The "I don't need an iPod" thread

[jsw]

Very true, it will likely need more power of some sort - what type of CPU is the current model using? I'm thinking that the biggest problem is going to continue being the battery. The more powerful you make it, the more power it needs - so this all might have to wait until they make them more efficient and more powerful....

D

If you look at the specs here and here, it seems like the current iPods are actually slower than the previous ones, likely to increase battery life once the code became more efficient. I think there's sufficient horsepower and RAM to render a reduced version of a large image (if that's all the CPUs were doing), but I don't know if the other processes would already consume too many resources to spare any on image reduction. My guess is that software could be written to do what everyone wants it to - load and display pictures - but that there might be a hard time fitting it into what little room remains. However, maybe you could use the song buffer RAM. On the plus side, once rendered, the thumbnails could be viewed with no more resource drain than any other image, unlike current cameras, which re-render the images every time you view them.

 

[Abulia]

I listen to music in my car (BMW) so I don't need one. I have, instead, a PhatBox mounted in my vehicle. It does everything the iPod does and sooooo much more. I love it when the car reads off the album names to me. All the 80 GB cartridges I can handle.

http://www.phatnoise.com

 

[dubbz]

My reason for getting my current player, an iRiver iHP-120 (aka H120), instead of the iPod can basically be summed up in two words:

Ogg Vorbis

Big issue for me, since a major part of my music is Ogg Vorbis encoded. Not a big issue (actually, fairly irrelevant) for most , since MP3 is still the King.


Slightly Off-Topic: Personally, I wish WavPack whould get more support. It's a very cool format that's just begging for portable support. (It has a Hybrid mode where you have two files. One is the lossy version of your track, the other is a corrrection file. When together, you get a lossless version of the track. So you could have lossy+correction file on your PC/Mac, and just copy the lossy file to your portable for playback there).

 

[sandman42]

Like a lot of people, a 'personal music player' isn't really important to me. Don't get me wrong, I love music -- I have a ton of CDs, I play in a band, I dig all the esoterica of the music 'scene', etc -- but it's all a social thing; listening to music by myself with headphones on doesn't really have a place in my life.

Funny thing is, I did buy an iPod. For me, though, the main reasons for buying it didn't include for carting it around listening to it through headphones. I wanted it:

- as a self-powered and easily transportable backup for the hard drive on my iBook
- to connect to my car stereo as an alternative having a bunch of CDs in the car
- to be able to share my music at parties, etc
- and to satisfy my appetite for really cool technology!

I only just got it (the day before the photo iPod came out, in fact -- doggonit!), but so far it seems to be working out pretty good. It's probably cheaper than buying individual things for the above purposes, and you can't beat it for being a cool device.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

I probably wont get an iPod any time soon, they are quite expensive. I'm not an audiophile. I don't mind burning a million CDs on cheap media for my car and throwing away/losing them often. My cheap Rio gets the job done and I'm not constantly afraid of breaking/losing it. My brother has a 4G 20 GB iPod and after playing it I think it's way cool, just not a NEED.

 

[Abulia]

WavPack whould get more support. It's a very cool format that's just begging for portable support. (It has a Hybrid mode where you have two files. One is the lossy version of your track, the other is a corrrection file. When together, you get a lossless version of the track. So you could have lossy+correction file on your PC/Mac, and just copy the lossy file to your portable for playback there).

That's cool. The nice thing about the PhatBox is that via firmware updates, they update the OS (it's essentially a mini-Linux server) to support different/new formats.

PhatBox supports Ogg Vorbis; I use that for my music as well. It also supports MP3, WMA, and FLAC. The new version of the software now supports AAC encoding/playback.

- Don

 

[johnnyjibbs]

I don't 'need' an iPod but I sure as hell want one, hence I'm getting one

Ok, so I think they are very much a luxury item and normally too expensive me to have (although more useful than a PDA in my opinion). I'm getting one now as part of a promotion (cram and jam) which allowed me to get a 20GB one for just £70 instead of £220.

 

[musicpyrite]

Before I got my iPod I was kinda like "meh, iPod, who would pay that much to listen to music? And I don't listen to music that much anyways."

So after Steve announce the 15 GB iPod on January 6, I had some leftover Christmas and birthday money, so I decided to take the plunger.

Now, it is hard imaging how I got by with out. I can listen to it at the bus stop, on the bus, in class, lunch, after school, study hall, etc. I love it! It has totally change my music listening habits. yay for ipod!!

 

[latergator116]

I think the iPod is really cool, but I don't think I'd ever get one. First off, I don't have the money. Second, the only time I listen to music is when I'm sitting front of my computer, so I have no real use for it.

 

[Koodauw]

Your right.

You totaly right. I dont need an iPod.

*sets his down for a min*

*Chills set in*

*breaks out in a cold sweat*

*Panic attach begins.*

BRB

 

[deral]

Because I want to be the "black" sheep in a sea of "white" iPods. What?!? they got a black one? ah crap.

 

[annk]

To me, audiobooks are the killer app that finally got me to get an iPod. I'd always thought they were cool, but I never had a valid reason to get one, and I never really truly wanted one. I still don't need one, but with in-laws 6 hours away and relatives much farther than that, trips became a heck of a lot easier with the 'pod. Yes, you can burn CDs. Anyone who has burned an 18-hour book onto CDs using iTunes knows that it's not fun. It takes a few minutes to go from seeing it at Audible.com (or iTMS, but I like Audible's subscriptions) to having it on the 'pod.

YESSSS. Audible.com + iPod is the perfect solution. I was burning my books to CD, then transferring them to minidisc (smaller and sleeker than the iPod, with a 24-hour battery), but the ease of transferring directly from audible-iTunes-iPod was just too good to ignore.

 

[5300cs]

I used to use a walkman when I was in high school, then a discmac. When I was in college I got a Rio (the first one that came out.) That got me interested in mp3s since I didn't have to stop and flip the tape, or change CDs all the time.
When my Rio died I got a CLIE and used that to listen to music, but the earphones drove me nuts and the lack of space didn't help. Eventually I broke down and got a 1st gen 5gig (after the 3rd gen had been announced already ) It served me well for over a year until I got my 20gig 4th gen about 2 months ago. I love them both, and couldn't live without them. I live in Japan and my commute to work can be over an hour one way sometimes, so the iPod helps (as well as my Newton )
I agree that the Newton is expensive, but the 4th gen 20gig-ers don't seem that bad. The iPod Photo is a little steep though ...

 

[Sun Baked]

Sort of a waste to buy and iPod for my 1 song iTunes library.

Of course people waste money on more foolish thing than that, like real Rolex watches when the fake one looks just as nice.