iPod conquering MP3 world

The Oregonian ^ | September 24, 2004 | WAYNE THOMPSON

[SengirV]

The whole point is that you don't have to buy the 10 crappy songs if you only want a couple good songs for an album. If you want he whole album, great, go and buy it. You can easily rip it to AAC or MP3. No one is pointing a gun to your head saying you HAVE to buy it at the iTunes store.

Now onto your uneducated statement of "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? " Easy - you go to your computer and all the music is still there. With HD prices well under a dollar per Gig of storage, you'd be pretty silly to ONLY have it on the iPod.

I realize you are just a hater, but at least come up with something that is actually wrong with the iPod.

[SamAdams76]

Have you used the iRiver hard drive player pictured above? I own an iRiver flash player (256MB) but found it very difficult and aggravating to use. The software interface was clunky and most jukebox programs like MusicMatch and iTunes refused to recognize it. I finally got MusicMatch to recognize it (by doing a software patch) but it was still a pain in the neck to get songs in there. I also found, to my disappointment, that protected WMA and AAC files would not play on it. Now iTunes won't play WMA files but version 4.5 and higher does at least allow you to convert WMA files into AAC files.

I did like the iRiver flash player once I got the songs on it.

[Centurion2000]

bump ... I got an Archos about 18 months ago .... not the best .. but it's a small tank.

[toupsie]

iPod + iTunes = iEnjoy. Works great with Macs AND PCs.

[SengirV]

And oh, unlike Apple, many of these support Janus. Google it up; Janus will dump the iPodpeople on their asses.

Is this the Janus where you HAVE to send a monthy payment directly to Redmond in order to listen to music? What happens if you are late with one payment? You can't listen to your music anymore. I suppose that if you were just starting out listening to music, you can go that route. But I already have lots of music and I don't feel like HAVING to pay a monthly just to pick up a new song here and there.

Don't forget to mail off that check to Billy G., he has his finger on the delete button of all your music.

[RayChuang88]

I think the iPod would have stayed a niche product if Apple said it would only support on the Macintosh platform. But Apple knew that many of today's PC-based computers now sport an IEEE-1394 FireWire port, so Apple produced the software that will allow the iPod to work with PC's that have the IEEE-1394 port, which DRASTICALLY increased the market for the iPod.

However, I'm surprised that Apple did not produce an iPod using the USB 2.0 connection, which most new computers (including recent production iMac's and Power Macs) have nowadays. With the transfer speed of USB 2.0 (up to 480 megabits per second), that's more than enough to transfer music from a desktop computer to the iPod easily.

But Apple cannot rest on its laurels: Microsoft with its monetary resources can have enough influence to push for more and more portable digital music players that are compatible with both MP3 and Microsoft's surprisingly good Windows Media Audio (WMA) format. I wouldn't be surprised that within a year there will be many online download "stores" that sell music in WMA format, especially given that Windows-based machines are something like 90% of the installed base of desktop machines out there.

[Born to Conserve]

Good luck when you need to change the battery.

[monkeyshine]

Get musicmatch. It blows iTunes away.

[killjoy]

there are plenty of better-performing, less-expensive alternatives that aren't rigidly locked into just one online music service.

You don't have to use their online music service. You can rip your own MP3s or download them from many sources and bypass their DRM.

[Born to Conserve]

IEEE-1394 FireWire was designed for hot swapping, but they (the IEEE-1394 FireWire people) now recommend powering down both devices before connecting or disconnecting.

[SamAdams76]

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?

Here's what I would do if my drive failed. I'd simply restore the data from my backup hard drive, where my music files are mirrored. If, in the crazy event that both my hard drives failed at the same time, I'd simply dump the contents of my iPod into my new hard drive. And if something really crazy happened, like if both my hard drives failed and a truck ran over my iPod all on the same day, I would simply buy a new iPod and a new hard drive and then I would restore the songs from the original CDs and the backup CDs I have of all my purchased songs.

And before some smartass posts here to say that you can't dump the contents of your iPod onto your hard drive, let me say that YES YOU CAN!

There are dozens of programs you can download on the web that will unlock the hidden directories on your iPod so that you can move the music on it back onto your computer. The only reason Apple does not support two-way downloading is because the record companies made them do it so that one couldn't go around with an iPod "selling" music. But of course, young kids with lots of time on their hands have developed progams that will bypass that protection and unlock your files. While Apple can never officially sanction such programs, lest they incur the wrath of the RIAA, you can bet that they smile about it behind closed doors.

[Bonaparte]

I'm a diehard iRiver fan too.

[js1138]

Please explain to me what happens when the battery dies.

[monkeyshine]

I got a second hard drive just for MP3s. I got a 120 gig drive and it's half full from my CD collection. Are you really gonna save your CD's? I've been debating whether to save them or sell them now while they still have some remaining value.

Then I thought, what if I trade them? Would it be legal to trade a CD which I burned to MP3, in order to get other CD's I will burn to MP3 and trade again and again until I have everything ever recorded on CD?

[killjoy]

I have Usenet addiction..

Me too. I figure I should download everything possible[1] before they start adding DRM to everything.

[1] Everything possible means the music that I already own on CD, Record and Cassette and have bought legally. It is wrong to support stealing from artists, even if the record companies do it on a daily basis....

[monkeyshine]

Please explain to me what happens when the battery dies.

You have to purchase the 3 year warranty. This way when the battery dies in 18 months you give it back to circuit city and they give you a new model.

[wardaddy]

Steve Jobs can afford to sell music at a loss at the rate he's selling the hardware.

[Petronski]

I've changed batteries in cordless phones that are tougher than the iPod.

[SamAdams76]

Good luck when you need to change the battery.

The battery problem is overblown. Only novices would pay the $100+ to ship the product to Apple for replacement. Savvy users will pay $30-40 for a replacement kit and do it themselves at home in about 15 minutes. Considering that you will have thousands of hours of use before the battery goes bad, it's a pretty good value.

Of course, by the time my iPod battery dies, the 80Gig iPods will be out and I'll be wanting to upgrade...

[SamAdams76]

However, I'm surprised that Apple did not produce an iPod using the USB 2.0 connection, which most new computers (including recent production iMac's and Power Macs) have nowadays. With the transfer speed of USB 2.0 (up to 480 megabits per second), that's more than enough to transfer music from a desktop computer to the iPod easily.

My iPod came with a Firewire cable AND a USB 2.0 cable.