New iPod Shuffle
Jan 14, 2005 at 2:28 PM Post #271 of 356
As people have said, I think those for the shuffle (including me) are for it in part because it is an ipod and its apple. This is because their track record is good, their players tend to look good, sound good and are easy to use. Owning an iriver imp-400 as well as an ipod I have to say that the iriver's ui is not the most user friendly out their. Its powerful and does its job well but I find folders have to be set up and organised with playlists in the m3u format and you have to set the ripping software to give filenames that start with track number's in the xx format such as 01 instead of just 1. This is similar to if you use a player that acts like a removeable drive. with less storage and random songs on the drive any playlists will have to set up in stuff like media player (since a lot will not have winamp or foobar) and then how many different formats do playlists have? for those not up on all the files and formats available in digital media this could lead to a lot of headaches, or they'll just dump files on there and press play and skip through the songs.
The alternative is to use specific software that does it all such as itunes which is imo the best and easiest to use (most definitley better than creative media centre) which is in favour of the shuffle.
On the part of the screen, having used my mams muvo v200 isn't the only way to navigate to use the jog dial which is the skip mechanism so what benefit is the scree nin this situation and how many regular users use any equalisation other than bass boost?
It is nice to have features and I would rather have them in a player but if I was in the market for a flash player the 1Gb would get serious consideration as the only players I have found on uk sites from the big name companies such as rio is the chiba/cali players which you could add a mmc card to. Iriver will give you 128mb for slightly less and creative will give you 512mb. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places?
 
Jan 14, 2005 at 3:12 PM Post #272 of 356
Quote:

Originally Posted by Edvard_Grieg
Sandisk 512MB, voice recording, LCD WMA/MP3, playlists
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...125-003&depa=0

$103


Transcend 1GB, FM, WMA/MP3, voice recorder, LCD
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...159-004&depa=0

$145




Creative's CEO after the announcment:



http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000343027143/



Are these two Mac compatible? Also, they both seem to be sort of cheap/ugly looking, IMO, but hey, it would decrease the likelihood of getting mugged!
 
Jan 14, 2005 at 3:24 PM Post #273 of 356
Quote:

Originally Posted by sno1man
No unfortunately there is no way to transfer music pod to pod even with the computer in the middle. It has to be on the computer itself to get on the ipod.

As for the data storage/versus song storage... You have to set a data partition. If you make the data partition bigger, it wipes the songs. If you make it smaller it does allow you to add songs.

Sound quality with my songs on one I got to play with for a few hours was indistinguishable from my mini with the two sets of earbuds I had to try. The sony 71's and apples own.

According to a couple of Apple??? guys at the show (veracity unknown) at one point the plan was to be able to suck songs right off a regular ipod. You create a playlist, select transfer to shuffle from a menu on the ipod, directly connect the two pod to each other and viola!

If that was true the shuffle would have been a definite buy for me



How did you already get one of these? I thought they didn't start shipping until next week? Unless I misread your post
confused.gif
 
Jan 14, 2005 at 3:32 PM Post #274 of 356
Quote:

Originally Posted by Kirosia
No offense, but have you ever noticed the animosity apple fans have against everyone else? =)


Hmmm, not really. Maybe against Microsoft specifically (and even then the ratios are so much different), but against "everyone else"? Seriously?

Now, are they a little defensive in computing minority status? Yeah, that's pretty obvious (and especially in the Macwold expo I was just at). But on the audio side, how many times have you seen two simultaneous threads approaching 10,000 views which contain postings from some Apple fan-boys/girls writing reviews that occasionally consist primarily of calling Creative, iAudio, Rio, iRiver, etc. offerings 'stupid' and you'd have to be an 'idiot' (or 'girl' - I guess they're all 'idiots') to buy one? See it's a little different.

Again it's obviously cool not to like the Shuffle, but the animosity or just plain personal offense members seem to take in this case, means something entirely different, no?

But in the end it's kinda funny. Someone staying awake at night angry that Apple releases a screen-less flash player. That's a funny image.

Okay, stepping down from my soapbox ... now.
 
Jan 14, 2005 at 3:55 PM Post #276 of 356
Has anyone actually used one of the Sandisk ones and can comment on sound quality versus the iPod/mini/ishuffle?
 
Jan 14, 2005 at 5:27 PM Post #277 of 356
Quote:

Originally Posted by Edvard_Grieg
Quote:

Originally Posted by appar111
Are these two Mac compatible? Also, they both seem to be sort of cheap/ugly looking, IMO, but hey, it would decrease the likelihood of getting mugged!


Yeah, actually they both are

http://www.sandisk.com/retail/dap.asp

http://www.transcendusa.com/products...l.asp?ModNo=47
(compatible with linux too)



Well... just because they say they're Mac compatible doesn't mean much. If you read the details, they only support MP3 and WMA formats. Since iTunes (which most Mac users use for their music) defaults to AAC encoding, the majority of Mac users will have their music encoded in AAC format.

Also, I doubt either of these devices work directly with iTunes, so you lose that part of the ease-of-use.

I'm not saying they won't work. They simply won't work with the same ease-of-use that most Mac users are accustomed to having.
 
Jan 14, 2005 at 6:08 PM Post #278 of 356
Quote:

Originally Posted by tsplash75
that's a lil extreme, isn't it? you can't compare buying rechargable batteries to buying another iPod shuffle.

it would be as easy as recharging your iPod shuffle again. you make it seem like the apple product amazingly goes stale like a loaf of bread after a week and is no use to anyone anymore. that is very far from the truth.

i can understand if you meant to say that one day the built-in battery will no longer hold a charge, but just like the previous iPods, the battery can be replaced. i'll give you the fact that it's not as easy as going out and picking up a AAA or AA battery, but they both last 1000 charges or so, right?

so really.. what's the diff?

you are given the option to use the extra battery pack, much like you are given the option of carrying extra AAA or AA batteries with you.



No, my scenario is that you use your iShuffle several times a week without charging it. Think of it like this, you fill your iShuffle on Sunday Night, and you forget to charge it back on Monday Night, so on Tuesday or Wednesday during commute or workout, it runs out of battery. You leave it in your car, in your purse/duffle bag/gym shorts pocket/whatever and forget to charge it up, you run out, you're out of juice, you're out of luck if you want music from the iShuffle.

The auto fill is a decent idea, but you can get that done with other smart playlist working Transfer manager such as WMP10. It's not one click, but you can do the same thing in about 3 to 4 clicks vs. 1 click. However, the bigger issue would be when you encounter a song you don't know. Kinda like that annoying DJ on the FM station who never tells you the song he just played.

And as for the AAA battery pack, I've over looked that part. But to counter, there are other players that run just as long as the iShuffle, if not longer, on one AAA battery. Finally, a decent set of AAA and charger will top you no more than $25, and you can use said AAAs in other electronics as well, including noise-cancelling phones, remote controls, battery driven toys, amongst other things.

Call me a cynical person, but this stinks strongly of "leave the thinking to us" more than anything else.

Rumor had it:
http://www.engadget.com/entry/2645310228796276/

That SigmaTel is supplying the parts for the iShuffle, rumor goes. It'll sound like bunch of other Flash MP3 players then, IIRC, Sigmatel supplys a whole tons of parts. So there isn't any SQ advantages either (unlike the original iPods which used very highly acclaimed Wolfson Codecs, adapted for mobile purposes, IIRC).
 
Jan 14, 2005 at 6:16 PM Post #279 of 356
Quote:

Originally Posted by blessingx
Hmmm, not really. Maybe against Microsoft specifically (and even then the ratios are so much different), but against "everyone else"? Seriously?

Now, are they a little defensive in computing minority status? Yeah, that's pretty obvious (and especially in the Macwold expo I was just at). But on the audio side, how many times have you seen two simultaneous threads approaching 10,000 views which contain postings from some Apple fan-boys/girls writing reviews that occasionally consist primarily of calling Creative, iAudio, Rio, iRiver, etc. offerings 'stupid' and you'd have to be an 'idiot' (or 'girl' - I guess they're all 'idiots') to buy one? See it's a little different.

Again it's obviously cool not to like the Shuffle, but the animosity or just plain personal offense members seem to take in this case, means something entirely different, no?

But in the end it's kinda funny. Someone staying awake at night angry that Apple releases a screen-less flash player. That's a funny image.

Okay, stepping down from my soapbox ... now.



Being on the other side of the fence, I see it different as well. I honestly have no doubt that apple makes great products, it's just that the more "dedicated" fanboys tend to believe the products are infallible, and the end-all of everything that is portable/home audio. Of course fanboys exist on all sides, but the apple ones tend to imply or say their product is perfect or near-perfect, while those of the other side at least admit their players have some flaws. The word "imply" is stressed. They ipod fans are cunning, I'll give you that.

Besides, if you were a rio, creative, etc fan and all you ever hear was that the ipod was perfect from people and who for some reason automatically assume that everything else in inferior, you'd be antsy too. Although some of the iriver fans are starting get out of real nutty. I see more ipod fans converting to other players, than vice-versa. But I may be wrong.

I'm not an ipod hater, I would actually like to get 4th gen myself. I know my IHP is not as good in maybe all respects (except for the all black :p), so I'm not a iriver butt-boy whatsoever. But if I ever end up like an apple fanboy, I'd drop portable audio altogether. Nothing is perfect, that's all I can say.

I'm not here to argue with anybody, just trying to get my point across. This post's tone isn't supposed to be too serious, so hopefully no one will go kamikaze on me. =)
 
Jan 14, 2005 at 6:36 PM Post #280 of 356
Having read a couple of the pages, I'll chime in with a big "What." Call me crazy, but the nice thing about the iPod was it's UI and this essentially dumps that. It's half the player anything else is. I could be totally out of step though because one of my roommates ONLY plays shuffle with his random mp3 collection. Perhaps this came about because they were looking at iTunes Music Store purchases and saw 90% of people were only buying one song off an album?
 
Jan 14, 2005 at 6:52 PM Post #281 of 356
Quote:

Originally Posted by Frenchman
I could be totally out of step though because one of my roommates ONLY plays shuffle with his random mp3 collection. Perhaps this came about because they were looking at iTunes Music Store purchases and saw 90% of people were only buying one song off an album?



Ding! good observation.
 
Jan 14, 2005 at 6:55 PM Post #282 of 356
While I seem to be on a roll, I wonder if anyone actually thinks Apple is a *computer* company anymore? Their software packages might be something else, but their hardware seems to have degenerated into two elements: design/marketing and UI.
 
Jan 14, 2005 at 7:10 PM Post #283 of 356
I could accept the ipod shuffle if it had gapless playback - does it, and do any of the flash players have gapless playback?
 
Jan 14, 2005 at 7:38 PM Post #284 of 356
Quote:

Originally Posted by Frenchman
While I seem to be on a roll, I wonder if anyone actually thinks Apple is a *computer* company anymore? Their software packages might be something else, but their hardware seems to have degenerated into two elements: design/marketing and UI.


You really should keep this on topic. Your post might create a flamefest. =)

(yes, I'm a bit of a hypocrite)
 

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