Slashdot Mirror
iPod's Two-Year Anniversary
the terminal of Geoff Goodfellow writes "Two years ago this month, Apple Computer released a small, sleek-looking device it called the iPod. This Sunday's New York Times Magazine has a long article on it: The Guts of a New Machine."
Google it.
I want the fire back.
to devolve from "Soul" to "Guts".
"And this is my boy, Sherman. Speak, Sherman." "Hello." "Good boy."
Has anyone seen the video of a guy who called about getting his battery replaced and they just told him it is cheaper to get a new iPod?
I cant find the link now, but if I do I will add it on.
I was just wondering if anyone has had similar experiences or know if the battery is easily replaced?
The batter problem is only tempura
Hey, it's also the Two-Year Anniversary of when I started paying for my iPod, which continues to this day.
Thanks to google, we can read this article without registering: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/30/magazine/30IPOD. html?ex=1070773200&en=6cc3b984324f9225&ei=5062&par tner=GOOGLE
I made a PHP/MySQL library that prevents SQL injection & makes coding easier!
Anybody who has an iPod knows how cool they are, and if you have one of those imitation players, you owe Apple for being the first to innovate. I love my pod.
There was no battery problem. A battery dying in 18 months was an extremely rare exception, and Apple charges $100 for a new battery, not $250, and you can get a 3rd party replacement for $50.
apple recently dropped the price to 100$ for battery replacement. there are 3rd party replacments that are as cheap as 50$ also.
I know everybody is going to come on here and praise the ipod, but if I recall correctly, most slashdotters (even the mac zealots) bashed the ipod when it was launched. Slashdotters not infalliable? That's unpossible! ;-)
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur
One thing I've never quite understood about iPods: in the recent TV adverts, we are shown happy iPod owners moshing to loud music. I'm wondering whether one can actually jump around to this extent, without the iPod's drive heads nosediving into the platters? Anyone willing to try?
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
nice how the guy does not let us listen to the whole call so we can here the explanation.
perhaps next time, the dude should get the care plan on it.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
Too bad that my 10GB(2nd gen ie dockable) iPod doesn't seem to like to fully charge its battery. It takes at least two tries to get it to charge fully, and yes- I've done the soft reset more than once. It's supposed to charge to 75% within a short period of time, and then trickle the rest- but it never seems to get "the rest" part done, even if left overnight on the charger. Or plugged into the powerbook.
Oh, and I'm -still- waiting for my iTrip FM adapter to ship...I ordered it almost exactly 4 weeks ago, still no sign.
Please help metamoderate.
Which i am sure you have been heard by now, is filled with bull...
Seems like the makers of this "film" have some secrets of their own:
Dumb kids.
Young, stupid and camera owning...a dangerous combination...
I can tell one thing for sure about Apple. They have brilliant marketing - they take simple MP3 player does some magic advertising and tadam! we have the thing that changes culture
Not least because it's adding a huge amount to Apple's bottom line. Its helped apple through a dodgy period whilst they were moving their users to a world class OS and struggling with a slipping processor roadmap. They need a new killer device soon though I predict that this xmas is going to be the peak in iPod sales so I home January's Macworld (or the next year at least) brings something twice as cool. I'm sure Apple won't disappoint. (Well I hope at the very least).
and if the dumbass had gotten the 59 dollar care plan for it, he would have been covered.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
actually those guys only wanted publicity. read this email exchange: http://das.doit.wisc.edu/neistatsdirtysecret.txt
It appears that iPod's DIRTY little secret is a flash-only site. Bravo, AC, for presenting your anti-iPod case in such an easily-accessible manner -- you truly are a Grandmaster of the Interweb!
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
Good find!
There certainly is a customer service problem. They should tell their idiot customer service employee(s) that. I know, all the 1337 geeks on /. know how to search for a replacement at DigiKey, but when someone calls the company up and asks about a battery replacement and their customer service department tells them, "the iPod is worthless, it would be $250+ to fix it, throw it out and buy a new one," there is a major problem with that company's customer service.
"No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame." - CmdrTaco
"But then you meet the girl, and she says, 'Let me see what's on your iPod.' You pull out a tape player, and she walks away."
Hmm.
iPenisenvy?
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
Here's a website with a nice counter to the dirty little secret. Not only has his ipod (and mine) lasted longer, but he has links to Apple's $99 replacement and 3rd party $49 replacement batteries.
Seems like the makers of this "film" have some secrets of their own:
That's the correct /. troll spirit ... Attack the messenger instead of the message..
echo '[q]sa[ln0=aln80~Psnlbx]16isb572CCB9AE9DB03273snlbxq' |dc
Ummm did you click on the link? Have you been brought up to date on this issue? Do you know the whole story?
Doesn't sound like it since if you did then you would know the "message" as you put it was totally ignorant of the TRUTH.
Young, stupid and camera owning...a dangerous combination...
True. Maybe they should apply for a job with Apple's customer service. They're the ones that told him to replace the entire iPod even though they offer a replacement battery.
Battery tempura? That doesn't sound too tasty. Maybe in sushi, I dunno...
Ummm did you click on the link? Have you been brought up to date on this issue? Do you know the whole story?
Doesn't sound like it since if you did then you would know the "message" as you put it was totally ignorant of the TRUTH.
I think you should calm down a bit and read the Neistat Brothers Side of the story
It explains pretty well, that, prior to the video becoming popular, nobody was willing to offer information about the existance of Apple's "99$ Battery replaceent program" , Not even Apple !!
echo '[q]sa[ln0=aln80~Psnlbx]16isb572CCB9AE9DB03273snlbxq' |dc
after reading your link, it still remains true that the guy had made that film first and then recieved the webhosting offer in exchange for a plug for the guy's batteres.
Also it remains true that Apple won't sell you a battery for the thing and it will cost you a load of cash to get it fixed, but thankfully for 3rd party sources you can swap out the battery for a mere $50.
You're kind of just attacking the messenger, but for all intents and purposes, the point is moot.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur
Yeah, if he paid Apple's *ahem* "protection" fee, he would have been protected.
I think Apple's current roadmap and processor line is pretty impressive, especially now that it's backed by someone who actually can produce: IBM.
I do agree though that it's time for Apple to wow us again. I think it's time for Apple to give us a TIVO iPod with Color LCD. I can't fathom where there's innovation elsewhere that the mass public and not just Apple users want to see...
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
that link doesnt debunk anything, its about a gripe one of the bandwidth sponsors had and has nothing to do with the fact that 400$ ipod batteries die and the average user is screwed unless he is tech savvy or has a deep pocket
i can see why "fan" is short for fanatic, then again i expect you are from the same country that invented scientology
I know that this article was written for people who aren't technical types, maybe folks who first heard of "MP3's" just last year, but the difference between the iPod and the MP3 players that proceeded it are more numerous than suggested.
Here's a story that makes a point...
Some Apple employees loaded Mac OS X Server onto one of the early iPods and connected it to a desktop Mac. Then, they booted to it. It ran.
I hope that all the folks who always seem troll on Apple product, saying that all they do is slap on some pretty exterior, jack up the prices, and market, market, market, will think for a moment and appreciate the depth of this product.
And I don't even own one.
--Richard
For God's sake, he gave a link to the NYTimes article that does NOT require registration!
This is INFORMATIVE. He saved me TIME that I would have to spend registering with this!
congratulations on your ineptitude
the site is just a 6mb quicktime video embedded in the page, of course if you chose to live in 2003 where we have "multimedia" and "streaming video" you would already know this.
This is a secret? Pretty much anyone who did their homework going in knew that before buying. Those that didn't surely found out in time to take advantage of Apple's very liberal replacement policy.
Anyway, the third-gen iPods have a different battery (the lithium-polymer technology in the original one apparently was not ready for prime time) so the 1.5 year limit thing no longer applies. And they've got a battery replacement service now also.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
mine still works. 10 hour battery. and its an original. FUD. its called research, why dont you do some?
http://www.apple.com
Fucking trolls.
Slashdot is not a person. It is however something akin to a rorschach test.
War is necrophilia.
hey apple why White?
... do your ipods get all grubby looking with that white finish?
.ogg too hell yeah.
ipod owners
or did apple ship little white gloves with the units to avoid this 'grubbiness' problesm.
Oh yeah my G/F is seemingly the only girl in the world who thinks the ipod looks stupid. As such I'll be getting her an Iriver iHP-120 for xmas.. Oh yeah and it plays
actually I am happy to see you, however that is in fact a banana in my pocket.
You can't expect Apple to be responsible for the severe ignorance of their own customer service people, can you? I mean, just because they told them the only way to fix the iPod was to refurbish it for $250.....
Obviously, they didn't assume Apple was full of shit and look for replacements elsewhere (or even from a different customer service rep), so it's THEIR FAULT! Had they simply used their crystal ball.....
New designs? I'd like to point out that the Archos Jukebox did what the IPOD does 2 years before the IPOD. Granted the Archos is not as cool as the Archos, but the IPOD is only a refinement of the (crude) Archos.
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
Ooops, correction - they spoke to 3 reps and a corporate drone, who all said there was no way to replace the battery.
I think people should still take a look at this: ipodsdirtysecret
Clearly if a battery, which has a timer inside and is absolutely impervious to different operating conditions, if it lasts a long time for you, these guys are full of crap. Their battery works fine, and the customer service reps who told them they needed to refurbish the iPods were correct because they hadn't paid their Jaguar or Panther $129 taxes.
There is no "counter" to the video. At the time, the battery died in a very short period of time for a very expensive piece of equipment. They are happy with the new (apparently unknown to even Apple's customer service!) $100 replacement program. It's probably largely becasuse of the fuss they created that the batteries are now available and Apple doesn't tell iPod users to go f**k themselves when the battery runs out.
I guess we should expect typical character assassination from a slashbot. It seems Mac / PC is just as political as Republican / Democrat. What it all boils down to is this: $250 for iPod battery replacement is LUDICROUS. Apparently at the time of the video, this was the only offer from Apple. This $99 service is MUCH more reasonable. I think these brothers have shed some light on an important issue for iPod owners. Thanks to them, awareness has increased, a new service has been offerred (or we have been made aware of it), and Apple should be held up to the same standards as other device manufacturers. Personally, I think they should have made the battery user-replacable (i.e. it slides out like any other portable audio player). Of course, they'd probably charge you $250 for a standalone battery purchase :)
Hey, there's a clever idea: make the removable faceplate of a car's stereo the thing itself: the mobile MP3 player.
Two birds, one stone!
Feelin' stupid? I know I am!
1) The battery. Ignoring the "dirty little secret" brouhaha (what, you thought batteries did *not* have a finite lifespan?), the plain fact is that specialized, proprietary batteries are annoying. Your priorities may be different (hey, them's the breaks, to me and to Apple) but I'd happily settle for a reasonably shorter battery life and even a slightly thicker waist in the iPod if in exchange it would take rechargeable AA or AAA batteries.
:)
;))
Device-specific batteries have advantages sometimes (allow sleeker shapes etc), but AA (and nearly as much, AAA) batteries are available everywhere in alkaline form, and easily gettable (in Western countries) in lithium variety. Better yet, both rechargeable AA/AAAs and the chargers that charge them (can I say 'charge' a few more times?) have gotten considerably better in the last few years. This is one reason I like my Nikon 990 camera over the later ones in the same series. I can carry extra batteries for cheap
2) No ogg vorbis support. This may not apply to you, but 99% the compressed music I have is in the form of oggs, ripped for convenience from my CD collection. If the iPod adds a firmware upgrade which allows ogg decoding (I've heard mixed reports on the feasability of this wrt current iPods, but a chip upgrade in a later series could do it even if the pessimists are right), I'd probably get over my disdain for the battery and shell out for one.
Obviously, this is just a rant, since Apple is unlikely to give the iPod AA/AAA batteries, and makes more money selling ITMS music in AAC than they'd probably make by adding Ogg Vorbus Support as a bullet point on the features list. However, these two factors, singly and apart, do make other players more attractive. (Like the Rio Karma; same battery lameness, but Hey, plays ogg
Now, when will low-end MP3 players at Target add ogg to *their* bullet list of features, though? (Part of) all I want is to listen to some books while driving, without changing CDs (or buying an overkill CD-changing car stereo).
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
Apple wasn't the first to make hard drive MP3 players. The first one I recall seeing on the market was the Creative Lab's Nomad Jukebox (haven't got an exact date on the very first one), in 2000. It had to be out at least a year before iPod. Apple and everyone else pretty much took that idea and ran with it. iPod is a good device especially when paired with iTunes but, it's not without its limitations, as pointed out in this CNet article , five reasons not to buy an iPod , already posted on /.
Me, I've got a Rio Nitrus, which uses the Cornice Storage Element and it's a nice fit between the bulkier hard drive players (like the iPod) and the solid state players that have less storage. If Apple really wants to take the lead they should help Cornice to up their drive capacity (like to 20 Gb) and sell it in a smaller iPod that has a replaceable battery.
I think I think, therefore I think I am.
Taking the music off it is cake.
Second - it locks itslef ot one instance of itunes. That's because it's behavior is to synchronize with itunes, not just to copy mp3s to it.
Third, it's flat and sleek..which means it fits in my pocket nicely. nothing jutting out.
As for "a discman is better".... if you are happy with your discman, and some cdrs, power to you... it makes sense for the reasons you say.
I travel.. and I don't like to carry a binder full of cds around with me, nor do I like swapping them. All those little things like CD wallets and whatnot add up when you are travelling.
My ipod fits in a shirt pocket, and has far more tunes on it than your discman.
Your discman will be stolen just as easy as an ipod.
That said.. it's a luxury item.. nto a must-have. If you use it the way it's intended, and especially if you already use itunes to sort all your music, it's a pleasant device to use.
Danger turns me on, baby... when I'm not pouring hot grits down Natalie Portman's pants.
Granted the Archos is not as cool as the Archos
So many "preview" buttons, so little time...
You can't take the sky from me...
Here's a website with a nice counter to the dirty little secret. Not only has his ipod (and mine) lasted longer, but he has links to Apple's $99 replacement and 3rd party $49 replacement batteries.
Apple's $99 replacement program didn't exists (or was a very well guarded secret) at the time the video was made.
Read the whole story about why the video was made..
"We placed three calls to the Apple customer service line," says Neistat. "Then we went into the Apple store in Manhattan for help, and then we contacted the Apple executive offices directly. They all confirmed that there was no iPod battery replacement program and they all recommended that we buy a new iPod."
echo '[q]sa[ln0=aln80~Psnlbx]16isb572CCB9AE9DB03273snlbxq' |dc
It's clear plastic with a white undercoat, like the previous iBooks.
And it's smooth, you can just wipe it off.
In short, it doesn't seem to get dirty or grubby.. not like you would think.
For that matter, neither does my iBook.
I'm guessing that wasn't Apple Customer Support recorded on the video at all. It was the film makers roommate.
Turns out these guys are not even remotely interested in solving the problem. They're in it for the publicity.
The inciminating email exchanges that prove it.
Also...
http://depot.info.apple.com/ipod/
(Official Apple iPod battery replacement for $99)
http://www.ipodbattery.com/ ($49)
http://pdasmart.com/ipodpartscenter.htm ($69)
The replacement programme may not have existed at the time it was made (who knows), but it was announced and publicised before the video was ever put on the net.
Turns out these guys are not even remotely interested in solving the problem. They're in it for the publicity.
Here's the email exchanges that show what these guys really care about
expectations were high for an Apple PDA which would compete with the Palm and PocketPC. Instead, Apple gave us the iPod, which CmdrTaco called a "lame mp3 player". Is it lame? maybe, but it's been quite successful.
I'm guessing you have no evidence for your accusation, and you're just a sad Apple zealot grasping for excuses for the crappy service your Lord Jobs provides most people.
I think you should read about what young and dumb kids sometimes SAY and what the DO...
t
http://das.doit.wisc.edu/neistatsdirtysecret.tx
Then tell me they did not produced a one sided piece of biased fluff that they purposely have not corrected.
from the link:
I offered to mirror the Neistat brothers' iPod video after their original webhost apparently pulled out, with one condition: that they link to, or otherwise inform users about, Apple's official $99 iPod battery replacement, since the video, as it stands, is incorrect: the iPod's battery is replaceable, and, on top of it, there's an official Apple program for $99.
They agreed to provide this information, and said they had no problem telling users how to solve the problem. I, in turn, provided webspace and bandwidth for them. The bottom line: after two days of lies and false starts, and milking my institution's generosity by providing almost 100,000 downloads and 0.7 terabytes of data transfer, they NEVER posted any information about how to solve the problem that they promised to post. Their agenda seems clear, and that's sensationalism, melodrama, and attention. The full email exchange is here:
To this day, the brothers have still not added a word to their site about the various options there are for replacing the iPod battery. Clearly they are not concerned about "other's with the same problem" at all, or they would be providing them with the information they need.
No it didn't. The Archos wasn't part of an integrated system. It had no iTunes or iTMS equivalent.
I know you are an anonymous coward. Fact is these guy's aren't interested in telling the truth about the battery replacement options available, so why take their film as being an accurate document.
No, it's because you, with your big ideas, haven't backed them up with the big money it would take to set it up. Of course.
I suspect that there is a small group of techies who have bought iPods, and then gone on to buy their first Macs. I bought a Windows iPod and was very impressed by it, and my positive thoughts on it's design helped influence my decision to buy an Apple powerbook 12" a few months later - my first Mac. At least one of my coworkers also bought an iPod and a few months later bought a Mac. So I think the iPod might be introducing Mac design ingenutity to people who otherwise wouldn't have bought Macs.
I have blog like everyone else
I was never a Mac-head, and what initially completely turned me off about Macs (back in the days of DOS) was their "less is more" attitude. No command line, one mouse button - sure, that simplified life for an average user, but not for me.
Now comes the iPod. I own one. It plays music. But I need more features. On a regular basis, I use FM radio and a voice recorder (and don't tell me to get a $50 attachement to record lousy quality mono audio). Why doesn't the iPod have those things? If iRiver has been implementing these features for years on their players, it should be trivial for Apple.
But it's not in their design philosophy. Stuffing it with features would, in Jobs' opinion, detract from its greatness as a music player.
Hasn't OS X taught Apple that you can design something that can both be minimalistic, and yet have enough features and power to satisfy any hard-core geek?.. Why can't iPod be like that?.. Unfortunately, I doubt it'll happen. I'm eagerly waiting not for the 4G iPod, but for the 2G iRiver iHP-120 -- that's a company whose products never stop evolving, and if they try hard enough they can make a UI at least decently comparable to iPod's.
Gee, that must be why they called it the "iTunes Music Store" and not the "Apple Music Store."
I'm not sure if Apple had the battery replacement plan and AppleCare at the time of the call. However, if it is the case that they did NOT, it's easy to understand why they wouldn't recomend an unsupported 3rd party service to their customers... especially after the whole Nokia "exploding knockoff phone battery" incedents. Could you imagine the lawsuits if they recomended a 3rd party battery that exploded?
I have blog like everyone else
Really?
Sounds like they're pretty up front about the whole thing to me.
"We placed three calls to the Apple customer service line," says Neistat. "Then we went into the Apple store in Manhattan for help, and then we contacted the Apple executive offices directly. They all confirmed that there was no iPod battery replacement program and they all recommended that we buy a new iPod."
Care to provide any evidence for your accusation, or are you just going to believe it because you hate anyone who would DARE to criticize Apple?
Wow. My ass hurts just looking at that. But somehow I can't turn away from it...
I feel so... invigorated.
Why? Laughing at dumbasses that don't know how to google isn't nice.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
There are no links on their website to battery replacement options, or any mention that any exist, despite promising to the supplier of a mirror for their movie that they would put it there. Follow the links already in this discussion. The facts are already there.
i guess it's a sign of the immense success of a product when you forget that it was only introduced no more than 2 years ago... once a product feels like it's been there forever and it somewhat doesn't easily occur to you that a while ago it didn't even exist and no body heard of it, that is when it become a part of the popular culture.
kudos to apple; and also for the fact that 2 years on no one seems to have been able to bring to market a better product.
and all that just for hte reason that they wanted to use a wheel interface? please, this have to stop. the reason we got from farmers and lords to the world we have today was the fact that someone came up with an idea then someone else "borrowed" it and made it available at a lower cost. phillips got started makeing cheap lightbulbs.
these days its more like a trench war, someone comes up with an idea and packs a ton of patents, copyrights and trademarks around it and if you get anywhere close they release the lawyers.
apple is like disney, they go after anyone that looks like they are makeing a similar product. if you want to get hardware to make a computer that can run the aplle os you will run into a wall of exclusive dealership contracts and whats not. sure its a BSD kernel but both what it runs on and whats on top of it are closely controled by apple.
aplle is definetly a cult, and jobs is the head priest. im just waiting for him to declare yihad or that everyone should take a overdoes of sleeping pills on some date as then the aliens willcome and take them to nirvana.
no, give me a amd cpu and a variation of linux or some BSD, those only care about makeing a better wheel, not about how the aura about it is...
comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
What company do you own?
The iPod competitors so far have lacked the interface and/or small size to be navigable with one hand. It will be interesting to see what Apple comes up with next. Can drive sizes keep going up and be useful? Do we need a 200 GB iPod?
Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?
No they're not. They're Mac enthusiasts who were pissed that the only option given to them by Apple was to go buy another iPod.
That's odious. It's anti-consumer behaviour. When you design a device with a non-removable (or easily removable) battery, you'd better have a replacement plan from day one. If something goes wrong with the battery, it doesn't make sense to tell your loyal customers that they have to spend hundreds of dollars to fix or that they have to buy another iPod.
Apple created this bad publicity themselves and then they tried to belatedly cover their asses. Too late. I'll never buy an iPod based on how this went down.
-- You see, there would be these conclusions that you could jump to
mod this down -3 redundant for like the 7th time in this thread. RTFP, dude.
Nomad Zen 30GB: $279
Apple iPOD 10GB: $299
Paying $20 more for less functionality, and 1/3 of the space = lame. And the Zen even looks nicer.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
What the hell are you talking about? Until recently ITunes was just a file manager and Music Match does the same damn thing ...
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
..and still more expensive than a lot of the competition. You'd think the price would go down over two years. The features are nice, the design is nice. But like all of Apple's hardware, it's just too expensive to justify the buy.
"This is the reason I will never do business with Apple. They are like every other company and will screw you over in a minute."
So0, presumably, you won't "do business" with any "other company" either?
Grow the fuck up. You work for free?
That was classic intercourse!
Apples and oranges, pardon the pun. OSX is software, where it's easy to hide a bunch of powerful and hidden features from the ordinary user but accessible to advanced users. heck, we had "power" features accessible with modifier keys since at least as far back as System 7 in 1991.
The iPod is primarily hardware, and fairly small hardware at that. What little software it has must fit inside the operating code memory. Include a built-in FM tuner, or a mic/line in? Increase the unit size and price. And there's no easy way to hide the extra options to control these features from such a minimalist interface.
You can't give credit to Archos for Music Match - it's not their product and it doesn't ship with their MP3 jukeboxes.
That's not true. Until Nov 14, 2003, Apple wanted $255 to service iPod's with dead batteries. PDASmart, the $50 source you refer to, didn't source the battery until June 2003, 20 months after the iPod's introduction. The battery has a lifespan between 1 and 2 years. That means that there are people out there on the wrong side of the Bell Curve who have shelved their iPods because they didn't think paying Apple $255 to replace a battery on a $400 item was a fair shake. May not be a problem to you but ask those people why don't you?
What's really stupid about this is had Apple:
- Made it easy to change a battery and...
- Sourced the battery from the beginning.
nobody would have been complained.can't imagine Beowulf of this ...
well, at least not even significant minority. As far as quality concerned, Vorbis is mediocre to say the least. There was enough tests done in this respect. Check hydrogenaudio.org for more information. It is also not well supported. Remember how slashdotters rejoiced when there was the announcement that BBC has adopted vorbis as its streaming protocol. I don't remember any news on slashdot when BBC dropped it, primarily because of lack of any decent support.
AAC is the state of the art compression technology, and it is *standard* part of MPEG4 protocol suite. it is a natural extension and improvement of MP3. Remember my words: you'll see more and more vendors jumping on AAC bandwagon. Ogg Vorbis? Don't expect a lot. may be a few, like Karma.
Digikey has been mentioned a couple of times as an iPod battery source. I went to their website to check it out and couldn't find a battery that matched the iPod's. Do you have a Digikey part number?
Well, considering the most expensive model you can buy sells direct from apple at $500, you're a fucking idiot.
www.ipodsdirtysecret.com
As to "incriminating", I'm not too sure. Do they really prove that Dave Schroeder offered to give away terabytes of bandwidth to promote Apple's website?
TSIA, genius.
So0, presumably, you won't "do business" with any "other company" either?
Don't be a dickhead. Apple tries to paint themselves as a company that is different from the others, in that they're not ruthlessly out there trying to make money. When in fact it's a damn lie. Their image gets tripped up every now and then when they make majore screwups like this battery issue.
Apple's posturing does have a bit of appeal to the moronic Slashdot kiddie corps who attribute human qualities like "noble" and "evil" to companies based on marketing rhetoric.
But it just turns me off completely.
Grow the fuck up. You work for free?
Non sequitor.
-- You see, there would be these conclusions that you could jump to
Word on the street is TNT will start showing an hour of anime around 2-3 in the morning.
Hey, thanks for pointing that out! I've never seen one of those before. I was burned by a (mediocre, quickly broken) battery pack for my Zaurus operating on the same basic line of thought, but this one (Belkin) looks pretty solid. Hmmm, temptinginger and temptinger.
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
10gb ipod = 5.6 ounces
zen 30gb = 8 ounces.
boo fucking hoo. If a 2.4 ounce difference is going to break your back, your pansy ass deserves to get ripped off by apple.
(just for comparison, the weight of a double-CD jewel case is 8 ounces)
Oh, so sorry to bring more links and facts into the discussion. I forgot this was Slashdot. We make wild, unfounded accusations, like the Apple support dick supposedly being one of their roommates, and THAT requires no links or evidence, but when you present the follow up of the people who made the movie, that's just too many links, and let's discuss the 'facts' that are already there.
Dumb fuck.
You speak HERESY!!! Thou shalt be modded 'TROLL' by the loyal zealots of the cult of APPLE!!
The FM and voice recorder interfaces could be purely software based, but you have a good point about size and cost.
Yeah, that weight savings on the ipod is awesome, when it goes dead halfway through a long plane flight.
The Zen might weigh 2 ounces more (about the same weight as *half* a music CD), but it goes for 14 hours. And you can charge it from any USB port... which are everywhere.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
When the first generations came out, they were $399 for a 5 gig iPod. Now you can get a 10 gig for $299. Hmm, twice as much space, better design, and 50 bucks cheaper. That seems like a price drop to me.
There really isn't any reason for Apple to price it too low. First of all, most people see it as a luxury item. People pay a premium for the cache of owning the high end product in the catagory - like owning a Rolls Royce or Porche. Secondly, they seem to be making a decent profit as it is - why make less per unit if they don't have to? Thirdly, since all the parts are custom-designed, there aren't going to be huge cost savings from amortized costs - especially since they keep redesigning it.
I have blog like everyone else
Who are you? An apple employee, someone from the Fraunhoffer institute ? AAC is only state of the art in patent incorporation.
... period. Check your facts first.
Ogg Vorbis is better than MP3, better than AAC, better than WMA
Who cares about Ogg Vorbis ? Well, I can tell you, me and my 400 euros care. I've just bought an iRiver iHP-120 and it's great, I've also completed the Linux support myself.
BBC quitted, yes, but Virgin Radio and France Radio jumped in and more are to come.
Ogg Vorbis is now, Ogg Theora is the future, Ogg is the way to go.
I never wan't to listen to the radio and I never want to record voice notes...so...I guess the iPod is a perfect design for me, and obviously for hundreds of thousands of other similar individuals. On the other hand, I do use it as an extra hard drive, a contact manager/calendar as well as a VoodooPad/wiki notepad.
:)
Just goes to show that designs can actually be perfect without you even knowing it.
We apologise for the fault in this post. Those responsible have been sacked. -- Signed RICHARD M. NIXON
I had an original 5gb iPod bought nearly 2 years ago, sold it to a friend, who gave it to his girlfriend, and it's still functioning strong!
GPL Deconstructed
It blows my mind that an article could make it into the NY Times Magazine with no independent research behind it. Tony and his story isn't exactly a secret -- he shows up at Campus Recruiting events to tell it!
Actually the original price was $399
[RIAA] says its concern is artists. That's true, in just the sense that a cattle rancher is concerned about its cattle.
Actually, the guys who made the Quicktime video hardly seem interested in the truth of it all. This article links to an interesting experience someone had with them. They don't seem to care about the truth of the issue, to the point that they are spreading disinformation and know it.
Boom Shanka
There was no battery problem. A battery dying in 18 months was an extremely rare exception, and Apple charges $100 for a new battery, not $250, and you can get a 3rd party replacement for $50.
There most definitely was a problem. Whether I would classify this as a "battery problem" per se, is arguable. Of course no one expected Apple to include a rechargeable batttery that would last forever (or even more than a couple of years), but I would expect them to make it relatively easy to replace the battery yourself, or at least be able to purchase one from Apple for less than half the cost of your iPod and have them install it for a nominal fee.
I like Apple. And as a recent convert to OS X and the iPod, I think they deserve a lot of credit for designing products that people find not only aesthetically pleasing, but functional as well. But they are not infallible. The iPod battery issue was a legitimate gripe for people who use their iPods frequently and found themselves SOL a few months after their warranty ran out due to a battery knee deep in the graveyard.
So now they have Apple Care available for $60 and they will replace batteries on out of warranty iPods for $100. But how many people honetly believe this would have happened at all had not so many people expressed their displeasure about this one displeasing aspect of an otherwise great, if just slightly overpriced, product?
So why does the iPod comes with a contact manager, alarm clock, calendar, games, and FireWire hard drive capability? That sounds like a lot of non-music-player features to me.
It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
Odd...after looking at the site you posted and combing their forums, it appears you are incorrect. Vorbis won most of the listening tests, especially at lower bitrates (which is more common on a portable device).
Also, note that the reason Vorbis came about was that the people who own the patents on mp3 were starting to become real asses and it looked like the future of mp3 encoders and possibly players on linux was in danger. In addition, mp3pro is considered the next generation audio standard (although there are many unnecessary competitors) and even it has been shown to be inferior to Vorbis.
And again, Vorbis is, and always shall be, free.
[RIAA] says its concern is artists. That's true, in just the sense that a cattle rancher is concerned about its cattle.
Personal Jukebox by Remote Solution was the first debuting in early 2000 at over $700. It was co-designed by Compaq and Hango.
[RIAA] says its concern is artists. That's true, in just the sense that a cattle rancher is concerned about its cattle.
When did Apple EVER pretend that they weren't out to make money? From my very first experience of the Apple IIe, they were absolutely crystal clear about offering a high quality product at a premium price. Some people buy into this equation (I did in the early '90s, before that Apples were just too expensive for me).
Apple's pricing sometimes pisses me off still, but I don't have to buy their junk if I don't want to. On balance though, I find their junk is better than the next guys'.
That was classic intercourse!
I'm assuming this is two years this month meaning November since your posting it on the 30th?
At the low rates, Vorbis quality is about the same as WMA. By low rates I assume you mean the rates lower than 128Kbps.
Now with devices like iPod, the capacity from 10GB to 40GB, there is no reason *not* to encode at the rates of 160Kbps and higher, and this is where AAC and even MP3 beats Ogg.
This is correct that Vorbis was created primarily for the low rates (as defined above) to compete with WMA and their likes, but once again, with harddrive based devices doing something like LAME with default settings (VBR, 200Kbps on average) or AAC (160Kbps CBR and higher) seems reasonable enough, and this also eliminates the majority of artifacts.
With respect to Vorbis will be free, I frankly get tired of this mantra. Free for whom? For users? How much do you pay for MP3? How much do you pay for AAC? You may say 'hidden license charges'? This is a few bucks per device, which costs $200-300 and higher to begin with, drop in a bucket, don't you agree? For manufacturer? As i've mentioned, in addition to free software you need a good support. Also Ogg Vorbis binary is large, and not easily fit into many of the portables, so the code needs to be optimized, and then of course, the manufacturer has to support this extra work.
So - before you repeat the slashdot favority mantra 'Vorbis is free', think a bit first.
The Neistat brothers' side of the story contains this gem:
Basically, the Neistat brothers tried to install a new battery into the iPod, broke the iPod, then railed at Apple for not offering a replacement.
Even more fishy is the assertion--in the Neistat brothers' side of the story--that Apple did not offer a replacement for the iPod battery until after their video was downloaded by hundreds of thousands of users. The Neistat brothers began editing their video on 23 November, but MacMinute reports that Apple began offering an iPod battery replacement service as early as 14 November. Google gives the same date for both MacRumors' and MacNN's reports of Apple's iPod battery replacment service.
Given the discrepancies between what the Neistat brothers have so far said and the journalistic record, the Neistat brothers appear to be at best disingenous. At worst, they are liars looking to punish Apple for their own poor hacking skills.
blog
hear
Perhaps next time, you should get a fucking dictionary, rather than a 400 DOLLAR MP3 PLAYER
IT FUCKING PLAYS MP3S, THAT'S IT!
And if anyone is interested in the truth...you may be interested to know that I offered to mirror their video after their original webhost apparently pulled out, with ONE condition: that they link to, or otherwise inform users about, Apple's official $99 iPod battery replacement, since the video, as it stands, is incorrect: the iPod's battery is replaceable, and, on top of it, there's an official Apple program for $99 (not to mention third party options).
They agreed to provide this information, and said they had no problem telling users how to solve the problem. I, in turn, provided webspace and bandwidth for them. The bottom line: after two days of lies and false starts, and milking my institution's generosity by providing almost 100,000 downloads and 0.7 terabytes of data transfer, they NEVER posted any information about how to solve the problem that they promised to post. Their agenda seems clear, and that's sensationalism, melodrama, and attention. The full email exchange is here:
http://das.doit.wisc.edu/neistatsdirtysecret.txt
That's what happened. That is the completely unadulterated email exchange; take it or leave it. My offer had ONE condition: that they link to Apple's official battery replacement information. They agreed to do so (several times). They never did. I think the email exchange speaks for itself. Instead, they lied and stole for two days. Which, in retrospect, shouldn't be surprising.
And in your link, Neistat even says "I fully acknowledge that they arenow offering a very fair battery replacement program. I think $99 dollars is a very fair price." Yet he still won't link to it. And Apple had been offering that program BEFORE they even launched the video. I think they're just a little upset that their grand little childish attention-getting plan would have been totally negated by the fact that Apple had already launched a reasonable - by their own admission - replacement program. And they STILL won't link to it!
I've seen many forum posts/blog followups/etc from people who have seen the video saying "Wow, is that really true?" or "Hmm, now that I know that, I don't think I'm getting an iPod!" How is their lying at all helpful to anyone?
1. The iPod's battery is replaceable, by either Apple itself, do-it-yourself solutions, or third-party mail-in options.
2. The iPod's battery does NOT last "18 months". No Li ion battery lasts forever, but the vast majority of first generation iPods, over two years old, are still in service without issue.
Sorry, but they're in the wrong here.
Actually, Apple's program was launched BEFORE ipodsdirtysecret.com was even registered. Apple launching the battery replacement program had nothing whatsoever to do with the Neistat brothers, or their video. The problem came from the fact that Apple had a (very high) flat rate repair plan for the iPods, which was ridiculously high for the battery. The Neistat brothers were (rightfully) pissed, and they hatched this plan to publicly deface Apple. In the meantime, and completely unrelated to anything having to do with the Neistat brothers, Apple launched its $99 battery replacement program. But the Neistats had already put all of their time and childishness into the video, so they chose to launch it knowing full well about Apple's program, and STILL refusing to link to information about how to solve the problem, or otherwise acknowledge that Apple's program even exists.
They just want to screw Apple because Casey had to buy a new iPod. Real mature.
Well, to my ears, through a decent stereo, Ogg's at -q 6 (~160kbs) stomp all over MP3 at 192kbs. In fact, I have a very hard time telling them apart from the original CDs. I've never really found that to be true with MP3, at any bitrate, except 312 or something crazy like that, at which point you might as well just use FLAC or Shorten and be done with the quality debate.
TODO: Something witty here...
iT iS wiTh out a doubt the best piEce of hardware iHave purchased since my AmiGa 500.
iCannot liVe wiThout iT.
iT has changed me and the way iSpell.
This
heh you're off your rocker son :) The IPOD is an mp3 player, the Archos is an MP3 player, your symantec games have no effect on me :)
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
Archos never had Firewire, so the iPod clearly does more, namely being able to transfer files and recharge over the same (data & power) cable. The iPod does things the Archos has and never will do. That's why it is celebrated, and the shelves are still full of Archos units gathering dust:)
The list goes on.
What beyond "the iPod refurb would cost as much as a new one so throw it out and buy a new one" do you need to hear, dumb fuck? I'm sure they censored the part about "and we at Apple would like to lick your bunghole in thanks for buying our overpriced shitty products even though you clearly don't have a basic command of the English language."
What exactly might we have missed?
That strikes me as incredibly wasteful of public tax dollars that you can just give it away like that. Either you have too much publicly funded bandwidth or you have no business giving away a scarce resource to promote Apple.
The fact remains that you can reasonably expect some li-ion batteries to die after one year of service, that some did die, and that Apple is just now, 2 years into the product life cycle, making some provision for people whose battery has died. I fail to see how that's anyway ok for the people who either forked out $255, shelved their iPods, or busted their iPod trying to replace the battery because Apple didn't want to make it easy for the consumer to change a battery.
With business ethics like that, it's no wonder Apple's share of the PC market has shrunk from 75% to 3%. They keep this up and the same thing will happen to the iPod.
You've managed to shift blame from the Neistat brothers to me (nice), insinuate that I'm doing something immoral, unethical, or wasteful (again, nice, and I'm not, by the way), all the while skillfully ignoring that the Neistat brothers CONTINUE to host a patently untrue video (even if it were half true before, it isn't now), all as a sad attention-grab.
No, you can't "expect", wholesale, Li ion batteries to day after a year. It can happen to some, but to make it sound as if its exceedingly common, and that a manufacturer should "expect" massive routine failures is just as disingenuous as the Neistat brothers' video. And it's not Apple's fault that they broke their iPod, no matter how much you wish it were so.
And nice "ethics" jab. Yeah, that's why Apple is consistently ranked #1 in various support and quality surveys, most notably Consumer Reports. Real poor ethics, that Apple.
I can't imagine the amount of shifting and logical fallacies that were contained in this one post. Yes, it sucks that the iPod died. Apple didn't have its own replacement program for batteries that the time. They now do. The Neistat brothers refuse to tell people about the program they themselves admit is fair and reasonable. They continue to be out for attention. The number of people with severe early battery issues is comparatively very small. Nothing they Neistat brothers caused Apple to change any policies, since the battery program came out BEFORE they released the video. They have no interest in acknowledging that Apple fixed the very issue they have a gripe with.
But I thought using uncompressed audio was a bad idea, battery-life-wise. However much longer the hard drive has to spin to give you the same length of music, your battery will be spent that much sooner, right? I mean, I don't have an iPod, so I can't test it, but I'd be surprised if you got more than a couple hours out of the battery, listening to WAV or AIFF.
So why does the iPod comes with a contact manager, alarm clock, calendar, games, and FireWire hard drive capability? That sounds like a lot of non-music-player features to me
For one thing, these are all software features, unlike an FM tuner and voice recorder.
They almost all tie-in to Apple software, as well. Your Address Book contacts are synced, as are your iCal calendars and alarms. If you use these things, having them synced on something you carry around all the time is incredibly useful and doesn't get in the way.
The games aren't exactly a selling point, but are pretty neat when you've got to stand or sit in the occasional long line. They are a hell of a lot better than the usual cell-phone games. I imagine they are there because one of the iPod developers cooked up the BreakOut clone in his spare time. That scroll wheel was just begging for it.
The FireWire hard drive capability is kind of expected. The iPod *is* a FireWire hard drive, so why wouldn't it work like one?
Really, none of the features you mentioned are comparable to adding an FM tuner or voice recorder. Those require additional hardware, which would cost a lot more for Apple than additional software features. They didn't get those billions in the bank by riding on thin margins. The iPod is a cash cow as it is. It doesn't *need* more features.
Don't become a regular here -- you will become retarded.
Um, no. For FM you'd need an antenna and a tuner. For voice, you'd need a microphone and probably a chip capable of realtime encoding (the iPod's CPU is a bit underpowered for that)
Purely software my ass.
Why doesn't the iPod have those things?
The iPod doesn't have those things because even without them, people are still buying it. That's really all there is to it.
Popular opinion and plain old word of mouth (amplified by excellent, if cheesy, marketing) have proven that the iPod doesn't suck. In this day and age, that guarantee is worth a hell of a lot more than most realize.
Sure, the iRiver might have more features, but is the software as good? Is the interface as good? Could my mom use it? My grandmother? My daughter? My dog? Is the sound quality good? Are the supplied headphones good? Is it going to fall apart in six days? Weeks? Months?
The thing is, the iRiver might be better in every way. But I'm sure the iPod is good.
Don't become a regular here -- you will become retarded.
I agree wth you, but the point I was trying to rebut was the Jobs is opposed on principle to any non-music-playing features.
It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
He's questioning the collective wisdom of /. Mod him down fast, before someone notices. If this gets out, we're all ruined!
Furthermore, the absence of iPod problems suffered by at least one Apple user who can still remember his Apple II means that every ostensible "complaint" post here is fabricated. Why don't you stop subjecting us Apple owners to your new form of racism?
Then tell me they did not produced a one sided piece of biased fluff that they purposely have not corrected.
Well, FWIW: A Message From the Neistat Brothers
To me, the fact that the iPod ships with a non-replaceable battery is pretty inglorious for Apple, to say the least. Many consumer electronic items have swappable batteries that do not require a trip to the shop (wrist watches, mobiles phones, digital cameras, etc., etc., etc.), and I think the iPod should as well. Sell the swappable batteries for $99 each, but don't make a product that has to be shipped in for a freaking battery replacement. Modularity is a good thing, especially as regards your energy source--and especially if your battery only ends up lasting 18 months, which is a complete joke in my opinion (though it's hard to know how much they used the thing--perhaps it's normal wear n' tear?). That said, our consumerist culture produces enough disposable garbage; we should be trying to reduce/reuse/recycle just a bit, no?
especially now that it's backed by someone who actually can produce: IBM.
The irony of this kind of statement and the 'Big Brother' ad campaign that launched the Macintosh isn't lost on some of us.
Actually, Jobs seemed a little annoyed. Looking back at my notes, I found it remarkable how many of his answers begin with some variation of ''No,'' as if my questions were out of sync with what he wanted to say. (Before I could finish a question about the significance of Apple's pitching a product to Windows users, for instance, he corrected me: ''We're not pitching the Windows user. We're pitching the music lover.'') After half an hour of this, my inquiries really did start to fall apart, so I didn't expect much when I resorted to asking, in so many words, whether he thinks consciously about innovation.
''No,'' he said, peevishly. ''We consciously think about making great products. We don't think, 'Let's be innovative!''' He waved his hands for effect. '''Let's take a class! Here are the five rules of innovation, let's put them up all over the company!'''
Well, I said defensively, there are people who do just that.
''Of course they do.'' I felt his annoyance shift elsewhere. ''And it's like . . . somebody who's not cool trying to be cool. It's painful to watch. You know what I mean?'' He looked at me for a while, and I started to think he was trying to tell me something. Then he said, ''It's like . . . watching Michael Dell try to dance.'' The P.R. minder guffawed. ''Painful,'' Jobs summarized.
The thing that it's fairly easy to see is that these guys got pretty angry at Apple, and did their video in retaliation.
Following that, the Apple Brigade (astroturfers?) have done a pretty good slime job on them.
It reminds some of us why we've never bought anything new from Apple Computer. (I confess I recently registered a copy of Quicktime for Macintosh)
I keep my iPod in my pocket!
And, of course, I'm happy to see you too.
GPL Deconstructed
Thank you oh propagandists, for I never have to think agin!
Anyone who whines about being modded down should be.
think you should read about what young and dumb kids sometimes SAY and what the DO...
Please, you're not arguing about the fact that the IPod battery only lasted 18 months and Apple wanted $250 for replacing it ... That's the whole point ... The Apple $99 replacement didn't exist at the time the video was released.
You are simply attacking the messenger ...
echo '[q]sa[ln0=aln80~Psnlbx]16isb572CCB9AE9DB03273snlbxq' |dc
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
You're pretty easily led, aren't you? Ever thought of forming your OWN opinion based on your OWN experiences?
That was classic intercourse!
Having received a small back-dated pay rise this month, I decided I'd better spend it on something nice before it got devoured by Christmas, so I finally relented and ordered the iPod I'd been ogling for so long; 40gb version, screw it, from the online Apple store. This was last Tuesday. Now, Apple have been upfront from the start; they said 2-3 days assembly and 3-5 days delivery, so I can't really compain. But it's near Christmas, so I've been somewhat surprised to follow the shipping logs and discover that the iPod - after the 2 days assembly - was shipped from Taiwan, and arrived this morning in Luxembourg (gah!), from where it will presumably and hopefully ship to the UK. When it does arrive, I think I might drop Apple a line suggesting that they try to keep a few more of the buggers in stock - especially when they're advertising them eveyrwhere you look - because tracking a hotly anticipated impulse purchase across three continents is heartbreaking*...
* feeeling exaggerated for effect.
A product not meeting your exacting needs means that its not meeting your exacting needs, not that its "flawed".
2) No ogg vorbis support.
Fuck Ogg. Fuck it up its stupid ass. Outside of about 5 regular trolls on Slashdot, nobody cares about Ogg.
Recharging may be less convenient if the only device you own is an iPod. If you own all kind of gadgets (PDA, cameras, CD player, remote controls, etc) it is plain selfish and self serving of the companies to force us to use incompatible chargers for their mostly incompatible batteries. It would be so easy if all the devices used AA or AAA batteries, then one could have always a few freshly charged ready to replace batterie in any gadget.
They could agree at least to use an standard plug to hook up the gadget to an external standard charger (for which you could switch to the appropriate Vdc output). But that would be too much to ask of course.
Instead I have 5 or 6 different chargers that make a pretty mess of cables to the side of the mess my not yet unwired desktop already is.
Do not dare to mention using a propietary battery and charger is clever. It is only clever if you consider it as an additional source of revenue for propietary stuff, it is not as a solution to a legitimate consumer problem.
That is on reason I do not intend to own an iPod, there are several players out there that accept solid state memory and standard batteries.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I love my iPod to death. I use it everwhere, I use everything but audio recording and memory card storage because I don't have the perferials for it yet. I also too find that my iPod dosn't fully recharge after a good depletion, but I think that's just the software and not the hardware, otherwise it's awsome. It's a 3rd generation 20g.
It still holds true, doesn't it?
Well, maybe not the space, but frankly I don't need a portable HD when all what I need is a music player.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I'm not saying the iPod was the first MP3 player. I'm saying Apple were the first ones to make it good enough for mass adoption. That's why iPod is the market leader despite the price premium.
Griffin makes an "iTrip" that lets you choose from many more spots on the dial, and that seemed promising but I didn't want to blow another forty bucks. Easier just to wire it into the stereo using AV jacks or whatever, or get a tape adapter if you've still got a cassette deck. Just feels passe, though.
(You'd think stereo manufacturers would be all over this, but for some reason they're way behind the curve. The parent post's question is so obvious...)
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Agreement - I have a 40 GB iPod, and my default settings are 256kbps stereo AAC for encoding. When I want something high quality, I go for 320 kbps AAC, and for voice and ebooks, I do 128k mono. At all these rates, AAC has beat Vorbis in listening tests. And storage isn't too much of an issue when I've got 40 GB to play with.
-T
"Fuck Ogg. Fuck it up its stupid ass. Outside of about 5 regular trolls on Slashdot, nobody cares about Ogg."
Errr
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
Yeah, because watching hi-res video on a two inch screen is something that EVERYONE wants to see.
Would YOU want to watch any of the Lord of the Rings movies on your color cellphone? That's what you are asking for.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
There's a PICTURE of an iPod - no more.
Geez, you are some ass-wipe.
Thanks for saving me, I was about to buy one and was concerned about how good the sound quality would be. I'll look for another solution now.
I don't see why car stereos don't have a line in, they could hide it behind a blanking plate so it wouldn't spoil the look of the stereo. I guess people using their existing discmans and mp3 players cuts into the lucrative cd changer buisness.
It's closer to English than, say, "ethernet" is, and just about as widely known by this particular audience.
And it does actually serve a distinctive purpose in the language. It indicates a much more fundamental, visceral understanding of something than the austere "knowing" of facts.
I'm not a Heinleinite, and am a prescriptivist, but I find this to be entirely valid usage.
This has been your completely off-topic pedantry for the day.
Penny Arcade on the iPod.
Search 2010 Gen Con events
Sure it can be. My CD collection is pushing 30GB as is, with 160kbs or so Vorbis files. At 256 You'd be looking at more like 50GB
TODO: Something witty here...
funny, i've been using i-spell long before apple released their i-pod. figuring out 'C-s' was easy, but 'M-x ipod' doesn't seem to work for me. time to 'emerge rsync && emacs-cvs'...
eat up martha
What planet are you living on? Thieves will take whatever you carelessly leave around for them to take.
I prefer my iPod to a discman because I travel a lot and I don't want to carry CDs around. I have all of my music inside the iPod and the laptop. Also, using it with an iTrip, I can play any or all of my music on ANY nearby radio / stereo. Very handy for the car, or house parties!
Powerbook G4/1.5GHz 12", Toshiba Satellite 1135-S1554
This this iPod/iTunes timeline and is pretty interesting.
I dunno what you want me to put here. Whatever
History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it - Sir Winston Churchill
You forgot to post their followup.
wrong/lie
Hey MP3/iPod people... I'm a journalist in Washington, DC and I'm writing a story about the mp3 industry and the use of legitimate downloading services. I wanted to see what you guys thought of the new services and their implications for copyright laws and artists rights. What do you think the future of the music industry is? Please feel free to email me at headbanger74au@yahoo.com. I may quote you in the article. Thanks for your help! Scott Washington, DC