways. Like when you turn your stove on, do you care how the gas gets to you, runs through your gas meter, connects to the stove, how the pilot lights the gas and the thermostat keeps it at the correct temp, or do you just want to turn it on and cook?
Computers are supposed to make things better & easier, not more complicated so you can feel some sense of accomplishment or superiority.
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AR
Premium,ExMod 2001-04
join:2000-09-21
Toronto, ON
·Rogers Hi-Speed
| I think I've "outgrown" my ipod. Being on the move, I'd like to have an all in one device and that's why I'm excited at the direction the cell phone mfgrs are taking with their devices.
Going to work, I have to take my cell with me. Then I have to take the subway to downtown for an appointment and it's great I have the mp3s on the cellphone. Oh look, I need to take a picture and I can use my cell for that. Then at the gym in the evening, I can listen to fm radio or mp3s on my cell again.
The only time I really need the ipod or a dedicated mp3 player is a coast to coast flight where my cell phone, even with a large capacity SD card might not prove adequate.
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The Confederacy was an Ownership Society. | |
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aliasrlz
Premium
join:2000-09-01
the world
| Re: Am I the only one not thrilled with my iPod? I'm finding it will become increasingly more difficult to compare a 30/60GB HDD on the ipod to a cell phone with a very expensive flash card (2GB or higher sticks, may as well buy another phone entirely) ; Especially now with the video add-on on the 5G ipod........but that's just MHO.
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"Long-winded diatribes are not necessary for one-liner comments (regardless of THE POINT). Something some will never get." | |
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signmeuptoo
Folding and Crunching Not just Breakfast
Premium
join:2001-11-22
LOSTinSpace
clubs:
·Future Nine Corpor..
·AT&T Southeast
| I tend to agree that the iPod might be for the masses, and as a result, it is so popular, however: I am a Linux user who doesn't follow the masses, and I have NEVER used AOL, and I have an iPod mini, which, as I have been saying, I love. As a technician I still say that this mini is elegant. The button system is better.
But if I get the money for a large capacity device, it won't be an iPod, but one of the file structure players that offer the best sound quality, *if* it turns out that any of them offer superior audio sound.
The absolute MUST is the ability to use the audio player in Linux. I lucked out with the iPod, if it wasn't for gtkpod, I'd be screwed Linux-wise.
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I support freedom, something that our government is betraying, thumbs up to the EFF. Learn the truth about Taiwan, they've never belonged or been part of Red China, ignore the lies to the opposite. | |
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dumwaldo
Premium
join:2001-03-12
| Re: Am I the only one not thrilled with my iPod? said by signmeuptoo :But if I get the money for a large capacity device, it won't be an iPod, but one of the file structure players that offer the best sound quality, *if* it turns out that any of them offer superior audio sound. just a general FYI...
none of the Ipod's support any lossless formats. if quality is a top concern, by default the Ipod is not even a player of consideration. | |
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aliasrlz
Premium
join:2000-09-01
the world
| Re: Am I the only one not thrilled with my iPod? said by dumwaldo :said by signmeuptoo :But if I get the money for a large capacity device, it won't be an iPod, but one of the file structure players that offer the best sound quality, *if* it turns out that any of them offer superior audio sound. just a general FYI... none of the Ipod's support any lossless formats. if quality is a top concern, by default the Ipod is not even a player of consideration. the .wav format isn't considered lossless?
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"Long-winded diatribes are not necessary for one-liner comments (regardless of THE POINT). Something some will never get." | |
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signmeuptoo
Folding and Crunching Not just Breakfast
Premium
join:2001-11-22
LOSTinSpace
clubs:
·Future Nine Corpor..
·AT&T Southeast
| said by dumwaldo :said by signmeuptoo :But if I get the money for a large capacity device, it won't be an iPod, but one of the file structure players that offer the best sound quality, *if* it turns out that any of them offer superior audio sound. just a general FYI... none of the Ipod's support any lossless formats. if quality is a top concern, by default the Ipod is not even a player of consideration. There is plenty more to sound quality than lossless audio. The amplication circuit, the DAC, so many things are involved in producing quality sound. Assuming that because a player is a "digital player" it is only as good as the digital code that goes into it is wrong, in case you were making that mistake.
The new iPods, starting with the shuffle, began to see audio qualityr improvements, but it is my impression that there might be better.
At this point, after only, what, less than a couple of weeks, I am wishing for a little better audio quality from my mini, and I am using VERY low compression, 1/2 my music is close to, or at 320k MP3 I don't buy iTunes, and I don't use iTunes, so AAC is not an option.
I listen to music where audio quality matters more. I don't listen to hip hop or rap where it isn't such a big deal.
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I support freedom, something that our government is betraying, thumbs up to the EFF. Learn the truth about Taiwan, they've never belonged or been part of Red China, ignore the lies to the opposite. | |
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aliasrlz
Premium
join:2000-09-01
the world
| the majority of mp3 users can't distinguish between high bitrate lossy codecs and lossless anyway ......also, hence they are ALL called "mp3" players, and the mp3 format is a lossy format.....
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"Long-winded diatribes are not necessary for one-liner comments (regardless of THE POINT). Something some will never get." | |
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Drove me nuts not having filetree navigation and not being able to copy files on and off without having to use extra software. I loathe iTunes as a music organizer.
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