Dell Offers $100 For Old iPods

Mz6 writes "Dell unveiled an offer that grants music player customers a $100 rebate on a 15GB Digital Jukebox when they send in an Apple iPod music player to be recycled. 'We want to help drive further awareness of the products we have available and...the plusses we have to offer,' said Dell spokesman Jess Blackburn. Thus the iPod offer 'is a way to call out what separates us from the understood leader in this particular market.' Dell is also offering free shipping, free software, and 25 free songs through MusicMatch and brings the overall cost for the DJ down to $99." Helpful tip: If you have a dead iPod, do the rebate offer, and sell the Jukebox on eBay.

Comments

hmm

[Mr. Spontaneous]

Suddenly taking the burden of my friend's dead iPod off his shoulders doesn't seem so bad...

Re:hmm

[Short Circuit]

Heh. I would have taken it just so I could take it apart. Assuming it's not the bad part, that HD has to be useful for something. Probably involving a mini-ITX board.

Also, has anyone tried dropping in a larger HD?

Re:hmm

[Mr. Spontaneous]

I dont know about the iPods, but I remember a site which showed how to drop a larger drive into an archos jukebox...

Re:hmm

[fermion]

Even better, steal the iPod. This offer creates a ready market for hot iPods.

And the for the people who this makes no sense, it is actually quite clever. A new dell is $99. To refurbish the old iPod out fo warrenty, $99. It might be enough to get some to switch.

Re:hmm

[jimbolaya]

My first thought was, if it's the same price to replace the battery in an iPod, only a fool would trade an iPod for a DJ. Then, I thought, only a fool would pay $99 for a replacement battery, when you can get one for much less.

So, Dell might have an audience after all.

Re:hmm

[gr33nlantern]

So let me see.

Assume I have a dead 1st generation iPod that is completely useless to me.

• I turn this iPod Into Dell for a 100 dollar rebate, and spend 99 dollars on a Dell DJ.
• I sell my Dell DJ on Ebay for 200 dollars. (I am now ahead of myself 100 dollars).
• I muster up another 100 dollars and buy a 15gb Ipod.

So, dell is making it possible for me to turn my dead 1st generation iPod into a brand new 3rd generation 15gb for just 200 dollars?! oh THANK you dell. ^^.

In All seriousness, I think dell would be better off spending their money making the Dell DJ a more desirable product. This would probably proove to be more ethical, rather than offering good money for their lead competitor's product, No?

Re:hmm

[Build6]

I think dell would be better off spending their money making the Dell DJ a more desirable product.

I'm thinking this offer means something else entirely - it could be possible that this means sales of the Dell jukebox are so *low* that they are desperate to get stock off their hands.

Dell likes to spout off on how they hold no inventory, etc. etc. - but that's not strictly true, particularly for devices that aren't as commoditized as PCs.

You can't leave a factory idle and then fire it up as-and-when you need one or two units of a product. The smallest production runs aren't going to be in the single digits.

It might be easier for Dell with PCs since motherboards, hard disks, all that are going to be MUCH easier to get in the open market than the custom ASICs, frames/casings for the player etc. that they need for this. There's no "ATX", or "ITX" standard for the circuit boards inside music players, practically everything in there is going to be semi-custom-made.

(and, in any case, it's also been pointed out inventory for PC parts etc. is just being shoved off to their suppliers and it just keeps it off Dell's books, it doesn't mean there's "no inventory")

(and, it may not be Dell that's getting totally desperate, depending on the contract signed with Dell it could be the supplier that's desperate to get jukeboxes off their hands and offering it at an even lower price to Dell).

Re:hmm

[gr33nlantern]

Hmm, yes I see what you are trying to say.

My point though is that it seems as though they are targetting their major competitor here. Couldn't they just as easily drop the price of the Dell DJ for a limited time to 99 dollars if they really wanted to rid their stock? This would probably be a better solution as it would open up the deal to everyone, not just past-customers of their competitor.

Even if they didn't drop the price, and just set up a rebate option (without requiring you to donate your ol' iPod), they would probably sell a lot more products... And honestly, what percentage of people do you think actually turn in those rebates? A lot of people put it in their "to-do" stack and never really get around to it.

Helpful Tip?

[Tezkah]

Helpful tip: If you have a dead iPod, do the rebate offer, and sell the Jukebox on eBay.

Why, thats dishonest!

PS: Anyone have a dead iPod they want to send to me?

Re:Helpful Tip?

[mriker]

If Dell's terms say they'll accept any iPod, dead or alive, it's not the least bit dishonest.

Re:Helpful Tip?

[PetoskeyGuy]

They say recycle. What's dishonest about it? Just make sure to take the CF card or HD out before you send it in.

Re:Helpful Tip?

[Solar Limb]

Don't you mean a diePod?

HAR HAR HAR

Re:Helpful Tip?

[chromaphobic]

If you have a dead iPod, maybe you should question the quality of the device, Skipper.

Unless the iPod's death was homicide and not suicide. :)

Like, it got dropped or stepped on or accidentally abused in some other way.

Personally, I have one of the original 5GB iPods laying about that I never use (long since replaced with a newer model) and probably couldn't sell for even $100 at this point, so it's almost tempting. Almost.

Re:Helpful Tip?

[aixguru1]

That trick is used a bit and there is nothing at all wrong with it. I did the same thing with Satellite TV and Cable TV. My Satellite provider would send you a check for 200 bucks if you stayed with them a year, so I did. Then after I called and confirmed my check was in the mail for the offer, I canceled my service. I immediately called my cable company for the dish buy out special, went with a sweet cable package and they paid me $300 bucks to drag off my dish.

I am afraid that the fate of those iPods is like the fate of my dish. Many companies will end up destroying them afterwards. They would crush the satellite dishes once they had them. It would be a shame to see an iPod graveyard...

Re:Helpful Tip?

[the unbeliever]

If it still functions, I'd be interested in buying it. Email me?

Re:Helpful Tip?

[squiggleslash]

You should be able to get something between $80 and $150 for it, depending on its condition. Probably a better bet than using it as a trade in and then trying to sell the Dell (for which you might make a profit of $100 if you're able to find someone who'd be willing to buy it full price on eBay. There are people who are that stupid, I've seen them on eBay, but they're not that numerous.)

Re:Helpful Tip?

[jocknerd]

Except that you still have to buy the Dell. Then I really don't think you could get your money back on Ebay for it.

Re:Helpful Tip?

[dirty]

As far as I can see the deal mentions nothing requiring the iPod to be functional. In fact it implies it does not need to work 100%: "Is your iPod battery starting to fade? Before you pay for a replacement battery for your same old device, consider upgrading to a brand new Dell 15GB1 DJ." Honestly I doubt they care about the condition, they might try to harvest the hard drive, but the rest is probably garbage.

Re:Helpful Tip?

[micronix1]

i sold my old 5gb ipod on amazon.com for $190 with a firewire cable and a car charger. no headphones or anything else was included. link

Re:Helpful Tip?

[Buran]

Use it to back up your stuff and for sneakernetting files around. I've got one of the original ones, too, and if my boss wants to send me something too big to send over the network, I hand it to him and tell him to put it there. He has no idea how to use the music player part but knows to treat it just like any other removable hard drive.

The newer 3G iPod I use daily has tons of free space on it, so it ends up serving as a data dump for email backups and the like.

Re:Helpful Tip?

[networkBoy]

not the least bit dishonest.
If they are going to recycle them that most likely means: crush them, grind them up, sell the fractured bits to a recycler. Thus they don't care about the condition.
-nB

Disclaimer: I don't know the above is true about _this_ promotion, but was true about a similar one I was involved with.

Re:Helpful Tip?

[__aaevmb228]

Dell, like any other large corporation, has an army of lawyers who review every aspect of rebate offers such as this. I have a hard time imagining that one of them didn't think about the possibility of receiving dead iPods. The condition of the iPod wasn't left out due to oversight. A far easier explanation is that they don't care.

Dell is doing this as much for the PR as anything else. They're not going to resell the iPods. The condition of any one iPod is irrelevant to them.

Re:Helpful Tip?

[gryphokk]

Like, it got dropped or stepped on or accidentally abused in some other way.

Would that actually be homicide? That sounds more like the legal definition of podslaughter.

Re:Helpful Tip?

[Anonymous Coward]

I dunno man, your link only shows us that you're somewhat of an asshole.

"Buyer was an impatient and incompetent aoler."

Re:Helpful Tip?

[andy landy]

No! This is all IMHO, but I can't see Dell caring about the state of the iPods. The point is to offer an incentive to buy their player, whilst removing iPods from circulation too.

There's a similar deal with mobile phones in the UK, you can trade in old mobile phones for ~UK 50 when you take out a new contract. Most places will even accept old analogue phones for which there aren't any networks any more!

These phones aren't any use to people, but people think they're getting a "Special Offer" so are more inclined to take it up. The phone companies can afford to knock 50 off anyway. I suspect the same is true of this Dell offer.

Re:Helpful Tip?

[mriker]

Their TOS neglects to state the condition the iPod must be in for this offer, so you're discussing exploiting a loophole or oversight and it is dishonest. I feel like a moron for explaining this to you*. Any eight-year-old on the planet would know that sending Dell a broken iPod is _wrong_.

Going to have to disagree with you. I maintain that there's absolutely nothing wrong with taking advantage of their offer (in the literal sense, not the malicious sense). It's their terms, not mine. If you don't like it, don't bitch at me.

Re:Helpful Tip?

[TangLiSha]

Darn it! I was hoping to get a cheap used iPod from Dell.

Re:Helpful Tip?

[arashi no garou]

Besides that, why on earth would I ever get rid of an audio player that actually works well in Linux? I would gladly turn in a perfectly working iPod to get a Dell DJ, if I didn't already have one.

I normally cheer for Apple just because they take 0.1% of desktop market share from Microsoft, but on this I say "screw you Apple" while I listen to MP3's transferred to my Dell DJ from my Slackware Linux box using Gnomad2.

;-)

Why?

[amigan940]

I don't know many people who would want to trade in their iPod for a largely inferior product...besides, low cost becomes a non-issue when you've already purchased the higher-priced product.

Re:Why?

[pete-classic]

'Cause you have a dead battery, and don't want to get stuck with an expensive nonfunctional item again?

-Peter

Re:Why?

[mhore]

I don't know many people who would want to trade in their iPod for a largely inferior product...besides, low cost becomes a non-issue when you've already purchased the higher-priced product.

I'd never trade in my iPod. I have never owned any music player that is as good as the iPod. Sure, I paid a bloody fortune for it, but you get what you pay for. It seems that there was so much thought put into the design of it, and when I go to CompUSA or where ever and actually TRY these other products... ugh. I couldn't imagine ever owning one again!

(Then again, I say that about my Mac too, but it's true!)

Mike.

Re:Why?

[CdBee]

I doubt the WMA-playing Dell DJ works with a Mac anyway

Re:Why?

[zangdesign]

I disagree - I have a 5Gb iPod with a dead battery (replacement costs around $98). While I prefer the Apple interface, there are no other special features about the iPod that aren't duplicated in the Dell player. I don't buy music online (RIAA won't get my money, period) so I'm not losing anything there.

This sounds like a win-win situation for me.

Re:Why?

[Twirlip of the Mists]

While I prefer the Apple interface, there are no other special features about the iPod that aren't duplicated in the Dell player.

AAC support (including but not limited to FairPlay), contacts and calendars, text notes, on-the-go playlists, auto-sync your whole library or one or more playlists, an alarm clock, FireWire, a 25-minute skip buffer, that cool solitaire game, and a partridge in a pear tree.

(The Dell site didn't say anything obvious about a skip buffer. If it's got one, scratch that one off the list. Neither the Dell nor the iPod include a bird or a tree. That was just for fun.)

Re:Why?

[djtripp]

Well, there are always options:
Battery replacement
What's a better deal for you? Some might see a brand new unit (with warranty) a good deal for $100. Some might see extending the life of an old friend for $40 a better one.

Re:Why?

[Daleks]

$98? Try $30. Dell is just trying to make Apple look bad by using this program to advertise iPod problems, which have been grossly overstated. My 1G 10GB iPod still gives me 6+ hours per charge. I know at least 10 other people with older iPods and none of them have had battery problems.

Re:Why?

[djtripp]

That is for the Apple replacement. If you are mechanically inclined, or have a freind who is, if can cost you as little as $30. And then if you(or your friend) fries the bugger replaceing it, well the Dell deal is pretty good looking deal. Mac compatability could be an issue, but I'm sure there is some way of hooking it up though USB to the Mac. (This post was by no means an attack on your ability to open an iPod, nor your freinds abaility.)

Re:Why?

[Daleks]

They even have ones for newer models and minis.

Re:Why?

[OmniVector]

i don't know where you're seeing this $98 battery, but http://www.ipodbattery.com definitely says $29. that's quite a far stretch from paying dell $100 for a new, rather crappy, dell jukebox

Re:Why?

[Some Dumbass...]

I don't know many people who would want to trade in their iPod for a largely inferior product

Anyone who's been bitten by the battery bug. :)

Seriously, I own a Dell DJ. The iPod is smaller and has more features. Some of the extra features don't matter to me (AAC support, breakout game) and some do (works as a standard USB mass storage device). The UI of the two players is pretty similar, and touchpad vs. scroll wheel is a matter of taste (I prefer the scroll wheel myself).

But then there's the battery life. The DJ really does have twice the battery life, and the battery should last longer as well. That might just be enough to convert some people. My boss' iPod is down to about a 3-hour battery life after a year, and I know he's thinking of trading in for something else.

On a semi-related note, if you want to find out about non-iPod players, go to the manufacturer's web board. You'll learn a lot. In the case of the DJ, which as an owner of one I know something about, there are some plusses and minuses which are not in the early reviews. For example, you can now transfer both music and data off the DJ to your computer, and yes there is now an inline remote with an LCD. On the other hand, there have been some hard-drive problems (a "click-of-death"?) with the DJ which were bad enough that Dell went and got a new supplier for those drives. Good stuff to know if you're planning to buy, right? Remember, almost every review out there is out of date. Most players have more bugfixes or enhancements than those old reviews will mention.

Re:Why?

[dougmc]

a 25-minute skip buffer

Hard drives do not `skip'. So there's no need for a skip buffer.

However, it's possible that a jolt or something could stop the hard drive from delivering data for a second or two -- in that case, a few seconds of buffer space would be a good thing. (However, any jolt that's this strong risks damaging the hard drive itself, stopping it from delivering data forever.) But 25 minutes would be silly -- one minute would be far more than enough.

The reason that you'd want 25 minutes of buffering would be power conservation. 25 minutes of 128 kB mp3s is only about 25 MB, so it's not that much memory. What happens is your hard drive spins up, the player buffers the next 25 MB of music to play into RAM, and then the hard drive spins down, and stays spun down until 20 or so minutes elapse, or until you manually pick a song that's not in it's buffer already. When either one happens, it spins up, fills it's buffer again, and goes back to sleep.

An added bonus of this is that a hard drive that is not spinning is much less likely to be damaged by a shock than one that is spinning.

Re:Why?

[Twirlip of the Mists]

Hard drives do not `skip'. So there's no need for a skip buffer. However, it's possible that a jolt or something could stop the hard drive from delivering data for a second or two

It could skip, in other words. :-)

But 25 minutes would be silly -- one minute would be far more than enough.

You know why they have a 25-minute buffer? Because a 32 MB DRAM chip was the smallest they could secure at the right price and sufficient quantity.

What happens is your hard drive spins up, the player buffers the next 25 MB of music to play into RAM, and then the hard drive spins down

You hit the nail on the head. That's why 25 minutes is cool. And again, I'm not positive that the Dell doesn't have a buffer. I just didn't see anything obvious about it on their site, and I certainly didn't bother digging for it.

Re:Why?

[dasmegabyte]

I would not trade my working 3G, 30 gig ipod for a larger device with a worse interface.

However -- if I has a broken 1G 5 gig ipod, I might consider this. New device for $100? That's not bad at all. Certainly the iPod isn't worth anything to me.

Of course, if the only problem with the iPod was a dead battery, I'd spend $30 on a new long-life lithium ion and send Dell here.

Re:Why?

[halbritt]

I replaced the battery in my dead iPod for $20. You could do the same.

Re:Why?

[SwornPacifist]

While I prefer the Apple interface, there are no other special features about the iPod that aren't duplicated in the Dell player

Ahem: An iPod minus the interface is a portable hard drive.

The interface is pretty important, and a hell of a lot of effort went into the iPod interface. Given, Dell put a decent amount in also, but not to the extreme Apple did. But to discount the interface (which you said you preferred), and then compare them, is kinda meaningless.

Re:Why?

[zangdesign]

Useful things on that list:
- Contacts
- Calendar - marginally useful
- Playlist

Features I don't need:
- AAC - no DRM for me, thank you
- Text notes - really, I'll just write it down - it's quicker
- On-the-go Playlists - sure, but I can just as easily do that at home
- Auto-sync - don't use iTunes anymore. It's too bloated. I use QCD.
- Alarm clock - got one. Why do I need another? And how well does it work if I'm not wearing the earphones?
- Firewire - I don't need it updated RIGHT DAMN NOW. I can wait a minute or two.
- Solitaire - It's an MP3 player, not a game machine. Besides, solitaire is old and busted. Give me something that's actually fun.
- Partridge - we don't need no stinkin' partridges

From a sentimental standpoint, I favor the iPod, but really, it's only a 5 Gigger. Most of the features you just named are eating up space that I could use for something else, you know, like MUSIC, which is why I bought the damn thing in the first place. Perhaps if Apple offered a way to only load up the features you actually wanted into the iPod, then I would consider sticking with it, but otherwise, I just need a music player with a really big hard drive and you can keep all that other crap for the hipsters.

Re:Why?

[jsebrech]

Plus the DJ has dedicated "home" and "back" buttons (e.g. a superior interface!), a _much_ better battery, and a better warranty (1 year standard). And it's cheaper, too.

To be fair to the ipod, it has a back button, and it comes with a one year warranty (though it might not cover as much as the DJ's).

Re:Why?

[Kusanagi]

After about 6 months of hardcore battery use, my iPod still had enough batter life to last while I flew literally to the other side of the planet. I charged it in Virginia, USA and it still worked when I got to South Korea. I listened to quite a bit of music on the plane and in the terminals.

Of course, this wasn't a scientific study, so I didn't log the hours, but I know it was several.

All I can say is that battery life (no matter how "smart" batteries become) depends on how it is used. AFAIK, a well-used battery will have better performance than one that sits stagnate for long periods.

Re:Why?

[zangdesign]

It's more like, I like how the iPod handles (layout, how the menus are arranged, etc.) but I just want something to pick songs and play them. Everything else is just bloat, IMO.

Which brings me to this point: why can't Apple set it up so we can pick and choose what accessories to load into it?

Re:Why?

[Blondie-Wan]

Features I don't need: - AAC - no DRM for me, thank you

AAC doesn't have anything to do with DRM. Music downloaded from the iTunes Music Store does have DRM, but you can also rip your own AACs, just as you can your own MP3s or whatever, and they won't have DRM on them.

Re:Why?

[Kris_J]

I've got a second gen. iPod and I think I only get about an hour on the battery. A bit more since I installed the latest BIOS, but an hour playing in the evening will typically mean that it won't last 15 minutes in the morning. When I have to start using a cigarette-lighter adapter in the car it will somewhat negate the usefulness of my FM adapter. Don't know if I want to replace the battery or buy a new one at this stage.

Re:Why?

[arashi no garou]

So just because it will play WMA files, it won't work on Mac?? What kind of screwed up logic is that??? The DJ also plays MP3s and WAVs, and it works just fine on Linux. I have no idea if someone has created or ported a program to the Mac to work with the DJ, but it shouldn't be hard to do. LSongs and Gnomad2/libnjb are both open-source programs designed to connect to the DJ.

My point being, the reason the DJ MIGHT not work on Mac has nothing to do with the fact that it can play a Microsoft file format, but rather with the availability of a file transfer program.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for some Microsoft-bashing when it's legitimate, but your post was just retarded. In the future, please turn on your brain before you post.

Re:Why?

[arminw]

What about the iPod owner who downloaded a lot of music from the iTunes store and would like to continue doing this? Will the Dell unit play that music? Will the user first have to burn all the stuff from iTunes to CDs and then re-import them to the Dell player? I suspect that not too many iPod owners who already have iTunes music will go to all that trouble for a clearly inferior device such as the Dell DJ.

Re:Why?

[FredFnord]

- AAC - no DRM for me, thank you

AAC. Advanced Audio Codec. Arguably superior sound. Has nothing to do with DRM. There are a couple of companies that have DRM for MP3... going to stop using them too now?

Most of the features you just named are eating up space that I could use for something else, you know, like MUSIC

That's right. That 4 meg flash ROM that holds all the programs and data and stuff could be holding music, instead. Or do you mean the 300k of space it takes you to store your calendar, alarm clock, playlists, and text notes? Except you're not using those things, so I guess it doesn't.

As for not needing Firewire, I sure hope you mean that you can use USB 2 instead. (Firewire may or may not be technically superior, but USB 2 works fine for this.) Uploading 10 gigs of music via USB 1.1, however... well, you may not have anything better to do with your life, but I do. Or perhaps you know exactly what you're going to want to listen to tomorrow so you can sync overnight. I don't.

If I had a 60 gig iPod, I could just upload the whole collection -- taking what, a week? let's say 40 mbytes per minute, that's on the order of 1500 minutes, anyway -- and then I'd only have to update when I got a new album, I guess.

(Yes, I know, USB 1.1 is 10 megabits/sec, but it can't actually achieve that speed.)

-fred

Re:Why?

[_Sharp'r_]

Doncha just love competition?

I wonder what features and prices the next round will bring us.

Re:Why?

[Moofie]

Uh, maybe because they're burned into a ROM?

I've never understood why people want LESS features. (assuming the same cost, which is what we're assuming when we're talking about software features) "Why can't I get a phone that's just a phone?" Well, because once you've got a display and a battery and a processor, it's a no-brainer to use some of those facilities to do a few other things that will make the device more attractive to (sane) customers.

Re:Why?

[zangdesign]

It's the same argument against bloated software - a phone is a phone, not a calendar. There's no particular reason for it not to be a calendar as well, but there's no crying need for it either. For the most part phones are badly designed to do much else than make calls anyway. Text messaging? Sorry, it's easier to call someone.

The same with an MP3 player. What good is an alarm clock on an MP3 player if only functions while you're wearing the headphones (unless Apple secretly dropped a piezo speaker in the thing). If it's going to be a travel accessory, it needs to function for those situations where you're not using directly using it as well. Note taking? No keyboard. No way to keep up with someone who's delivering the information. Solitaire? Someone too lazy to come up with an original game?

One tool. One purpose. It's the simplest rule of software programming and the one that leads to the least number of problems.

Re:Why?

[Moofie]

I think SMS and thumboards suck out loud almost as much as T9 text input, but a lot of people seem to like them. But I don't need a phone that explicitly doesn't use those features, because I simply don't need to use them.

And your contention about smartphones seems ill-founded. The newer PalmOS based phones I've played with are superb.

People (who are not you) find it convenient to use their iPods to store contacts and calendar info. Why should Apple not allow them to use these features because they offend your aesthetic sensibilities?

The features work, and they don't detract from your experience using the device, whether you use them or not. So what's the problem?

Re:Why?

[zenwaves]

Battery life is really not such an issue -- if I "only" eeked 3-4 hours out of my iPod, that would in most cases be more than enough time between places where I can charge it (in my car with an adapter or at home).

The real issue is ease of use -- which just happens to be related to the style factor.

A good friend just got a 30 GB Creative Zen player from his parents. Besides being butt ugly, it has the clumsiest UI I have ever seen. Whereas I can hold my iPod in one hand and navigate everywhere with just my thumb, my poor friend has to use a god-awful interface requiring many fingers and a good deal of squinting.

I felt bad for my friend, so I just kept repeating, "wow, cool, thirty gigabytes!"!

Jon

Hmm...

[arieswind]

'We want to help drive further awareness of the products we have available and...the plusses we have to offer,' Or maybe, they just want to get more ipods off the market, and more of their digital jukeboxes in consumers hands

But can the Dell unit seamlessly plug into a BMW?

[Anonymous Coward]

But can the Dell unit seamlessly plug into a BMW? That is the question!

First post on /. woo hoo... even tho I am a coward. ;)

Not so great.....

[Osgyth]

It's a $100 REBATE. Means you still have to buy Dell's crap.....

Re:Not so great.....

[FlipmodePlaya]

From my limited knowledge, the DDJ isn't at all bad. It's made by Creative, I believe, and I hear good things about their Zen line of players. The price is pretty good (there are cheaper), and the remote is a nice touch.

Note that I'm far from a Dell fan.

Re:Not so great.....

[jford235]

yeah, i think it takes like 8-10 weeks to get the rebate back

Re:Not so great.....

[nacturation]

The price is pretty good (there are cheaper), and the remote is a nice touch.

A remote for your portable music player? What's next? A remote control for a flashlight?

Re:Not so great.....

[sharpcny]

Yeah, I have a Dell DJ and it's been fine. The musicmatch software sucked when I got it so I bought Dudebox Explorer and that works great. (MM didn't correctly handle track numbers of all things) My only complaint is that if it's locked and shuts itself down by timing out, it won't turn on when you press the power button. You have to remember to unlock it which just seems silly. It's frozen up once in the 6 months I've had it and I use it everyday. Cheaper and better battery, too.

Re:Not so great.....

[frodo from middle ea]

What's next? A remote control for a flashlight?

with a built-in flash light incase you are in a dark toom and need to find your flash light.

Re:Not so great.....

[AnyNoMouse]

with a built-in flash light incase you are in a dark toom and need to find your flash light.

Don't forget your solar powered flashlight in case you run out of batteries.

Re:Not so great.....

[Bishop923]

If it's anything like the iPod remote, it's actually a tethered device that can clip to your sleeve or collar while keeping the device itself in your pocket or bookbag. Comes in handy when you need to do some simple things(Skip/Pause/Volume) quickly or discretely.

Re:Not so great.....

[djtripp]

If you get the paperwork filled out properly. Don't use a photocopier. Have a proper postmark. Oh yeah, they have to get it. And even if you get sent out in time, and it lost in the mail, they have that must be received by clause.

Re:Not so great.....

[cens0r]

I use the remote on my iRiver player. It lets me leave the player in my bag and still control it.

Re:Not so great.....

[nacturation]

Don't forget your solar powered flashlight in case you run out of batteries.

That's what the battery-powered extension cord is for.

Re:Not so great.....

[holt]

You know, I have forgotten to send in rebates before, but every one I have sent in has yielded a check for the correct value. Even the most recent one, which I didn't get mailed until about a week after the postmarked-by deadline. I think they rely more on people forgetting to send it in rather than try to scam those who didn't forget.

Re:Not so great.....

[djtripp]

I think i would be $1000 richer today if i didn't forget to get them damn rebates in.... I was worried about my TiVo rebate, finnaly got it 3 months later.... My roommate however has received the BS Letter stating something was wrong with his form and it was too late to do anything...

Re:Not so great.....

[holt]

I'm out probably around $100. I don't buy things solely because they are on rebate any more. It's just not worth it.

That's bullshit, though, if he got the form in originally by the deadline, and they didn't tell him there was a problem until later, he should have an extended deadline to try again. Ridiculous.

What BS

[GillBates0]

We want to help drive further awareness of the products we have available and...the plusses we have to offer,' said Dell spokesman Jess Blackburn. Thus the iPod offer 'is a way to call out what separates us from the understood leader in this particular market.

Typical marketspeak. It just has to contain a lot of "good words" like plusses, drive, offer...it doesn't have to mean anything.

It just makes them look desperate more than anything else. Come out with a superior product, and people will automatically aware of the "plusses" they have to offer.

Re:What BS

[gregfortune]

Come out with a superior product, and people will automatically aware of the "plusses" they have to offer.

Historically, this has not been true... VHS/Betamax is a classic example, but any product can fall victim to superior marketing by the competition. Dell is just taking a shot at the marketing angle. MS has done pretty well with similar tactics and the iPod is well entrenched from a marketing viewpoint. Heck, Linux has faced some tough roads due to the marketing of an inferior product.

If a product is well advertised, performs *well enough*, and is priced well, it tends to attract the bulk of the market. Perhaps you saw through the marketing or perhaps you are just playing the anti-Dell sentiments ./ seems to harbor In any case, that doesn't mean the rest of the target market will come to the same conclusion.

Regardless of the quality of their device, Dell *must* market it to even have a chance against the iPod. And if they are able to market it well, it's entirely possible that they might displace the iPod. Remember, most people aren't automatically aware of anything...

Re:What BS

[AnyNoMouse]

Come out with a superior product, and people will automatically aware of the "plusses" they have to offer.

Not always. There are a couple of players that are all-around better DAPs than the I-Pod, but don't have that Apple Stylin' look. Apple is still, however, viewed as the best in the market.

Heh, and now for my obligitory Slashdot remark: You don't have to look much further than Microsoft Windows to see that the better product doesn't always "win." :-P

Re:What BS

[Riturno]

While I agree that the best technology may not win, in the VHS / Betamax the key driving factor was the length of program that could be taped and technology licensing, not superior marketing.

Re:What BS

[stuph]

Heck, Linux has faced some tough roads due to the marketing of an inferior product.

Thank god the obligatory Linux zealot comment was thrown in here.. Linux has faced some tough roads due to many factors, most of them unrelated to Microsoft's marketing abilities. The biggest ones include a lack of an easy-to-follow setup procedure, a lack of a way to easily install programs without compiling them yourself, a desktop interface system that is little more than windows around command lines, etc.. I'm not saying that many of these problems aren't being worked on, but those are much larger barriers to popular usage than Microsoft's marketing...

Re:What BS

[HeghmoH]

I don't think you understand. In the Linux zealot's world, things like "ease of use" and "installers" and "can print without a Ph. D. in computer science" fall under the umbrella of marketing.

Re:What BS

[gregfortune]

Uhhhh?

SCO?

Free/very cheap licensing for large governments about to switch to Linux?

MS FUD campains?

OS lock-in for OEMs?

For the general home user, Linux hasn't really been ready, but it's been a tough fight to make it even to the corporate/government desktops...

Re:What BS

[localman]

Historically, this [superior product wins] has not been true... VHS/Betamax is a classic example

Actually I don't agree. Better products do usually win. With two caveats: the product has to be noticably better, and it also has to have few or no liabilities in other respects.

In the VHS/Betamax example I remember hearing all the hooplah about how Beta was superior. Then I saw it and I honestly couldn't see or hear the difference. Doesn't matter much what the specs say if you can't tell. (For the record -- I'm an amatuer filmmaker so I'm probably more likely to notice than the average person.) Also Betamax had a serious liability: movies were not as readily available. So: not much better, but noticably inconvenient == not a better product. VHS won because it was better when everything was taken into account.

I'm a Mac user (after being an Amiga user) so I am not just jumping on the "popular is best" bandwagon. But even in those cases, I would say that for their purpose, taking everything into account (price, performance, compatibility) they were inferior products for most applications.

The reason people (especially geeks) think that the best product doesn't always win is because they don't usually look at the big picture, but rather a few exciting technical issues.

Cheers.

Re:What BS

[Gorbag]

Historically, this has not been true... VHS/Betamax is a classic example

Please, not that tired canard again. Next you'll be telling us the keyboard story.

VHS won because it had a longer recording length. Folks wanted that more than they wanted marginally better picture quality. Considering the average quality of TVs at the time, most probably wouldn't have been able to tell the difference on their own TVs.

And for those who haven't seen the keyboard story beaten to death (why Dvorak rightfully died), check out this, or if you have a short attention span, this.

Helpful hint #2

[uid100]

what do old/broken iPod's sell for on eBay - more than $100 ?!??

Re:Helpful hint #2

[nfg05]

Actually, no not quite unless you're talking about the 40 GB hard drive variety

Re:Helpful hint #2

[uid100]

That link brings up a number of broken 15gb iPod's for $125 "Buy Now" ... your point ?

Re:Helpful hint #2

[nfg05]

My point: they aren't selling. The ones being bid on (aside from the 40GB) are under $100 at this point.

brilliant!

[kazem]

Sending in the dead iPod is such a brilliant idea.

I love you, Slashdot.

Or...

[Anonymous Coward]

Spend 0.99, get a 1 in 100,000 chance of getting a new iPod

Keep the iPod

[Jim Hall]

Helpful tip: If you have a dead iPod, do the rebate offer, and sell the Jukebox on eBay.

While some may criticize this "editorial" on the Slashdot front page, I completely agree with it. For me, the iPod is a completely natural, easy to use, very functional portable music player. I carry it with me everywhere I go - on the bus to work, on trips, even when hanging out at the lake (just not in the water.)

Keep your iPod - dump the DJ.

Re:Keep the iPod

[eples]

Why would you keep a broken iPod?

Why does everyone in this thread seem to miss this point?!

Re:Keep the iPod

[Jim Hall]

Well, yeah ... looking back at my remark, I did kind of miss the point. If it's a dead iPod, turn it in and sell the discounted DJ ... to buy another iPod. But I'm definitely an iPod person now - and I don't even own a Mac.

Here's a better deal...

[31415926535897]

If you have an iPod and you want to get rid of it, I'll give you $100 cash. Then you're not tied into the Dell brand.

Re:Here's a better deal...

[Mz6]

"If you have an iPod and you want to get rid of it, I'll give you $100 cash. Then you're not tied into the Dell brand."

So you'll take my 2 broken iPods and hand me $200 cash? What a deal!

Re:Here's a better deal...

[Neillparatzo]

Your username is imprecise. The last digit should be rounded up to 8.

Just trying to be helpful.

Re:Here's a better deal...

[Oliver Wendell Jones]

Wow, where's the "+1 Anal Retentive" mod when you really need it?

Re:Here's a better deal...

[Mz6]

"Wow, where's the "+1 Anal Retentive" mod when you really need it?"

Same place where the "Unintentional Irony" mod is... +1 or -1?

Re:Here's a better deal...

[f0rtytw0]

Maybe 31415926535898 was taken. Perhaps they should have used 314159265359.

And if it isn't broken...

[x136]

Helpful tip: If you have a dead iPod, do the rebate offer, and sell the Jukebox on eBay.

If it isn't broken, forget it. The 15GB iPod is worth at least US$200 on eBay (it sells new for $299), while Dell is only going to give you $100 for it. You could sell the iPod on eBay and get the Dell DJ for free if you were so inclined.

Re:And if it isn't broken...

[Bingo Foo]

But when you sell it on ebay, how can you be sure that the buyer will recycle it? I don't think my conscience could take that kind of uncertainty, so I'm going with Dell's offer.

Re:And if it isn't broken...

[daveo0331]

But when you sell it on ebay, how can you be sure that the buyer will recycle it? I don't think my conscience could take that kind of uncertainty, so I'm going with Dell's offer.

Remember "reduce, reuse, recycle?" The idea is that it's better to do the things earlier in the list if you can, i.e. recycling a document you printed at work is good, but reusing it by writing notes on the back is better, and reducing your usage by setting the printer to duplex mode is even better still.

Or, in this case, it's better to sell your Ipod on Ebay to someone who will reuse it instead of selling it to Dell, who will recycle it. "Reduce" is of course not an option when we're talking about Ipods.

Re:And if it isn't broken...

[jsebrech]

But when you sell it on ebay, how can you be sure that the buyer will recycle it?

If it's that much of a worry, make the buyer absolutely promise that if the ipod ever breaks, they'll send it in to apple's recycling program.

Re:thats a bit low

[goldspider]

You can't just toss something like that out without explaining WHY you think it's "unethical".

I for one don't see a problem with it. It's not as if Dell is holding guns to people's heads demanding they hand over their iPods.

Business Plan

[Apocalypse111]

Step 1: Buy dead iPods from eBay
Step 2: Buy crappy Dell player from Dell w/ rebate
Step 3: Sell crappy Dell player on eBay for more than purchase price of dead iPod + crappy Dell player
Step 4: Profit!!!

Lather, rinse, repeat

Re:Business Plan

[base3]

Except that these trade-in offers' net price usually ends up being at least as high if not higher than the street price for the item.

Re:Business Plan

[spoonani]

Lest you forget...no one WANTS to buy the dell DJ, or Dell probably wouln't be running this promotion in the first place. Apple didn't have to accept a bunch of crappy old flash mp3 players to launch the mini.

Re:Business Plan

[DrXym]

Why buy a dead iPod when you can can simply mug someone? Look for any fool walking around with a pair of white earphones.

What should Apple's next move be?

[spoonani]

When someone usually tries to play off of Apple's magnificent PR machine (i.e. using the "iPod killer" terminology) Jobs either shuggs it off, makes fun of them in the next keynote, or declares an innovation war. Any kowtowing to this ridiculous offer of lesser quality would be ill-advised on apple's part, yet there might be a way to make this a really cool PR event. Possibly a trade in an iPod and get nothing event? (Hey, since we all know nothing is better than a dell!)

Re:What should Apple's next move be?

[Mattintosh]

Note that Mikey-boy decided to wait until after Apple's WWDC Stevenote to announce this, removing as much PR backlash as is possible.

Jobs isn't one to let it go, though, so there will probably be some carnage. Do not taunt Happy Fun Steve.

Re:thats a bit low

[DAldredge]

Why not? How is it not ethical?

who is paying for this?

[The Lynxpro]

Is Dell really paying for the rebate or are they receiving monies from Microsoft? Call me a tin-foil hat wearer, but for some strange reason I have to question Microsoft's $7 billion expenditure on R&D. Me thinks some of that money goes toward their allies to weaken their "enemies." I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft is funneling cash to Dell to pay for these rebates to lure customers away from the iPod and the iTunes Store and toward a Microsoft controlled relabeling of online distribution of Microsoft WMA files. Its like the U.S. (or the former U.S.S.R.) with its client states, only in this scenario, it is a client corporation.

Re:who is paying for this?

[bersl2]

I present you with the Tinfoil Crown.

All hail the King!

Re:who is paying for this?

[admdrew]

You definitely make an interesting statement, but I'd be surprised if it's Microsoft behind this. I wouldn't really call Apple an enemy of theirs; there *is* MS software available on Mac OSs, and Apple and Microsoft don't really compete in the same arenas (primarily because Apple does not yet market a PC operating system).

Also, considering Dell's positive disposition toward Linux, I'd say that Microsoft is more unhappy with Dell than Apple at the moment.

OTOH, I wouldn't put it past Microsoft to play *all* sides of the market to further their means.

Re:who is paying for this?

[hunterx11]

I thought I was the mighty kooky king,
But I just handed my tinfoil hat to him...

Even with my favorite theory, he can beat my best.
M$ makes an announcement, and he just does the rest.
He's got crazy paranoid powers, never posts a dud.
That tinfoil hat nerd SURE SPREADS SOME REAL MEAN FUD!

--Excerpt from "Billy"

Re:who is paying for this?

[CrankyFool]

The only possible problem with that scenario is that Apple has not been a serious competitor to Microsoft for the last, oh, ten years.

Seriously, Apple makes some good shit -- most people will acknowledge this -- but they're at about 10% of the market and they're not aiming to become ubiquitous, they're aiming to solidly dominate their niche. Remember, MS sank about what, $100M into Apple a few years back when it was having problems? It needs Apple to point at and say "look, there are cmpetitors to us who are doing really well!" without having to worry about having their market share seriously challenged (they can't do the same with Linux -- it's too much of a real threat).

Apple threatens Microsoft like BMW Z8s threaten Honda Civics.

Re:who is paying for this?

[Kaboom13]

I think you need to wear a tinfoil hat so the rest of us can know who you are.

Re:who is paying for this?

[BandwidthHog]

At the time MS bought $100 million in non-voting common stock, Apple had ~$4 billion cash on hand. That deal is generally assumed to have been part (or all?) of a settlement for ripping off large swaths of the NeXT kernel for use in WinNT. However, by the time the case was settled, Apple had purchased NeXT (or vice versa, depending on your point of view) so they were the ones to collect on it.

Which isn't to say that it wasn't also a successful PR ploy on the part of both companies.

who is this really for?

[kaan]

"Dell is also offering free shipping, free software, and 25 free songs through MusicMatch and brings the overall cost for the DJ down to $99."

As an iPod owner (and a former owner of several other mp3 players), I think this plan is not going to accomplish much for Dell.

Think about it, nobody has ever said you should by an iPod for it's low cost. On the contrary, it's just about the most expensive player on the market. So who buys one? People who want to be trendy (Apple is way trendier than Dell), and people who want the best mp3 player out there (not trying to start a flame war here, but the iPod interface is head and shoulders above the rest). So by offering free shipping, free songs, etc., I don't see how Dell will be able to woo very many people away from an iPod (even if it's a dead iPod).

For the people who want the least expensive player out there, or who don't really mind the lesser interfaces of the other players, I don't see that crowd having bought an iPod in the first place, so they won't be affected by this offer either.

This leaves me wondering, who this offer is really targeted at? It sounds more like a PR stunt designed to steal some of Apple's thunder for owning the digital music player market.

Re:who is this really for?

[midifarm]

I think this is a cheap way for Dell to get their product out there, just for sheer #'s sake, much like their computers. You could sell 100,000 $2,000 computers @ $500 profit each or 2,000,000 $500 computers @ $50 profit each. The profits are certainly in favour of the more expensive computer, but the other brand has "marketshare." Essentially I think Dell wants to increase their numbers to their shareholders and possibly the public would consider buying their product because a million people couldn't be wrong, coulc they?

I think it befuddles MP3 player manufacturers that the more expensive brand is outselling the cheaper models hand over fist. Could the world want a really cool quality product?

Peace

Re:who is this really for?

[geekschmoe]

I don't see how Dell will be able to woo very many people away from an iPod (even if it's a dead iPod).

oh i get, people would rather have something that doesn't work at all, instead of something that works great. that makes a lot of sense. very insightful.

if you and the other mac-dotters didn't make such acute assertions, i might say something like:
maybe some people are sick of the extremely high priced mac-world and want to "switch" to something a little more affordable.

i really think you techno yuppie mac folks should open your eyes and realize that not everyone can afford the HIGH RECURRING COSTS of using mac crap. things like $100 replacement batteries (wtf is that?) and other parts, OS minor version upgrade costs, paying >$1000 for basic systems are not plausible options for a lot of people/families.

Re:who is this really for?

[glenrm]

It is also PR designed to use $99 and Dell Player in the same sentence. But it makes good sense for Dell to have a product in this category, if somebody is ordering a Dell, I could see this as an easy checkbox to add to the order.

Re:who is this really for?

[Xeger]

Let's not forget people who actually appreciate decent audio quality. While I would prefer Ogg support in my portable media player, AAC is a close second in terms of the tradeoff between compression and quality.

Even with VBR and the MP3PRO extension, I can discern the difference between an MP3 and an AAC encoded at the same bit rate. And I'm no audiophile, just your average dumb schmuck with a pair of ears.

Re:who is this really for?

[jsebrech]

This leaves me wondering, who this offer is really targeted at?

I think it's targetted at people who for whatever reason are ready to dump their ipod and are considering various options to replace the ipod with, so as to lure them all into buying the DJ.

Re:who is this really for?

[BandwidthHog]

I don't see how Dell will be able to woo very many people away from an iPod (even if it's a dead iPod).

Now if that isn't a ringing endorsement!

You reading this, Ashcroft?

Dell just wants cheap iPods

[The Lost Supertone]

My theory, Dell execs didn't want to pay for iPods, so they're just gona trade their worthless Juke whatever's for people's iPods... how underhanded!

Dell admitting they aren't as good

[chia_monkey]

'We want to help drive further awareness of the products we have available and...the plusses we have to offer,' said Dell spokesman Jess Blackburn. Thus the iPod offer 'is a way to call out what separates us from the understood leader in this particular market.'

That's kinda funny. First they are nice and vague saying "the plusses we have to offer", but then they go on saying "what separates us from the understood leader". So...to paraphrase..."trade in your superior product for our inferior one. thank you"

Re:Dell admitting they aren't as good

[daviddennis]

Actually, what struck me as odd is that the offer page doesn't link to a page describing the Dell DJ and its no doubt many advantages. To find out why the Dell DJ is better than the iPod, I'd actually have to go to the top of the sprawling Dell site and search, which I'm way too lazy to do. The only thing I can figure out is that it has 15gb storage, so it's substantiallly more than the original.

They don't even have a picture of the DJ that's large enough to enable me to understand how its controls work, which would be key for any argument claiming it was better or had advantages other than being newer and (possibly) having more disk.

I have to agree that other than provoking conversation on Slashdot and As the Apple Turns, I don't see this doing much good for Dull.

D

Re:Dell admitting they aren't as good

[mcpkaaos]

So...to paraphrase..."trade in your superior product for our inferior one. thank you"

Being a 'leader' in a particular market has everything to do with sales and nothing to do with quality.

Betting time!

[rjung2k]

Anyone want to wager Dell won't get more than a thousand submissions for this offer?

How about a hundred?

Three?

Bueller?

Re:Betting time!

[Octagon Most]

... sound of crickets chirping .....

No takers, I guess.

Unlikely to get many takers

[burgburgburg]

As was mentioned in this news.com article, Dell is unlikely to get many takers. With a variety of iPods from the mini to the 40GB, with music purchased from iTMS and with all of their songs in iTunes, not many people would probably be willing to put in the effort to transition to the DJ15. Not to mention the size and esthetic differences between the offerings.

What happens to iPods when they die?

[teamhasnoi]

What's the most common faults of iPod death? Battery? Hard Drive failure? Dropping? Connecting up to a Windows machine?

I'm kinda curious - I'm guessing that Dell is destroying these to take them off the market.

side note: I used to work at a big music store (headquartered in MN) that would destroy thousands of perfectly good pianos and organs to take them off the market, so they could sell more electronic and upright pianos. Can't find a 25 dollar 'you move it' piano in Minneapolis? Thats why..

Re:What happens to iPods when they die?

[discstickers]

Mine died because I dropped it while it was turning on. It was a year and a half old, but the batterty was still doing pretty good.

Re:What happens to iPods when they die?

[dogmatixpsych]

I'm guessing that Dell is destroying these to take them off the market.

More like taking them apart and trying to figure out just how the Apple engineers fit so much into such a tiny box. This is just a cheaper way for Dell to buy and take apart the iPods.

Re:What happens to iPods when they die?

[Anonymous Coward]

Whatever store that is (care to dish?) truly deserves great contempt for Organ destruction. The ambiance of a big instrument is something of beauty. Especially is they were the good ones from the 70s and before.

Re:What happens to iPods when they die?

[Anonymous Coward]

side note: I used to work at a big music store (headquartered in MN) that would destroy thousands of perfectly good pianos and organs to take them off the market, so they could sell more electronic and upright pianos.

Please tell us who this "Big Music Store" is, so I never do business with the sacrilegious assholes.

Destroying a baby-grand to sell another electronic piano? *shudder*

Re:What happens to iPods when they die?

[ViolentGreen]

Mine died because I dropped it while it was turning on. It was a year and a half old, but the batterty was still doing pretty good.

I thought I had killed mine by dropping several times. I was able to reset it each time though. If you still have it, did you try to reset it?

Re:What happens to iPods when they die?

[discstickers]

I reset it, I reformated it, I dropped it again.... When it boots up, the screen shows a folder with a ? on it (reminds me of when an old Mac couldn't find a System Folder), then it shuts off.

It's ok, I went from a 10GB to a 20GB, and haven't looked back. The extra space is pretty nice. My laptop's drive is only 20GB, over 6 of which is music.

Re:What happens to iPods when they die?

[SuperDry]

"I'm kinda curious - I'm guessing that Dell is destroying these to take them off the market." Or, perhaps that's the only way they can get their hands on 1" 4GB drives for an upcoming product :-)

Re:What happens to iPods when they die?

[rattler14]

Did you're parents teach you about the good book? When an iPod dies, it goes to iPod heaven, where they spends the rest of eternity in eternal peace with their creater... err, mr. jobs.

Re:What happens to iPods when they die?

[Esion Modnar]

Destroying a baby-grand to sell another electronic piano?

For some odd reason, I was reminded of that movie, set in post WWI era, where some Army soldiers are ordered to slaughter hundreds of surplus Army horses, but instead, take them to Canada. If only I could remember the name.

In any case, a senseless waste.

Re:What happens to iPods when they die?

[obijywk]

Mine hasn't really died, but the headphone jack is falling apart. The Gen1 and Gen2 iPods had really shoddy headphone jacks, on my Gen2 it's come almost completely loose and it's pretty much impossible to listen anymore. It might be able to be soldered back on but I don't want to wreck the thing even more. One of these days I'll probably try it, though, since the device is nearly useless now.

Re:What happens to iPods when they die?

[jsebrech]

I used to work at a big music store (headquartered in MN) that would destroy thousands of perfectly good pianos and organs to take them off the market, so they could sell more electronic and upright pianos. Can't find a 25 dollar 'you move it' piano in Minneapolis? Thats why..

Not that I want to argue with you, but I don't get the economics behind this. Are they buying up pianos to destroy them? If so, how could that be profitable? And if they aren't, where are they getting them?

Re:What happens to iPods when they die?

[narcc]

What if they're trying to find reasons that the ipods fail? (To avoid similar mistakes) -- this promotion seems like a good way to get good load of broken ipods to me...

Re:What happens to iPods when they die?

[The Axe]

Interesting. I've dropped my 3rd gen at least 5 times while in use, and the worse that's happened was a broken lock switch (wouldn't work...fixed by dropping it again heh heh heh ;).

Re:What happens to iPods when they die?

[teamhasnoi]

They take them in on trade in, or when they need slight repair. Trade in is a few hundred bucks off a new piano. Repairs can be inflated to make a new instrument look like a better deal.

The pianos and organs go in a warehouse and wait their turn for destruction. They are destroyed so there are less pianos and organs available in the local market that are between 1-1000 dollars.

When someone decides to have their kid take piano lessons, or a church/senior center/hockey rink needs an organ there aren't any cheapies out there on the used market. They are then forced to go and buy a new piano or organ at this place (it's pretty much *the* place to go if you need a piano in the Twin Cities) and pay full retail for it. It may cost them a few hundred to buy a piano, but they make it up when someone needs one.

The sad thing is that they won't even let employees buy these instruments. I saw several Hammonds, and a Steinway Grand with a beat-up finish (probably a schools) get mangled and destroyed. I actually heard of a Mellotron being saved, but that may just be a rumor.

A lot of band instruments go in there too - after having holes drilled in them, and flattened. Guitars too.

The dumpster is locked so you can't even cherry pick for parts.

Dirty secrets of the music instrument sales biz... :( Wait 'till I go into the band instrument for student ripoff game, or the music store consignment gouge, or best yet - the hand built guitar that costs more when it's messed up...

Re:What happens to iPods when they die?

[ViolentGreen]

Yeah, I bought one of the 10GB models right before the 3Gs came out. I paid the extra $40 to get a warrenty from best buy. I'm waiting for the next generation to come out so I can take it back and say my battery is bad.

Re:What happens to iPods when they die?

[Zhe Mappel]

Fuck you and the whole state of minnesota!

Posting anonymously again, Dick Cheney?

there's an easier way

[mattofmacs]

whoever runs the reverse engineering dept at dell is gona feel so stupid when he finds out you can buy them brand new at apple.com even if you do work for a rival company.

Only dead iPods will apply.....

[erick99]

I just took a quick look at eBay to confirm what I already knew: any working iPod can be sold for well over $99.

Cheers!

Erick

Re:Only dead iPods will apply.....

[Gulik]

I just took a quick look at eBay to confirm what I already knew: any working iPod can be sold for well over $99.

I suspect that Dell was really hoping that nobody would notice this. That way, they could sell the iPods that people sent in for (estimates suggest) $200, while only giving said people a $100 rebate. Though one hopes there's a special circle of Hell reserved for people who fleece the stupid in this manner. Preferably, the same circle where the stupid people go.

Re:Only dead iPods will apply.....

[pherris]

Agreed, ebay showed only one dead ipod for sale, with 13 bids at $75.00.

This dell/ipod makes no sense. I mean really, is there one person here that would trade a working ipod for a $100 coupon towards anything dell makes? Even if Apple didn't have such a loyal following, on engineering alone the ipod wins. Add in the fact that music from the iTunes music store IFAIK won't download to anything but an iPod and this is a pretty stupid offer. It's like asking a Mac user to switch from OS X to Windows XP. What in the world made the people at Dell think this would ever work?

I sure the folks in Cupertino are having a big laugh over it.

Re:Only dead iPods will apply.....

[narcc]

Though one hopes there's a special circle of Hell reserved for people who fleece the stupid in this manner.

The 8th circle. Malebolge, iirc. It's divided into 10 ditches, one for each of the 10 different kinds of fraud Dante could think of (with a different suffering for each, no less)

Re:thats a bit low

[TroyFoley]

I dont think its ethical to buy the comptisions products so you can get your half assed player out there

What is half assed about it?

I don't really know anything about Dell's product, but I just wanted you to know that you're giving the impression that you know as much as I do.

8-10 weeks

[Anonymous Coward]

"rebate checks are ordinarily processed within 8-10 weeks" according to the register
"The offer ends on 11 August. Buy then and you might get your cash in the first week of October."

Re:8-10 weeks

[proj_2501]

how is that unusual?

Size - ebay - trade-in

[XavierItzmann]

In cubic cm:

iPod mini: 59
iPod: 100
Dell DJ: 156

The DJ is 164% larger than the Mini and 56% larger than the 3rd generation iPod.

If your iPod still works, keep it or sell it on eBay. Then dump the DJ on ebay
If it is broken, Dell is the way to go.

Re:Size - ebay - trade-in

[zerosignal]

The DJ is 164% larger than the Mini

I think you meant 264% larger.

Re:Size - ebay - trade-in

[gerardrj]

No the poster had it correct.

The DJ is 164% larger than the Mini.
The DJ is 264% as large as the Mini.

The former means 59cm + 1.64 * 59cm
The latter means 59cm * 2.64

Some will call it semantics, I call it being accurate.

Sleazy Dell strikes again

[Anonymous Coward]

I absolutely hate rebate programs like this. Dell has no use for a bunch of broken down iPods which is all they will get with this promotion. All they are doing is proving that they are ripping off an extra $100 from all their customers who don't have a dead iPod.

This is just like the "trade in any film camera, get $x off a digital camera" where x is a function of the price of the new camera and has nothing to do with the dead film one (disposables don't count).

Re:Sleazy Dell strikes again

[jm92956n]

Dell has no use for a bunch of broken down iPods which is all they will get with this promotion.

I think you're wrong. Conversation overheard in the marketing department:

Marketer 1: Yo, our product bites.
Marketer 2: You're right, it does. I'd much rather have an iPod.
Marketer 1: Here's an idea. How about we get people to send in their old iPods. Instead of trashing them, everyone in the marketing department will get one. That way we won't have to pay for our own iPods!
Marketer 2: Briliant!

Re:Sleazy Dell strikes again

[Jason1729]

Just one flaw with that scenerio. Dell's marketing drones aren't that intelligent.

Dell can have my iPod

[ballpoint]

when they come to pry it out of my cold, dead hands, and win the fight with my raging teenage daughter.

Re:Dell can have my iPod

[ballpoint]

Oh yes, even with the soon-to-be-removed braces. She's a bitch, though. I'd recommend waiting a few years to let her calm down a little bit.

Re:Dell can have my iPod

[syrinx]

it cracks me up that this is modded 'informative'..

Re:Dell can have my iPod

[ModernGeek]

do you have a picture of her? You should hook her up with a good *NIX nerd :D

Won't work

[MarkGriz]

You forgot the ??? step.

Re:Brilliant

[arieswind]

Apple has a near monopoly on the mp3 player business because they have the best product, not because of any shady business practices

I've seen other mp3 players out there, but none really stand up to the ipod..

Let me get this straight

[Prince Vegeta SSJ4]

First off, I do not own a portable MP3 player of any kind, so I am not biased in the least. I have been considering one, but it needs to be something I can jog with, so it will probably be flashed based (been considering for years).

However, Dell will give me $100 rebate on their device, if I send in an iPod, then

• Send me a device, from which I understand at the best case scenario is slightly of less quality.
• turn around and sell the iPod for about $200
• make a tidy profit off of their device
• make a tidy proffit off of the iPod

Ummmm, yeah reight Dell, I'm gonna give up my iPod (assuming I had one). I must be missing something!

Re:thats a bit low

[Oliver Wendell Jones]

Why? I work for a company that manufacturers portable medical diagnostic equipment.

Pretty much every company in this field offers a mail-in rebate (often times as much as the original purchase price) for our devices if you send in any competitors device.

We regularly box up the devices that are sent to us and ship them back to their original manufacturer so that they know to take those devices out of their support database and to kind of "rub it in their faces" that we've had X number of their customers switch to our product (they do the same to us).

Since most companies in this field release a new device every 8 - 16 months, and there are numerous companies in the field, many consumers have got in the habit of buying a kit from company A, using it until all the test strips are gone, then buying a kit from company B and sending in the device from company A for the rebate, which is later used to buy the latest device from company C, and so on.

At one time, the department I was in was doing competetive analysis and had to buy about 30 meters from one of our biggest competitors. At the time they were offering a $50 mail in rebate. We dug up 30 of our meters that were defective (knowing full well we'd get them back in a few months) and used them to submit the rebates, all of which was used for one kick-ass dinner party a few months later.

Since then, many companies (including us) have changed the rules about mail-in rebates, limiting them to one per household per year, etc. to try and establish a bit more brand loyalty.

But DJ is selling for less on eBay

[SuperKendall]

Even with $100 off, it seems like the Dell DJ is going for less than $100 than retail. So all in all you're better off just selling the dead iPod on eBay!

Re:But DJ is selling for less on eBay

[Apocalypse111]

Damn you all, you're ruining my business model... I guess I'll have to try one of those other Get Rich Quick schemes... like going to this place called "Work".

hmm.. new iPod?

[piecewise]

if you have a dead iPod, do the rebate offer, and sell the Jukebox on eBay.

..... in order to afford a new iPod?

I like the way you work, Dell.

Brilliant plan

[Octagon Most]

This is a brilliant plan for Dell employees to get iPods. Give that promotion manager a raise!

Rebates ... Dell

[MisanthropicProgram]

WTF is it with Dell and their mail in rebates. Here you are, buying a computer mail order, giving them your name and address anyway, and yet, you still have to fill out a form and mail it in to get money? WTF is that!!

And another thing, if Dell is giving $100 rebate for their product, that tells me that their charging at least $100+ too much for it! After all, they still have to pay for the admin of the rebates ... geesh!

Re:Rebates ... Dell

[MarkGriz]

Like all rebates, they hope you forget to mail it in, or they give you some BS story about how you forgot to submit the proper proof of purchase.

Re:Rebates ... Dell

[sokoban]

The reason for mail in rebates is that they bank on people not sending them in. Say, if about 60% of the rebates are redeemed, then they are only losing out the equivalent of $60 off the retail price per unit. I'd say a lot of us have had rebates that we forget about or just say f-it because of the stuff required. I remember I had one that you had to send your old phone to some charity, get a voucher from them, and send it in with a lot of personal info along with a purchase receipt, the UPC on the box, and your last bill.

Re:Rebates ... Dell

[MisanthropicProgram]

Which is why I never consider the rebate when pricing items. Rebates just alienate me from manufacturers. Just kike Dell did. I refuse to buy Dell products or any others that use such marketing tactics. I'm probably fighting windmills here, but at there's one person revolting against this industry practice.

Re:Rebates ... Dell

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually this is a game they play. They know rebates can make a product really attractive when the priceing is at least resonable but not neccecarily great in the first place. They also know a large percentage of people will be too lazy or will improperly fill out the rebate requirements like forget to attach the UPC, miss the deadline or something. Then there is that group of people who will simply be too lazy to complete the rebate. I am sure studies have been done to determine the rate of retun on rebates of $X. So the plan is often make money on the margin from increased sales to customers who were inticed by the rebate you don't have to be profitable on cost - rebate offer you only need to be profitably on cost - (rebate * .z) where z is the rate of return on the rebates. So its not that when something has a $100 that the company could sell it for $100 less and still make money it might only be like $25 less and when you do the rebate you are getting something for less then cost and the manufacturer is makeing profit on the suckers who did not do the rebate for whatever reason. Also sometimes companies like Dell do offer a loss leader just to get some of their brand name stuff in your hands that you might like and perhaps then decide to buy some of their other more profitable products.

Re:Rebates ... Dell

[geoffspear]

I don't mind the rebates. I wouldn't buy a Dell product because I have them at work and think it's ridiculous to put ports on the front of a machine if you need to crawl on the floor to plug anything into them. I can tilt a Gateway box and plug headphones into the back a whole lot easier than I can plug headphones into a port on the front of a Dell that has a door covering it so you can't access the ports if you're above the machine.

Re:Rebates ... Dell

[telbij]

But they give bigger rebates banking on the fact that a certain percentage of people won't send them in. This means if you do jump through the hoops your low price is effectively being subsidized by lazier customers. I'll take that deal any day.

Re:Rebates ... Dell

[Azrael Newtype]

There are a few thing wrong with this post that really kind of irk me upon reflection. First, not buying a Dell music player because you don't like the full ATX style cases they use is illogical. Neither their laptops nor their slim towers would have this issue, and obviously a personal music player isn't going to block the headphone jack in such a way that you can't access it, because it's more or less the main feature. Secondly, tilting your Gateway to reach the back port while it's running is a recipe for harddrive failure. Additionally, I have a Dell with the door over the ports, and I do, depending on the location, run with the case on the floor. Really, I've never had that much of a problem just lifting the door to push in a small plug, but tilting my case to and hunting for a particular sound card port on the back is rather annoying. Then there's the issue that at least the Dell systems don't get fidgety with hardware that wasn't shipped with the system, but I digress.

Re:Rebates ... Dell

[geoffspear]

Well actually I'm a Mac user... the points about Gateway vs. Dell are based on my experience with machines at work and just illustrate the complete incompetence of Dell when it comes to design. See, when Apple puts ports on the front of the machine, it's to make them easier to access. When Dell does it, it seems to be done just so they can say the ports are on the front of the machine.

My iPod is well designed, and I'm not about to trade it in for something designed by a company like Dell. I haven't used their music players and can't comment on what specifically might be wrong with them, but I'm sure there are major flaws, because Dell's entire design philosophy seems to be to steal Apple's designs but do it horribly wrong.

Re:Rebates ... Dell

[FredFnord]

Secondly, tilting your Gateway to reach the back port while it's running is a recipe for harddrive failure.

It's always nice to see someone who has been in computing for a long time, although it's a little disturbing to find that they haven't been paying attention. This may have been true fifteen years ago, but these days it's a little harder than that to screw up a hard drive.

Even fifteen years ago, for demo purposes the bernoulli boxes (IOmega's first removable offerings, used a sealed cartridge and a floating head just like a normal hard drive) used to be mounted on a piston that slammed them against a wall two or three times a second while they read and wrote, and they'd last several trade shows before crapping out.

Computers really aren't that fragile these days.

-fred

Re:Rebates ... Dell

[Azrael Newtype]

I have one of the DJs (through inheritance, not by choice because the 20GB iRiver player is far, far sweeter) and really, it's not that bad. The loading interface annoys me, but so does the iPod's since they both force you to use programs I don't want to deal with (MusicMatch/iTunes). The bigger thing about the Dell DJ is that, it's just a rebranded Creative Zen with some DRM issues built in so Dell feels good about itself. It's got good quality, and a 20 hour battery, and the interface is pretty decent. The fact that they didn't design it probably has a lot to do with this though.

Oh yeah, the biggest point about this entire program is that they'll take dead iPods. For Windows users, there's not that much reason to stick with the iPod except that it looks better, so trading in a broken iPod that you can't really get fixed for a significantly cheaper Dell DJ is probably a good idea. In fact, not trading it in for something is probably indicitave of a bit too much Apple love.... though for a real Mac user, you can't really use this anyway so not doing this would be rather prudent.

Re:Rebates ... Dell

[Moofie]

Don't know what your beef is with iTunes, but you can also use ephPod, which lots of people seem to like.

Me, I find that iTunes has made it infinitely easier to catalog and organize my collection. But hey...whatever floats your boat.

Re:thats a bit low

[Pieroxy]

Since when did Toyota "control the whole industy"? Did I miss something?

On a more serious note, this is just regular business practice, everyone does it... Where is the big deal?

Trade in your Porsche for a Focus

[cprincipe]

Because that's what the Dell bounty offer amounts to.

Re:Brilliant

[rjung2k]

The result is win-win for the consumer because, assuming the Dell players are nice in their own merit...

Big assumption there. If the Dell DJ was any good, they wouldn't need a stunt like this to gain market share.

I'm sure Steve Jobs is laughing his head off over this.

Wow - not only a Dell DJ

[SuperKendall]

But also 25 free songs from thier music service - that you get to use MusicMatch to access! What a deal!

I have a dead iPod, but still not a good deal

[SiMac]

I have a 20GB iPod that is dead, because my friend pushed me into the pool while he was drunk/high and I had not emptied my pockets. This still isn't a good deal.

I could buy a Dell DJ for $200, get the $100 rebate, and sell the DJ on eBay for about $170, so I'd net $70.

Once I subtract that from the cost of my new 20GB iPod, the iPod would be $300 (I get an education discount).

I could also just send the iPod to Apple and get everything fixed for $250 flat fee.

Now, which one do you think I'm going to pick?

Re:I have a dead iPod, but still not a good deal

[SiMac]

No, I'm getting him to pay for it, probably because I could really fuck him over. I just have to get it done as cheaply as possible.

Rebate

[g0bshiTe]

Dell offers $100 rebate for iPods working or not

Man I just threw away mine too.

Joke all you want, it's all fun and games till someone looses an iPod.

Re:Rebate

[dtfarmer]

Joke all you want, it's all fun and games till someone looses an iPod

...and once that iPod is loose, you better stay out of it's warpath until it loses it's taste for destruction!

Dell offering $100 rebate if you turn in your BMW

[FerretFrottage]

....which you can apply to the Dell Ford Explorer

I'd do it except for one thing....

[MTNhike]

The darn dell digital juteboxes as butt ugly!

If they could design it so it looks at least halfway decent, then it'd be a possiblity. It looks so darn cheap with the buttons and all. Am I the only one who thinks this way?!?!?

Re:I'd do it except for one thing....

[randomdef]

No, you and my wife can form a club.

Re:thats a bit low

[MarkGriz]

Right... like Dell actually has a chance in hell of harming Apple with this pathetic offer. Your used/dead ipod is worth more on ebay.

Re:thats a bit low

[Anonymous Coward]

The Dell employees just wanted an easy way to get cheap iPods. Can you really blame them for that? :)

Re:Brilliant

[Rura Penthe]

Virtual monopoly? Wow, I think you need to go look at the sales numbers and rethink that. Owning less than 60% of the market does not a monopoly make.

DELL Support will quickly remove any discount

[PetoskeyGuy]

In my experience every time I call support it's 30-60 minutes on hold to wait for someone from India to blindly lead you through a newbie script, and then possibly send you a new part. They don't seem to have much problem sending the parts out, but I've often been sent the wrong part. I've also had replacement orders lost or forgotten somehow.

Add your own horror story, but I recommend avoiding Dell if your time is worth much. I know I'll never choose them again.

Re:Don't be stupid

[poofyhairguy82]

Besides most iPod owners own at least a few songs from iTunes Music store.

Keep telling that to yourself and maybe one day you'll forget the truth.

Re:You forgot the rest of your sentence

[dogmatixpsych]

...and does it really matter to 90% of the population who don't own a BMW?

I don't know where you live but 10% of the cars on the road around here sure aren't BMW's and I highly doubt that 10% of the people own BMW's. I've even lived all around the Seattle area and even in Redmond 10% of the cars aren't BMW's -- it's more like 40%. Anyway, I just wanted to comment about something.

Note that the Dell won't play your music...

[John Harrison]

if you purchased it at the iTunes music store.

Re:Note that the Dell won't play your music...

[John Harrison]

Says the Dell website. It plays MP3s and WMA files. So the files you get from iTunes won't play.

Re:Note that the Dell won't play your music...

[John Harrison]

You can burn your songs from iTunes to a CD and then re-encode to MP3. So they will sound somewhat worse and it is a waste of time for you.

Re:Note that the Dell won't play your music...

[ocelotbob]

It's all right. I don't like DRM-riddled music anyways. And I prefer a working music player that doesn't eat up clock cycles like popcorn. I'll just convert my music into a non-crippled format and be happy.

Re:Note that the Dell won't play your music...

[Anonymous Coward]

In other news, CD players apparently don't play vinyl.

/me How did that get modded to +5?

Re:Note that the Dell won't play your music...

[asdfghjklqwertyuiop]

Yup. its called proprietary lock-in and DRM. We bitch about Microsoft doing all the time.

Re:Note that the Dell won't play your music...

[John Harrison]

Actually it isn't a proprietary lock-in. The file format is standard and Apple didn't even come up with it. Files that you have ripped yourself and are DRM free would still be unplayable. The DRM does limit the flexibility though.

Brilliant marketing that should be used by all!

[LagunaSol]

Trade in your BMW, get $1000 off on a new Chevy! Bring in a Tag Heuer, get $25 off on a new Casio. This is going to change the world! Can't anyone see the sheer brilliance of it?

Re:Brilliant

[teamhasnoi]

Virtual Monopoly?

I fail to see how Apple has a monopoly in the mp3 player market - there are hundreds of other players out there, and any one of those manufacturers is free to go make their own deal with the RIAA.

This is shown by Napster, Rhapsody, buymusic.com, etc. The reason it might *look* like a monopoly is that these other mp3 players and services suck *and* blow.

I don't see Apple leveraging their marketshare to keep others from joining the fun - I believe Steve has said the equivalent of 'Bring it on'. This is not a case of MS keeping other OSes off of the desktop (BeOS and Toshiba), by threatening the OEMS with removal of price breaks....

Re:You forgot the rest of your sentence

[bpowell423]

You don't seriously think 10% of the population own a BMW, do you? :)

will honda or toyota

[cyfer2000]

trade Civic or Corolla with old BMW 3xx?

Flames? Here's some

[Gothmolly]

I'll bite:
not trying to start a flame war here, but the iPod interface is head and shoulders above the rest
No, you FEEL that the iPod interface is head and shoulders above the rest. I've read in places that the Rio Karma UI is better, or equivalent, to the iPod.

OMGWTFBBQ!!1!1!!

[Zany Paraclete]

You mean the goal of their marketing is to SELL their PRODUCTS?! What kind of SATANIC FREAKS would do a thing like THAT?! I always thought marketing was supposed to be a purely selfless PUBLIC SERVICE!

Re:OMGWTFBBQ!!1!1!!

[arieswind]

I always thought marketing was supposed to be a purely selfless PUBLIC SERVICE!

It is a purely selfless public service, where have you been for ever

Re:thats a bit low

[one4nine4two]

Since when were Toyota and Hyundai based out of China?

Re:thats a bit low

[goljerp]

The thing that I find unethical about this offer is that they neglect to say that their machine can't play songs purchased from the iTunes music store. At least warn people first!

Re:thats a bit low

[Short Circuit]

There's nothing saying Apple can't turn around and do the same thing.

Besides, this is business we're talking about here. It's not a sport for gentlemen.

The customers and, more importantly, the investors, can decide when they don't approve of a business model. You won't normally see a mass-exodus of customers for unethical behavior, but there's still a lot of us out here willing to spend money on the products of a company we approve of.

Bah! "Free"

[sup4hleet]

"Dell is also offering free shipping, free software, and 25 free songs through MusicMatch"

It's not free, it's included in the price. Just like buy one get one free is really just a half off sale with a catch (you can't just buy one half off). Advertisers push that "free" crap to make you thin you're getting something for nothing even though they still make a profit. Hey, Free Beer! (you just have to drink it out of a $10 cup).

Re:Bah! "Free"

[mactari]

Hrm, seems like we've had this discussion before! Just like Sun and their "free hardware", there ain't no free lunch.

Hrm, I must have some $10 cups around somewhere. Where do I get my free beer?

Yeah, but

[Solar Limb]

What are the most common causes of iPod death and suffering? Battery? Hard Drive failure? Dropping? Being eaten?

I'm kinda curious - I'm guessing that Dell is destroying these to take them off the market. It's winning through, well, a pretty direct form of attrition.

Re:Yeah, but

[gerardrj]

For the 5GB: batteries dying and Firewire port solder joints failing. These are inherent design limitations.
After that I'd say dropping/crushing and water damage.

Re:thats a bit low

[neoptik]

You don't work for a glucometer company, do you? Fess up, which brand is it!

maybe the original 5GB iPod...

[argent]

If it was broken...

And on fire...

Re:You forgot the rest of your sentence

[WolfPup]

Make that a 2002 or newer BMW without a six-disc changer or GPS system. :) Since that seems to be restrictions on the iPod hookup.

Re:thats a bit low

[afish40]

Hey, I like my Hyundai! (it's Korean, by the way)

Re:Only 30 more mins to go folks!!

[g0bshiTe]

Boy was I off.

Low? It happens all the time

[nurb432]

Between bringing in old equipment for 'rebates and discounts' and honoring 'other companies coupons' its a pretty common tactic to get new customers..

Car dealers do it every day.....

Sure its really just a scam-sale, but it makes you 'feel' like you got a better deal by unloading your old stuff..

Re:Low? It happens all the time

[at_kernel_99]

Car dealers do it every day.....

I believe you just made the grandparent's point...

just a cheap PR ploy

[Boss Sauce]

I doubt they'll get more than 100 takers, and of course those will be dead iPods.

In the big scheme of things, this seems like Dell's successful bid to get lots of free press by casting themselves as legitimate iPod competitors.

You'll never hear Apple mentioning anybody else's player... until somebody makes one better.

Re:Brilliant

[jm92956n]

My sentiments exactly; a coworker of mine purchased a 20 GB Dell DJ that I played around with. In typical Dell fashion, it works exactly as I thought it would. The interface is, for the most part, a duplicate of the iPod's, but the awkward rocker is nowhere near as easy to use as the iPod's touch-based scroll mechanism. It's especially painful when navigating through a large selection of music. In addition, the device is too wide to fit into some pockets. I've not had the opportunity to use the included software, but I hear it's not as well designed as iTunes.

Yes, it plays music. So does the iPod. Only the latter does it far better.

Re:But can the Dell unit seamlessly plug into a BM

[stripyd]

If it doesn't, maybe Dell can get Ford to partner up and offer a $250 trade-in for your beemer...

Re:Flames? Here's some

[outZider]

In the end, how you feel is all that matters. The UI is better for /me/, so /I/ buy the iPod.

Where's Ellen Feiss when you need her?

[Petronius]

...I mailed my old iPod, my friend told me "dude, you're getting a Dell", I received it with the $100, turned it on, loaded some mp3s and it was like BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP. My music was gone!
So with the $100, I bought a pink iPod mini. Life is good again. My name is Ellen Feiss. I'm a switcher.

Why?

[Xshare]

If I could buy an iPod for $100, I would.... hell I would buy one for $120! And lord knows the people on eBay go for more than that, so whats the point?

Not even a dead one

[GuyinVA]

You can get 1st generation iPods off of eBay for ~$20

Re:Not even a dead one

[GuyinVA]

Never mind, they want 15gb iPods. i guess I should read the article...

Ahh... eBay.

[ajlitt]

P.T. Barnum is often quoted as saying, "There's a sucker born every minute." eBay is prime evidence of this.

Re:Ahh... eBay.

[pohl]

Cost is what the market will bear. To me the sucker would be someone who went for the Dell rebate if they could have done better on ebay.

Re:Ahh... eBay.

[Dun Malg]

P.T. Barnum is often quoted as saying, "There's a sucker born every minute." eBay is prime evidence of this.

As a friend of mine put it, eBay is the world's largest garage sale. The buyers are secretly hoping to find an original Picasso mis-listed in that pile of velvet Elvises and sad clowns with a starting bid of $1, and the sellers are listing every piece of colorful trash they find hoping they've stumbled across something rare/collectable that people will bid up into the stratosphere. Heck, I sold an untested Apple Color Laser Printer controller card "as-is" for $185. I've watched my girlfriend bid higher than the in-store price for clothes because she "didn't want to lose". It's insidious, that ebay...

And in recent News...

[VanWEric]

Apple releases their next next generation iPod - a notecard painted pretty. Just write the title of the song with your iPencil and you are good to go, no batteries necessary!

At the same time, Apple also releases their next next generation computers - beowulf clusters of Dell JukeBoxes.

An iPod is an iPod after all.

Does this exclude 1 Gen iPods?

[rdr2]

Just saw a 5GB 1st Gen iPod on ebay for $87. I didn't see anything in the rebate form that said it had to be a 15Gb or a specific Gen.

Re:thats a bit low

[ajservo]

I work in digital video, and companies out there do competitive upgrades all the time.

Avid for your old discreet machine/Apple workstation

Matrox wanted people's old editing cards for a nice $300 (30% off) discount on their new one.

This is a common practice. Although, I don't see this being a blockbuster promotion.

I, for one, will keep my ipod. I don't have any way to play my AAC files on a Dell DJ.

Plus the DJ's interface looks nasty compared to my pod.

Blatant Upscoring of Apple Boosterism

[Anonymous Coward]

Most every gadget maker has some "send in your old junk" for a rebate scheme. What cell phone maker doesn't do this? They make money on people being too lazy to send their old stuff. This is standard stuff and DOES NOT PROVE THAT STEVE JOBS IS GENIUS WHO LAUGHS AT THE COMPETITION.

Especially not the Steve Jobs who wen grovelling to Microsoft to save Apple back in the 1990s. Jobs had to "assume the position" on that one. Wonder who was laughing that time as Gates forced Apple to make IE their choice of browser and continue to function in the workplace as the DISTANT second platform for Microsoft Office products. Disgusting performance if you ask me.

Re:Brilliant

[tmbg37]

That's not necessarily true. The Apple iPod has many advantages over any competing brand, such as its popularity and association with mp3 players, iTunes lock-in, being the first to market, etc. I can easily see the Dell DJ being a better product and not gaining market share.

Just sold my iPod on Ebay.

[ToadSprocket]

A 5 GB original for. Wait for it...

$130.

Applied the $130 towards a $399, 20 GB iPod. Net Price then becomes $270 for a smaller, more lightweight product that jives with my existing Mac in many different ways.

I just don't see the appeal of this offer.

Re:thats a bit low

[dirty]

Korea and Japan merged in 20XX to form KoPan. After merging they engaged in a hostile take over of China, using their Ultra-Mech 5000s to destroy the Chinese government. Where were you during history class?

Not that bad an idea, actually!

[PaulBu]

... If you have a big flashlight, gone out on a camping trip and have no idea where your flashlight is (say, need to go out and pee at night)... You press a button on your, say, car or garage door clicker and flashlight switches on! You walk to it, pick it up and go do your thing...

No, not bad an idea at all!

Paul B.

P.S. Any VC funding available to develop it further? ;-)

Can someone explain why DDJ is inferior?

[Sepodati]

I don't really care if it only works on PC and doesn't use ITunes. Are there other reasons I shouldn't buy a player that's $100 cheaper than a same size 15GB Ipod with twice the battery life?

Honest question, here. Enlighten me.

---John Holmes...

Re:Can someone explain why DDJ is inferior?

[aldoman]

iTunes is the best feature for me - you will see how great it is when you use musicmatch or some other competitor... it's chock full of features and just works damn well.

can Apple send in dead iPods?

[microcars]

wouldn't that be ironic if Apple had a pallet of dead/destroyed/unrepairable iPods and they sent them all in to Dell?

I wonder how much money Dell loses when it sells a DJ Jukebox for $100?

I know if *I* was running Apple, I'd certainly try to take advantage of this fabulous offer!

Re:can Apple send in dead iPods?

[dasmegabyte]

This would be such a classic Steve Jobs thing, too. Have all AAPL employees send in a busted iPod. Cash in all the rebates. And crush all of the Jukeboxes into a big cube. Send the cube back to Dell for "recycling."

Re:can Apple send in dead iPods?

[RickHunter]

Even better. Then sell all the Jukeboxes on E-Bay at less than market price - thus depriving Dell of sales - and put the resulting money towards new, working iPods. Heck, Apple could even use this to give a discount on servicing costs - send the old iPod to Dell, sell the Jukebox, use cash as refund on iPod repair.

In short, really dumb move by Dell. But who's surprised? Dude, you're getting a bankruptcy!

You forgot a zero in there

[raga]

1st gen iPods go for around $200.

cheers- raga

Old ipod's

[mattis_f]

Hmm... I'm thinking that this is more of a publicity stunt than anything else. I mean, it's obviously not intended for 15gb Ipod's, since those are the same size and worth more than $100 if they're working. So then maybe the owners of older, 5gb, Ipod's would be the ones Dell is thinking of? But those are the Apple only ipod's ... those customers are highly unlikely to switch to the Dell jukebox.

So what's left? A bunch of articles on the web, publicity, and what did it cost Dell? Almost nothing.

Re:thats a bit low

[djtripp]

Caveat emptor.

I know a lot of people who are just as attached to their iPod as they are to their TiVo. Is your old iPod worth the $100? If you are a person with the original 5 gig iPod, or a dead battery iPod, you may jump. But then there are also other alternatives. Replacing the battery can cost you any where from $50 to $100. But is the price of switching worth the cost?? For a Windows user, possibly, for a Mac user, probably not. I for one am keeping my iPod.

Re:dell should just buy apple for $10 / share

[kilfarsnar]

I've been hearing these sentiments for 20 years. And yet Apple continues to lead the computing industry in software and industrial design. It is often still true that if you want to see next year's PC, take a look at today's Macintosh. Funny how that is...

I think we're underestimating...

[RepomanUK]

The common sense of your average e-bay buyer.

Just who exactly are all these morons that want to buy a Jukebox in the first place, on e-bay or anywhere else?

Don't do it man! It's a trap!

[SuperKendall]

I'll have to try one of those other Get Rich Quick schemes... like going to this place called "Work".

I did that and it's a giant trap!! They make you work for years and years and string you along with tiny increases in money each year!

It's too late for the rest of us, save yourself!

A Little DELL History (Re:thats a bit low)

[seawall]

DELL started in Michael Dell's dorm room. He'd buy "graymarket" IBM PC's (dealers got steep discounts for large orders, so they would order more than they could sell) and then he'd resell them below Suggested Retail Price.

If anybody would understand about trade-in, reselling and buying a new iPod, wouldn't it be Michael Dell?

Re:You forgot the rest of your sentence

[Dun Malg]

You don't seriously think 10% of the population own a BMW, do you? :)

Hey, by the way he worded it it could be that he's saying "of the people who do NOT own BMWs, 90% of them don't care that the iPod doesn't...mumble...mumble"

101_dollars_for_your_used_iPod.com

[johnpaul191]

1) REGISTER THE URL NOW!
2) sell them on Ebay
3) profit!

I don't think so

[SuperKendall]

No, they're selling 15GB Dell DJ's! It looks like they'll take any iPod. At least from what I could tell from reading, perhaps you found something I missed...

But even my original 5GB iPod (still going strong) goes for between $100-$200, so giving it to Dell is rather pointless. And there are plenty of iPodless family that would rather have it as well.

Re:You forgot the rest of your sentence

[Mononoke]

Don't you mean beleaguered BMW?

You're right. That's not fair at all!

[iceperson]

Kinda like creating a new OS and giving it away in an attempt to drive Microsoft out of business.

Re:You're right. That's not fair at all!

[name773]

nice

Re:You're right. That's not fair at all!

[CarrionBird]

You wouldn't guess that from reading /. though.

Re:dell should just buy apple for $10 / share

[johnpaul191]

you realize APPL has been above $30 for a lil while now right?
in the last few years it has been above $60/share..... i know a few years ago it was over $120 when it split 2/1 (maybe in 2000?)

In other news, Dell employees love used iPods

[IronChefMorimoto]

Are we certain that people dumb enough to send in their iPods aren't actually giving Dell employees a great source of iPod hardware? I can see them all waiting for the daily shipments of used/damaged/dead iPods to arrive at the rebate center.

"Phil! Some asshat sent in a 20GB that works! WOOHOO!"

"That's great, Frank -- hey look! An iPod mini! These people are idiots!"

IronChefMorimoto

Close

[SuperKendall]

They are too embrassed to be seen at the Apple stores buying them.

Re:thats a bit low

[illumin8]

Why? I work for a company that manufacturers portable medical diagnostic equipment.

Pretty much every company in this field offers a mail-in rebate (often times as much as the original purchase price) for our devices if you send in any competitors device.

We regularly box up the devices that are sent to us and ship them back to their original manufacturer so that they know to take those devices out of their support database and to kind of "rub it in their faces" that we've had X number of their customers switch to our product (they do the same to us).

I can say for a fact that this does not happen in the computer industry. Companies like IBM, HP, and Sun realize that if they leave trade-in equipment in circulation, it will just end up on eBay somewhere, where it will be competing against their own salespeople for new revenue. For this reason, any competitive trade ins are always destroyed. There's no point in sending it back to the original manufacturer who will only remanufacture it and resell it. Why would we give money to our competitors.

I suggest your company should strongly consider doing the same. Don't you know that your competitors probably have the ability to refurbish or remanufacture their own equipment and sell it to people again?

Fence your stolen iPods

[JLavezzo]

Since there were reports a couple weeks ago that theves are targeting iPods, sounds like Dell wants to make it easy to fence them!

Re:Brilliant

[vga_init]

There need not be anything necessarily real about a virtual monopoly, and what other merits must a virtual object possess but appearance? iPods are very dominant as a social factor, and their status as the archetypal MP3 player give it a much greater perceived market presence than it might actually hold, and any situation considered to be real becomes real in its consequences. Factors such as price and accessibility might prevent the company from gaining enough market share to have a real monopoly, but they are still the number one company to be competing with because of a monopoly in theory; if Dell did not perceive the iPod as the biggest threat to its desired business model, the campaign wouldn't exist.

Dell's marketing shows a desire to usurp a position held by the iPod; they are seeking to replace one cultural phenomenon with another. If successful, it would be a hugely powerful asset towards expanding their own market presence if they were able to properly stimulate consumption. If push came to shove, Apple would be inclined to further respond to industry shifts, as they have already done so in the past when they introduced the iPod-mini.

The competition in question here is for a specific niche, not the entire spectrum of portable MP3 players everywhere.

huh?

[k3vmo]

Uhh.. can't you send in your out of warrenty iPod to Apple for $99 and get a new one? Still can play all your iTunes purchased music. No hassle of sending in a rebate.

Re:You forgot the rest of your sentence

[ForestGrump]

no, sadly i don't think 10% owns a BMW.
I'm one of the lucky ones. I own 10 BMWs...i wish.

Re:Brilliant

[prockcore]

If the Dell DJ was any good, they wouldn't need a stunt like this to gain market share.

Why is this a stunt? Are car dealers in trouble because they all accept trade ins?

Here you go bid on this

[Murf_E]

make his counter go all the way around to zero again.

I am predicting a sharp increase in the number of broken ipods selling for $50

Odd.

[peacefinder]

You'd think Michael Dell could afford to just buy a new one.

Re:Flames? Here's some

[radish]

Just curious - how many other mp3 player UI's have you actually tried?

Re: I can give it a shot...

[Blondie-Wan]

Ok, I'll take a stab at it (do bear in mind this is coming from a Raving Apple Zealot, but I'll try to be fair):

1) The DDJ (arguably) isn't as well-designed as the iPod - it's uglier, and not as nice to use (this is highly subjective, obviously, but it's a widely-held view).

2) The DDJ doesn't play music from the iTMS (both because it doesn't support the file type, AAC - see below, and because it doesn't support Apple's DRM). It presumably does support DRM'ed WMA files from a number of other music download services, but the iTMS is arguably the best of the DRM'd download outfits, and the one people are most likely to already have music from anyway, given its 70% market share.

3) The DDJ doesn't support as many file types (MP3, WMA, and WAV for the DDJ, vs MP3, WAV, AAC, AIFF, Audible, and Apple Lossless for the iPod).

4) The DDJ is larger and heavier than any iPod (even the 15 GB DDJ is larger and heavier than the 40 GB iPod).

5) The most capacious DDJ holds 20 GB; the most capacious iPod holds twice that.

That said, the DDJ does have some indisputable advantages over the iPod (the aforementioned price and battery life), and for a Windows user who hasn't already started getting music from the iTMS, it's worth considering. I'd still rather have an iPod, though, because it's nicer to use and I'd rather have iTMS compatibility than compatibility with the various vendors of songs in WMA format. As things are right now, I not only already have a bunch of music from the iTMS, I'm also on the Mac, so the DDJ is right out for me. YMMV, as always.

Re:Brilliant

[prockcore]

Virtual monopoly? Wow, I think you need to go look at the sales numbers and rethink that. Owning less than 60% of the market does not a monopoly make.

Depends on the market. If the market is mp3 players, then you're right. If the market is online music sales however...

Offer has problems with it.

[catwh0re]

It doesn't work with the easiest online music store, that has the best restrictions (or lack thereof), that are the same for every single song & album, that I purchase. I like to be in reasonable control and "own" my music.

I'd rather die before using the visual abortion that is windows media player. (pre iTunes, i muchly perferred winamp, as it wasn't a under optimised clutterific splendor of crap that WMP has built itself to be.)

Also i'd like a product that actually has a continuing development cycle, that has shown that customer feedback, technological advances and hardware flaw identification make design changes in new revisions. Not just a competitors fickle attempt at duplicating a market.

Dell's philosophy to market research is seeing what other people are doing that makes money and photocopying it. So as proven by history, they'll have whatever new toys other companies have.. just 2 years later, and in some cheap metallic or blue plastic

The final problem is that I'd have to actually use a Dell DJ, ever used one? It's a nuclear winter of discontentment.

Finally since I've had my iPod for several years now fault free I don't see any reason to give it up. (10GB model..) I was even using it on my old PC with XPod software for windows. I've personally had no battery issues with mine. Out of 3 Million iPods sold, a very small % happen to have the dreaded battery issue, hardly a reason to jump ship to a product still in it's first (and probably last) cycle.

Re:Offer has problems with it.

[harlows_monkeys]

It doesn't work with the easiest online music store, that has the best restrictions (or lack thereof)

What makes you think the Dell doesn't work with AllOfMP3.com?

Re:Offer has problems with it.

[bpbond]

It's a nuclear winter of discontentment

Wow, how far from the bard that phrase has traveled. Discontentment indeed...

iP-P-P-P-Pod!

[Samurai Cat!]

I wonder if someone is going to pull that same prank as the guy with the P-P-P-P-P-Powerbook!

Take a little cardboard box, scribble the screen and controls on the front, and mail it in saying "gimme my rebate!" :)

Re:iP-P-P-P-Pod!

[Anonymous Coward]

Y-Y-Y-Y-ou're under arrest for M-m-m-m-m-mail frud!

Go retro instead

[theRG]

Keep your iPod. Spend $100 instead to buy a retro, clunky, bright yellow Walkman!

http://www.retropod.com/

Re: I can give it a shot...

[TimTheFoolMan]

Hey... with all that unbiased analysis, you're giving Raving Apple Zealots a bad name.

Tim

Does a dead iPod still have

[ClosedSource]

reality-distortion field capability?

Re:Brilliant

[gordgekko]

> being the first to market,

I love the Jobs Reality Distortion Field...now he can go back in time to create the first hard drive MP3 player. Forget about the others that came before!

Re:Flames? Here's some

[Barlo_Mung_42]

I'll agree with you there. It's all just personal preference. I like the Neuros player interface the best. It is simple to use and has programmable function buttons that make it more powerful. I'll take simple + powerful over just simple any day.

Re:thats a bit low

[netsharc]

Man, you can't spell for shit and don't know what you're talking about. Hyundai is Korean, Toyota is Japanese, not Chinese/"Chinaese".. but I guess they from Asia are all the same to you, huh?

Re:I like my Neuros!

[Barlo_Mung_42]

It does what it needs(sic), 40G of storage, no remote though :( but an FM tuner AND FM transmitter all in one. I bought it because it has the most features for the price, is the right size for me, has OGG support doesn't make me look like an iSheep.

Re:You forgot the rest of your sentence

[dasmegabyte]

No, but I'll guess pert-near 50% of BMW owners have an iPod kicking around somewheres.

Funny...Apple's now had promotional deals with both BMW and Volkswagen. I wonder why German car manufacturers are attracted to the iPod?

Oh that's right -- the sturdy design and useful interface. American manufacturers are probably looking into development deals with one of these Microsoft monstrosities that crash all the time and take both hands to operate.

Re:Brilliant

[cens0r]

I've seen other mp3 players out there, but none really stand up to the ipod..

Except of course for the ones that are better.

Re:But can the Dell unit seamlessly plug into a BM

[acey72]

Oh, for some mod points at this moment... +1 funny.

ACey & his Bayerische wagen.

Re:Flames? Here's some

[dasmegabyte]

I think the point here is that when 60% of the music player market is held by the company with the highest priced gear, price is not the deciding factor. I too have used some nice hard drive players, but not one of them has caused me to regret my iPod purchase.

HOWEVER: it should be VERY interesting to see what happens to this market when the Walkman player hits the streets. Sony can make a good interface. They make sturdy, pleasant looking products -- that credit card design is HOT. Sony Connect (ATRAC3 or no) isn't a bad service, certainly it's better than fucking MusicMatch. And finally, their product is going to be way cheaper than Apple's shit.

This is going to be trouble for Apple. Sony has major brand recognition, major marketting and coming late to the party isn't going to hurt them at all. There are lots of people who prefer Sony's looks to Apple's...not everybody, of course, but enough to take a big bite out of their core audience.

reminds me of Cartman

[Anonymous Coward]

Dell's problem is that they only know about offering crap for less money on a product you're required to have to do your job. They don't know anything about personal accessories.

This whole thing reminds me of a Cartman moment. The boys are playing "Lord of the Rings" and pass by some similar-looking kids, who admit that they're playing "Harry Potter," whereupon Cartman emits the most cruel and derisive laugh.

Kids are willing to pay extra to NOT get beaten up for having the Dell lunchbox! See?

It's going to boost dell and apple

[Anonymous Coward]

1. Send in old/dead ipod
2. Get Dell DJ for 100 bucks
3. Ebay off DJ for 150
4. Put 150 towards new ipod

Re:thats a bit low

[avandesande]

I remember that stupid time when the phone companies were battling for your business, give you 100$ of free service or whatever if you switch. I had free long distance for a couple years this way.

Re:thats a bit low

[Oliver Wendell Jones]

Ah, but you missed the key word "Medical" which means that once it's used, it's considered to be biohzardous/contaminated and can not be re-manufactured or re-used.

Aside from the obvious "rub it in their faces", it is actually useful to know which devices are out of circulation so that in the event of (heaven forbid) a medical device recall, you won't waste millions of dollars trying to track down devices that people have already traded in.

Re:But can the Dell unit seamlessly plug into a BM

[stripyd]

As fate would have it I too am a bmw owner.

Damned if I can find where to plug in the ipod on my R65 though...

Re:thats a bit low

[Oliver Wendell Jones]

well, we're not Abbot or Lifescan... and we're huge... so you can probably figure it out from there... I'm sure that you'll be fairly accu-rate in your choice...

Re:But can the Dell unit seamlessly plug into a BM

[acey72]

Ditto my '96 E34 525 - but I love* her all the same :)

ACey

* - No silly, not 'that' kind of love!

Re:Flames? Here's some

[William R. Dickson]

I've read in places that the Rio Karma UI is better, or equivalent, to the iPod.

Hell, man, I've read in places that aliens endorsed Clinton in '96, that Satan appeared in a volcano, and that Alligator Boy and Bat Boy were planning to open a freak-themed coffee shop just outside of Graceland, with a mysterious sideburned silent partner.

I've read all kinds of crazy shit in places.

Re:Flames? Here's some

[outZider]

I've owned a couple of Nomads, a couple Rio's, tried the Karma, and used the Dell DJ.

Re:thats a bit low

[foidulus]

Heh, well, technically from 1910 to 1945 Korea was a Japanese colony...

What makes it inferior

[autopr0n]

If you're an iTunes subscriber, then you would need to remove the DRM and re-encode your songs in Mp3 format (or burn them to CD and rip),

But that's just an incompatability, not a lacking feature. You'd lose iTunes, but you'd have quick access to plenty of WMA stores.

I realize a lot of people around here take it as axiomatic that the iPod is 'superior' to everything else in the world, but could you be a bit more specific?

Economics don't add up

[Gorbag]

If I trade in my iPod for the DJ, I'm out $99.

If I put it up on eBay, I have to pay another $49 to have someone haul the DJ away.

Wouldn't I be better off just buying a new iPod?

Re:You forgot the rest of your sentence

[autopr0n]

Oh that's right -- the sturdy design and useful interface.

at least you can change the battery in a BMW. I know a couple people with Bimmers, and none of them have iPods.

Hmm

[autopr0n]

You need a flashlight to pee now? What did those poor cavemen do, I wonder. Wait for the sun to come up?

But yeah, you can get tiny LED flashlights to put on your keychain. Used to have one, and it was extreemly usefull.

That's not a first-gen iPod

[Durindana]

The photos of the iPod in question - which are almost certainly publicity stills lifted from Apple, not the particular piece of hardware for sale - are of one of the new-gen iPods with the four solid-state buttons above the scroll wheel.

The first-gen 5GB 'pods, like mine (Xmas gift 2001) had buttons integrated into the scroll wheel.

I seem to remember the next-gen pods, like the one in the picture, coming only in 10+ gig sizes, which would mean he's actually selling an ancient iPod like mine with the wrong picture attached (I think the likelier scenario, and if his buyer's smart the sale will be off).

Or I may be mistaken, his next-gen may have come with a 5GB drive and the picture is accurate.

Either way, someone did not see a first-gen 5GB iPod and offer $200 for it.

The only trouble

[tkrotchko]

...and I'm sure this is a dupe...

But a working iPod is worth significantly more than $100, unless its broken, or its cosmetically poor.

Then again, I think most people like their iPods, so I doubt Dell is worried about paying up.

This is good and all, but...

[LinuxTek]

I will still hold my money for when an MP3 player comes out that supports Linux as a desktop OS. Meaning, that it has a native application for linux.

I could care less for an MP3 player that I need to recompile my kernel, fetch some obscure CLI app, and basically treat it as a USB drive.

Re:I like my Neuros!

[Barlo_Mung_42]

Glad the grain of truth you saw made you laugh. You've inspired me to make it my sig.

It's Thursday here btw and I'm thinking for myself just fine.

iPod's faults

[The Axe]

I know many people complain about this, but my 20GB 3rd gen iPod only gives me practically 6 or 7 hours of battery life (bought it in December of '03...use it quite a lot), which is extremely inconvenient, especially considering how much other players manage. Also, it doesn't have an FM tuner or the ability to play back OGG. Don't get me wrong, I love my iPod, but if the 4th gen iPods can give me significantly more battery life, an FM tuner, and (optionally) more file formats, I would drop up to $500 on the highest end model, because 20GB is no longer enough for me.

Otherwise, I might go for an iRiver.

On another note, would having my name engraved on the back of my iPod affect its resale value? I couldn't think of a cool Latin phrase or something geeky enough, so I just put my name down in case it gets stolen at school or something.

Re:Nice Ethics. Nice Journalistic Integrity.

[djtripp]

Yup I am brain washed. I bought me an iPod. Not because of it's functionalty, nor for it's storage, heck I wasn't even aware that I bought it. It just showed up hooked into my ears. I wasn't tired of my Nomad wich had an FM receiver in it I never used, and only had a 128 smart media card in it.

Oh iPod, how I love thee...

Dell setting themselves up for a nightmare

[gwoodrow]

I'd hate to work at Dell's customer service/call center when thousands of angry people start contacting them because they have thousands of songs they bought on iTunes that just don't seem to work on Dell's jukebox.

Dell shipping free software?

[immel]

"Dell is also offering free shipping, free software..." Do my eyes decieve me? Is Dell going to start shipping software under the banner of the GPL? Or are their DJs now going to run linux?

Re:Rebates ... Norton

[darkstream]

Boy, did you nail that! It took me a year and a half to finally get Norton to cough up my $50 rebate for Norton 7. I had to fax them several times, wait and call and wait. It became a test of will for me. LOL I was darned if I was going to let them win. So, yes, sometimes those rebate offers are not all they're cracked up to be. Or you could run into the problem I did with my Seagate rebate: their check bounced and my bank charged ME $5...

Gotta love those rebates...

What's dell gonna do with the pods?

[mveloso]

What I'm wondering is this: where is Dell going to sell the submitted iPods? Are they just going to bury them out back?

It would be kind of embarassing if they made more money selling the returned iPods than the Dell DJ, wouldn't it? I know I'd buy a submitted iPod from Dell before I bought a Dell DJ.

Re:Brilliant

[nickbender]

basically, in the end, what "dell has to offer" is trivial compared to the awesome power of the ipod marketing. Has anyone seen the new ipod spot they made for wwdc? I must say, it pretty much wraps up how while they don't have a monopoly, they do very much so control the market right now. "bring it on" indeed.

Re:You forgot the rest of your sentence

[dasmegabyte]

Autopr0n, you've been reading slashdot for a while now. You should know the ipod battery is in fact quite replacable, and if not you should be ashamed of yourself. In fact, I just change the battery in my ipod...not because it was dying, but because I found one with higher capacity in the same form factor. I get an extra hour.

iPod - Dead or Alive

[Mulletproof]

hasn't Dell had some of the best customer satisfaction ratings (offically, not marketese) for a few years running? That's gotta be worth something. Especially as pretensious as Apple customer service can get sometimes (speaking from a few years hands on hardware repair experience), let alone the infamous battery debacle in which they had to be forced into helping people.

Don't see what the problem is here that people are having. Regardless of what you do with the rebate for a truly dead ipod, it's a good deal. they're betting you probably won't fork another large quantity of cash for a product with less space. Hell, they might even be right, regardless of how much you worship the fucking design already ^_^

Re:thats a bit low

[jrockway]

Heh, first time I've ever heard my employer (Abbott) mentioned on slashdot. I feel proud now :)

Re:You forgot the rest of your sentence

[Moofie]

You mean like BMW's vastly maligned iDrive that's designed by...wait for it...Microsoft?

Shortage Of Damaged iPods on Ebay?

[gr33nlantern]

I'd like to point all of you slashdotters who aren't as lazy as I am to this link-
http://search.ebay.com/broken-ipod_W0QQfromZR8QQsb rsrtZlQQsosortorderZ2QQsosortpropertyZ3
Anyone who doesn't have a decent mp3 player yet.. why not buy a broken iPod and make some use out of it with this offer, eh? *nudge nudge*..**

**I am in no way affiliated with Dell XD!

more things to think of

[appleLaserWriter]

...I have to question Microsoft's $7 billion expenditure on R&D.

I guess you haven't heard of Microsoft's Friday Beer Bashes?

Re:Brilliant

[MichiganDan]

Actually, I've used both Napster and iTMS. I've found iTMS to be much more difficult and restrictive than Napster. The Napster interface is clean, and the I like being able to listen to music that I don't want to buy.

I'm sure Napster isn't 3|i+3 enough for some of the k-rad H4X0R5 around here, but for me it's just great. They have a player built by Samsung. It gets pretty good reviews except from the iPod cult-of-Jobs crowd.

The iPod is overpriced, overrated, and has too many problems. Plus, with their white ear buds, they totally reek of poseur. They should come preloaded with Strokes and Hives tracks, a coupon for $10 off a ratty denim jacket, and a free sample of hair wax.

Old iPod

[BlindSpy]

Does anyone know if the referb iPod you get when you send it in to apple is a new case (the white plastic thing) or is it your same old scratched up one when you get it back? Also my buttons are all crapped up as well - do you think they'll fix all that stuff if I send it in?

Re:Brilliant

[maximilln]

It sure does if the other >40% is split evenly between 10 other players.