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Birth of the iPod
b00le writes "There's a little story over at Wired about the genesis of the iPod from the point of view of Ben Knauss, a former senior manager at PortalPlayer, the company Apple Computer approached to help develop its player.
There's some nice gossip about The Steve's involvement in the project, the extreme secrecy and so on, but for me, the kicker comes at the end: 'Knauss stayed on until near the end of the iPod's development, but quit shortly before it was released because he had no confidence it would be a success. "It was probably a mistake, but then you have to go with what you think at the time," he said.'
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A good (as opposed to 'merely tolerable') UI, both for the player itself and for its connection to a computer (FireWire, so copying songs won't take ages, iTunes as the UI on the computer end).
The only "raving" about Creative products I've ever done or heard is how horrible they are.
I received mine as a gift. I was interested in buying one but the price was the killer for me. Same with the PowerBook G4 1.25Ghz I recently bought. I needed a new laptop and wanted to play with the new system but the price was higher than I wanted to pay. Fortunately it costs me about $100.
Having only used a couple of mp3 players, I think the thing I like most is that I don't have to have a CD wallet along with the device. Since most of my music is located on it (only the ones with 4 or 5 stars to keep it to the 20Gig limit), letting it randomly play music surprises me with songs I may not have heard in a while.
On a recent trip to Athens, I only needed my laptop and ipod and had all my tunes and tools with me.
Shit better not happen!
The Creative mp3 players have more storage and cost less than most other players. The sound quality is superior to the iPod and other competitors. They also have a user replacable batteries. The computer software is not so great though. http://gear.ign.com/articles/437/437957p1.html
Gravity is not just a law, it's also a good idea.
My guess is that most people here will miss the joke by about 2 generations. For those who don't get it: Pete Best.
Sigs are bad for your health.
The new 4G iPod has buttons that depress when pushed (the new click wheel). Personally, I think a dedicated off button is a bad idea. I wouldn't want to accidentally turn off my iPod.
"Dave, I stand still--the conclusions jump to me!" - Bill McNeal, NewsRadio
I switched a few months ago from an iRiver Slim X350 to a 3rd gen iPod and have been pretty happy with the move. iTunes and the iPod do a wonderful job of keeping my collection organized, as opposed to the old way of having to organize it myself when I burn a mp3 cd. The UI is light years ahead of what I was using with the iRiver player, navigating 20 gigs of mp3s is easier than dealing with 700 megs on the iRiver. Sizewise its alot better as well. I did look at iRIver's hard drive players but I just didnt want to have to manage the mp3s with out iTunes anymore. The only thing I dont like with the iPod is the battery life is the suck compared to my old iRiver player.
"My head hurts, My feet stink, and I dont love Jesus." -Jimmy Buffett
You can mount the iPod as a drive - and through FireWire it's a nippy little thing too.
And tomorrow the stock exchange will be the human race
Lars Traeger is a long time Mac advocate. See his many Usenet posts, especially those in comp.sys.mac.advocacy . Ten to one his post was meant to be sarcastic.
there already was a mac TV, but even if they did come out with one again, it would be something like iTV, but would probably look very cool http://www.lowendmac.com/500/mactv.shtml