[GSTom1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by austonia No, uh, that's the way its "supposed" to work. Same on the 3rd gen. Same on the mini. Obviously, Apple hates OFF. They are like, "OFF is suck." So, we need to send the Governator over to Apple HQ to beat the hell outa Jobs for wasting all that energy. Can you imagine all that lost power, from iPods all over the world...? It adds up. Some countries are desperate for power. People die because there's no power. Why, Apple, WHY???

Austonia, I love your rants regarding the iPod. They are really funny! When you ranted a while back regarding the inability of the iPod wrap its lists from A to Z, that was funny. Then your rants on the overly sensitive touch wheel and the inability for long names to scroll across the screen. Too much… ah ha ha ha!

So how’s the power management on your iHP and Dell DJ? My Nomad Zen also goes into a sleep mode after you power it down so it can instantly power-up on the next usage. Fortunately, that is only for 24 hours and then it permanently shuts down. To be honest, that extra 5-10 seconds that it takes to power up on a cold boot really doesn’t bother me, especially if it saves battery life

 

[pank2002]

you can create a file in the iPod_Control\Device folder called _short_deepsleep and the iPod will power down - as much as it can - every time you shut down the player.

I agree though, it would be nice to get a better battery in the new version. Hell, they would be pretty stupid not to put a better bat in it! I also expect gapless... couldn't they possibly make gapless playback via firmware update?

 

[br--]

I'm sure they are fully capable to enable gapless playback through an update. But knowing Apple they most likely won't because they could offer it as a feature for the 4G iPods.

 

[stark23x]

My "classical" ipod (a third device that has nothing but classical music on it) has been in deep sleep for THREE WEEKS. I applied the hack that displays my battery level as a number...right now it's at 376.

What's the problem?

 

[gerG]

Ah, this explains some of the behavior of my mini. It is really the worst of both worlds: after a day or more of disuse I have to do a restart to get it to power up at all. Unfortunately it still manages to consume it's charge in a few days. I vote for an "off" switch as well. At least understanding the reason for the behavior makes me feel better. I am being punished for not using it every day, right? Since I only use it for working out, it is my own damned fault for being so lazy

gerG

 

[daveman_84]

I think we also have to keep in mind how inaccurate the meter is. When I don't use it for a few days, and it comes back from "deep sleep" the meter looks real low at first. However, once it warms up and plays for a little bit, it steadily increases. I haven't noticed much of a problem.

 

[mister__big]

The always-on "feature" doesn't bother me that much because I don't think I've ever left my iPod off for more than 3 days straight. Can't live without music!

As for the touch-sensitive buttons, I can see where the animosities are coming from but personally I don't have much of an issue either, and I have BIG fingers. Sure, it sucks when I accidentally touch the wrong buttons sometimes but I've done the same with my discman as well. Plus with the iPod, it's easier to go back to the middle of the song you were on than a discman.

The battery life is my only gripe and I will seriously consider that for my next DAP purchase.

 

[James]

The iPod's battery life is too low, no question. However, I found that when I had my Zen 2.0 I used it frequently enough that it never turned itself completely off. That is to say, it was almost always on standby and would turn on immediately whenever I held down the power button. Nevertheless, the damn thing ran 2-3 times as long as my 3G iPod ever did. Clearly basic battery size/capacity is still the major factor.

OTOH, when I travel I always find I use the DAP mostly on the flights and not during the trip (that would defeat a vacation's purpose, IMHO). If the trip lasts longer than a week, then certainly the option to power-off an iPod would be advantageous, as the remaining battery life may not be sufficient for the return flight. Of course, never mind that a flight from O'Hare to Heathrow lasts longer than the iPod's battery in the first place ....

 

[chadbang]

Quote:

You don't know what an on-the-fly playlist is becuase the Gen 2 iPod doesn't support them. It refers to being able to make and save playlists on the player itself without the use of a computer.

Hey, thanks for explaining that. Yes, this IS a big issue. I would love that feature and that would be at the TOP of my iPod wish list.

 

[blessingx]

Concerning "off", it's that constant debate if the iPod is more than just a MP3 player (thus it's name). Its first battery issues (patched with later firmware) were introduced with the calendaring, clock, contacts functionality. Some first gen owners backed out of their firmware to earlier none PDA versions to regain battery life. Although that extreme drain was fixed two firmware versions later, I wonder if that functionality continues to affect expected bat life with newer gens.

Also I wonder is the lower CPU processing requirements of AAC (over MP3) may offset the negative effects of high bitrates. Something to consider when encoding.

As a first gen owner, I'd give up a hour or so to continue to have my contacts, movie times, etc. on my iPod (hate carrying separate Palm, which I've since sold), but then again I'm not starting with 8-10 to subtract from. If that was the starting line, I'd probably feel differently.


... and finally, still not a fan of the scroll suggestions.

 

[pank2002]

Quote:

Originally Posted by James Of course, never mind that a flight from O'Hare to Heathrow lasts longer than the iPod's battery in the first place ....

I used my iPod from Denver int'l->O'Hara->Heathrow->Copenhagen->Aalborg. The trip was more then 14h, and the battery lasted the whole damn trip... of course I was waching 1 or 2 films oversea but it lasted. Of course I also tunred it off while I sleept

There's also the option to make a DIY battery pack or battery charger to the iPod

but that isn't a solution...


The truth is, I really don't use OTG playlist very often. I prefer to listen through an whole album, not just songs, but I understand that many ppl use it. They should introduce unlimited number of user created playlist rather then just silly one IMO.

 

[James]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pank2002 I used my iPod from Denver int'l->O'Hara->Heathrow->Copenhagen->Aalborg. The trip was more then 14h, and the battery lasted the whole damn trip... of course I was waching 1 or 2 films oversea but it lasted. Of course I also tunred it off while I sleept

I wish, I wish! My trip to London, for example, was at least as long: 3 hours from Madison to Chicago by bus, plus 5-6 hours in the air. There is no possible way my iPod would have lasted even one direction if it was playing all the time, which is what would have happened since I fell asleep with my player playing (really nice to wake up to the end of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto)! In fact, it ran out in a mere four hours when I drove up to Lake Tahoe from south SF bay a couple months ago.

The clincher was that on the return trip from London, the passenger next to me saw me listening to my Zen 2.0 and pulled out his 3G iPod, complete with white earbuds (naturally, I was using my Etys). Of course, it was dead in the water

. And he hadn't even used it on his weeklong trip, bwahahahah ... oh wait, I've got an iPod now too, drat ....

What's even better: I had been reading an ebook on my cheapass monochrome Sony Clie for a couple hours, I think it was Asimov. When he got his fancy color-screen Pocket PC out, it had run out of batteries as well! Here's a busy businessman who obviously had more important things on his mind than properly charging his gadgets before he traveled. I was a lovesick guy visiting his belle who also could not be bothered with such activities; the difference was that my gadgets had bomb-proof battery life to begin with.

blessingx I agree, I also prefer a dead-stop at the end of lists. The scroll-wheel is so fast anyway it's not a serious problem to wizz through my 500+ album list anyway.

P.S. Is it true there are much higher capacity batteries in the same form factor? I find that difficult to believe, although I can hope, can't I?

Edit: Maybe it's just me, but I find my iPods inability to play high-bitrate MP3s properly quite annoying

.

 

[pank2002]

Quote:

Originally Posted by James The clincher was that on the return trip from London, the passenger next to me saw me listening to my Zen 2.0 and pulled out his 3G iPod, complete with white earbuds (naturally, I was using my Etys). Of course, it was dead in the water . And he hadn't even used it on his weeklong trip, bwahahahah ... oh wait, I've got an iPod now too, drat ....

There's this guy on my bus who got a Zen too, and the first thing he dos when he comes in the bus is to pull it out.. he got those annoying stock around-neck street style phones. I just can't help pulling out my 1/3 size iPod

Sure, It got problem, but it the still stylished player on the block. Especially here, were everything is expensiver.

I swear my iPod lasted the whole way from the Us to Europe without charching... The only thing I remeber I listened to was God's Son by Nas...

 

[pomegranate]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pank2002 I swear my iPod lasted the whole way from the Us to Europe without charching... The only thing I remeber I listened to was God's Son by Nas...

Yeah, but were you listening to music the whole trip? No, you say so yourself. So how long were you listening to music for? Not second over eight hours I would guess.

 

[James]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pomegranate Yeah, but were you listening to music the whole trip? No, you say so yourself. So how long were you listening to music for? Not second over eight hours I would guess.

Precisely. The point is that my Zen 2.0 lasted for the flight there, 10 days in my bag, and the flight home, and still had two bars of battery life left. I didn't have to bring a charger. Needless to say, I'd put a bare Zen 2.0 against an iPod plus charger and cable in size any day of the week.

Now my 60GB Zen is gone and I have to "suffer" with my 40GB iPod with batteries that last barely longer than a good piss. Thank goodness it sounds so good!