I really think the iRiver has a better product.
Posted on 09/24/2004 8:19:59 PM PDT by SamAdams76
Apple's digital audio player becomes a fave around the globe as its functions grow
For a maverick computer company struggling to survive in a world dominated by Windows-armed PCs, Apple has a smile on its face these days.
The reason: The Apple iPod, the portable digital audio player that has become a colossal hit throughout the world.
The iPod has become both a fad and fashion statement for music lovers everywhere, especially Generation Xers who have embraced MP3 technology and who delight in downloading music from the Internet.
Recognizing the iPod's potential for data storage and its popularity with young people, Apple and Duke University this fall embarked on a novel experiment in the use of technology to motivate learning. Every incoming Duke freshman received a 20-gigabyte Apple iPod as part of an initiative to encourage creative uses of technology in education and campus life.
The student iPods, which can download and make use of both audio and text material, were preloaded with Duke-related content, such as information for freshman orientation and the academic calendar. Through a special Duke Web site, students also can download faculty-provided course content, including language lessons, music, recorded lectures and audio books. They also will be able to purchase music through the site.
So what is an iPod? Think of it this way: It's a little white box the size of a candy bar that can play on demand the entire CD library of an avid music collector -- or the lifetime LP collection of your grandparents.
Apple's fourth-generation iPod, introduced in July, features the Click Wheel, an on-demand server that combines continuous scrolling of a touch-sensitive wheel for easy, one-handed navigation.
The new iPod also offers up to 12 hours battery life -- a big improvement from earlier models -- and a feature called Shuffle Songs, which brings instant access to Apple's iTunes Music Store.
The iTunes store is where Apple really shines. You can preview any song title you like, and within a minute of finding it, own it for 99 cents. That makes the transaction legal in the eyes of recording artists and record companies and has tempered the music industry's Internet inhibitions. To date, the iTunes Music Store has dispensed more than 30 million songs at 99 cents a pop.
The iPod is versatile. You can make unlimited play lists, burn individual songs to a CD as many times as you like and take all your music with you wherever you go.
You also can store books on tape on iPod. The iTunes Music Store features hundreds of audio books, from "The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin" to Tom Clancy's latest epic.
The iPod features Apple's patented Auto-Sync technology; it automatically downloads an entire digital music library and keeps it up to date whenever the iPod is plugged into a Mac or Windows computer using FireWire or USB connectors. Two songs a second can be transferred from a Mac or Windows computer.
Apple's iPod has 58 percent of the market in digital music players and an even larger share among sales of products used to download music from the Internet.
The company has sold more than 3.7 million iPods worldwide since the product was introduced three years ago, about one-third of those sales coming in the second quarter of this year, which ended in June.
In Japan, the iPod has become a cultural icon. Earlier this summer, Apple launched a marketing campaign with catchy billboards on Tokyo trains to promote the new $249 iPod mini. When it went on sale in Japan in July, more than 1,000 people waited for the Apple store in Tokyo to open. Later, thousands of young Japanese music lovers signed long waiting lists to get one.
The iPod mini's 5-gigabyte hard drive holds as many as 1,000 songs and comes in a half-dozen colors. It's cute, colorful, compact (it weighs just 3.6 ounces and is smaller than any cell phone) and, as young consumers like to say, it's very cool.
In addition to the mini, Apple offers two other sizes: a 20-gigabyte model that holds 5,000 songs and a 40-gigabyte flagship iPod that holds 10,000 songs. Both are available through Apple's retail stores or authorized dealers for a suggested retail price of $299 for the 20GB model and $399 for the 40GB.
Sony, which has been the market-share leader of personal audio products for decades, has taken note of Apple's iPod success story. Its new hard-drive Network Walkman, introduced in July, so far hasn't slowed the iPod's dominance of the MP3 market.
Others have sought Apple's approval for joint ventures. In January, for example, Hewlett-Packard, the second-largest manufacturer of Windows computers, decided to scrap its own plans for a portable music player and online music store in favor of the shiny iPod and its iTunes pay-per-song Internet store. That deal was a major marketing coup for Apple because it standardized the Apple platform, giving the iPod an entrance into Windows-based computer desktops.
The next big market for the iPod is the automobile. Last month BMW began selling an iPod adapter for its sports roadsters. General Motors and Mercedes Benz report they are considering iPod interfaces for their car radios in 2005.
Mobile electronics maker Alpine is expected to introduce an interface to work with car receivers this fall, while Kenwood's mobile division plans a multiple media device with an iPod input.
I'm like a little kid with this thing. I've spent many hours carefully moving tracks from my CD collection onto this thing. Even though I have room for some 10,000 tracks, I want to be very selective about what I put on it. Only the best of the best. So that I can hit "shuffle" and never hear a bad song. Currently I have 1,787 tracks on it and I look forward to adding many thousands more during the weeks and months ahead.
It's fun to hit "shuffle" and never know what I'm going to hear next. Could be "Idiot Wind" by Bob Dylan, "Dazed And Confused" by Led Zeppelin, "My Favorite Things" by John Coltrane or a chorus from Bach's "St. Matthew's Passion." Or it could be George Jones, Junior Brown or Hank Williams. Whatever it is, I will be glad to hear it because it is part of what I am. The entire soundtrack of my life is going to be on this thing when I am done.
I can set up "Smart Playlists" where I can listen to nothing but songs from the summer of 1979 or nothing but songs written by a particular songwriter (yes, iTunes also captures the composer of each individual song). Or I can setup custom playlist of whatever I want. If I want to mix up Frank Sinatra songs with AC/DC and turn it into a playlist, I can do that. If I want to shuffle within a playlist, I can do that too.
If you want to bring your iPod to work with you, you can rationalize it by loading up your Outlook contacts and appointments. Ipod even has a calendar built into it so you can click on any particular day and see all your appointments.
The thing is simply amazing. I have over 1,000 CDs in my collection and I can now box them up and put them in my attic because I can fit them all on my iPod and still have room for more. If I want to play my iPod on my stereo, there are accessories I can buy to do that. If I want to play my iPod in the car, there is a $40 FM modulator I can buy that will accomplish that as well. There are even portable speaker units you can buy that will turn your iPod into an instant boombox.
Anyway, I can't rave about this product enough. And I'm not even a big Apple fan. (I guess I am now though)
You can probably delete that one. LOL
I loves my 20GB G3.
I even bought it a glow in the dark skin and an Itrip. No longer need a CD player in my car!
All the major RNC speeches are available as free downloads at the iTunes Music Store. Just search on "RNC".
Cool! I'm checking that out now...
iPods, like most Apple products are overpriced.
I bought a Dell DJ 20GB player with an in-line FM Tuner (N/A for the iPod) carrying case w/belt clip, car charger and 1 year accidental damage warranty for less than the cost of a 20GB iPod.
The Dell player also has a voice recorder (great for meetings or for just recording random thoughts on the fly) that also lets you record from the FM tuner.
Not to mention, Al Gore is the CEO or something of Apple.
Just downloaded Zell Miller's speech on iTunes. For free! This one's a keeper.
A Memphis woman was arrested and charged with first-degree murder after she bludgeoned her boyfriend to death with an iPod.
See story at:
http://www.liquidgeneration.com/rumormill/ipod_killing.html
You can download DNC audio as well, in case you need to test your iPod's delete function.
iPod rocks.......
In your effort to put your favorite music on, don't forget your favorite books.
ping
And oh, unlike Apple, many of these support Janus. Google it up; Janus will dump the iPodpeople on their asses.
99 cents a tune is way too much. I can buy a CD with 15 tracks for $13, and it has to be pressed out of real plastic and the ucard has to be printed and the whole thing packaged and shipped to a store where the manager gets a salary and pays light, heat, and insurance bills and some pierced kid will get paid to wait for me to walk into his store so I can buy it. That's a bunch of overhead, and you have to add in the royalties and production cost and advertising.
Downloading the same tracks to an iPOD would cost more and the record companies don't have to pay the truck driver or the store manager or clerk. Where does the extra money go?
The music industry reluctantly agreed to this deal where they get huge profit for putting the tune directly on electronic media and bypassing working folks?
And hey ipod downloaders, what do you do when the drive fails on your little white box when you have 6000 $0.99 tunes on it? Got insurance? What's the MTBF on ipods?
Ipods are great, love it, love music, but there are other issues to think about. Like why the tunes cost more than real cds, they should cost $0.40 or so.
I really think the iRiver has a better product.
40 gigs eh? Try 80! I need a new hard drive, methinks. Anime, Rock, Celtic, New Age, Jazz, Video-Games..
I have Usenet addiction..
Don't you have a virus to clean off of your system?
I thought the same thing until I realized, when I was burning my CDs to MP3s, that I only wanted to keep two or three tracks on most albums. The rest was just filler I didn't want. Thus, if I buy 15 tracks online for $15, it will be much cheaper then buying the 5-7 CDs I would have to buy to get 15 tracks that I really want.
Of course there are albums that are worth buying because most or all of the songs are good. I will still buy those CDs but the days of paying $13 for a CD with just a couple of songs I like are over.
I am going to be getting a new one soon - my 5 gig is filled to capacity. Also, the older ones only did Windows or Mac, the new ones do both, so I can use it to back up more than just my imac.
They are nice, just expensive. Typical Apple.
And yeah, you should back it up, just like you back up any other hard drive with important, valuable data on it.
You're right about the cost, though; almost all the money goes to the record companies. Apple makes little to no profit from the Music Store. It only exists to support the iPod, and so Apple will have first-mover advantage if and when the record companies ever get it straight in their heads that they'd probably sell five times as many songs if they cut the price in half.
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