Is any mp3 player more user-friendly than the Ipod?

[wabbajack]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oddball IMO, the Carbon is easy to use, but if your mother has sight problems like my mother does, then you might want to go with a different player, since the Carbon's text size is smaller than the iPod's.

This is an issue. How does the iPod Mini compare to a regular iPod as far as screen and text size? Is the Rio Karma comparable to the regular iPod in this regard? I was thinking about getting her a iPod mini, but if the screen to smaller, with smaller text, it will have to be something else.

Thanks for the helpful responses, you guys rock!

 

[hciman77]

I have a friend who recently did a large scale usability study of the iPod as part of his Ph.D. All subjects were given the same instructions and the same set of "real world" operations to perform. One subject took over 18 minutes to find a specific track, several did not understand how the wheel worked, his overall conclusion was.

If you already know what you are doing then the iPod is pretty intuitive and fast, if you are new to it you really need to read the manual first.

 

[sammy w]

I have owned a Rio Karma and an iRiver h140. The iRiver is a bit complicated. The Karma was fantastically simle to use, easily as good or better than an iPod. The only problem there, though, was that the hard drive died after two months, then the replacement's hard drive died after about 4.

So, for ease of use AND reliability, go iPod. iRivers are VERY durable, but more complex (but also with way more features than the iPod, i.e. internal mic (can also be used to record music from another player), line/optical in and out, FM radio, plays ogg, wma, asf, wav). After about 15-20 minutes of playing around I was an iRiver expert, and I'm still happy with it.

 

[dskywalker]

Well, I must first say that both iPod and Karma have good menus designs. Now the competition comes to how you can access the various features in the menu. To me, karma is easier to use because your finger doesn't need to move around as much. There is one dedicated main menu button and dedicated volume control buttons. Moving rio stick left and right takes you up/down one level of the menu. Moving rio stick up and down traverses the current menu. On an ipod, you just need more thumb movement to accomplish the same task. Now...on a notebook, do you like touchpad or the pointer stick better?

I own carbon, karma, mini, and 4g iPod, so I've used all of them.

 

[mdolton]

Quote:

Originally Posted by terrymx to tell the truth when i first pick up an ipod i have no idea how to use it, till my friend tell me. then its still confusing to navigate around. i dont like the lag time between pressing buttons. i'm not good with touch sensitive stuff, i prefer clicks.

I assume you were using a 3G iPod? I found the touch sensitive buttons to be pretty strange as well. The 4G iPods are a definite improvement, the buttons on the click wheel have a nice solid click to them.

 

[MartinJ]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hciman77 I have a friend who recently did a large scale usability study of the iPod as part of his Ph.D. All subjects were given the same instructions and the same set of "real world" operations to perform. One subject took over 18 minutes to find a specific track, several did not understand how the wheel worked, his overall conclusion was. If you already know what you are doing then the iPod is pretty intuitive and fast, if you are new to it you really need to read the manual first.

Might depend on who you test these things on. People who are used to new UIs and have tried UIs that have the same type of "logic" will do better than those that are not used to changing UI, or using digital tools.
I only had to check the manual for importing pictures to the album of my iPod Photo.

 

[Skeeve]

All this talk about an iriver being complicated is only true for more advanced features, its actually very easy for a very nontechnical person to make it play some music, which is presumably the main purpose of an mp3 player.

 

[number1sixerfan]

The ipod is as simple as I have seen while maintaining quality. The only thing I wish were different about the ipod is its battery and its sound quality.

 

[juni0r]

Walk into any Apple store. Anyone and their grandmother knows how to pick up one of those things and start listening to music. It's just that easy.

 

[fr4c]

Quote:

Originally Posted by juni0r Walk into any Apple store. Anyone and their grandmother knows how to pick up one of those things and start listening to music. It's just that easy.

agreed.

 

[wabbajack]

So I went with the iPod Mini. I was gonna get the 20 gig iPod because it has a larger screen, but it seems they're sold out everywhere. Anyhoo, hope my mom likes it. Thanks again for all the help!

 

[Bluez]

Quote:

Originally Posted by number1sixerfan The ipod is as simple as I have seen while maintaining quality. The only thing I wish were different about the ipod is its battery and its sound quality.

The iPods ease of use is pretty much its main selling point. Compared to other players it falls short in most areas other than it is so fantastically easy to use. If you can handle the operation of the iRiver or iAudio they are much better players.

 

[brandoj]

In my opinion, iPods are the easiest. I have owned one for a while and I have no complaints. Hey, there must be some reason they make up 65% of purchased mp3 players.

 

[Krishna]

And that reason is.... Amazing Marketing!

 

[Krishna]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brandoj In my opinion, iPods are the easiest. I have owned one for a while and I have no complaints. Hey, there must be some reason they make up 65% of purchased mp3 players.

And that reason is.... Amazing marketing!