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Apple Releases 4th Gen iPod

I think Apple would have been better off with keeping the iPods the same size, leaving them 1 mm larger. I mean, this creates so much unnecessary confusion. Now there are 3 docks (Original 3G iPod, mini, and 4G) and they are identified with names like "Click Wheel iPod" and "Touch Wheel iPod." And then there are multiple carrying cases, for the both Click Wheel iPods??? They are both .57 inches, yet there are two cases. Adding to this farce, the cases do not support the iPod with the Touch Wheel...

Apple, keep it simple for the average person okay? No one was going to notice 1 mm anyway.
 

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BeanTownBrawler said:
I ordered from the apple store, but now I am having second thoughts and thinking maybe I should wait and get it from best buy with a replacement plan. Are these things sturdy? My only worry is that I will drop it and break it one day.
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That's what I'm doing. Best Buy recently "sold out" of their 3G iPods. I'm sure they'll have the new 4Gs in within a week or two.

I think the iPod is very sturdy from what I've read, but I have a feeling the battery or headphone jack will fail before 4 years. The iPod minis at the Apple store had bad connections (Lots of static) I'm sure that's from 100s of people trying them out, but I've had issues with old Walkmen and their headphone jacks.

If Apple had a warranty like Best Buy's I would have ordered it today. But I can wait a little while and spend a very wise $40 to protect a $400 item. People are able to get a new iPod with very little effort. Well worth it. Apple is $60 for 2 years, Bestbuy $40 for 4 years. No contest.
 
Stella said:
RIAA are a load of crying babies (as we all know)... you don't come across many organisations that cry so much... i'm surprised they aren't getting upset about MiniDiscs... you *have* to copy music to use miniDiscs..
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The prime usage for me with MD is doing live recordings of concerts, so no you don't "have" to copy music to use MDs.
 
My 1G 10GB gave up the gun a few months ago, so I've been waiting for this new release. Hopefully the new one will last longer than 18 months!

I can't decide whether to go for the 20 or 40gb model.

I only have 2100 songs on my iPod at the moment, so 5,000 (20gb) would be more than enough. Also, it's considerably thinner and lighter than the 40gb one.

But, I want a dock. So that'd mean an extra £45 on the dock and dock cable. And after that, I could upgrade to double the capacity for £35.

The sensible thing to do would be to get the 40gb because it's much better value for money. But, I'd never use 10,000 songs. So maybe the size and weight are more important?

Help me decide!
 
Freg3000 said:
Now there are 3 docks (Original 3G iPod, mini, and 4G) and they are identified with names like "Click Wheel iPod" and "Touch Wheel iPod." And then there are multiple carrying cases, for the both Click Wheel iPods??? They are both .57 inches, yet there are two cases. Adding to this farce, the cases do not support the iPod with the Touch Wheel...
Click to expand...

3 docks I understand. The 4G's charge with USB2. I think this is hardware based. The 3G docks fit 2 sizes of iPods (the 30/40 GB 3G is thicker than the 40GB 4G)

The cases I have no idea, The 40GB 3G iPod fit in the same case as the 10GB 3G? but the 40GB 4G doesn't work in that case? I'm glad I don't want their case!
 
Excellent post, i_wolf

i_wolf said:
I have an existing 3G 20gig ipod. Great little device. I know its hard to improve upon perfection but I have to be honest and say that I am a little disappointed by this release. I just like to see things move forward and improve constantly. While some of these features (click wheel) are a step in the right direction, there is nothing revolutionary and I guess that was what I was expecting from apple.
Things I would have liked to see Apple listen to the community and incorporate in 4G ipod... heck some of their competitors have had these features for ages.

1) User customizable equaliser ..... the karma, iriver and others have had this option for ages.
2) Replacable battery. For me the ipod is tiny, I wouldn't mind it being slight bigger if it meant that I could buy extra batteries for it. The Zen is selling with this feature.
3) Better battery life. Apple has jumped to a claimed 12 hours with this revision.... Creative are up to a claimed 24 hours with the new zen. iriver, rio and others have been selling devices with 16 hours for the past year. Cowon now sells an M3 Long Play with a claimed 35 hour battery life.
4) Get rid of that silly scratch prone crome on the ipod. They could still maintain the white on silver look by using bruched aluminium on the rear.
5) I don't know if I should be putting this in as a gripe, because it hasn't been established yet.... but it would be nice if Apple continually made efforts to improve upon the sound of the ipod between revisions. By virtue of the fact that they don't mention audio specifications... I'm assuming that they did not do this and that the innards of the G4 ipod are probably identical to the G3.
Other than that I am happy with the smalll improvements such as click wheel multiple on the go playlists. I was hoping that they would not include a color screen etc... and thankfully they didn't. Its a music player first and foremost and keep things simple. As for a radio.... why the hell do I want a radio when I can store thousands of songs on a tiny little device !
Click to expand...

Excellent post.
 
BeanTownBrawler said:
You sure Best Buy is 40 for 4 years? I went there last week and they said it was 40 for 1 year.
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I am looking at the printout I made when I was looking to buy the $399 20GB iPod from Bestbuy. As of 7/8/2004 the PSP was $39.99 for 4 years. (It was a bit more for the 40GB and a bit less for 15GB, so I thought the 4G ipod at the same price would cost the same for the PSP)

I hope they don't change it when they do get the 4Gs in stock.
 
romerom said:
did you get on the phone acting like an ass? i just called and was very polite and got my order updated with the remote/carrying case at no additional charge.
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Nope, very polite, assured the people on the other end I understood what had happened, but made sure they knew I was not going to receive what I had ordered. I tried to keep pushing, but never raised my voice or made any sort of threats. I know people who would do this (maybe I should have if I noticed my 'polite' tactics getting me nowhere) but I refrained from lowering myself.

Either way, I just got back from the Apple Store in Durham and am now the proud owner of a 3G 40GB model. If I decide I was wrong in this decision, I can always go back and exchange it (hopefully within the 14 day return period, they will have the new model, should I change my mind)

Now it's just a matter of weighing out my options (durability of clickwheel, do I need the remote/case, aesthetic appeal, etc.).
 
croooow said:
That's what I'm doing. Best Buy recently "sold out" of their 3G iPods. I'm sure they'll have the new 4Gs in within a week or two.

I think the iPod is very sturdy from what I've read, but I have a feeling the battery or headphone jack will fail before 4 years. The iPod minis at the Apple store had bad connections (Lots of static) I'm sure that's from 100s of people trying them out, but I've had issues with old Walkmen and their headphone jacks.

If Apple had a warranty like Best Buy's I would have ordered it today. But I can wait a little while and spend a very wise $40 to protect a $400 item. People are able to get a new iPod with very little effort. Well worth it. Apple is $60 for 2 years, Bestbuy $40 for 4 years. No contest.
Click to expand...



except best buy now sends your ipod out "to be fixed" which basically mean they screw you around for two weeks and then give you a new one...

well thats what happened when i went from the 30 to the 40...
 
g30ffr3y said:
except best buy now sends your ipod out "to be fixed" which basically mean they screw you around for two weeks and then give you a new one...

well thats what happened when i went from the 30 to the 40...
Click to expand...

The sad part is that they now do that because so many people have abused it that they need to check the unit out to make sure some overzealous individual didn't come in, smack their iPod around and hope to get a 'free' upgrade using the plan.

I've seen / read too many 'blow by blow' descriptions on how exactly to screw people out of things including one where they bought a warranty upgrade after the fact in one city, emailed the results so a guy could return an iPod he broke under the 'extended warranty'
 
A couple of quick questions: Can you get the educational discount at an apple retail store? Also, can you use your apple loan at the retail store?
 
caseyD said:
And wait wait, while people are talking about iPods, let me ask this. So, alright. I have two computers, my old pc, and my new powerbook. I've got like 3,000 songs on the old PC, and I want to hook the iPod up to the PC, get the songs to the iPod (which I've done), and then plug into the powerbook, and put the songs on the iPod on the powerbook. This doesn't work, though, because when I plug into the powerbook, the songs all come up in iTunes but they're greyed over and locked.

Can anyone help me out with this?
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Check the 'Enable disk use' in the iPod Preferences in iTunes (bottom right of the iTunes window) on both computers. The iPod now shows up as an external harddrive on both computers, copy the iTunes/Music folder from the PC to the iPod. Connect the iPod to the Powerbook, drag the whole Music folder into the iTunes window, say yes if asked whether you want to copy the files. After you have verified that the songs can be played on the Powerbook, delete them from the iPod.
 
debo said:
A couple of quick questions: Can you get the educational discount at an apple retail store? Also, can you use your apple loan at the retail store?
Click to expand...

You can use your loan (just make sure to bring a picture ID), but AFAIK, you can only get the ed discount online (unless their policies have changed since the beginning of last semester).

-Pete
 
Trekkie said:
The sad part is that they now do that because so many people have abused it that they need to check the unit out to make sure some overzealous individual didn't come in, smack their iPod around and hope to get a 'free' upgrade using the plan.
Click to expand...



actually i put it in the microwave for three seconds... WHAM!!! ten more
gigs... slight hassle... new ipod...

its like getting your moneys worth out of the warranty even when you
buy products that just dont break...
 

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ddbean said:
The prime usage for me with MD is doing live recordings of concerts, so no you don't "have" to copy music to use MDs.
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You are copying music when you record live concerts.. 😀

I'm sure the RIAA aren't too happy about that!
 
soypunk said:
The 40gb does not come with the with the remote or carrying case - it is an error on the tech spec pages and Apple is currently fixing it. If you ordered an iPod this morning you might want to look into having your orders fixed to include the items you thought you were getting (as Kim has noted and several others in forums around the web, Apple is acknowledging the error and adding the items at no charge to the order.)
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Its not an error. They decided not to put them in, so they are compenating for it with people who bought them already. Why would they give them 2 if it was just an error on the tech specs page?
 
It's great that the price came down on existing disk sizes. I have a few friends that are suddenly considering buying one now. However I don't like the new click wheel. I have used the ones on iPod mini and I dont like it. I have a 3g 30GB iPod and I love the way the buttons look when they light up. I also thought the touch button technology was really cool. It is nice that no dirt/dust can get into the iPod through the buttons/wheel. I wish Apple would have refined the tech and fixed the non-response issue instead of going to a grey click wheel. Oh well, I guess I just am stubborn to accept change, and I will remain satisfied with my current iPod.
 
Out of those that dislike Apple's carry case for the ipod, anyone care to suggest what they use instead?
 
trox_355 said:
You can use your loan (just make sure to bring a picture ID), but AFAIK, you can only get the ed discount online (unless their policies have changed since the beginning of last semester).

-Pete
Click to expand...

No this is not correct. I bought my wife's iBook at a Apple Retail store using the Ed discount. It might even be easier in person. All they needed to see was a student ID.
 
Andy_Hedin said:
That sounds like the same firmware that I'm running, I believe it was released on April 29th, or thereabouts.

Please take a look at your iPod, as I can't possibly see how you managed to get the "Shuffle" item to appear at the top-level menu on a 3G iPod running 2.2 firmware.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I was wrong. It wasn't shuffle I moved to the main menu, it's still just there under settings.
 
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