Good discussion for those of us who are looking to eventually get one of these. I'm still undecided. I have a shitload of CDs, and I want to be able to dump them all into a player to take with me. I couldn't care less about brand-names, I just want the best player for my money.

Stax said:

If you mean the Music Store then, yes, they are 128kbps files - but they are MP4 files, not MP3. A fairly decent difference there, imo.

This has nothing to do with the capability of the iPods, though, as you aren't locked in to using only the iTunes Music Store.

JPW said:

ALL rechargable batteries eventually die. That is not Apple's fault.

I, for one, am willing to pay more for great design. The other players on the market just don't do it for me. If I'm going to spend a bunch of money on a piece of hardware I'm gonna have with me most of the time, I want to LOVE it. I the iPod.

SeattleInvasion said:

I bought my nano purely becuase it is sexy as hell.
Sure, creative makes products that have FM, recorders, etc. already built into it, but with Apple you get sex appeal and tons more third part options.

I'm still lugging around 50 Cds and a cd player

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

and thats exactly what i got tired of doing so i save my mula (took me awhile) and got me a nano

brownsugar said:

I'm eventually going to have to do this

jtfolden said:

indeed, on all counts

i don't own an Ipod...It wouldnt fit into my lifestyle. I'm in my car an hour a day, so I listen to cd's via the cd player

ipod mini (pink)




love it...not overly expensive and holds all the music i need (approx 1200 songs)


very satisfied

PurpleRein said:

i felt the same way...thats why i bought one of these...








plays my ipod through my car speakers. got the ipod, itrip and holder on ebay. (brand new ipod, itrip and holder for $255)

charlottegelin said:

Now that's what I'd probably use the most.

lillith said:

I so need to get one of these when I finally get my iPod. Of course, it will be a while, since the one I want lists on their site as being $399 for the player alone!

JediMaster said:

HOLY CRAP!

I'll just keep buying CDs, thank you very much.

I have a 60G White Ipod , so far I have 2,694 songs on it.The shuffle feature is the best.My friend told me to keep all your songs in a music folder on your HD in case your Ipod/Itunes beomes corrupt.
[Edited 4/6/06 14:33pm]

PhilG said:

I read this and imagine a little trenchcoated iPod going to work for the enemy.

I have a friend who works at an Apple store, and he says that people come in all the time who put their entire music libraries ONLY on their iPod, and are pissed off when something random happens and they lose their music. . . especially for people who purchased a lot of music on iTunes and don't actually have the cds, to not keep backups is just dumb.

I don't own one simply because it's a gimmick

BlackBuddy said:

Being able to lug around 1,000s of songs in a player the size of a deck of cards (or smaller) rather than 100's of CDs is a gimmick??

So lets say I am sold on the concept.... My children have them already but hell I just pay the bills and provide them with their whims on the holidays and have never looked to see precisely what they do or are.


So educate me... What is the best or whatever?

Does it take in all your CD's? Mp3's? and any sound I upload to my computer?

jtfolden said:

It's a gimmick because what sells it is the name brand. There are plenty of MP3 players out there that are just as good that are not made by Apple

BlackBuddy said:

SammiJ said:

You don't believe me?

BlackBuddy said:

well no
because apple isn't the only brand out there with a gimmick..in fact, all products have a gimmick, that's how they sell...
apple's just real good @ it

SammiJ said:

Well what I meant by that is everyone is pissing their pants over ipods as if they were the only mp3 players that exist. You're right, all products have a gimmick, but I feel the most popular products have the biggest gimmicks

BlackBuddy said:

true true
that's how it is
lol i admit i was one of the people pissing their pants over it
what can i say i love it

I have a shuffle and I love it more then life itself.

jerseykrs said:

Mine is the 1GB version too. I've got version 3.4 of Sonic Stage, which I seem to remember cam with a sort of stand alone tool to copy over mp3s. Is this what you mean?

I have just stucj with atrac partly because you can fit more tracks on in that format, but also I wasn't sure if you can group mp3 tracks into folders - any ideas on this?

sinaplenty said:

yeah, you can group mp3s in folders with 3.4. It's quite easy actually. check this site....

http://www.atraclife.com/forums/

I agree with you on the atrac, if you use atrac3plus, you get great quality at a very low bitrate. I just had SO MANY mp3s, it would have taken forever to rip them again into atrac. And converting them is useless as the mp3 was already a compressed file.

YAY SONY!!!!!

BlackBuddy said:

so do you think mp3 players in general are gimmicks, or do you think the iPod is more gimmick than substance because of how it's marketed, but in general mp3 players are okay?

Anx said:

no, they are NOT gimmicks.
The amount of time I've saved in burning music for a portable CD-player to go jogging or to the gym alone is worth the value of getting one. Even the 128 or 512 models are good for that.

Plus all of them act as miniature USB flash drives when you need to copy data from your computer quickly and don't want to hassle with crossover cables, ripping the software to disk, or connecting to the same network.

In addition, whenever I travel I will listen to audio books often in their entirety on these devices, and my nano gives me room for that AND part of my library of music.


But as it pains me to admit this, I concede Bill Gate's opinion that they have a limited lifespan and that this functionality will eventually be ported to smart cellphones, which will end up being our media player, phone, and PDA rolled into one, with standalone MP3 players being a nitch market assessory (afterall, I don't want to carry my cellphone with me jogging).