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Will the iPod Ever Die?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the only-a-matter-of-time dept.

Azhar writes "Will we always prefer the iPod's glossy slim design over all the others? Or at one point of time will the iPod revolution actually fade? Lets have a look at what could happen and why."

3 of 470 comments (clear)

  1. Battery Replacement Service by jdbartlett · · Score: 4, Informative

    Fortunately, Apple offers a battery replacement service for out of warranty iPods.

    Out of curiosity, which other brands offer a similar service? I have a feeling the brand I stick with will be the one to offer the best post-purchase support. For one thing, it shows confidence in their product.

  2. Re:TFA by nessus42 · · Score: 4, Informative
    I want my music player to do playback and recording in a format unencumbered by any DRM so I can create and share as I see fit. Apple doesn't give me that,
    This is patently false. iPods and iTunes will both play unencumbered mp3s, and iTunes is perfectly happy to rip CDs to unencumbered mp3s.

    I have many gigabytes of music on my computer that I ripped from my own CDs. There's not a single DRM-encumbered track on my computer, and I play them all with iTunes, iPods, and mp3 CD-ROMs made with single click burning from iTunes. (My car stereo plays mp3 CD-ROMs.)

    Furthermore, iTunes' restriction that it won't copy mp3s off of an iPod and onto a computer is merely proforma to mollify the recording industry. There is nothing built into the iPod to prevent you from copying mp3s off of it and onto your computer. In fact, there are a number of free programs out there that let you do precisely this.

    |>oug

  3. Re:plenty of DRM in iPod by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 3, Informative

    Actually, no. If you know anything about Computer Science, you will recognize the iPod's file storage mechanism is a hash table in which all the songs are evenly distributed amongst a file tree; it reduces file seeks/searches. Then there is the other aspect, that the entire filesystem is stored in an index file to make searches and browsing of content instantaneous; instead of looking through the harddrive, the iPod merely looks through a file loaded into memory and when it needs to access the song uses the afore mentioned hash table to access the song.

    Also if you didn't know, Apple just added in the latest revision of iTunes the ability to synch to multiple machines, and iTunes has existed for longer than the iPod. The very first versions of iTunes has (and still may, I don't see why they wouldn't) supported Rio, Diamond, and Creative MP3 players.

    So in that respect all your assertions are off base.

    --

    GPL Deconstructed