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Microsoft's Tips for Buying an MP3 Player
An Anonymous Reader writes "In another extension of Microsoft's 'Plays for Sure' campaign, the company has launched a web page with six tips to help consumers purchase the 'correct' MP3 Player for them. Among the insights of the article hard drive-based players suck and a stopwatch is a useful feature to have on your player. Unsurprisingly, the iPod meets none of Microsoft's criteria. A humorous commentary is available, of course." From the article: "6. Don't get locked into one online store. Have you ever been on the hunt for a particular song? Some obscure indie rock tune or rare jazz performance you heard on the radio? You might have to shop at more than one store before you find the song you're looking for."
Perhaps people that think that Microsoft makes good products? Managers, business people, the common housewife. Yeah, they all don't have a clue because they don't know that Microsoft is "teh suck". There is a world beyond slashdot, and in that world Microsoft is a household name and a respected company. Those people, the ones that are not on slashdot, outnumber us. They are the market, we are not.
When I met my girlfriend I showed her my iBook (amongst other things, but we're talking technology here), and she likes it. What did she have? A spyware infested Fujitsu Siemens with Windows XP. She wasn't very happy with her machine, even though it had cost over 2000€. I asked her: "Why didn't you buy a Mac?". The reply was simple: "I didn't know that they existed. All adverts here are for Windows machines, so I thought it was the right thing to do". That's how it is: Microsoft is well known, Apple less well known. On the MP3-player market that is less true, but Microsoft just wants to use it's brand name in its own advantage...
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
I have yet to hear my iPod skip at all, ever, and I ride my bike and run with it in my pocket. It gets shaken most of the time it's on.
Bears don't normally eat things that talk and move backwards.
Some obscure indie rock tune or rare jazz performance you heard on the radio?
Funnily, this is the kind of music that you're most likely to find available as unrestricted mp3s, which will obviously work in any music player you like.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
I had my ipod hard drive die on me, only owning it for about 4 months. What I did it in, I think, was using it while it was sitting in the cup holder in my car. It would sutter and I could feel the hard drive spinning, and holding it would let the buffer fill. But it got to the point where it wouldn't even turn on. Thank god for costco, and knowing the guy working at the returns counter.
http://www.mirrordot.org/stories/4d12acb0722715b19 eb0a3491221d3ab/index.html Mirrordot mirror of the /.ed page
In this completely unbiased article with absolutely no underlying agenda or ulterior motive whatsoever, the Redmond Beast makes a humanitarian effort to warn you about certain pitfalls that dot the path of buying a portable digital music player, so that you don't wind up with a music device without a built-in stopwatch, which, of course, would be a fate worse than death. Here, with brief summaries of Microsoft's explanations, are the six tips that could save you from inadvertently spending all eternity in Flash Hell:
1. Understand the basics, i.e. flash players are inherently better than hard-drive players because they don't skip unless you throw them at the water just right.
2. Make sure you're getting all the goodies, i.e. you just won't be happy unless your player can record FM radio and includes, for some reason, a stopwatch.
3. You'll want a display, i.e. there's no nobler way to die than by trying to change songs with a three-line, teensy-button human interface while jogging and being struck down by a Dodge Stratus.
4. Let a professional make your next playlist, i.e. why listen to your own music when you can listen to nonstop commercials and obnoxious local DJs on FM radio? And record them digitally, so you can share that great beer jingle with your friends and loved ones?
5. Pick the right size for you, i.e. Windows Media is great, and we just wanted to harp on that for a minute. Have we mentioned that Windows Media is great?
6. Don't get locked into one online store; it is, however, just fine to get locked into one proprietary data format and DRM scheme-- as long as it's ours.
Interestingly enough, before it was refined into the Six Commandments you see above, an earlier draft version of the list was considerably terser. AtAT operatives have secured a copy, and it seems to imply that Microsoft might have had some sort of unstated underlying objective in mind when it put these tips together, although we're having a tough time seeing just what it might have been. Maybe you can help:
1. Don't buy an iPod, iPod mini, or iPod photo.
2. Don't buy an iPod shuffle.
3. Don't buy an iPod shuffle.
4. Don't buy an iPod shuffle.
5. Pick the right size for you (as long as you don't buy an iPod shuffle).
6. Don't buy an iPod of any kind whatsoever.
We know the hidden message is there, lurking just beneath the surface. Maybe these three additional tips found in another draft unearthed by faithful viewer DT will shed some light on the subject:
1. Make sure your flash player isn't white. You don't want to get it all dirty now, do you?
2. If your flash player has a fruit on it, you might get poisoned by insecticide.
3. Always listen to Uncle Bill; he knows what's best for you.
Hmmmm. Nope, it's still a mystery. Impenetrable. Guess we'll never know.
Say, is that the smell of fear wafting over here from the Pacific Northwest?...
Yes they did. They said the HD-based players skip if you move them around while they're playing.
Anyone know if this is true?
To let an iPod skip is almost impossible.
The iPod stores about 30 minutes of music in ram.
Every 30 minutes it spins its harddrive for about 10 secondes to load another 30 minutes of music into ram.
So, to let an iPod skip is next to impossible.
A good FM radio costs considerably more than $2. It needs a well-designed RF input stage, frequency-synthesized tuning or a very stable VFO, and good IF filters. Most consumer-grade FM radios turn to shit in a hostile RF environment like found in many urban areas.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
Please introduce yourself to the wonderful new technology of NiMH... only NiCd need complete discharge cycles to maintain full capacity.
The base Shuffle player holds 512 MB of music in a proprietary format.
Hmm, in all fareness RTFM.
The base Shuffle hold 512MB of
MP3 (8 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, AAC (8 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Music Store, M4A, M4B, M4P), Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4) and WAV
You can see for yourself at http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/specs.html
Sorry, but you're 0 for 2 ... the Shuffle is USB-powered and recharges its internal battery whenever you plug it into a computer.
I bought a refurbed 3G iPod in early January. In late February, the HD would clunk and the iPod would lock up trying to read certain songs and files. Rather than risk it, as I use my iPod for moving data as well as music, I contacted Apple for an RMA.
:)
I filled out the RMA form on the website, the next day, DHL dropped off a box of my doorstep. I put the iPod in the box, called DHL, and they came back to pick it up about 20 minutes later. I got my iPod back about 3 days later.
There's no need to know the guy at the returns counter, AppleCare is how warranties should be. The only better experience I've had even close was when I RMA'd my Sony Ericsson phone, but I had to actually drive that to the post office myself.
The iPod supports a number of popular formats, including MP3 and WAV, but not WMA (they would have had to pay licensing fees to Microsoft). Just because Apple did not support Microsoft's format, many people are insisting that its vendor lock-in. There is nothing preventing another music download service to open up tomorrow and offer MP3's or AAC's for sale (some already do), that will be compatible with the iPod.
Then is the question of motives. It has been shown that Apple makes nearly no profit off the iTMS anyway, as its probably true that the entire effort was aimed at selling more iPods. What reason do they have to lock-in users anyway? It would actually be to Apple's benefit if other music services aimed to sell music for the iPod.
The whole idea of Apple trying to force iPod users to use the iTMS is totally untrue. Why, then, would they even allow iPod users to rip from CD's or import audio files that they already had?