Mon
Jun
06
2005

To iPod or not

I’m pondering the purchase of a hard disk-based MP3 type player.

I’m not interested in the music capability… well, perhaps a little bit. But my main purpose will be to listen to my collection of Bible talks, Bible studies, conference talks etc, that I just don’t get to hear otherwise

Another Entry speaks of how I’m part way through digitising my collection of said talks, and the next step is to make them more accessible to me while driving, walking etc. So one of the requirements will be an FM transmitter to attach when I’m in the car.

So… everyone raves about the iPod… but I must say, I’m not sure I see the reason.
Having Googled heavily over the last week, it seems like there is some good competition out there.
I’m probably only looking for a 4-6Gb capacity player – although the pricebreak will be a big decider between those and the 20Gb models.
The Creative Zen is an obvious contender, and there are a couple more.

One of my issues with the iPod is the lack of wma support. wma is such a good format – tight compression with good audio quality, it cheeses me that Apple still go with their own (propriatry?) format. MP3 is good, but there are better formats today.

I understand about Apple’s build and UI reputation, despite the hassles they had with the batteries in the early iPods. But is there anything else to commend them above alternatives?

Please feel free to comment and try and convince me one way or the other… ;-)

Posted by Neil, 6 June 05
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Comment

  1. Actually Apple is not using a proprietary format. AAC is a standard. It’s WMA that is proprietary. Having said that, the DRM used by Apple for iTunes sold tracks is proprietary, but that is not going to impact you.

    — Simon · Jun 6, 06:17 PM · #

  2. Yeah, I went checking the AAC standard after I posted…
    So is any other company using it?
    While WMA is propriatry, it does seem to be the second biggest format in use out there, and lots of other companies have either paid license fees to MS to use it, or the ‘standard’ is publically available (judging by the number of WMA ‘rippers’).

    — Neil · Jun 7, 12:54 AM · #

  3. I think there is AAC support out there, but as most players support multiple formats, there’s not much popularity.

    aacPlus is interesting, using aac + other technologies, they can achieve “near CD-quality stereo at 32 kbps”. So streaming (check out available streams ) is really good for low bandwidth.

    But, yes MS have used market penetration of Windows Media Player to define WMA as a “standard”.

    — SImon · Jun 7, 03:15 AM · #

  4. I have had my iPod since early 2002 and it goes well with me. At the moment using 6.36 GB of the 9.28 GB available, I have 13.4 days of listening. The iPod is easy to use and well integrated with iTunes. There are also many accessories made specifically for the iPod such as FM transmitters. I have imported some of my cassette tapes into iTunes, converted them to MP3 or AAC, and then put them on the iPod.

    I’m a happy customer. So is my mum and my brother. Go the iPod.

    — Danny Haynes · Jun 7, 06:19 AM · #

  5. Now Danny, I wouldn’t expect any different from an Apple man! ;-)
    But thanks for your thoughts… I wonder if there is a PC iPod user out there…?

    — Neil · Jun 7, 01:57 PM · #

  6. i have had an ipod since christmas and i am certainly not an apple man :) pc through and through for me! There are some good points and some bad points… The bad first itunes is terribly bad programme to run on windows the intergration into the system sometimes makes me crazy it at times sucks up the system resources and requires maintainence. I believe that the next version of itunes will be better intergrated into the system but until then arghh.

    About the AAC/wma i have found that itunes automatically converts wma to aac with no fuss so my old library transferred over with no problem, the only downside to this was that i had to redo some albums that were heavily compressed (using wma) because the sound quality wasnt up to Luke standard. In other words my life is no different now using a different format in fact i find that AAC is much stable and is better quality that wma.

    The upside this includes greater storage capacity ease of use and i really mean easy, everything worked first time and then everytime subsequently. The additional features are great as well. I have a FM transmitter called itrip and it is great but has some limitations mainly that sydney is so big that one frequency doesnt work well because that channel is used in other locations across Sydney. (There is more to this point, I can explain about this in futher detail if you want)

    The other cool thing for me is that i have a 40gb model so i use it as a external hard drive to back up files, i use around about 5gb for music and 15-20gb backing up information in other words the extra space is just not wasted.

    The other thing is that ipod is just darn good value for money. Just my thoughts anyway i feel like a sales rep (no pun intended.

    — Luke · Jun 7, 06:31 PM · #

  7. Thanks Luke, That’s very helpful… I was actually going to email or call you for an opinion…
    Incidentally, here’s a slick looking piece of software designed to overcome some of the limitations of the itunes stuff under Windows:
    It’s called Anapod
    If I get an iPod, I will be looking very closely at this.

    I understand the problem you are referring to with the FM transmitter, but I would have thought there would be a freq down one end of the dial that would be clear enough. But then, I guess the little transmitters in these devices are very low powered.
    One more question Luke: When you use the iPod as an external hard drive, is it a case of nice and easy drag 'n' drop, or does iTunes stick it's ugly face in the way?

    — Neil · Jun 7, 09:16 PM · #

  8. Neil,

    I know I’m biased and a dedicated apple brand follower with little or no knowledge of PC’s but when you look at the competion and the features of the iPod then you should see that there is no comparison. There is nothing that Apple hasn’t thought of when putting together the iPod. All the others are wannabe iPods. Calling them anything else is just flattery to their creators. There is an iPod for you, they have strangled every market for portable music player, there is a reason, because they are the best. :)

    — Timothy Haynes · Jun 8, 05:16 PM · #

  9. Gee Tim, How much did they pay you for that plug! ;-)
    Hope you are as evangelical with the gospel!

    Yeah, I’m pretty much sold on it… I just need to work out a last few details…

    — Neil · Jun 8, 06:36 PM · #

  10. You might want to check out the rumour sites to see if a. an update to the iPod/mini is due b. if anyone has release a larger hard drive for the same form factor and c. upcoming Apple events that a new device would be released at (they just had one, and nothing about the iPod).

    Having written all that… this thread suggests no update till Christmas.

    — Simon · Jun 8, 09:42 PM · #

  11. Cheers Simon, the iPodlounge is a cool site…
    I’m now looking at the 20gb iPod (or maybe the 30Gb Photo version) as I can get a one-off very good price on these.
    I’ve got til the end of the month, so will ponder it all a little longer…

    — Neil · Jun 9, 02:51 AM · #

  12. Here’s a new review of the Creative Zen.

    — Simon · Jun 9, 07:29 PM · #

  13. Yeah, saw that yesterday, thanks.
    So many choices…
    The Zen’s big downfall seems to be the crappy software (and the significantly higher price compared to what I can get an iPod for at the moment).
    Still leaning towards the 20gb pod… ;-)

    — Neil · Jun 9, 10:32 PM · #

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