[pyro-manic]

Originally posted by Raa
Waste. Of. Money.

iPod = starbucks for the technophiles

People just trying to be trendy.

Amen.

Though I wouldn't say technophiles. "Trendy bastards" is a better term, I feel...

[Inquisitor]

I am neither filthy rich, nor am I stupid. I MAY be a yuppie (but I expect I am too old for that description).

I did not buy it to be trendy, and maybe I am simply deaf, but I find the sound quality to be excellent.

I re-submit that you are *****ing to *****, not because you actually have a substative comment to make about the device. I have one, I know exactly what it is, and is not capable of, and I find it to be an excellent piece of technology that actually has made an impact on my life (I now actually LISTEN to all the music I oown, rather than let the CD's collect dust).

[Deepblue]

The point is there are better and cheaper options out there. Yet the iPod gets all the love because it IS trendy.

[mikhael]

It couldn't be because of iTunes, or the fact that it was the first non-geeky mp3 player (ie it doesn't look like a PDA, calculator, whatever).

[vyper]

Well firstly, in all seriousness, it couldn't be iTunes. I've used it on my mate's PC (his g/f has an iPod, he has a zen) and I couldn't stand it.

As for the non-geeky part, does that fall under the trendy issue?

[mikhael]

I hate it too. But my wife, who is as non geeky as you can get, loves iTunes. You're making the same mistake most techie sorts make: not everyone is a geek. Not everyone judges something on its technical merit. Being trendy is not the same as being non-geeky. After all, a Ford Thunderbird is neither petrolhead nor trendy.

Yes the iPod is trendy, but its trendy because it was the first MP3 player to appeal to the eyes of Joe Average Consumer as well as his ears.

[Raiden]

I have nothing against iPods, I used to love using my ex-girlfriends, it was a very cool piece of kit. Although that's the only mp3 player I've ever used, so I don't have anything to compare it against, I had no problems whatsoever. The Click-Wheel is very cool...it's a very good piece of design on Apple's part. When you use the iPod, it's almost like you're carressing it. It's very clever.

I am tempted to get an iPod, but there's two things holding me back. One, iTunes. I don't have a lot of disk space, and I don't like the idea of having my entire CD collection on my computer eating up the precious memory I have left. Two, the fact that whenever they bring a new iPod out, a few months later they bring out a new, updated version. I'd be super-pissed if I'd bought a Nano when they first came out, and saw this new video iPod.

[Deepblue]

Have to give apple props for the Nano. Apart from iTunes, the easy scratching, an outrageous price, and the lack of an FM radio, its actually okay.

[mikhael]

Originally posted by Raiden
I have nothing against iPods, I used to love using my ex-girlfriends, it was a very cool piece of kit. Although that's the only mp3 player I've ever used, so I don't have anything to compare it against, I had no problems whatsoever. The Click-Wheel is very cool...it's a very good piece of design on Apple's part. When you use the iPod, it's almost like you're carressing it. It's very clever.

That wheel makes me wish someone would buy Apple and iRiver and put out the iRiver iHP-120 out with the Ipod scroll wheel. Its the finest human interface device I've seen yet on an MP3 player.

I am tempted to get an iPod, but there's two things holding me back. One, iTunes. I don't have a lot of disk space, and I don't like the idea of having my entire CD collection on my computer eating up the precious memory I have left. [snip]

Actually, you don't HAVE to keep your collection on your computer. My wife pulls her MP3s off my fileserver or off CDRom as she needs them. Admittedly, this is very much NOT the way iTunes is intended to be used (and one of the reasons I hate iTunes).

[Mongoose]

There's actually a Winamp plugin that allows for file transfer to iPods. I don't have any reports on how well it works, though.

[Sandwich]

Originally posted by mikhael

That wheel makes me wish someone would buy Apple and iRiver and put out the iRiver iHP-120 out with the Ipod scroll wheel. Its the finest human interface device I've seen yet on an MP3 player.

Amen. If only Apple hadn't patented the wheel.


Wow, that sounds weird.

[Ace]

Damn Steve Jobs! I have to pay royalties every time I open the garage door and drive my car! Same with that scrolling wheel on my mouse!

Curses!

[mikhael]

Apple failed the wheel patent, AFAIK. Its only the threat of a patent that kept everyone else from using it, and that was just the original wheel (mechanical) anyway. The patent for the touch wheel is owned by Synaptics, because it just uses the same tech as all the touchpads on all the laptops in the world.

[Sandwich]

So wait, what is preventing, say, iRiver from coming out with a player that has a similar wheel?

[mikhael]

Looking bad in the marketplace, I guess. The problem there is that right now Apple has the Synaptics contract tied up. S isn't going make the wheel pad for anyone else until that contract expires and fails to renew.

[Clave]

I can't believe all this whinging about iPods and iTunes - get over it already!

For the average punter iTunes is the best software ever invented - it's logical, easy to use, and reliable, so what's the big deal?...

Same for the iPod - true there are technically better players around, but they look like crap, so what do you think the average person is going to buy?

[Grey Wolf]

iTunes lacks the ability for me to conveninently control it from my keyboard, and I'm intensely against v.5.0. The 4.x line wasn't bad though.

[mikhael]

Originally posted by Clave
I can't believe all this whinging about iPods and iTunes - get over it already!

For the average punter iTunes is the best software ever invented - it's logical, easy to use, and reliable, so what's the big deal?...

My wife is the average computer user and it drove her nuts last night trying rip an audiobook to her iPod.

I'm a rather advanced computer user and I have trouble with iTunes because it manages to turn a simple concept (COPY FILE FROM SOURCE TO DESTINATION) into something hideously contrived (ADD FILE TO LIBRARY THEN WAIT UNTIL YOU HOOK UP DESTINATION AND SOURCE WILL AUTOMATICALLY BE COPIED). Dude. What was wrong with drag and drop?