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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."
hey gnaa
The ultimate test is using it while having sex... in a blender.
I've been a user of portable music players for almost 20 years - I still remember my first Unisef walkman bought in Austria, and then my first Sony walkman whih I bought almost three years later. After that, I've changed about one walkman every two years, each of them being crushed to pieces after heavy (ab)use.
I tried the Discman, but these things never lived up - they were big, they skipped (I'm talking about mid-1990's models) and just not worth the switch. Then, in 2001. I tried MiniDisc, and that was the first true change after my first walkman, back in 1986 - minidisc media was nice and slick, you can load your backpack with 5 of them and with LP you would have a reasonable amount of music to be absent for several days from your PC's hard drive. However, MD wasn't perfect - it took ages to record disks from now already huge MP3 collection, you had to use analog interface, and, damn, these things were buggy! MD skipped, mechanics was noisy during reproduction, and just not reliable, which is the most important thing for a music player.
Anyhow, poor machine didn't last much longer than my average walkman, in 2003. it met its destiny. BTW, old walkmans still could withstand a bigger amount of punishment than my MD.
Just about then first iPods showed up in stores. After reading several reviews which basically said than sound was crystal clear and that the machine doesn't skip, I took to the store and bought a 3G 10GB version (only one available at that time, and that for 470$). Yes, machine was great, and for the first time I realized that something ready to displace walkman was here. Several things however, I really hated about iPod:
1. Software is terrible. 2. Accompanying software for sychnronization is terrible (iTunes) 3. It only plays music, no recording option (I had it on my MD), no FM tuner (could be useful sometimes) 4. Battery lasts for pathetic 8 hours of reproduction, it's not replacable. 5. Software is known to crash. So, in all those things iPod was clearly inferior to my Sony's MD player. But, it was still the best portable player around. If someone asked me if I would recommend him to buy an iPod, answer would be that it is not that it is the good choice, but that all its alternatives (MD, Discman, other players) are bad. OK, there are other HDD based players, but these are still in their first generation, while iPod is now running its 4th. And I generally don't trust v1.0 products:)
Industry in that area still has a long way to go, and it has not yet produced a player with good software, easy synchronization, long battery life, together with all the options to which we were used on walkman/CD/MD platforms.
Shit. I forgot that the Shuffles were 512/1024MBs. But what good is that much storage space when you can't choose which song plays next? The only way to get around this is to join all the tracks in a cd or playlist together and make a single MP3. You'd get your own playlists, but that's a pretty poor solution.
Also, rechargable batteries are cheap. At Costco, $25 will buy a Panasonic set with a charger and six (if I remember correctly) each of AA and AAA batteries.
"The newly born animals are then whisked off for a quick run through a giant baking oven." --heard on Food Network
So, how is this much different from Apple claiming that PCs aren't good?
My apologies, the Shuffle does play VBR MP3s. The battery remains an issue - what, I need a charger? Fuck that noise - that's why I hate my cell phone. I use regular AA batteries in my Sport player now. If I want I can use those same rechargeable batteries in my digital camera or any other AA battery powered device. What I want is the multiple use of things that should have multiple uses.
The value is just not there with the Shuffle.
The last thing I need is another gadget. I'm sticking with VBR MP3 CDs for now. It's an utterly disposable format and has all the benefits previously described.
well, there were three reasons why I bough iRiver 20G jukebox - instead of an iPod :
1) No locking down to ONE SITE
2) Tone of features - which Apple does not offer: Mainly, fm tuner, voice recording (It's pretty amazing I can still listen to some cool jokes my friends made on me while visiting home sometimes back), recording from any other device directly to mp3, and reading directions on road with a text reader
(and also, pretty damn good audio, photo viewer - which may not be unique, but is at par)
3) Every Tom, Dick or Harry is carrying a 'cool' looking ipod (this one works for me - I never wanted to part of that crowd)
No, as long as they are better than Microsoft.
You have N choices, and all but one suck; one sucks less.
What would you choose?
GPL Deconstructed
"I said to STOP the FUD, not repeat the FUD. Sheesh."
Ease up on me, I didn't realize you were trolling...
"The only DRM the iPod supports is the iTMS DRM."
Thus, the only music download store iPod supports is the iTunes music store.
You can go on and on about how maybe BitTorrent or P2P is a download service.. Sure it is..
There are also independant artists who post downloads on their website. Sure, you can consider it a "music download store" but that is kindof bending the truth wouldn't you say?
Your ignorance is infinitely greater than you realize.