ipod revisited... better, but still room for improvement

[austonia]

Last time I messed with a 3g pod was the 30gb one I had briefly when they were still pretty new. Played with a friend's 10gb model the other night, with newer firmware (2.2) and it does shows signs of improvement. Almost liveable. The touch-sensitive buttons seem better behaved, they didn't feel overly sensitive as I remember. The on-the-go playlisting feature is basic but works well enough. You can add entire artists or albums in addition to individual tracks. However it just dumps the tracks into the playlist (not nested items like Nomad OS) and you can't re-order them or save the playlist. Some of the other smart-playlists (Top 25, favorites, etc) remind me of Rio DJ on the Karma. I took notice that iPod now has a wake-to-alarm feature that is useful for people like me go to sleep with headphones on but don't want to miss the alarm clock. Only other player with this is Zen NX/Xtra, I think. iPod can wake to beep or you can choose music.

iPod still needs:
scrolling text for items that don't fit onscreen (anything 18+ characters)
option to shut iPod OFF (instead of default sleep-mode that drains battery)
5-band custom EQ
reduce retail price by 10%

and personally I would like:
looping lists/menus
delete tracks
nested playlists

..& no point in going on about hardware changes

You're getting there apple, keep at it.

 

[appar111]

Austonia-
I've read alot of your posts and would like your opinion on whether or not to go with the mini or the regular 3rd gen 15GB iPod. I can grab a 15GB model for $270 from apple with educational discount. The local Compusa has the mini in stock for the usual $249.99.

I would be quite happy with 4GB, but for $20 more it would seem insane not to get the 15GB iPod. I've heard that the mini has reportedly longer than 8 hour battery life, but I've never heard the same for the regular 3G iPod. But I've also heard alot of horror stories of the distortion problem on the mini cause by the way the main circuit board connects to the headphone circuit board. I figure if I got the mini, I would be more inclined to get something like Compusa's "bring it in and get store credit" plan, but then that's another $25-44, which would end up being more than the 15GB model!

How's your mini doing for you? I prefer the control setup on the mini, but would be perfectly happy dealing with the controls of the standard iPod. Plus if I reallly needed extra battery life, Belkin offers an external battery pack.

 

[austonia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by appar111 Austonia- I've read alot of your posts and would like your opinion on whether or not to go with the mini or the regular 3rd gen 15GB iPod. I can grab a 15GB model for $270 from apple with educational discount. The local Compusa has the mini in stock for the usual $249.99. I would be quite happy with 4GB, but for $20 more it would seem insane not to get the 15GB iPod. I've heard that the mini has reportedly longer than 8 hour battery life, but I've never heard the same for the regular 3G iPod. But I've also heard alot of horror stories of the distortion problem on the mini cause by the way the main circuit board connects to the headphone circuit board. I figure if I got the mini, I would be more inclined to get something like Compusa's "bring it in and get store credit" plan, but then that's another $25-44, which would end up being more than the 15GB model! How's your mini doing for you? I prefer the control setup on the mini, but would be perfectly happy dealing with the controls of the standard iPod. Plus if I reallly needed extra battery life, Belkin offers an external battery pack.

well, i'd like to help, but the choice of whether to get the Full or Mini is entirely personal preference. but here's the way I see it. if you don't really care about the 30% size difference, go with the full size player. 15gb IS quite a bit more than 4gb, and it has a slightly larger screen. i mean, 4gb is good for a mini-player, but if don't _really_ need it that small, why pay the premium. colors? yay. but here's what I would do: get both. and then get some other players too.

 

[appar111]

You are a twisted and evil man, Austonia.

I definitely don't need the slightly smaller size-- the regular iPod is quite small enough, and the larger screen is enough of a difference to be noticeable and slightly easier on the eyes.

if I got the mini, i would just go with the silver anyway, so the colors don't really mean anything special to me. I guess that solves it, the regular iPod will be the choice when I go back to the 'Pod...

Oh, I think I finally figured out what the glitching is on my Rio Cali... the fact that it's USB 1.1 transfer. I throw a 40 song playlist on there all at once and during the transfer it seems to hiccup... whereas 10-12 songs at a time hasn't gotten me any glitches... yet.

Yet another advantage of firewire....

So if that will keep things from glitching, perhaps I can stick with the Cali until the next generation of regular iPods come out (hopefully with the mini's scroll wheel...)

 

[ezra2323]

Quote:

I would be quite happy with 4GB, but for $20 more it would seem insane not to get the 15GB iPod

I own the Mini and the 3G 15GB iPod. I far and away prefer the Mini but it really does come down to use. Since my primary use is during exercise, the size makes a HUGE difference. Further, when the Mini is clipped to my belt, its hardly noticeable. The iPod, while small, is noticeable.

I also do not really need more than 1000 songs with me at any given time so the Mini is large enough (5GB would be perfect so I could get 1000 songs with LAME APS, right now the Mini holds about 700). I use my iPod in its dock to power a pair of Creative iTrigue L3450 that look oh-so-cool with the iPod as a stereo system.

Love em both but prefer the Mini.

Finally, the anodized aluminum is such a nice touch and the scroll wheel is so much better as well on the Mini.

I traded in my Nomad Zen 40GB to get a 15GB iPod and do not regret it. I'm done with Creative! Rio still remains a future option.

 

[sno1man]

I've got both but I hardly use my regular 3g ipod anymore. I have about 26GB of music on my computer and I have created multiple playlists to sync with the mini and even if it's a complete reload it does not take that long to load.

The mini is smaller, lighter, thinner, has a better button setup and has a slightly more readable display.

If you dont need the capacity with you all the time, (i thought I would but it turned out not to be true) then the mini is the best bet. Aesthetically the mini appeals in one subtle way too. It does not get dirty/fingerprinted nearly as easily.

I know austonia would say it's meant to be used more than looked at but seeing my $400 toy all fingerprinted used to annoy me and I spent an inordinate amount of effort cleaning it.

I'll probably sell my 3g in a couple of weeks.

 

[ezra2323]

Quote:

I'll probably sell my 3g in a couple of weeks.

Use the proceeds to buy one of those very nice new cases from Vaja for the iPod Mini. I have one for my 3G. $50 but it is simply awesome and prevents all of those fingerprint smudges you refer to.

 

[Prince]

I am actually been trying to trade my 3G 15G with a mini

I am ABSOLUTELY agree with the 'option to turn them off'.
Few days ago, I forgot that sleep drains the battery, so I just left it without charging it, and the next day, I picked it up, walk outside, plug it in, and it only able to power up like 5 seconds.

 

[Prince]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sno1man I know austonia would say it's meant to be used more than looked at but seeing my $400 toy all fingerprinted used to annoy me and I spent an inordinate amount of effort cleaning it.

I have my iPod covered with PDA's screen protector, like all the surface area beside on the sides, it solve the problem

 

[pank2002]

There's a deep sleep hack which will turn your iPod off instead of putting it on stadby. You have to create a empty file called _deep_sleep or something like that in your device folder on the iPod I think, but I don't remeber. Check out iPodlounge for more info. The startup time will increase though.

 

[austonia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pank2002 There's a deep sleep hack which will turn your iPod off instead of putting it on stadby. You have to create a empty file called _deep_sleep or something like that in your device folder on the iPod I think, but I don't remeber. Check out iPodlounge for more info. The startup time will increase though.

thanks for the tip. I found two ways to force deep sleep...

1st method is kinda weird:

1. reset the ipod by pressing play/pause and menu buttons at the same time
2. while the ipod is rebooting and the apple logo is on the screen, press |<<, >>|, and the button in the center of the wheel all at the same time
3. the screen flips out (literally) and some king of diagnostic menu pops up
4. the wheel doesn't work in this menu, but the the use the >>| button to go down to the "sleep" option and press enter.
5. the low battery icon pops on the screen briefly and dissapears. iPod is shut down.

...now you are in Deep Sleep mode. when you press play button to turn it on, the low battery icon pops on the screen and it shuts back down, just like...when the battery is totally drained. so, to boot it, you have to press play/pause and menu buttons together, again. then it starts the full boot sequence.


also, i found this information that works on iPods with v2.1 or later...

put a file named "_short_deepsleep" in the device directory of the iPod. This is supposed to force Deep Sleep mode instead of the normal standby mode. the change it back just delete the file.

..though i havn't tried it yet.

so I'm not clear if Deep Sleep is 100% off, but I don't think so. maybe 90% off, but still.

 

[pank2002]

It's so cool when you go into the system screen and the apple is turned around. The deep sleep will make the iPod sleep real deep. It donsen't 'bookmark' the song you were playing. Just as if've reboted it. I used it for a littile time, but I liked the bookmark feature better then the saved battery.
There's also a _show_voltage hack (I think that's what it's called) that'll show the (calculated) remaining voltage on the battery... the iPod will turn off around 200 and have a max of around 500.

 

[austonia]

so far, it appears that the deep sleep mode through the debug menu really works. 2 days so far, i checked the iPod (v.2), it's still at full power. i put it back to sleep and i'll check again in a few days.

 

[pnrgi]

the one thing i have found about the ipod is the battery cheak sucks. im not sure if they fixed this in the new firmware update, but in 2.1 it was always wrong. that was one thing that was annoying about the ipod.

 

[jade]

so how does the ipod sound? i always hear people talking about looks and features but noone ever mentions sound. is there any published signal to noise ratio or anything? even though i dont go by specs it still serves as a referencepoint.