iPod = Lame

FaRuvius

FaRuvius

Hardest Flusher
WOW. What a disappointment.

a) definitely NOT breakthrough. Yeah, it advances current technology, but not breakthrough by ANY means.

b) this whole MP3 thing is getting tired. The Rio came out like <b>3 YEARS AGO</b>. I'm tired of Apple touting a technology as "the best thing ever" after it arrives on the mac years later.

c) <b>$400 frickin dollars???</b> This is another cube! Yes its a cool product, but they just priced themselves out of their market! This does nothing to grow mac sales, will only appeal to existing customers, and how many of us will actually get one? I guess less than 50% of all Mac users will WANT one, and of that percentage that DOES want one, they won't want to PAY $400 for it.

FaRuvius
 
Yeah, I agree it is WAY overpriced... I would NEVER buy one for $399.

However, I think it's a pretty revolutionary product... nothing's easier than this. And it's nice to have so many songs on one device.

But it's way too expensive, and if it doesn't work with Windows machines, then it's still going to be a niche product.
 
... to express your disappointment.

Now let's get back to our daily businesses. I for one find the thing cool enough to want one. I'll pay the price for it. It's a competitive pricing, because even the best player of the competition can't match the size/space ratio of the iPod.
 
I couldn't agree more. The only thing iPod brings to the table is the dual-use as portable harddrive and fast transfers via firewire. That's not really enough to justify the pricetag, though. Is it me, or is 5 gigs more than just a little anemic? I mean, when you can get one of these: http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/electronics/3774.shtml 5 gigs just doesn't seem all that hot....

It's probably a little ridiculous to consider, since the product isn't even released yet, but I wonder if the drive in the iPod could be upgraded? 30GB in that package would certainly be more interesting....

I guess we were all hoping for a bit more... :(
 
The announcement should have read:

NEW ITUNES VERSION 2.0!!!

...oh, and an apple branded mp3 player...bla bla bla
 
Originally posted by fryke
It's a competitive pricing, because even the best player of the competition can't match the size/space ratio of the iPod.
Click to expand...

Archos jukebox 6000 and the Creative Nomad, which both have 6gb of storage and a similar navigation system to the pod, can be had for under $300.

While the nomad is much larger, the archos jukebox is roughly the same size as the iPod.


And, iPod spelled backwords is DOPI

FaRuvius
 
I'd have to agree with the comments regarding the similarity to a cube. However- I'd have to say that the elegance of this device makes other options pale in comparison. The Arkos jukebox has been around for awhile- but it's big. It's bulky. And it doesn't use firewire. And I can't sync it up hands-free to both my music collection AND my playlists- the very same one that I use in my mp3 player. In terms of hardware/software integration- I totally dig. Price- yeah... but I feel the quality is way above the current par. Rio's suck. A lot. In a world where MP3 players are getting more proprietary by the second (you can practically listen to it) I think the simplicity of this device is right up there.
 
i agree. nice look. but too expensive.
and not everyone has firewire. so they have left everyone with usb only systems out in the park. this sucks. i am not willing to buy a firewire card to stick in my beige g3 that sometimes installs os x.
 
I'd have to agree with the comments regarding the similarity to a cube. However- I'd have to say that the elegance of this device makes other options pale in comparison

Elegance? the Cube was touted as being elegant.....where is it now?....dead. All because they were greedy and overpriced it.
 
I'll admit -- at first glance of the iPod, I, too, was disappointed -- but I didn't instantly run to the message boards and vent like babies about how some mythical "hype" on a bunch of rumor boards led me astray and now believe that Apple really sucks -- people DO learn from mistakes, and I think Steve Jobs has done one hell of a job of innovating while not making the same mistakes he did in the past.

Sure, the iPod is a glamorized MP3 player. But it's an MP3 player taken to the max, as anyone can see just by reading the tech specs on the unit. Yeah, yeah, MP3 players are old. But this one breathes new life into the portability of compressed music, and it DOESN'T just do MP3s. Go read about it. It does 4 or 5 different formats, and is upgradeable to support new formats in the future. Besides, who here doesn't STILL download MP3s or rip their own from CDs? You? Howabout you? Yeah, right, as you flip back and forth between LimeWire/iSwipe/Gnutella/OpenNap/Whatever and Internet Explorer/iCab/OmniWeb/Whatever to finish your rant on how overpriced the iPod is and how you're not gonna buy one and sit there and watch it go the way of the Cube...

You also get a hard drive. Not any hard drive, either. A brand-spankin' new hard drive from Toshiba, which is SMALLER than a 2.5" notebook hard drive. And this baby won't skip, either, unless you violently shake the unit for 20 minutes at a time, which is likely to NEVER happen.

You also get FireWire connectivity. Damn. 'Nuff said. This thing is FAST, as well!

As a bonus, it has, by far, the most intuitive interface of any MP3 player on the market, and I challenge someone to best that statement.

The sound output is phenomenal, too, and I'd bet you could hook this puppy up to a stereo and not be able to notice a difference between it and any of your CDs collecting dust in the corner, due to the advent and popularization of the MP3 format.

What's that? It synchs automatically with iTunes, and will even keep your playlists intact? Rip a CD in 10 seconds? Download 1,000 songs in 10 minutes?

All for $400. You can't get a 5BG FireWire hard drive in the new small-form-factor that the iPod uses for that. I dare you to find one. Sure, you can get some larger 2.5" FireWire hard drive for less, but see above reasons why the iPod puts those to shame.

In the sea of crappy MP3 players plagued by being oversized, underpowered (oh yeah -- iPod runs for 10 hours and recharges in 1-3 hours, BTW -- best THAT one, too!), bulky and have ridiculous interfaces, the iPod shines like a lighthouse over this murky and ill-conceived sea of MP3 players.

Apple's prices have always been high, and anyone outraged by the $400 tag on the iPod should check to see if they've had a pulse for the last 3-10 years -- when you want the best of the best (i.e., Apple) you pay a premium. And you did, for whatever Mac you're sitting in front of now. And you like that Mac. And you're not living off of food stamps, nor sleeping in a shelter, and you still use a Mac, and you paid a premium for it.

The iPod is amazing -- it does everything that everyone else's device does, and it does it faster, better, with more elegance and charm and ease-of-use. It IS groundbreaking.

If you were taken in by the "revival of the Newton" or the set-top DVD/DVD-R/CDRW/QuickTime box, you're a sad breed indeed. Yes, we can all dream, but is ANYONE aware that DVD-R doesn't even have a standard yet? It would be silly and stupid for Apple to release a set-top box that doesn't conform to a standard. THAT would be the Cube-relived. MP3 IS a standard. Smart move, Apple. And the Newton? C'mon -- look at Palm. They're slowly biting the dust. PDAs aren't the wave of the future. We already have laptops that are small enough to tote around all day and do infinitely more things than any PDA could do.

Apple is going to be the "hub" of our digital universe. That means having different machines to do different things. We've got QuickTime for video, iDVD and DVD Studio Pro along with FCP for video-production, we've got iTunes for music... and now, iPod for our music-on-the-go. AND you can put an entire operating system on that little hard drive and stick it in your shirt pocket.

C'mon. Really think about how this product shines. It's not just an MP3 player, it's an amazing device disguised as an MP3 player.
 
Just so ya don't feel alone, ElDiabloConCaca. My boyfriend agrees with you completely. I agree with you on the merits of the player too.. but I think (and I think most consumers will agree) that this price is too high. Especially here in Canada this would cost more than $600. I can buy several mp3 players or several hard drives for that amount. Miniturization always costs more - and that's the type of people who are going to buy this. Folks who can afford the cost of downsizing the gadget. I'm sure the price will drop - maybe in 1/2 a year I will reconsider, but for now, even with the features, I cannot justify purchasing this gizmo at this price. (maybe my boyfriend can spring for it) ;)
 
It can rip a CD in 10 seconds ?
I think not! I think teh download from a computer to the iPod of approx 18 tracks takes 10 seconds, not the encoding process. If the encoding process took 10 seconds, the MP3 wouls sound crappy
 
Well, it's nice to know that some people appreciate innovative technology as much as I do. It's as if Apple looked around this place, saw all these very bad implementations of a GREAT idea (MP3s to go) and said, "Here, y'all, check this out. THIS is how you do it!" And voila! Out popped iPod.

Ok, so $400 was a bit shocking when I saw it, too, but it was quickly justified by the innovative technology that they packed into this thing. DAMN it's small! Same reason its $400 is the same reason that the 550MHz PowerBook costs more than it's desktop-counterpart.

At any rate, I want one. Hey, I'm not rich either, and I DEFINITELY can't afford it, but I still want one. I'm a full-time college student with a MINIMAL monthly income and I just barely scrape by. BUT -- I AM a Mac fan -- if I were to do the right thing and get the cheapest thing out there, I'd be defending Windows XP right now on a 1.2GHz Pentium 4. But I love elegance, style, usability, and above all, a company that surges forward in the face of economic bumpiness.

This is Apple to me. They make some of the most innovative products I've ever seen. I'm not going to go off on how I converted all my friends to Mac-heads or anything -- because I tried and I can't. They love Windows. They love the same thing they grew up with. The Mac confuses them -- like a math problem you stare at for hours thinking it's so complicated and then BAM! It hits you -- just put a minus sign in front of the x and everything's cool -- super-simplicity looks complicated at first glance. That's what I thought when I first encountered Mac... but I know better now...

Ok, so "rip" wasn't the right word to use -- judging by the fact that you can download 1000 songs in about 10 minutes, then you can download MP3s constituting one whole CD (anywhere from 8-20 tracks, give or take) in about 10 seconds... still, that's pretty damn good!

I can honestly say that I think different. I know what Apple's all about, and I love it. As soon as I sell enough crack to get me $400 + tax, I'm getting one of those damn iPods. They are WAY cool. I'll pay the premium to have the best of the best.
 
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