iPOD

[Amelia G]

What does iPOD stand for?

Do you have one? Do you like it?

[morbid_lady]

whats an ipod?
probably a stupid question, but i've heard of them, i just really dont know what the hell they are.

[ForrestBlack]

I Pirate Originals Digitally

[Tequila Zaire]

I Pirate Originals Digitally

Sounds about right...not that it matters much. The RIAA made themselves a target years ago when they refused to adjust CD prices and failed to embrace digital distribution when analysts and tech guru's told them too...they knew about the MP3 long before it became a realistic way to share and convert music. They sowed the seeds for their own destruction.

As far as the iPod goes...couldn't live without it now. It goes with me everywhere...I get a real kick out of having thousands of soungs at my fingertips.

[ForrestBlack]

Isn't that like saying 7-Eleven deserves to be robbed?

[Amelia G]

Isn't that like saying 7-Eleven deserves to be robbed?

If they can't figure out a way to digitally deliver me snacks and beverages when the elevator is broken, then they deserve to be robbed.

[ForrestBlack]

In that case, I'll be right back...

[TheWalkingGlitch]

I'm not fond of iPods, myself... I don't trust Apple's computers any farther than I can throw an elephant, and I trust them even less to deal with music properly. I'm also not fond of the hard drive idea... sure it holds a lot more songs than a Flash drive of similar physical mass, but hard drives break way more easily. Around here, even just the thermal shock of going between +20ºC to about -40 would kill it in a week. (For reference, 20ºC is about 70ºF, and -40 is the same on both scales.) I went out of my way to get a different make of MP3 player with a Flash drive instead of a hard drive, and it hasn't given me any troubles yet.

[Tequila Zaire]

Isn't that like saying 7-Eleven deserves to be robbed?

If you set yourself up to be...yeah. They tried to kill P2P and now BitTorrent...they put the loaded guns in the hands of their enemies and asked to be shot. So unlike 7-11...the RIAA was a little too late in putting in security camera's and 911 on speed dial. You walk into 7-11 you know you are getting screwed cause of the convinience...with the RIAA you get screwed no matter what and no matter where. It's just really hard for me to have sympathy for a structure that could have evolved to such an amazingly high degree with technology HANDED TO THEM...and yet they ignored it and stuck to their antiquaited ideas and schemes.

It's time for the last bullet in the head and for something new to rise up.

[Tequila Zaire]

I'm not fond of iPods, myself... I don't trust Apple's computers any farther than I can throw an elephant, and I trust them even less to deal with music properly. I'm also not fond of the hard drive idea... sure it holds a lot more songs than a Flash drive of similar physical mass, but hard drives break way more easily. Around here, even just the thermal shock of going between +20ºC to about -40 would kill it in a week. (For reference, 20ºC is about 70ºF, and -40 is the same on both scales.) I went out of my way to get a different make of MP3 player with a Flash drive instead of a hard drive, and it hasn't given me any troubles yet.

Well to be totally fair to apple the iPod is a true peice of techno art in terms of it's ease of use, design, and functionality. And from what I've head from various iPod owners...damn thing can survive quite a bit with responsible care and protection. ipod lounge has a iPod around the world gallery and shows it in all sorts of crazy places with their owners.

And lets also remember they were the ONLY digital distribution of legally downloadable music to not only work...but work well and find success. I don't use the service myself anymore (I prefer other pay sites...I have not downloaded music off P2P for 2 years now) but I will admit it is a much better model then the old record store ideal. It's just not working anymore.

[MistressJennifer]

iPOD, always reminded me of a pea pod, or maybe a space pod!!!! But what it really stands for is "I'm Pissed Over DUMBBLONDES!!!"

[TheWalkingGlitch]

Well to be totally fair to apple the iPod is a true peice of techno art in terms of it's ease of use, design, and functionality.

That one's debatable, as I've seen a number of other ones with similarly easy interface. Though Apple was at least one of the first ones (if not the first... certainly the first mass-marketed one, though that doesn't necessarily mean much) to do it that way; a lot of the older ones are indeed needlessly confusing.

And from what I've head from various iPod owners...damn thing can survive quite a bit with responsible care and protection.

Yeah, it is admittedly a fairly robust little thing for what it is. I was surprised.

And lets also remember they were the ONLY digital distribution of legally downloadable music to not only work...but work well and find success.

Debatable again, as I've seen some fairly other good places to start doing the same thing... though not having used their service myself, I can't pass judgement as to whether it's significantly better or not.

[BrightStar]

Intelligent Pudding Of Doom.

[Tequila Zaire]

That one's debatable, as I've seen a number of other ones with similarly easy interface. Though Apple was at least one of the first ones (if not the first... certainly the first mass-marketed one, though that doesn't necessarily mean much) to do it that way; a lot of the older ones are indeed needlessly confusing.

How is it debteable exactly? Nearly all the portable players out now have either blatently stolen or been heavily influenced by the iPod's interface design. Given when it came out I'd really like to know what other player was on the same level...cause as I remember not a one matched it in terms of interface and it is only after 4 generations of the iPod that companies have caught up and yet none have been able to match it's popularity or ease of use...being able to navigate THOUSANDS of songs easily is pretty damned amazing.

Debatable again, as I've seen some fairly other good places to start doing the same thing... though not having used their service myself, I can't pass judgement as to whether it's significantly better or not.

Well that's the key...START...iTunes started it long before the new services out now and set the model up for how it should be done. Few services like it have lasted as long or even have as big a library. It's really the only legal music download service to stay above the water line as many have drowned away or last a few months. Though I personally like allofmp3.com and while their legality is debateable they are the ONLY service I would use due to their one key and important option...codec and compression choices.

If the RIAA had been smart enough to do that at a fair price they would own music like never before...

[TheWalkingGlitch]

How is it debteable exactly? Nearly all the portable players out now have either blatently stolen or been heavily influenced by the iPod's interface design.

Nearly all... but not all Apple did have a good idea in that regard, and while there really are only so many ways to do something well, it's a mistake to say that theirs is the only good one. The MP3 player I own has a significantly different style of interface that I actually like a little better, though that's entirely subjective.

Given when it came out I'd really like to know what other player was on the same level...cause as I remember not a one matched it in terms of interface

None that I knew of... a friend of mine had a fairly obscure one that came pretty close interface-wise, but the iPod beats it because his was way too clunky when it came to getting songs on it (had to burn 'em onto a mini-CD, which was thankfully rewritable and came with the player).

and it is only after 4 generations of the iPod that companies have caught up and yet none have been able to match it's popularity

Popularity is an iffy qualifier, on sheer virtue of the fact that people tend to trust what they already know of. If presented with a choice between a known product and an unknown one, most will choose the known one; thus, what is already popular stays so, and what isn't doesn't generally get to be popular.

Well that's the key...START...iTunes started it long before the new services out now and set the model up for how it should be done. Few services like it have lasted as long or even have as big a library. It's really the only legal music download service to stay above the water line as many have drowned away or last a few months.

Well now that depends on whether or not you care if you get your music legally. I'm personally inclined to walk around wearing a gigantic blinking neon sign that says "Fuck the RIAA!" and certainly am not even considering paying for any songs at this point in time, though that's just me.

they are the ONLY service I would use due to their one key and important option...codec and compression choices

Yes, those are certainly very important. I would still love to get to a site that lets you download the original .wav in place of a crappily compressed mp3, or at the very least an ogg.

If the RIAA had been smart enough to do that at a fair price they would own music like never before...

It's true. [Insert obvious rant about corporate greed here].


Though speaking of compression, can the newer iPods handle a .ogg extension? I know the older ones couldn't, though I haven't bought a new one since my first died on me, and that was some time ago.

[synthetikdemon]

The Ipod mini is superb, jsut enough to keep me going for three days back and forth to work , and easy to update.

It has all my Nick Cave on there and I think its never coming off

Synth

[chaosfeary]

one key and important option...codec and compression choices.

Yeah, it seems very hard to get hold of genuinely CD-quality music in digital format from the internet, no matter how much you are willing to pay.. I prefer to buy CDs first and then convert.

I don't have an Ipod, I have an 80GB music/video player+video/audio recorder

[Tequila Zaire]

Nearly all... but not all Apple did have a good idea in that regard, and while there really are only so many ways to do something well, it's a mistake to say that theirs is the only good one. The MP3 player I own has a significantly different style of interface that I actually like a little better, though that's entirely subjective.

At the time of the first generation iPods their was nothing even close to it in terms of what it could do. Most portables where less than a gig or had horrible battery life. So truthfully it's the portable player that opened the digital market in a difrection it SHOULD go...if it didn't we'd still be in the sub gig era...though I personally would love to see mini HD's take off...4 gig ultra mini drives would be interesting to see as a portable way to take music...and I mean MINI..they are about the size of a quarter.

Popularity is an iffy qualifier, on sheer virtue of the fact that people tend to trust what they already know of. If presented with a choice between a known product and an unknown one, most will choose the known one; thus, what is already popular stays so, and what isn't doesn't generally get to be popular.

It took me quite a while to decide on the iPod (though I got it at a spur of the moment thing while I went out to get chinese food) and have to say it lives up to it's insane hype. So really it's one of the few cases where a product lives up to it's rep.

Well now that depends on whether or not you care if you get your music legally. I'm personally inclined to walk around wearing a gigantic blinking neon sign that says "Fuck the RIAA!" and certainly am not even considering paying for any songs at this point in time, though that's just me.

allofMp3 charges 1cent a meg (uping to 2cents a meg on jan 15th) and I use it to find stuff I can't get on CD's and love the fact you can choose how it's compressed OR the full .wav file.

Yes, those are certainly very important. I would still love to get to a site that lets you download the original .wav in place of a crappily compressed mp3, or at the very least an ogg.

I'm a big fan of the lame codec so at least for my ear's they sound far better than most other mp3 codecs...I keep portable music as just that...portable. I have my home stereo and tricked out PC for audophile level music playback. So one should know what they want before they invest even a dime into a music collection.

Though speaking of compression, can the newer iPods handle a .ogg extension? I know the older ones couldn't, though I haven't bought a new one since my first died on me, and that was some time ago.

Honestly I'll have to check...never been to fond of it personally.

[Tequila Zaire]

Yeah, it seems very hard to get hold of genuinely CD-quality music in digital format from the internet, no matter how much you are willing to pay.. I prefer to buy CDs first and then convert.

I don't have an Ipod, I have an 80GB music/video player+video/audio recorder

What's the battey life on one of those? Been thinking about scoring one soon but have yet to find one that is worthwhile.

[chaosfeary]

16 hours for music or 4 ½ hours for video on built-in LCD (from AV480 specs page).

I got it recently and it seems great so far, it plays music and video great, displays album art while tracks play, can output to a TV screen with little hassle, has a great media library system that catalogues automatically everything by artist, album etc and lets you browse through the folder filesystem too - It even has a small built-in speaker and a microphone. With the cradle attached it can play on hi-fi's too

I love it.. but I read just a bit ago from a link in a users group for the Archos devices (I was trying to get MPGs converted to AVI to play, turned out I needed to download the converter from the Archos site and use that, which then told me the reason was I had wrong versions of video codecs so mystery solved, hehe..) about a new version to succeed the AV480, the AV500/PMA400 with "the addition of Internet connectivity, a touch screen, a PIM application suite, synchronization with Microsoft applications, games, "and more," (from here)... So if that comes out any time soon I'll maybe see if I can get a refund/swap, provided it isn't any bigger.

[Kidthorazine]

im fine with my MiniDisc that holds an ungodly amount of music pls the player is half the size of an i-pod and less than half the price

[PaulCat]

Did anyone see the ipod video on Kontraband.com?

The one where the guy tries ringing Apple to see how much a replacement battery would be and it would be, and it would be cheaper to get a brand new ipod!

This was after he'd had it from new, and it was only 18 months old!

*Searches for link*

Here we are!
Ipod's dirty little secret!

http://www.kontraband.com/show/show.asp?ID=1063&NSFW=

PaulCat.

[chaosfeary]

Never seen it before.. Interesting. heh, it looks tiny on my screen, here's the direct link to the movie if anyone wants it, that way you can resize it while it plays: http://www.kontrabandcontent.co.uk/1...rty_secret.mov

[Tequila Zaire]

im fine with my MiniDisc that holds an ungodly amount of music pls the player is half the size of an i-pod and less than half the price

I love the MiniDisc, used one for years and still have one I use quite regularly...it's a great alternative but the amount of travel I go puts a hurt on it after a while and starts to skip pretty badly (this is to be fair after nearly 3 years of heavy use though).

I would have kept up with the format had it not been for the convineance of an iPod in terms of carrying insane amounts of music...I loved carrying lil MD's around with me but it got pretty crazy when I was carrying nearly 20 with me...

[Tequila Zaire]

The one where the guy tries ringing Apple to see how much a replacement battery would be and it would be, and it would be cheaper to get a brand new ipod!

Little known fact...you can manually replace the battery. Various iPod sites will show you how...all you need the battery you can score cheaply and a guitar pick.

[postcoital]

I tried finidng an answer at apple.com, but then I read about the iPOD shuffle and I couldn't stop laughing. Sorry, I failed that quest

[funkatron]

Did anyone see the ipod video on Kontraband.com?

The one where the guy tries ringing Apple to see how much a replacement battery would be and it would be, and it would be cheaper to get a brand new ipod!

This was after he'd had it from new, and it was only 18 months old!

*Searches for link*

Here we are!
Ipod's dirty little secret!

http://www.kontraband.com/show/show.asp?ID=1063&NSFW=

PaulCat.

Very old story, already dealt with long ago. Apple offers battery replacement for a fairly reasonable fee, and several third parties do as well.

[funkatron]

What does iPOD stand for?

Do you have one? Do you like it?

Well, it's iPod, not iPOD. I don't believe the Pod portion was intended to be an acronym.

I have one and love it. Absolutely the best digital music player I've owned. Worth every penny.

[funkatron]

I'm a big fan of the lame codec so at least for my ear's they sound far better than most other mp3 codecs...I keep portable music as just that...portable. I have my home stereo and tricked out PC for audophile level music playback. So one should know what they want before they invest even a dime into a music collection.

Just to be a bitch: LAME isn't a codec; it's just a program (and library) that encodes sound files to mp3 format. The developers have focused on sound quality over speed, and it's gained a lot of popularity for that reason.

Honestly I'll have to check...never been to fond of it personally.

iPods do not support .ogg. I'd be pretty surprised if they ever did.

[Tequila Zaire]

Just to be a bitch: LAME isn't a codec; it's just a program (and library) that encodes sound files to mp3 format. The developers have focused on sound quality over speed, and it's gained a lot of popularity for that reason.

News to me it's always been listed as such...

[funkatron]

News to me it's always been listed as such...

Actually, I think I'm wrong about this. It *is* technically a codec (in that it enCOdes to mp3, and can DECode from mp3 to wav), but it works only with the mp3 format. Typically I've associated the term "codec" with a particular file format, but I think that's erroneous.

[TheWalkingGlitch]

iPods do not support .ogg. I'd be pretty surprised if they ever did.

Figured that. Thanks for confirming it though.

[Nightingale]

Intelligent Pudding Of Doom.

I can live with that.