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iPod - good or bad? (1 Viewer)

E

Edward woodwood

Member
Hello folks

I love my music and the idea of getting 6,000 hrs of my favourite stuff onto an ipod and being able to carry it around the world with me is very enticing....

I know very little about MP3 players and Apple iPods and have heard conflicting stories about how good an ipod is. Is there anyone out there who can help me out a bit...?
 
Tim,

Get 1!!..

My daughters are pestering me to buy them ipods..
I told them that they ONLY work, if you download decent music into them!
Can you imagine the fun of sticking 6000 hours of Kylie, Black Eyed Peas, 50 cent, Daniel Bedingfield, Best of Eurovision etc etc into the little gadget?...............No?..........me neither!!!

Dave. : )
 
Computeractive recently reviewed MP3 players Tim - I think you can read all past reviews on their website. They put quite a few other makes up against the iPod. Creative's came out pretty good (Jukebox Zen Xtra) in terms of more memory per pound and sound quality. It's downside was being unable to record on to it. I like their revews as they explain things in plain english. I wouldn't rush into an iPod just because they're the most popular/ widely publicised.
 
I would buy handheld PDA with MP3 utility, could then record birds same time when listening to Spring in Paris...

Deboo: getting old? (Dissatisfied with 6000 hours of Kylie..).....................
Tim: not getting old? Good.
 
Most handheld PDA's only have a very small memory Karwin and can only be expanded slightly with memory cards. Not really up to the 6000 songs of the MP3 players
 
On a practical note:

How many average-length songs can you get into 6,000 hours?
How long would it take to transfer them from wherever to the iPod?
How long would it take to listen to them all (clue: this one's easier to answer!)?
 
If you have USB2, the claim is one song a second can be loaded. In reality, this is probably a little longer, especially with USB1. As to number of songs, depends which compression you use. With iPod you ar limited to MP3's I think but with some of the others you can use WMA files - smaller with no loss of quality.
 
Adey Baker said:
On a practical note:

How many average-length songs can you get into 6,000 hours?
How long would it take to transfer them from wherever to the iPod?
How long would it take to listen to them all (clue: this one's easier to answer!)?
Click to expand...
Erm... yes.

Does anyone really have 6000 hrs worth of music they want to listen to all the time... if you listen non-stop for eight hours a day, then it'll take two years before you repeat anything... I couldn't imagine living without much of my CD collection for two years!

Of course, I know nothing about it, and clearly turning 40 has turned me into a grumpy old man... but why not carry a radio?

I am told one of the features of the iPod is you can rate the music (from 1 to 5 stars or something). Would you have any 1 star music on it?

I dunno... just seems like another example of where technology has outpaced usefulness, and now the idea is to make us desire things for which there is no need.

Anyway... to be slightly serious, each to their own I s'pose... I'm trying to track down and electronic notepad that combines mapping and listing with a pointer interface for locating my bird sightings, all that will fit into my jacket pocket... so who am I to talk!!!
 
Karwin said:
...handheld PDA?..
Click to expand...
Really? I really am going to have to get "with it"... all these new-fangled inventions... next thing you'll be telling me about some fanciful "motorised carriage" or something!
 
birdman said:
Really? I really am going to have to get "with it"... all these new-fangled inventions... next thing you'll be telling me about some fanciful "motorised carriage" or something!
Click to expand...
I have not tried, but know that there are GPS applications to PDAs, and a Garmin GPS with PDA features.
 
mikebirdart said:
If it available in Finland now, we may see it in the UK in about 10 years Karwin........
Click to expand...
Hey, I thought it is vice versa... Actually PDAs are apparently more like north american thing (finns wear Nokias), but I have figured that these devices & utilities are also sold here in Ultima Thule (bless the net).
 
Karwin, the problem here is that the phone service providers sell you a proprietary phone, theirs. This stops people from investing in a phone-pda.

iPod I see as a return to singles instead of albums. Only the 1000 hits, no filler.
 
From the horses mouth

To hold 6000 hours of music at 128kps, you would need about 2,764,800,000 kbs of storage; about 2 terrabytes or 2,625 gigabytes. :eek!:

I think you mean 5000 songs, which is roughly what you can store on the 20 gigabyte iPod, which I own; I currently have 4,611 MP3s stored on it, which is the equivalent of 12 days and 17 hours of music.

However, I am also a mobile DJ, and so am constantly adding to it and have set up 'smart' playlists that i listen to when biking etc to check the latest chart and to plan lists for next discos etc etc.

I would reccommend it 100%. :t:

The ipodsdirtysecret, by the way, has not been noticed by me, and I've had the iPod since last september. Anyone who can read an instruction manual and doesn't need their iPod to look pristine can easily replace the battery themselves for something like $50, which is roughly half of what I think I spent on AA batteries for 18 months use of some rubbish CD player I previously owned.

And the downsides?

The back does scratch very easily, which I think just gives it character, but you may want to get a case.

Oh, and if you're using a PC you'll want either Firewire (IEEE1394) or USB2, unless you want to be transferring songs at snails pace. To add a CD to the iPod takes about 10 seconds; it took about 30 minutes for me to add about 1000 songs when I first got it, but after that it only adds/removes/alters the songs you change.

Ollie
 
Oh, and to answer the question about file formats; iTunes, the iPods computer friend, can convert whatever you currently have to either MP3, AAC or Apple's Lossless Encoder, and if you are in the USA you can also use the iTunes Music Store to download music at about $0.99 a song.

I have 6,567 songs on my machine and it is true that I often turn the iPod on and put it on random, and hear a song I have never ever heard before; but this is one of the things I love most about it.

Audiophiles have also praised the Ipod because of it's 30mW amplifier, as compared to the average 8mW amps in Minidisc players, which means that it can drive some very 'beefy' headphones - I have a small pair of travelling 'phones and a biiig pair of closed cup headphones that I use at school, where I literally have to have the volume on 1/4 because together they become a little too powerful even for my ears... and if you should ever see the sound system in my room you'd know I like my music loud... :D

Ollie
 
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