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Originally posted by leet1
$300 is not peanuts, $300 is $300. I'd never spend $300 on an mp3 player, but thats just me. I'm a college student and already only spending $5 a day, lol. I can't cut anymore outta that.

You've got a point, but not all the way.

Save just a little, or, gasp, get a job and bam, you'd have a nice 10GB in no time.

I'm a college student too, I know what it's like living on next to nothing. Not much fun, but hey, it builds character!🙄
 
Just one point about the iPod's superiority that many people tend to forget...

For a power user, it's a good idea to partition some space on your iPod to install a copy of your OS (and Norton Systemworks) for troubleshooting system problems. I've seen machines of all types refuse to boot from a CD when their OS is shot, but they will work with external hard drives. Plug in your iPod, hold down option while booting, select your firewire drive, and bam! You can run the system from your iPod, backup data to your iPod, run Norton, and save a machine that otherwise would have required disassembly to get the data from the hard drive.

Can Dell do that with their DJ? Can Samsung do that with their thingy? Nope. I'm damn sure Sony can't...
 
Originally posted by sethypoo
Um, yes it is a status symbol, look at the price. And don't try to tell me a $50,000+ car isn't a status symbol. Everyone who comes out with a new MP3 product calls it a "iPod killer." They wish they could have the kind of *status* Apple has with their iPod.

🙄

A $300 Mp3 player is not a status symbol. Im sorry if you bought it for this reason. Now, if you bought it to hold all your mp3s, listen to them, ect. your doing good 😀

A $50,000 car can be a status symbol "in some areas" lol but that has nothing to do with what I'm talking about. Where talking MP3 players.
 
Originally posted by the_dalex
Just one point about the iPod's superiority that many people tend to forget...

For a power user, it's a good idea to partition some space on your iPod to install a copy of your OS (and Norton Systemworks) for troubleshooting system problems. I've seen machines of all types refuse to boot from a CD when their OS is shot, but they will work with external hard drives. Plug in your iPod, hold down option while booting, select your firewire drive, and bam! You can run the system from your iPod, backup data to your iPod, run Norton, and save a machine that otherwise would have required disassembly to get the data from the hard drive.

Can Dell do that with their DJ? Can Samsung do that with their thingy? Nope. I'm damn sure Sony can't...

Wow, thank you so much! That post is why I joined MacRumors.com. Again, thanks.

🙂 🙄 😀
 
"While crediting Apple and its chief executive, Steve Jobs, for the success of the iPod, Sony executives said the PSP would allow consumers to watch music videos as well as listen to digital tunes.

"We are taking on iPod with our new device," another Sony executive said. "We are coming at him (Steve Jobs) on that front.""

Wrong, Sony boneheads. First of all, if you're willing to waste valuable space on your device to store memory-sucking music videos with your tunes, you're a nimrod. The technology already exists anyway. You can Sorenson a whole movie and store it on a PDA, but I don't know that there's a huge demand for that capability when you can watch DVDs on a notebook computer with better quality and far less hassle.

Typical hype from the folks at Sony who honestly think there's a passionate brand-loyal consumer culture out there, on par with Apple's, willing to buy into anything they produce at whatever cost or restriction that follows.
 
Originally posted by sethypoo
You've got a point, but not all the way.

Save just a little, or, gasp, get a job and bam, you'd have a nice 10GB in no time.

Have a job. Paying for insurance on a bike,car and the bike payment, as well as my breakfast<which never happens, lol> , lunch, and dinner.
 
Originally posted by leet1
A $300 Mp3 player is not a status symbol. Im sorry if you bought it for this reason. Now, if you bought it to hold all your mp3s, listen to them, ect. your doing good 😀

A $50,000 car can be a status symbol "in some areas" lol but that has nothing to do with what I'm talking about. Where talking MP3 players.

The $50,000 car idea was a "metaphor," maybe you'll learn about them in college! 🙂

Read any tech article (cnet.com, zdnet.com, so on) and you'll find that they almost always mention the idea of the iPod being a status symbol. "The signature white ear buds" one of them recently wrote, I believe.

Yes, yes, (yawn) I bought the iPod as a MP3 (er, AAC) player for the music reason. I was pleasantly surprised to find it was in fact a *status* symbol.

Oh, jeez, slow down on the posts, leet1. This isn't a popularity contest. 🙄
 
Originally posted by leet1
$300 is not peanuts, $300 is $300. I'd never spend $300 on an mp3 player, but thats just me. I'm a college student and already only spending $5 a day, lol. I can't cut anymore outta that.

Sorry, I won't cut you any slack here. College students are poor and an iPod is a luxury. Want an iPod? Get a job, any job, you'll have the money in no time.

Too many college students today won't work. I remember college well, it wasn't that long ago. Plenty of free time; working part time would not kill them.

Want an incentive? Get a job, buy an iPod and I'll send you an iTunes GC. A college mind is a terrible thing to waste.
 
Originally posted by the_dalex
Just one point about the iPod's superiority that many people tend to forget...

For a power user, it's a good idea to partition some space on your iPod to install a copy of your OS (and Norton Systemworks) for troubleshooting system problems. I've seen machines of all types refuse to boot from a CD when their OS is shot, but they will work with external hard drives. Plug in your iPod, hold down option while booting, select your firewire drive, and bam! You can run the system from your iPod, backup data to your iPod, run Norton, and save a machine that otherwise would have required disassembly to get the data from the hard drive.

Can Dell do that with their DJ? Can Samsung do that with their thingy? Nope. I'm damn sure Sony can't...

Can I do this on an external FW drive? What s/w would I use to partition it? I assume I'd have to reformat it and lose what's on there now. Any help appreciated.
 
Originally posted by sethypoo
The $50,000 car idea was a "metaphor," maybe you'll learn about them in college! 🙂
🙄 god! really? I do hope so! I wouldn't think that my education would reach such high and complicated terms as "metaphor"

This isn't a popularity contest. 🙄

wtf?
I heard first place gets a dual G5. I was trying my hardest and to find this out: heartbreak. lol
 
Originally posted by jonapete2001
IMO they have the best pc laptops, the best stereos, the best tv's, vcrs dvd players. this is a serious threat to apple they better step it up a noch or 2 before sony can do its thing.

Just look at what they did to nintendo when the playstation was released.

The playstation was the result of YEARS of planning, and development, courting game publishing houses, and a completely new tactic (video games purely for the 20+ crowd). This is not the same beast.

Sony is again looking to make a new market with this product...but in the playstation case the timing was better. Sega was ready to be thwarted, the market was beginning to stagnate, and Nintendo believed itself to be an unstoppable force, but was not willing to take the games to the gamers with money. So Sony kicked the crap out of them. This is not the case now. Apple is safe.

We are not talking about a Sony Ipod, we are talking about a Gameboy SuperAdvance. Sony has a huge hill to climb going up against the Gameboy. This is not an emergency (for all those here willing to car bomb Sony HQ for daring to try and make a product to compete with Apple, and support the capitalistic Ideas...).

You can't unseat the iPod in a day, and even if they did...big stuff.
 
Originally posted by leet1
🙄 god! really? I do hope so! I wouldn't think that my education would reach such high and complicated terms as "metaphor"

I do too, leet1, I do too.🙄
 
Re: Re: Re: Something similar ready for X-mas for $99 called: ZVUE

Originally posted by 1macker1
And that's exactly the point, I'd get one for $99 just to see how it works. You cant beat that with a bat. Apple better do more than music, or it's going to be on the short end of the stick.

I'd love to watch the matrix on this device. No it wont be sitting in the livng room playing for my guest, but at school (during breaks), at work(during lunch), and just to show off. It would be great.

You're still talking about the ZVUE, right?

I don't think you'll be watching The Matrix on the max available (according to their PDF) 32MB MMC card!

What a waste of a hundred bucks ...
 
I believe you can use Apple's Disk Utility to partition it, but I'm pretty sure you'll have to re-sync your music. That doesn't take long with an iPod, luckily.

It will work with any other firewire hard drive. If you have another mac, hold down "T" on it when it boots and it turns it's hard drive into a firewire hard drive via it's firewire port. VERY handy.

We did this the other day (I run a university bookstore computer center) with our G4 tower and LCD iMac when the tower was shot. We turned the iMac into a firewire drive and selected it from the tower when booting and holding option. The tower booted with the iMac's copy of Panther, so we backed up the tower's data onto the imac and erased the tower's hard drive for a fresh re-installation.

I also used this feature today to install Panther on an old Indigo iMac with a bad CD drive. Turn the iMac into a firewire drive, plug it into a Powerbook, run the Panther install on the Powerbook but select the iMac's drive as a target. Voila! It's amazing what this feature allows you to do. Windows would FREAK if it tried to run without specific drivers (XP actually wouldn't run at all because the OS would see that it was a different computer and not let you, thank you Microsoft) but the Mac handles it without any problems.

THAT'S why I love Apple.
 
Originally posted by cryptochrome
The PSP will be cheap. Because they're going to sell it at a loss.

The PS2 was designed as a game player. This device was also designed to be a game player. As it turns out, the PS2 also makes a perfectly good DVD and CD player, and is used as such. The PSP with some extra storage space can be turned into a perfectly good digital video and audio player, and with a chip and antenna a mobile phone.

Major difference though: you can get a significantly better DVD and CD player as a standalone unit cheaper than the PlayStation.

This keeps people from just buying PlayStations instead of DVD players.


Most of the necessary hardware was there to begin with. Adding just a little more hardware gives you a lot more functionality. This is a big part of why convergence devices make sense. The PS2, for instance, with a net connection, hard drive, and tuner chip or two gains:
a full fledged PVR
a way to play shareware games
a digital satellite/cable decoder, obviating the need for a separate box and many confusing wires
Browser, email, and other net capabilities.
+ more.

And I should mention, the PS2 is sold at a loss. Sony makes all their money licensing games for their system (which is why you don't see shareware for it). The PSP will be the same way. It may cost less than a $100 in the store, but it will cost more than twice that to make it. And they'll be making them in bulk.

BUT: selling at a loss ONLY works when it is NOT reasonable to use the hardware WITHOUT buying the blades, er, games.

If Sony sells an MP3 player that is loss-leading to be cheaper than other MP3 players, and people can buy said hardware without investing a dime in revenue-positive games, Sony will lose money big time. If they're subsidizing $100 on every box going out the door, how many boxes can they sell to the MP3-player market before their shareholders revolt?

Note that this is also why MS is not very happy that people (even though its only dyed-in-the-wool geeks now) are buying Xboxes and turning them into non-game-playing Linux boxes. You can only afford to give away the razors when the very act of owning the razor means your customer will be buying blades for it.
 
Originally posted by leet1
$300 is not peanuts, $300 is $300. I'd never spend $300 on an mp3 player, but thats just me. I'm a college student and already only spending $5 a day, lol. I can't cut anymore outta that.

Point being: if you can save up $100 for something that isn't very nice to look at and isn't pleasant to use and will break after a year or the first time you dance around the dorm with it, then you damned well CAN save up $300 for an iPod.

It just takes three times as long 🙂

On the other hand, if you're putting that $100 device on a credit card where you pay the minimum balance forever and will someday erase in a bankruptcy decision ... well, then you really shouldn't be in the market for a $100 player either ...
 
Originally posted by rt_brained
"...Sony executives said the PSP would allow consumers to watch music videos as well as listen to digital tunes.

"We are taking on iPod with our new device," another Sony executive said. "We are coming at him (Steve Jobs) on that front.""

You see, here's what is stupid about this brand of logic: I can listen to iPod a the gym, while snowboarding, in my car, on my stereo ... wherever. It's the same experience no matter where I am. I can't watch the newest Outkast video while I'm driving my car or snowboarding. Besides, who the hell wants to watch a music video on a screen that's smaller than a Post-It note? Or a feature movie, even. Music is indespensable. Video isn't. This is the dumbest idea ever. Maybe it will be alll the rage in Japan. I just can't see it here.
 

"We are taking on iPod with our new device," another Sony executive said. "We are coming at him (Steve Jobs) on that front."
Its hilarious they are attacking Jobs personally with this thing. They must really have their screws on straight...🙄
 
Re: What if...

Originally posted by dongmin
Crappy quality of not, Sony has done a pretty good job of selling the PS2. If they really integrate this PSP with the console, Sony will sell a ton. I'm pretty amazed by the feature list, but I'm sure it'll cost you. Their mp3 players and clios aren't exactly cheap. <snipped stuff about $60 for basic, $400 for amazing>
That makes alot of sense.

Surely sony's flagship phone is a taste of things?- the P800. I'm thinking that such a small screen could mean a DVD or music video could be heavily compressed (though you couldn't play it on a normal TV)

Originally posted by greenstork
Man, this has been said 1000 times. Apple's profits come from the sale of hardware.
The fact is, if iTMS sells iPods, then Apple must consider at some level that the extra profit (generated in iPods) belongs to iTMS. (Likewise for OS X, preloaded onto Macs).

I guess if the iTMS was selling music for Sony's device, they'd have to consider what they were getting out of it. Does it make enough money itself? What about switchers via iTunes for Windows downloads?

I personally want Apple to work with everyone, and vice versa - with the ultimate Apple experience found by using all Apple parts.

Originally posted by Scottgfx
We have all heard the news about Sony lately. They are not in as strong a position as they once were. Imagine a future where Apple could become a much larger consumer electronics company. Would you buy an Apple television set? Or an Apple toaster oven? Mmmmm, perhaps not. 🙂
I'd definitely buy an Apple Tivo if it happened (I'd buy a Tivo if it was here in Oz). Extras would be nice - stream video from my Mac? Satellite decoder?. The way Apple subcontracts now, I think Apple has contacts and the branding to make a move in all parts of this market if they wanted.

Back to Sony and the iPod - I think it's great to have some healthy competition there (though I want prices that are realistic for a company, not a loss leader to squash competition!). May the best device get sold more, and the competitor find ways of doing their own better.
 
if it offered good games and mp3 too...i'll buy it. I would very much like to play classics from a memory stick on a portable ps2 that can serve as a mp3 player, and even better phone
 
Originally posted by Kid Red
Anyone read the specs? It;s a 1.8g HD and a memory stick. Not going to store that many mp3s, and who wants to watch video on a tiny screen?

Sorry, the iPod does one thing and does it better then everyone else. Sony is going to try to kill it by doing 5 things and not come close to doing the mp3 as well as Apple and doing cheap meaning not much profit. Am I missing something? This sounds like a personal issue, they also mention taking it to "steve jobs".

#1, it does NOT have a harddrive. It's using a 1.8 gig "UMD" which is removal. Much like a CD, DVD, etc.

w00master
 
now that I think of it, maybe it is viable for Sony to sell this thing at $60. It runs on these Sony branded UMD disks, which will probably run whatever you want it to using it's built-in firmware. The actual cost of the PSP probably goes towards actual hardware pricing it similar to a gameboy or something.
 
can you tell me

Could anyone tell me if there is a third party plug in for i tunes that will let me add music to my sony mini disc MZ-N707. Or any way of doing this.

Thanks
 
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