Marginally OT - Alternative to Ipod?

PeterWright wrote on 2/17/2006, 12:41 AM

I am thinking of catching up with the world a bit and getting an mp3 player, but if I can avoid it I'd rather not go apple if I don't have to ...

I'd like to be able to also use whatever I buy through my car and home audio systems, which I'm prepared to update too.

Are there any good alternative products? I'm interested in usability, ease of access to tracks through folders etc.

(Although it'd hurt a bit, if ipod really is the best way I'll bite the bullet and go to the dark side!)

Thanks for any guidelines ....

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Comments

farss wrote on 2/25/2006, 12:43 AM

All this talk about accesories for iAnything makes me laugh. Of course there's more of them around, only Apple insist on using non standard connectors so you're forced to buy stuff specifically made for it and Apple is doing their best to make certain that only Apple can make those bits.

And can someone please tell me how to get a bog standard mp3 onto an iPod?
One of my clients got an irate email from a customer that got passed on to me, drop dead simple on anything other than an iPod it seems but I still haven't a clue how Apple expect you to do this and I'm loathe to buy anything Apple just to find out.

Bob.

Jackie_Chan_Fan wrote on 2/25/2006, 6:51 AM

huh? Put an mp3 on the ipod? Open Itunes, drag all your mp3's in.. and then from itunes, drag them to your iPOD

There's also free itune like programs (including a plugin for winamp) that will allow you to drag mp3's into the ipod, without using itunes. The upside to this is, Itunes encrypts the name so its a pain in the ass to copy them off your ipod on to someone elses computer (lame anti piracy attempt) So if you use any of the free programs, it wont rename the mp3 when it gets put on the ipod.

Do not try and copy mp3's from your windows file explorer, to the ipod drive. Ipod will not recognize them because the file names havent been renamed through Itunes. Dumb Apple and their sneaky trick. But you can get around it easily enough by using the 3rd part itune like software.

I just use Itunes. Its a nice way of organizing music.

birdcat wrote on 2/25/2006, 11:54 AM

FWIW - I bought a 128MB RCA Lyra about two years ago for about $50 (it was on sale at the time) and it not only has an FM radio, along the 128MB, it takes SD cards so I can pop in really cheap additions to bring along lots of extra music. Yeah, it doesn't have the cool interface the Ipod has but it sounds great, works well (on two AAA batteries) has taken a lickin and kept on tickin. What more could you ask for?

farss wrote on 2/25/2006, 1:12 PM

Jackie,
thanks. I think what the lady was trying to do was drop them straight in using Explorer. See what had me confused was I asked someone who had an iPod (a Mac person though) and they said you couldn't do it via iTunes, you had to get hold of some 2rd party app to do it.

Bob.

busterkeaton wrote on 2/28/2006, 3:01 PM

I found this site which looks useful DAP Review. I guess the generic is digital audio player.

Also today, the NY Times has an article on the guy who helped develop the Ipod. He was hired by Samsung and they have player designed by him coming out in March. I think they only have small sizes so far, so think of it as a competitor to the Ipod Nano

When Samsung, the consumer electronics giant, decided to mount a serious challenge to Apple Computer's iPod music player early last year, it turned to a little-known Silicon Valley software start-up with a cluttered one-room office tucked away here in a building above a mortgage title company.
The result of that partnership is Samsung's newest Z5 portable MP3 player, which will appear on store shelves March 5. The software inside the player was forged at Iventor Inc. by a small team of programmers led by Paul Mercer, 38, a veteran Apple Macintosh software designer.

[r]Evolution wrote on 3/4/2006, 12:17 PM

ARCHOS - By far the best!

Grazie wrote on 3/4/2006, 1:46 PM

Yup! Been kinda following these for about 6 months Archos AV700 40GB Portable Multi Media Player.

Bit too rich still.

Grazie