An iPod for the sane?

As a new (three days) 40Gb iPod owner, maybe I can give you a little insight on my choice.

First, I have about 10Gb of mp3/aac files. That's going to go up, not down, so it was either a 20Gb or 40Gb for me.

What's so great about the iPod vs. other cheaper solutions?

1) Seamless interaction with OS X/iTunes

2) Storage (not only for mp3s, but pictures, or whatever kind of file you can imagine)

3) Calendar and Contacts. Syncs with iCal and the Address Book via iSynb. Yeah, iSync will sync up my cell phone, but this carries much more information, more details, and in a better layout.

4) Alarm clock. Good for the road.

5) iTrip. Forget that 6-disc CD changer, or buying a new head unit that plays mprs burned on CD-RW. I've got my entire music collection with me and can now transmit directly to my radio. I've got my own radio station!

6) The user interface and controls. If you've looked at the rest of the field, nothing even comes close to the iPod in this regard.

Yeah, I can agree that as only a mp3 player, it's on the expensive side and possibly not worth the cost...but when you take into consideration the entire package...I can't understand anyone buying anything else that's currently on the market.

I agree with most of Pablo's points. I just took the plunge myself on a 40GB ipod a few days ago.

My main reason was the simple fact that i can carry every cd I own with me in a nice small device... especially in the car. No more books of cds laying around.

it's all about the iPod

i'll admit, the current line of multi-gig iPods isn't for everyone (hence the market for a "miniPod"), but mine has been worth every penny.

i've had my 20GB since they were first released, what about a year & a half ago? i'm now watching with trepidation as my last few hundred MB are filled up. 🙁 i thought it would take me forever to fill up all 20GB, but turns out it's only taken a year & a half! keep in mind that i don't have NEARLY all of my CD collection on there, i don't want to listen to some of that junk on a daily basis. my iPod is stocked w/ a nice mix of music ripped from my own CDs, pirated downloads (WHICH by the way has lead to NUMEROUS CD purchases, thank you very much RIAA), iTMS songs & songs ripped from friends' CDs.

my iPod is my favorite gadget (and i love gadgets). i listen to it at work (like now), i listen to it in the car (radio stations suck) and iTunes has all but phased out my 5disc changer at home. i think if it came down to my cell phone or the iPod, that cool little phone would be out the door.

i think some people run out & buy the latest cool gadget b/c they see it on Cnet or TechTV without thinking when they'll actually use it or if they'll get their money's worth of enjoyment out of it. my only problem is holding off for a new rev of the iPod w/ new features (color screen w/ album art, hell-lo?) before i snap up that 40GB.

pick a player that's right for you, but make sure it doesn't do something stupid like rip music to a proprietary format like my first Sony MP3 player. that thing sucked, who wants to recompress an already compressed MP3 into ATRAC3, y'morons?

hope the new year brings lots of iPod fun, though!

I had a compact flash-based RCA Lyra before my iPod, and it wasn't so much swapping out one chunk of music for another that bothered me, but the necessity of determining what I'd want to listen to in advance. Just as soon as I'd come up with the perfect playlist, my mood would change, or I'd get sick of one of the songs in it, and either I'd have to re-load the player or shorten my listening time skipping what I no longer felt like hearing.

The iPod, by contrast, can carry enough music to switch between moods, artists, genres, playlists, or what-have-you, on the spur of the moment. And the Shuffle-Songs feature lets the iPod play the DJ. It really is like your own personal radio station, 24-7; or even your own personal soundtrack.

I've got a playlist for New music that I'm still getting acquainted with, but if I get tired of that and yearn for the familiar I can switch to the Good in 2003 list that contains everything with a rating of three stars or better that I've put into iTunes this year. Or I can bring back blasts from the past with the non-chronological Three Stars playlist. Or indulge a sudden genre craving with the Electronic playlist. It's all there, all the time.

Even with just 1,111 songs loaded to my iPod, the freedom to change up at will like that has changed both how I listen to music, and the rate at which I acquire new music. I've bought more music this year, both at the iTMS and as tradtional CDs, than I spent on music for the three previous years total!

While I can appreciate the most casual of users not needing anything more than limited capacity players, there are quite a lot of us that listen to music frequently enough, and have enough of it, that the iPod is a godsend. I hear a lot of criticism about carrying my entire music collection around with me, but when you're out with friends, or at work in the morning, or out jogging, and you get that *one* song in your head, it's nice to know it's there. When I'm going out, who knows if we'll want to listen to Audioslave or Counting Crows or Green Day?

Once you make the switch from multiple CD's to a single iPod, it's impossible to go back. I haven't listened to a music CD in many months, honestly.

But again, if you're a very casual music listener, the mini iPods should be right for you.

paul

I have the original 5gig model. Right now it's in the shop for repairs and I already miss it. All I have is my stupid CLIE to listen to music. Once you've used the iPod, it's REALLY hard to go back to anything else - I learned that while setting up the whole stupid thing to transfer music to the CLIE (Sonic Stage or some such moronic program; it crashed on me alredy twice. Way to go XP .. and it's on a godamn VAIO of all machines) 🙄

For me the iPod is totally worth it, and I think if you use it long enough, it'll grow on you.