iPod nano

[neveronfriday]

How are these things powered? Does one have to dish out the price of the player to get new rechargable Apple thingies? If yes, no thanks. If no, I'm off to the store ...

[md655321]

The battery issues on ipod have been way overblown and are pretty much a non-issue with the new ones. You have a 14 hour battery life, and that should last a couple years.

Eventually itll wear down to around 5 or 6 hours, but at that point you will be WELL overdue for an upgrade anyways.

[vibes]

I played with a Nano at the store yesterday. In terms of size and features, it kicks ass. Even though I hate iTunes, I'm very tempted.

[Jim Dye]

I arrived home last night to find our new iPod nano waiting at the doorstep. I bought it for my wife so I could reclaim my old one. It's really really cool. My regular 20 gig iPod feels like a brick compared to the nano!

[Alfred]

I'm still waiting. Maybe it's in the mail today. Apple seem to sell a lot of this new iPod.

[Gary]

I bought one yesterday but I had a lot af trouble finding one.

My first Ipod & its great .

[.:.impossible]

I played with a Nano at the store yesterday.  In terms of size and features, it kicks ass.  Even though I hate iTunes, I'm very tempted.

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Why do you hate iTunes? I haven't had any issues with it. In fact, it seems so simple that everyone I've showed it to seems to pick it up immediately. And its free! I'm interested to hear your dismay.

[vibes]

I played with a Nano at the store yesterday.  In terms of size and features, it kicks ass.  Even though I hate iTunes, I'm very tempted.

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Why do you hate iTunes? I haven't had any issues with it. In fact, it seems so simple that everyone I've showed it to seems to pick it up immediately. And its free! I'm interested to hear your dismay.

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I have all my mp3s ripped into folders, by album. With iTunes, you have to import everything into iTunes, and then you have to transfer the files with iTunes. I find that annoying. I much prefer players where you connect the the player to your computer, and it's recognized as a hard drive. It makes things much easier. Were I to purchase an iPod, I'd also buy a separate program that would allow me to use the device like an external hard drive (I believe Anapod can do this). iTunes isn't too difficult to figure out (I've set up my parents' players and figured it out pretty easily), but I find it a bit tedious.

iTunes is also very slow when it comes to ripping music. I have other programs that do it way faster. iTunes does have one feature I like, however: the ability to join tracks and then rip them as a single file. That's very handy for classical music and some albums, like "Dark Side of the Moon."

I've never purchased music from the iTunes store, but I've browsed and it seems pretty simple. I like having something tangible, though, so I'll probably never purchase a download.

[Uncle Skid]

I recently got an iPod, and I have to agree that iTunes sucks big time. I also have of my music ripped to mp3's on my hard drive in folders (like Jazz\Artist\Album\), and this has worked well for years.

I spent almost an hour messing around with iTunes, and couldn't figure out how to copy the music correctly. I finally gave up, and found a (free) plug-in for Winamp: ml_iPod. This worked great -- now it's easy to organise and copy mp3 files (and playlists) to the iPod.

[kh1958]

iTunes is a wonderful program. What probably sucks is your Windows computer.

I recently got an iPod, and I have to agree that iTunes sucks big time.  I also have of my music ripped to mp3's on my hard drive in folders (like Jazz\Artist\Album\), and this has worked well for years.

I spent almost an hour messing around with iTunes, and couldn't figure out how to copy the music correctly.  I finally gave up, and found a (free) plug-in for Winamp: ml_iPod.  This worked great -- now it's easy to organise and copy mp3 files (and playlists) to the iPod.

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[Alfred]

I'm still waiting!

[Uncle Skid]

iTunes is a wonderful program. What probably sucks is your Windows computer.

Yeah, my Windows PC does suck. I like my Linux box much better.

But I still think iTunes sucks. Not that it really matters, but here are just a few reasons why I don't like it:

1) I think it's totally ridiculous for ANY mp3 player to require the use of special software to transfer files back and forth. My other hard drive player (Archos Jukebox) simply shows up as a removable hard drive -- it can't get much easier than that!

2) The first thing iTunes wants is my name and email address. Screw you, Apple. You don't need my email address to "serve me better".

3) Once installed, iTunes takes up a considerable amount of RAM, even when it is not running.

4) As Vibes mentioned, there are much better ways to rip music to Mp3.

[Claude]

iPod Nano owners in screen scratch trauma (The Register)

[mgraham333]

iPod Nano owners in screen scratch trauma (The Register)

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It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Why is it that when something from Gates goes wrong consumers call for Bill's head and yet when something from Jobs goes wrong the Apple faithful make excuses and keep drinking the kool-aid?

[Guy Berger]

I felt dirty giving my money to Apple when I got my iPod.

Guy

[Eric]

iPod Nano owners in screen scratch trauma (The Register)

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Interesting. I wonder how the "display" Nanos are holding up at the Apple stores - seems these would be esp vulnerable. Either that or Apple has to replace them every few days ...

[rostasi]

Why is it that when something from Gates goes wrong consumers call for Bill's head and yet when something from Jobs goes wrong the Apple faithful make excuses and keep drinking the kool-aid?

Hmmm...maybe it has to do with the fact that when a Gates product has a problem,

it's usually related to work-based or security-based concerns, while the Jobs problems usually are related to cosmetic/design ones?

While it's a drag that the screen scratches so easily, at least it doesn't slow down your work speed,

or unexpectedly crash, or dit you to death with cornball graphics, or keep itself wide open to security issues, or...

Like I've said before - anything with a small screen, iPod, camera, et. al,

should have a screen protector immediately mounted on to it just in case.

I agree with Skid on some of his points: the "copy protection" scheme where you need special software

(not endorsed by Apple) to copy audio files from your friends is a stupid "piracy" issue...

the email address thing is just one of those things that shows up in lots of software -

it's not some weird exclusive iTunes thing.

OK, so it takes up 25 MB of space...what's that nowadays? and,

yup, there are all kinds of other ways to rip music out there,

but this is like saying that there are all kinds of other ways to drive cars out there - uh, huh...

Apple has it's problems - mostly those due to sucking RIAA's disc - but the ease of use

between iPod and iTunes is incredible whether you're just dropping tunes into it or the jillion ways of sorting your playlists.

It's a tie as to which is the audio product of the decade.

Until Gates quites making the AMC's of the computer world, I'll stay with my Mac.

[WD45]

iPod Nano owners in screen scratch trauma (The Register)

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Ah crap. Apparently this is quite a problem, not isolated to a few cases. Looks like I'll be waiting.

[sidewinder]

iPod Nano owners in screen scratch trauma (The Register)

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Ah crap. Apparently this is quite a problem, not isolated to a few cases. Looks like I'll be waiting.

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Yes, there has also been quite a bit of fuss in the UK over this in the last few days. According to the newspapers, quite a lot of returns. Also displays seizing up for no reason.

I'll be hanging fire too until this is sorted out.

Edited September 27, 2005 by sidewinder

[neveronfriday]

That Nano player is nothing but trouble for anyone outside of the Apple community (and for many within). Besides the scratch issues there have also been quite a number of complaints about charging the player fully (people report that the player has virtually died on them after a few tunes or already after having loaded it with tracks) and the batteries not lasting nearly as long as stated by Apple (they tell you not to skip tunes to save on battery life which, IMHO, takes all the fun out of the thing).

And don't get me started on iTunes. That thing is a pain in the neck on Windows machines. Why I can't just transfer tunes via the player as a removable drive is beyond me (you can, btw: there's a plugin for Winamp which gets around all the iTunes bull) ... With my old player I just plug it in, transfer via USB 2 and ... bingo.

I was looking forward to getting a Nano as a second portable player, but I guess I'll wait until things have been ironed out. If Apple doesn't take care of things, I'm sure the iPod case, modding and supply cottage industry will take over in a second.

[tatifan]

I agree about the ease of using the Archos models mentioned above. With the ability to simply drop folders with albums AND any other files you might want to port around, it's a far simpler and more expedient solution. The reports of the screen problems are music to MY ears: I no longer need to envy those who spend the bucks on this Nano nano toy. At the time I bought the Archos, the reason was the $100 I saved for a 20GB model over iPod.....apparently it was REALLY money well saved!

[Jim Dye]

Apple has 'fessed up:

iPod flaw 'limited', Apple Confirms

FWIW, My nano is just fine.

[mgraham333]

That Nano player is nothing but trouble for anyone outside of the Apple community (and for many within). Besides the scratch issues there have also been quite a number of complaints about charging the player fully (people report that the player has virtually died on them after a few tunes or already after having loaded it with tracks) and the batteries not lasting nearly as long as stated by Apple (they tell you not to skip tunes to save on battery life which, IMHO, takes all the fun out of the thing).

...

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I really really hope there is no battery problem (again). After the last go 'round with that crap you'd think they'd get it together. C'mon this is a music player first, fashion accessory, second.

Neveronfriday, where'd you hear the battery news?

[neveronfriday]

Read it on some Apple forums. Just have a look around yourself - the relevant posts are not that difficult to find.

For example, this one:

One random example (Had to wade through three pages of spam on the forums to find it ... someone just spammed the forums with about 200 messages ... I wonder if they're going to clean that up before you get there ...)

Still, I think the NANO is a great idea and I will definitely buy one once the problems are ironed out. Sales figures already now show that there's great demand for this type of player. Let's hope Apple fixes the problems fast so they don't scare potential customers away.

[.:.impossible]

I recently got an iPod, and I have to agree that iTunes sucks big time.  I also have of my music ripped to mp3's on my hard drive in folders (like Jazz\Artist\Album\), and this has worked well for years.

I spent almost an hour messing around with iTunes, and couldn't figure out how to copy the music correctly.  I finally gave up, and found a (free) plug-in for Winamp: ml_iPod.  This worked great -- now it's easy to organise and copy mp3 files (and playlists) to the iPod.

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I recently got a Gateway tablet PC through work and loaded iTunes. I think what you were looking for is File > Add folder to library. iTunes on both Apple and PC seems to organize my music in files by artist name, then album. Of course, I am free to manage my files however I want. My filing has nothing to do with iTunes. I'm guessing your files look somthing like music > jazz > tyrone washington > trainwreck > track name. All ou should have to do is choose the 'music' file to add to library.

Anyway, seems like you've moved on, which is fine.

My music is stored on an external hard drive. Unfortunately, the drive is usb. Burning from that drive is extremely slow, but what am I going to do. Anyone know a way to replace the usb with firewire? Is there a way to retrofit an external? I'm pretty novice when it comes to this type of thing...