[Slimm]

Quote:

Originally Posted by austonia Better on-the-fly playlisting like Nomad players, in that you can add entire artists or albums or genres to the list and see that addition nested (under the Artist, Album, or genre), and rearrange them, remove some or all items, and save the listing so that it can be recalled later. With Nomad players (like the Xtra) you can always choose to "add to playlist" or "play now" for an artist, album, track, etc.. and you even set the autoclear function to automatically clear out the playlist when a new item is added, if you want.

I see what you're saying now. Thanks for the clarification.

 

[Slimm]

One thing I have to say about the ipod's battery, and I don't remember seeing this elsewhere, is that initially when the first complaints of short battery life came about when the 3G's were introduced, Apple came out and said, if I remember correctly, that in order to accomodate the smaller size, they had to "make the battery smaller", hence affecting battery life.

With the iPod mini, which is even smaller, you're getting in essence the same battery life as the 3G. Is that just an inconsistency, or does it have more to do with the electronics inside (hard drive, etc) than I'm giving credit for?

 

[ixeo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slimm One thing I have to say about the ipod's battery, and I don't remember seeing this elsewhere, is that initially when the first complaints of short battery life came about when the 3G's were introduced, Apple came out and said, if I remember correctly, that in order to accomodate the smaller size, they had to "make the battery smaller", hence affecting battery life. With the iPod mini, which is even smaller, you're getting in essence the same battery life as the 3G. Is that just an inconsistency, or does it have more to do with the electronics inside (hard drive, etc) than I'm giving credit for?

it has more to do with the electronics inside.
the normal ipod has a harddisk, mechanical based drive which uses a head that moves to read the disk.

ipod mini uses a 4GB hitachi solid state microdrive ala compact flash memory with no moving parts.

thus the mini will use up less battery to operate. just a FYI, the ipod mini & creative muvo2 uses the same 4GB Hitachi Microdrive

 

[Rizumu]

Another crazy thing having to do with the iPod's battery life that I've found is sometimes I'll leave my iPod plugged into the AC Adapter...plugged into the wall...all night long. And when I unplug it to take it with me to school, the battery is nowhere near fully charged. What? I guess it fully charges and then once it's done, just starts draining it? Weird.

BTW, I have no idea where this thread is now, just responding to the original rant...

Oh, and I still despise the touch-sensitive buttons. I cannot handle my iPod without setting off all the buttons unless it's on hold, and that annoys me to no end. If my fingers come anywhere near the buttons...next track...or previous track...or whatever...just really annoying. But otherwise my iPod is great

 

[strohmie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rizumu Another crazy thing having to do with the iPod's battery life that I've found is sometimes I'll leave my iPod plugged into the AC Adapter...plugged into the wall...all night long. And when I unplug it to take it with me to school, the battery is nowhere near fully charged. What? I guess it fully charges and then once it's done, just starts draining it? Weird.

Screw that, if that's true I'm not going to bother buying an iPod. If it automatically charges down after completely charging up, it's not worth the purchase. That would be just plain stupid, and go completely against the manner in which I'd use it.

Really makes me wonder if they are doing these battery things on purpose to increase next gen sales or overpriced battery purchases. Oy.

 

[divad6719]

I don't think it starts draining it, it's probably got more to do with the inaccurate battery level indicator.

I've noticed that after leaving it charging overnight, sometimes, when switching it on in the morning the level is still way down. It builds itself backup to full after a while.

 

[austonia]

ipod is suck... nuff said

 

[Surfsmurf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ixeo ipod mini uses a 4GB hitachi solid state microdrive ala compact flash memory with no moving parts.

The Hitachi Microdrive is a fullfledged harddisk, with spinning platter and moving arm. However its draws very little power, much less than the HD in the iPod.

 

[Surfsmurf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by divad6719 I don't think it starts draining it, it's probably got more to do with the inaccurate battery level indicator. I've noticed that after leaving it charging overnight, sometimes, when switching it on in the morning the level is still way down. It builds itself backup to full after a while.

Many many posts, questions and confusions boils down to the inaccurate battery indicator! It seems that the battery monitoring code just isn't told that the battery is fully charged...

To give Apple credit it is very complicated to monitor an Li-Ion battery, and to kick Apple most other companies have "better" algorithms. When I say "better", I doesn't neccecarily mean more exact, only more in line with what people expect.

 

[Slimm]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ixeo it has more to do with the electronics inside. the normal ipod has a harddisk, mechanical based drive which uses a head that moves to read the disk. ipod mini uses a 4GB hitachi solid state microdrive ala compact flash memory with no moving parts. thus the mini will use up less battery to operate. just a FYI, the ipod mini & creative muvo2 uses the same 4GB Hitachi Microdrive

I thought that might be the case, thanks for the insight man.

On my 3G I almost never get less than seven hours, now I've been getting closer to nine (turned the alarm off

) Fortunately I'm not really someone that's paranoid aboiut how big it is, so I use the Belkin Battery pack quite often. This works well for me, as I wear clothes with big pockets that I could just put it there.

Still, there's no reason to me why Apple couldn't have but a "better" battery in there. I took out the battery of my Dell DJ to compare and there's no question that it would fit in the iPod. I'm sure there are other issues to consider, but still...

 

[ixeo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Surfsmurf Many many posts, questions and confusions boils down to the inaccurate battery indicator! It seems that the battery monitoring code just isn't told that the battery is fully charged... To give Apple credit it is very complicated to monitor an Li-Ion battery, and to kick Apple most other companies have "better" algorithms. When I say "better", I doesn't neccecarily mean more exact, only more in line with what people expect.

i stand corrected about the microdrive, least i got half of it right

as for apple having "not as good" algorithm with monitoring Li-Ion battery, speaks a lot for their portable macs.. then again, they can't even monitor batteries and their manufacturing computers..

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slimm Still, there's no reason to me why Apple couldn't have but a "better" battery in there. I took out the battery of my Dell DJ to compare and there's no question that it would fit in the iPod. I'm sure there are other issues to consider, but still...

well i would reckon one of the 2 reasons
1) they simply can't, not able to, less than (<) other companies
2) $$$ - i bet the battery cost less than USD$10 at the quantities that apple is stocking em'. and they charge USD$99 to replace it. thats $89 profit. so basically, they start off with cheap low capacity battery, design their device to kill it as fast as possible and then charge the poor users 1/3 of the original sale price to get it fixed (15GB model 399, 1/3 = 99)

as much as i would like to believe it is reason 1, i doubt it. that leaves reason 2.

 

[rapoon]

my old roomate in austin works for apples customer care center as a customer support rep for ibooks & powerbooks. apparently apples quality control stats have quadrupled (BAD) since the release of the original ipod. apple use to have a lifetime warranty on their products. was that convienently removed when the original ipod was released?

i've owned ~5 ipods, 4 of which were lemons and exchanged. only after hundreds of thousands of complaints did apple begin to offer the battery exchange program for $99 which is still too expensive. For those of you who dont know.. the battery exchange use to be regarded as a general servicing of the unit and a base fee of $200 was charged.

ipod battery lasting 4+ years? im sure the battery and ipod will work fine if the hard drive hasnt failed (biggest problem with the g1's), i guarantee it wont hold a 5 hour, much less 8*hour charge as advertised... only under certain circumstances.


asthetically, imo, the ipod is hands down the coolest of all HD mp3 players. like most of you, i listen to alot of music. personally im digusted with apples inability and apathetic approach towards manufacturing a product with decent battery life and resolving the current problems thier product(s) have.

 

[plainsong]

Yeah, it's the battery indicator if you're noticing the battery isn't fully charged in the morning. After it using it for about 10 minutes or so, check the indicator. It should be full.

 

[ixeo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by austonia The joke is, that Apple could make this thing a badass piece of hardware with little effort, mostly firmware tweaking: 2) an option to turn the damn thing OFF

is that fixed yet on the 4g ipod?

 

[chumley]

Quote:

Originally Posted by austonia No, it's not the limited codec support, or the battery life, or even the price. It's not the overly sensitive touch-buttons. It's not the unreplaceable hard drive. Or the popularity. From a guy with more than a few DAP, the problem with iPod, is that it doesn't shut off. What I mean is, it's constantly draining the battery. Sleep mode. Just so the user doesn't have to suffer through a whole 5 second boot sequence. It never shuts down. Never. You can't tell it, hey, please, just shut down and save the power for when I next need it. No, it's always draining power so it can power-on in 2 seconds. You can't put in your drawer for a week because you'll come back to a dead battery. No option, that's just the way it is. Every time I think about buying the Mini, I just remember this, and it's out of mind. Same deal. Yeah, it's a problem for the average dude to plug in it in all the time. I have enough things on my mind. At least with my cell phone I can slap on an additional battery when I forget to charge it. Anyway, there's a reason to leave a cell phone on all the time. Not so for a DAP. All my other players lie waiting for me, power ready. iPod.... dead. The iPod is a mixture of brilliance and stupidity. More good things than bad, but there's better choices out there. The joke is, that Apple could make this thing a badass piece of hardware with little effort, mostly firmware tweaking: 1) take the touch-pad from the Mini and stick on the iPod, kill the buttons 2) an option to turn the damn thing OFF 3) scrolling text for items that don't fit on the screen, while browsing (screen only shows ~17 characters) 4) looping lists, at least, as an option 5) either add OGG support or liscence AAC to other players, or both 6) better on-the-fly playlist support, like Dell DJ or Creative Zen 7) 5-pand user EQ YEAH.

Austonia, at least you list good reasons to be p*ssed off/deeply annoyed at Apple and their tendency to make things 'for the customers' own good' and listen only AFTER the fact to customer feedback, if then...

Man, the circular pad on the 4G iPod's rockin'; the electro-mechanical touch is like an old-school mechanical computer kb- retro, but GOOD retro...

I routinely leave my 4G iPod (not the Mini, with its smaller battery and possibly different batt power management) for seven to ten days at a time, with the slider on 'red' up top after powering down into iPod's 'snooze' mode... when I wake it back up, it's maybe down to 60 percent of full charge, after maybe ten days... not too bad, although a full boot up/power off would be cool and useful, I agree.

Since the 4G iPod has a slightly larger screen than the Mini, I don't, in my personal use, run into the (smaller screened) Mini's text-line display limitations, limitations that it could admittedly use a hand with, GUI-wise.

Looping lists? Booya. Abso-fuggin' lutely.

OGG support would be cool, but AL's fine with me; the minor hassle of losslessly batch-converting OGG files to AL in iTunes (freeware addition to OS X 10.3.5 plus iTunes 4.6.1) isn't too bad, and iTunes plays them straight through to my home rig along with the 'officially' supported music file formats using Airport Express just fine.

BTW, AAC is straight-up MPEG-4; it's 'Fairplay', Apple's proprietary encryption that's 'closed shop', at least until secure artist royalties vs. universal consumer access issues here and in the EU are straightened out...

Better playlist support and 5 band user EQ- yup. iPods need both, big-time.

You might want to check out the straight-up 4G iPod; it's bigger, but the battery/text/touch-wheel issues are better/better/virtually identical, respectively, than the Mini, IMO.