Portable MP3 players!

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Feb 26, 2001
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Well it had to happen, while trying to charge my Archos 20 gig mp3 player in Japan I blew the damn thing up. Lost loads of good music I didnt back up (I'll need to rip the CD's again).
Anyone have any advise on which one to buy to replace it?
I'm currently thinking the Creative Jukebox Zen Xtra - 60GB would be my best option at just under 300 pounds UK money. I hate Apple with a passion so I refuse to buy anything from them :)

Anyone have any experience with the latest generation of mp3 players? I read a very favorable review of the creative one on ign I think it was.

Thanks in advance.
 

Hadmar

Queen Bitch of the Universe
Jan 29, 2001
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iPod:
If the warranty is over replacing the battery costs 100$ in the US and 290€ in europe. The iPod battery is of a type that has an average life time of 2 years after which it has a maximum of 50% of it's original capacity.
If there's a defect and the warranty is over the only option is to exchange the defective iPod for a new one which costs 299€. That or you buy a new one..., there's no repair option.
 

Derelan

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Jul 29, 2002
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just get an mp3 cd player, theyre cheap (50$), and you have virtually unlimited diskspace if you have alot of cds. Thats just for the price-savvy person though, if you don't like changing cds that often, go to tigerdirect.com
 

JaFO

bugs are features too ...
Nov 5, 2000
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/me I'd recommend the iRiver HP-120 (or the 40Gb HP-140).
I've got it recently and it's been great :)

- battery lasts +/- 16 hours according to the info and given that I've had it running for +/- 8 hours before it was down to 50% capacity it's pretty accurate figure

- .ogg-support ... so you don't need to use mp3 or wma :)
(File Support MPEG 1/2/2.5 Layer 3, Ogg Vorbis, WMA, ASF, WAV )

- Dimension Approx. 60(W) X 105(L) X 19(D)mm

- Weight Approx. 160g (!)

- built-in FM-radio ...

- optical as well as standard line-in & out

- built-in mic and seperate mic as an extra

- records straight to mp3 & wav

- no drivers necessary ... it's a normal HDD for Win2k (Win98SE needs a driver )

- decent set of earplugs (I think they're supposed to be Sennheiser)
I'm not sure what Creative has ... but the old Creative jukebox/Nomad I had before had some toy-quality headphones.

- firmware-upgrades are easy

- it looks better than the iPod ever did ;)

The only disadvantage is that it's not supplied with an USB-cable with mini-connector so you've got to buy that separately. :(

Site : http://www.iriver.com

I'm definitely mega-happy with mine :)
 
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salad

Dallas Tosses Salads
Oct 23, 2003
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Hadmar, I thought you were told to quell the anti-mac bigotry. I guess you're easily swayed by propaganda. Shrug, however you wish to live your life I suppose.

Any thinking man would do a google search on ipod battery and find you can DIY for $50 or so. $50 for a 2 year battery, or longer, depending on usage of course, isn't terrible to most people. And since it's a relatively new product, I'm sure more and cheaper 3rd party battery solutions will come available in the coming months, just as they have for every single consumer electronic device in history that uses batteries. Now where did I put that eye-rolling smiley...
 

Hadmar

Queen Bitch of the Universe
Jan 29, 2001
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Whow, that's awsome. I didn't know that the iPod is a full featured Mac.
Pardon my sarcasm.

a) The prices in my post are obviously Apple support prices
b) Not everyone likes/is able to open a device to replace batteries that aren't designed to be replacable
http://www.ipodbattery.com/slimipodinstall.htm http://www.ipodbattery.com/ipodinstall.htm
Certainly nothing for someone who dosn't like to put some scratches on the iPod
c)
14. Do you accept international orders?

At this time we only accept international retail orders from Canada. Generally the orders will arrive in 3-4 business days and shipping costs can be seen here. In addition to the shipping costs, you may be charged additional fees by your federal or provincial government. We don't know what those fees are, why they’re applied, or who benefits from them. (It’s not us!) Customers from other countries than Canada can purchase from us based on a 3000 USD minimum. Please write mitch@getadeal.com if you are interested in becoming such a distributor for us.
I found only one German page where I could buy a replacement and they only had the one for the not slim iPod for 91€.

d) "Hadmar, I thought you were told to quell the anti-mac bigotry. I guess you're easily swayed by propaganda. Shrug, however you wish to live your life I suppose."
Dead wrong considering that I'm one of the people who don't take part in PC/Mac flamewars and say that both, PCs and Macs, have their uses. Oh, and I found the :rolleyes: smilie you lost. I wanted to warn possible iPod buyers what they have to expect from the Apple support (and only the support for iPods*, support for their other products is different), that's all. I didn't expect that someone would took it as opportunity to wank to his 1337 bashing skills and pull "facts" about me out of his ass.




*Additions and corrections:
-Apple plans to offer the extended guarantee you can get in the USA in europe (2 years guarantee) sometime this month for ~90€
-The replacement iPod after guarantee costs 229€ plus taxes and shipping, not 299€. The price was changed in December.
-Also this month Apple plans to reduce the price for the battery replacement in europe to ~150€
 

salad

Dallas Tosses Salads
Oct 23, 2003
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Just like you pulled out "facts" you later had to correct and add to? Neat. And just because everyone doesn't like to do it (does everyone like to do anything? Is that even a valid argument for anything? Seems like it wouldn't be, but whatever.) doesn't mean it's not a valid option. One I wanted to point out, just like you wanted to "point out" what iPod owners would be getting themselves into. Yay.
 

Hadmar

Queen Bitch of the Universe
Jan 29, 2001
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Oh...
"Hadmar, I thought you were told to quell the anti-mac bigotry. I guess you're easily swayed by propaganda. Shrug, however you wish to live your life I suppose."
...yes, you just wanted to point out that it's possible to get a replacement elsewhere for less mony. Right.

"Just like you pulled out "facts" you later had to correct and add to?"
Mixing up a price is the same as making up bullsh!t about a person. Right. And the additions are not in place yet. What a company plans and what a company realy does are not necessarily the same things. I posted the current state of the Apple support as far as I know it, sorry for not scanning every Apple fansite in search of news concering the support prior to making my post. I consider reading the whole internet everytime before I post something in the future.

"And just because everyone doesn't like to do it (does everyone like to do anything? Is that even a valid argument for anything? Seems like it wouldn't be, but whatever.) doesn't mean it's not a valid option."
Considering you have to open an electric device that you can pretty much fück up, both it's case and the internals, it's not a valid option for everyone. And again, the battery is not aviable everywhere.
 
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SaraP

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Feb 12, 2002
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I have an iPod and am *very* happy with it. Apple's tech support is damn perfect, too -- after a few months the 'Pod started overheating when I recharged it, and they replaced it with a brand new one with no questions asked.
 

UncleOsmov

The beauty of AWD!
Mar 20, 2002
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I hate buying "everybodys got one!" objects.
That's really dumb. Conciously trying to be different for different's sake doesn't make sense. The reason "everybody has one" is because they are the best. Period.
 

Spier

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Mar 9, 2003
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UncleOsmov said:
That's really dumb. Conciously trying to be different for different's sake doesn't make sense. The reason "everybody has one" is because they are the best. Period.
Ehm, no. The reason why everybody's got an iPod is because it's a fashion object("oh, iPod! I saw that one in 50 cents latest! kewl"). If you want the best(most feature packed, best sound, best price to performance ratio etc.), you get one of the ass ugly boxes from Creative or iRiver. Period.

Wait, or did you mean that everyone should be clones?
 

Zundfolge

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Dec 13, 1999
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FeelTheUniverseXXX said:
Quell the Mac bigotry and get an iPod. Seriously. :)

Hell, if you must keep the anti-Mac bigotry, HP is going to start selling iPods :p

I still prefer an MP3 player with no moving parts (but then again I wouldn't need more then an hour or two of music ... only time I'd use one is at the gym).

I like this one: http://www.mushkin.com/epages/Mushk...b0233858e273fc0a80102060b/Product/View/991151 (they used to have a 512M one but it doesn't seem to be on their site)
 

SaraP

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Feb 12, 2002
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Spier said:
Ehm, no. The reason why everybody's got an iPod is because it's a fashion object("oh, iPod! I saw that one in 50 cents latest! kewl").

I got my iPod because it was on sale for $200. I challenge you to find a better MP3 player for that price.

If you want the best(most feature packed, best sound, best price to performance ratio etc.), you get one of the ass ugly boxes from Creative or iRiver. Period.

Tried 'em, didn't like 'em that much. I also have a Dell Digital Jukebox; I don't use it very much because the user interface is extremely clumsy.
 

Spier

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SaraP said:
I got my iPod because it was on sale for $200. I challenge you to find a better MP3 player for that price.
This one is not on sale, but it's $269 and 30gb.
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?DEPA=0&sumit=Go&description=55-102-115&searchdepa=0
An iPod currently costs $299(15gb, half of the Creative)
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore?family=iPod

HM! Which one should I take, which one is selling thousands and for what reasons?!
Tried 'em, didn't like 'em that much. I also have a Dell Digital Jukebox; I don't use it very much because the user interface is extremely clumsy.
I haven't tried the Dell one, but the iPod's(mostly V1's) I've tried didn't exactly have an interface I would call good..