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60G Nomad Zen vs. The iPod
war3rd writes "According to an article in BetaNews, Creative is going to be releasing an upgraded Nomad Zen at the end of the month that is not only larger than the iPod, but cheaper too. At $400 for 60G ($100 less than the 30G iPod), the new Zen will sport more features, although it may be slightly larger than the newer generation of iPods. I have been putting off buying an MP3 player until I felt that the arms race was settling down, but the new Zen is making my mouth water. So what does the /. community think, are Creative and Apple going to be the top players in this arena? Is it time I jumped onto the bandwagon? One thing is for certain, I am going to be watching the reviews closely."
Interesting how the iPod has become the standard by which other players are judged. Interesting that the submitter has found a player that is both larger than the iPod (a good thing) and also slightly larger than the iPod (a bad thing). Maybe being specific about when we mean capacity in GB and when we mean physical dimensions wouldn't be such a bad thing...
Lasers Controlled Games!
I don't know. That's a great price, but it's a Creative product so I have a feeling it's not as good as it sounds.
See, I've used Creative audio products since the days of the original SoundBlaster... and Creative really doesn't do as good of a job as they used to. These days they have horrible drivers, false advertising, and practically nonexistent tech support. They release a new driver update around every six MONTHS, even when there are dozens of outstanding bugs to fix; and cards like the Audigy barely did half of the things they advertised on the box and on websites.
So anyway, this thing sounds cool... but if I were you, I wouldn't buy one without finding out a LOT about it and making sure I'm really getting my money's worth. You really can't trust Creative anymore.
using namespace slashdot;
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What the ideal MP3 player is:
-The size of today's ipod or smaller
-Storage capacity of 5GB+
-FM Radio (I like to get NPR without carrying around a seperate device)
-Good sound quality
-Formats: MP3, WMA, AAC, and OGG
-Price: $250
I think this is easily achievable with today's technology. My money awaits the first company to make one.
Zen almost gets it but too big. IPod almost gets it but no FM tuner.
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I hear lots of people say things like this. "Macs are way too expensive for the speed of the machine" or "MP3 player X is a lot cheaper than an iPod".
I understand this... I used to believe it too. The error is in assuming that the alternatives are all essentially equal... all mp3 players play mp3's, and computers are equal save for the speed of the processor.
That's not the case. I can't explain it other than saying that there is a design quality and esthetic that is different in the Apple products. You won't believe it until you own one, but once you do, you understand the price difference, and realize it is negligible... that in fact all MP3 players are not the same. All computers are not the same.
I boycotted XP and switched to Mac, while cursing the increased cost. Not any more. I recognize the difference between my Mac and my PC, and I know the differences are well in excess of the cost.
Same is true with my iPod. It's the 3rd MP3 device I've owned, and it's cheaper compared to buying other devices, not using them, and having to re-buy an iPod.
That's my take. Hate to sound like a ravenous Mac-head, but... well... I am one. Now.
Those are neither future features nor examples of FUD. I'm an iPod owner who read up a little on the Nomad recently and the Nomad playlist editing is different from the iPod's.
The new On-The-Go playlists for the iPod allow you to add songs to the playlist and clear playlists. When you plug the iPod into your Mac for syncing, the On-The-Go playlist is automatically wiped.
On the Nomad, you can not only create playlists, but you can name them, and they will persist on the device. I don't know about the software for Windows but I assume it syncs back the playlists from the Nomad.
Now, I love my iPod; I bought a 10G iPod last August and just bought a 30G one when they came out last week. That said, nobody benefits from this kind of rabid, ill-informed advocacy.
Next time you want to make an argument for the iPod against the Nomad, make sure you have all the facts. If you're not willing to do that, don't waste people's time.
Kevin Doherty
kdoherty+slashdot@jurai.net
Drag and drop? I've gotten spoiled by just plugging my iPod in, waiting 30 seconds while it automatically updates everything, and then unplugging
For data files, yeah, I guess I have to do the drag and drop. But for music, I'll stick to "plug and un-plug"
While I prefer the iPod, I enjoy the competition because it only make both products better in the long run. And that benefits me, and isn't that what it is all about?
Since I am waiting for flac and shn decoders to be built in to these units I'll put in my $.02 on the storage capacity issue. I do not listen to many mp3 wma or other lossy formats. I have about 1T of music. Yes, 1 terrabyte. 60G is a good start to being able to handle my requirements.
This is nothing new. How many times have we heard " is enough for anyone". Time almost always proves such staters incorrect. I replace my first HDD within 2 weeks because 20Mb wasn't enough. The 30Mb I got to replace it filled quickly and needed I more but couldn't afford it. This cycle has been repeated for for aboput 17 years now.
Caveat Emptor
On my computer, I organize my MP3s using the file system. E.g., if I want to listen to "Dark Side of the Moon", it's in "music/rock/Pink Floyd/Dark Side of the Moon". I've got xmms open, and I keep the "add dir" window opened, which has a nice tree view, so to play an album, I simply double click on it in that window, and hit play over in the main window.
So, for an MP3 player, I just want something that I can copy my music directory to, and then access via a simple interface.
This is what I like about my Archos 15 gig, which was $180. It simply works the way I do...it doesn't ask me to buy into some grand unified vision of music management like the others seem to.
That wasn't his point, his point was that the community was large. Honestly I wouldn't trade my 10 GB iPod (3rd Gen) for anything (other than a newer iPod).
60 GB is worthless if the software sucks. The integration between iTunes, iSync, and the iPod make for an excellent product that I don't have to spend any extra time fiddling with to get it to work.
Judging from other posts here, and on the source article, it seems like existing and prior Nomad Zen products aren't exactly all they're cracked up to be.
You pay more for high quality stuff, and the iPod _is_ high quality. Its not perfect, but what is?