Ipod/competing mp3 player question

jayyy · Post by **jayyy** » Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:19 pm

I want to buy a 40G ipod off a friend, but he's saying that itunes will require me to keep al my mp3s on my pc, and the ipod will just copy from there, and if the itunes and ipod dont match up its no go.

This is impossible for me without buying an external drive for my laptop, bcause I don't have the space. I wanted to put mp3s on the player from my laptop, then delete the files from my laptops hard drive and make the copy on the player the only one. I wanted my mp3 player to basically be my external drive. I don't want to buy two items to make one work.

does anyone know about the dell, creative labs models, etc? Do they run this anti-piracy crap, or are they just basically just big portable HDs that I can plug into any pc by usb and drop and drag mp3s as I please?

Mad_Haggis · Post by **Mad_Haggis** » Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:31 pm

Don't know a lot about it yet...

Check out http://www.xiph.org/ogg/vorbis/

Thats probably the way i will go, i have some downloaded tunes, but mostly the 500 music cd's i've turned into MP3's with a ripper, as the machine gets better, i don't want to have to re rip it all,...

Unholy · Post by **Unholy** » Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:34 pm

Those iRivers look pretty nice. *drools* iRiver

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:41 pm

Hmm, yes I never really thought of it that way since I keep my collection on here anyway.

jayyy · Post by **jayyy** » Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:41 pm

Unholy wrote:Those iRivers look pretty nice. *drools* iRiver

They do look sweet...nicer than the ipods actually. And I like the way they just cut the BS and call it a hard drive player.

The price is about the same though...I figured if I wasn't buying apple I could get something cheaper. The picture viewing feature isn't something I really need/want to pay for.

jayyy · Post by **jayyy** » Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:44 pm

Kyler1 wrote:Hmm, yes I never really thought of it that way since I keep my collection on here anyway.

Its a pain...I sort of live on the go so its not really practical for me.

External HD are at pretty good prices right now...but its the principle of it. Apple always does this, you have to fit into their plan, its never configurable.

Prey521 · Post by **Prey521** » Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:46 pm

Go with the iRiver or the Creative Zen One Touch.

jayyy · Post by **jayyy** » Tue Nov 02, 2004 11:44 pm

Prey521 wrote:Go with the iRiver or the Creative Zen One Touch.

The zen one touch is looking alright...I'll probably go with that.

Prey521 · Post by **Prey521** » Tue Nov 02, 2004 11:47 pm

iRiver has FM radio and voice recording, that's my next purchase.

jayyy · Post by **jayyy** » Tue Nov 02, 2004 11:57 pm

Prey521 wrote:iRiver has FM radio and voice recording, that's my next purchase.

For some reason the models w/ the picture viewer are the same price, too.

But I've got or can get most of the extra stuff like picture storage, voice recording or fm radio on my cell phone anyway, and the battery life is better on creative, 24 hours to 16. And its 100 dollars cheaper.

iriver looks sweet though...only weakness next to the new high line ipod is its only a 40 gig HD.

SRF01 · Post by **SRF01** » Wed Nov 03, 2004 6:09 am

You might want to wait until after they release the mp3/media players in mass. The price of the mp3 only players should drop.

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Wed Nov 03, 2004 7:59 am

Ipods look nice but I dont want to have to convert mp3s to itunes format.

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Wed Nov 03, 2004 8:03 am

John wrote:You don't have to.

You just drag and drop. Keep all your dir's where they are. Itunes is just a portal between your existing files and the ipod.

You don't even have to use Itunes, as stated in my above post

Cool, I thought it would just play Itunes, maybe that was the first version or something.

stevebakh · Post by **stevebakh** » Wed Nov 03, 2004 12:08 pm

No anti-piracy on the Zens. You can use it as an external HD.

jayyy · Post by **jayyy** » Thu Nov 04, 2004 6:31 am

John wrote:There is software out there than makes it so you can just drag and drop songs, you can also have it set up to show up in my computer as an extra HD, as I said.

actually, i just read that apple is sicking their lawyers on the people that make that. and the new itunes wont support it.

they could make a new one anyway, but it a hassle...plus, every computer i use would have to have both itunes and that crack on it, not just my own.

creative zen seems almost if not as good and more configurable...and the battery life is a lot longer.

i always love apples products, but it always seems like for one reason or another theyre not practical to buy.

jayyy · Post by **jayyy** » Thu Nov 04, 2004 6:46 am

SRF01 wrote:You might want to wait until after they release the mp3/media players in mass. The price of the mp3 only players should drop.

ive been waiting almost 4 years...i know theyll go down more, but they always do. ive gotta cave, handling all those cds and random mp3 files is driving me nuts

nepenthe · Post by **nepenthe** » Thu Nov 04, 2004 6:52 am

I was under the impression that the Ipod had the superior sound quality.

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Thu Nov 04, 2004 10:27 am

John wrote:As far as I can recall, Apple includes instructions in their manual that comes with the Ipod, regarding how to make it into an external HD that is recognized by windows so you can store files on it. Am I just crazy?

I think he's talking about the drag and drop software u meantioned.

stevebakh · Post by **stevebakh** » Thu Nov 04, 2004 2:09 pm

nepenthe wrote:I was under the impression that the Ipod had the superior sound quality.

http://www.thetechlounge.com/review.php ... _nx&page=4

I agree with that - the sound quality on the zens equals that of the Ipod, however, the included earphones for the zen do not. You have to invest in a decent set of headphones if you're a music enthusiast.

What kind of hard-drive based mp3 player review would this be without a comparison to the undeniably sexy Apple iPod? The Zen NX is a bit larger and the interface, although very easy to use, pales in comparison to the touchpad-like navigation of the iPod. However, the Zen NX has a user-replaceable, reasonably priced rechargeable battery where the iPod requires you to send it in for battery replacement lest you void the warranty by attempting it yourself. Cost is a major plus for the Zen NX].

jayyy · Post by **jayyy** » Thu Nov 04, 2004 11:22 pm

John wrote:As far as I can recall, Apple includes instructions in their manual that comes with the Ipod, regarding how to make it into an external HD that is recognized by windows so you can store files on it. Am I just crazy?

Nah, I meant the plug-ins that let you transfer songs. Infact, they're forcing everyone to take the upgrade so that those features don't work anymore. here's the link-

http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/Apple ... 37877.html

The update disables an add-on program that allowed iPod users to transfer songs from their players.

It's not the first time that Apple has used an upgrade to disable a feature -- 4.0.1 ended Internet-based play list sharing in 2003.

Plus they're looking to shut down third-party plug-ins legally.

nepenthe · Post by **nepenthe** » Thu Nov 04, 2004 11:29 pm

stevebakh wrote:http://www.thetechlounge.com/review.php ... _nx&page=4

I agree with that - the sound quality on the zens equals that of the Ipod, however, the included earphones for the zen do not. You have to invest in a decent set of headphones if you're a music enthusiast.

Third party battery providers exist for the IPod which are both less expensive and allow user serviceability. In addition, they are comparing the Zen to the older Ipod, no?

jayyy · Post by **jayyy** » Thu Nov 04, 2004 11:39 pm

nepenthe wrote:Third party battery providers exist for the IPod which are both less expensive and allow user serviceability. In addition, they are comparing the Zen to the older Ipod, no?

Yeah, but that third party battery voids your warranty. Say the hard-drive breaks later, neither the battery people nor apple can help you out.

I don't doubt the ipod is technically better, so I'm not sweating that end so much...

Apple always kicked ass. They change the game every couple years. I remember when the ibooks came out, they made all the pc laptops of the time look like crap. Same w the mac point-and-click OS, same with OS X, same with desktop publishing, same with the first use of a mouse on a personal computer, same with pretty much everything else they've ever done. They're innovators and they make high quality products.

But then what happens? Microsoft, IBM and all the other companies rip them off. The clones aren't quite as good, but they're close enough, cost a lot less and are much more configurable and less of a hassle. Apples stock drops, they lag, then they come out with yet another brilliant product, and the cycle repeats.

nepenthe · Post by **nepenthe** » Thu Nov 04, 2004 11:55 pm

By the time the battery expires so does the warranty, otherwise Apple would simply have to replace it FOC.

david

Mehmet · Post by **Mehmet** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 12:35 am

jayyy wrote:I want to buy a 40G ipod off a friend, but he's saying that itunes will require me to keep al my mp3s on my pc, and the ipod will just copy from there, and if the itunes and ipod dont match up its no go.

This is impossible for me without buying an external drive for my laptop, bcause I don't have the space. I wanted to put mp3s on the player from my laptop, then delete the files from my laptops hard drive and make the copy on the player the only one. I wanted my mp3 player to basically be my external drive. I don't want to buy two items to make one work.

does anyone know about the dell, creative labs models, etc? Do they run this anti-piracy crap, or are they just basically just big portable HDs that I can plug into any pc by usb and drop and drag mp3s as I please?

jayyy,

If you turn on manual update in itunes (which is mucho better than autoupdate IMHO), you don't have to keep tunes on your pc. actually, even with autoupdate, you don't have to keep your tunes on your pc, you just have to keep them in itunes, have it transfer to your ipod, and then you can delete the folder with the songs. What will happen this way will be that itunes will haev the songs in the library, but when you try to play them through itunes, you can't, because the songs aren't on your hdd. That's pretty much it.

But again, i really like manual update much better than autoupdate.

I wub my ipod by the way, really small device, no BS GUI, and, everything works with each other very well.

jayyy · Post by **jayyy** » Sat Nov 06, 2004 10:26 pm

Mehmet wrote:jayyy,

If you turn on manual update in itunes (which is mucho better than autoupdate IMHO), you don't have to keep tunes on your pc. actually, even with autoupdate, you don't have to keep your tunes on your pc, you just have to keep them in itunes, have it transfer to your ipod, and then you can delete the folder with the songs. What will happen this way will be that itunes will haev the songs in the library, but when you try to play them through itunes, you can't, because the songs aren't on your hdd. That's pretty much it.

But again, i really like manual update much better than autoupdate.

I wub my ipod by the way, really small device, no BS GUI, and, everything works with each other very well.

Thats good to know, thanks.

Saw and compared the ipod to the zen nomad jukebox the other day and rethinking my own opinion...proportionately, the isn't just a little slimmer and lighter, its a LOT slimmer and lighter. And I'm thinking, "I plan on carrying this with me everywhere I go, day after day, for the next few years..." know what I mean?

I'm realizing the smooth edges on the ipod arent just fashion, its ergonomics too, and it makes a big difference.

The zen one touch is supposed to be slimmer and smoother than the jukebox model though, so I'll check that one out first.

I've got a lot of friends (usually artsy non-technical types) that swear by macs and get this weird loyalty and attachment to them...theres definitely something weirdly appealing about apple products...its like owning a bmw or a rolex or something. It seems like with the ipod they hit on something that even PC users can get into.

I want one, but for various reasons its a pain. Even if I can configure my own computer, I can't drop in a net cafe somewhere on the road, link it up and download more onto it on the go. At least not without time and a hassle...

nightowl · Post by **nightowl** » Sun Nov 07, 2004 12:01 am

http://forums.speedguide.net/showthread.php?t=157343

downhill · Post by **downhill** » Sun Nov 07, 2004 12:11 am

jayyy....you might also check out the Archos Gmini...

Great sound but it doesn't come with as many accessories as the IPod...I'm considering this one or the Toshiba Gigabeat....It's already setup for Wi-Fi but I'm not excited about it's controls. It's also expensive.

Mehmet · Post by **Mehmet** » Sun Nov 07, 2004 1:12 am

jayyy wrote: I want one, but for various reasons its a pain. Even if I can configure my own computer, I can't drop in a net cafe somewhere on the road, link it up and download more onto it on the go. At least not without time and a hassle...

Yeah you can dude, just get the songs on a pc, make sure you have manual update, and drag and drop to your ipod. boom, you are done.

jayyy · Post by **jayyy** » Tue Nov 09, 2004 10:44 pm

Well, I went with the Ipod, thanks to Mehmet and Johns advice

Its formatted to mac, but I'm stalling clearing it because my friend had 20 gigs of good music on it. Quality product, I can see why everyone is so loyal to it

One thing- I was looking at it on my sofa and thinking the size and shape looked familiar...than it hit me- its the exact size of a pack of playing cards down to length, width and depth. Thats steve jobs for you...same guy that put his engineers at work for years trying to make a pc case that cooled naturally so that tehy wouldn't have to install a noisy fan. I'll bet you anything he demanded it be the size of a deck of playing cards before they even developed an mp3 player.

Bouncer · Post by **Bouncer** » Tue Nov 09, 2004 11:21 pm

Consider one with a built in FM transmitter for use in vehicles. Makes it much more portable for going to work and such.

Regards,
-Bouncer-